Crazy smuggler
Edited by Dalmp, 20 January 2008 - 07:09 PM.
Favorite screenshots
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Dalmp
, Jan 20 2008 07:06 PM
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#5
Dalmp
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Posted 28 January 2008 - 12:42 PM
Nifty screenshots showing some of what I've been 'unofficially' modding into PR. 
Victory Firing Dual Lasers.
I 'borrowed' the Turbolaser alo's from the FoCA mod, and added them to every turbolaser (and turboion) projectile. Custom alo's brighten things up considerably. (all credit where it's due, but this is only a private modification for personal use). Added specific projectiles entries for dual and octuple guns to all TL types, at 2x and 8x damage respectively, and reduced the number of pulses for those weapons by 1/2 or 1/8th in hardpointsPR. I don't have 6x or 3x alos to use, and quad guns are supposed to fire pulses (I think), so I left those firing multiple pulses of the 'single' custom turbolaser alo. The ships do the same damage, but look considerably better in combat, imo.
Dominator firing Octuple Turboions and Octuple Turbolasers
Because I'm reducing the octuple lasers from 8 pulses down to a single 8x damage pulse, there's much less flying around on the screen - at least for some of the ships. Lag seems to be reduced in most battles.
Tector firing Octuple Turbolasers.
Granted, I'll have to do this all over again in the next version. But for now, it's quite a treat watching an octuple turbolaser slam into a corvette in one massive shot.
BTW, having spent a great deal of time poking around in the massive hardpointsPR file, I have gained an appreciation for two things:
1: How rigorously PR establishes and adheres to standards and conventions, and keeps commenting logical and straightforward. I suppose it's the mark of a skilled programmer. It makes finding things and editing them easy. Grepping 'DTL' got me all guns that were supposed to be dual. So easy. Mass Kudos to PR for this.
2: How much work he's done. I mean really. Some of these files are massively expanded, even to 20+ times the size of the vanilla game.
Victory Firing Dual Lasers.
I 'borrowed' the Turbolaser alo's from the FoCA mod, and added them to every turbolaser (and turboion) projectile. Custom alo's brighten things up considerably. (all credit where it's due, but this is only a private modification for personal use). Added specific projectiles entries for dual and octuple guns to all TL types, at 2x and 8x damage respectively, and reduced the number of pulses for those weapons by 1/2 or 1/8th in hardpointsPR. I don't have 6x or 3x alos to use, and quad guns are supposed to fire pulses (I think), so I left those firing multiple pulses of the 'single' custom turbolaser alo. The ships do the same damage, but look considerably better in combat, imo.
Dominator firing Octuple Turboions and Octuple Turbolasers
Because I'm reducing the octuple lasers from 8 pulses down to a single 8x damage pulse, there's much less flying around on the screen - at least for some of the ships. Lag seems to be reduced in most battles.
Tector firing Octuple Turbolasers.
Granted, I'll have to do this all over again in the next version. But for now, it's quite a treat watching an octuple turbolaser slam into a corvette in one massive shot.
BTW, having spent a great deal of time poking around in the massive hardpointsPR file, I have gained an appreciation for two things:
1: How rigorously PR establishes and adheres to standards and conventions, and keeps commenting logical and straightforward. I suppose it's the mark of a skilled programmer. It makes finding things and editing them easy. Grepping 'DTL' got me all guns that were supposed to be dual. So easy. Mass Kudos to PR for this.
2: How much work he's done. I mean really. Some of these files are massively expanded, even to 20+ times the size of the vanilla game.
Edited by Dalmp, 28 January 2008 - 09:03 PM.
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#6
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Posted 28 January 2008 - 09:02 PM
Great work, Dalmp, and thanks for the postscript 
. I've been considering doing that myself, but have worried about performance with less optimized projectile models. So I take it that the fewer projectiles outweigh the cost of using prettier models? Hmm. Well, I've been waiting (for what seems like forever) for the ALO importer to be finished and released so that I can mess with this, among other things, but I may resort to customs. Can you test it with using a different projectile for the singles too? Should be a fairly easy change to Projectiles.xml.
. I've been considering doing that myself, but have worried about performance with less optimized projectile models. So I take it that the fewer projectiles outweigh the cost of using prettier models? Hmm. Well, I've been waiting (for what seems like forever) for the ALO importer to be finished and released so that I can mess with this, among other things, but I may resort to customs. Can you test it with using a different projectile for the singles too? Should be a fairly easy change to Projectiles.xml.
#7
Dalmp
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Posted 28 January 2008 - 09:11 PM
Great work, Dalmp, and thanks for the postscript
Just credit where it's due.
I don't think searching through hardpoints manually is in the realm of possibility anymore, so I'm glad it's well structured.
I've been considering doing that myself, but have worried about performance with less optimized projectile models.
...
Can you test it with using a different projectile for the singles too? Should be a fairly easy change to Projectiles.xml.
Yeah, done already. All TL's are using custom projectiles, though it's not obvious from the screenshots. Also put the octuple and dual shield impact particles in from FoCA's custom stuff, and while I was at it enlarged the shield impact from adv and exp guns, and made the octuples do 'Huge_Dud' on armor to keep it looking half-decent (although an 8-shot dud would be better, I don't have one).
Octuple shield hits on Recusant.
I was worried the executor would give me some lag headaches (as it doesn't use fire-linked guns and still pulses) but actually it seems fine. Probably due to the scale I used. That's another unforeseen performance benefit. The projectiles don't need to be as big to look good. Because the models are so much brighter, they look perfect at a fraction of the size of the stock effects. Actually they look overwhelming when they are too large, so I kept them pretty small. I used 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.25, 3.38 scale for LTL, TL, HTL, ATL and ETL with FoCA's models. The vast bulk of projectiles used are scale 1.0 and 1.5 as a result. Pretty small.
Executor-class ripping apart an MC80 Liberty-class
It's hard to see the effect in a still shot, but the net effect is actually very vivid. (I've desyncronized the guns, so they aren't all lined up when they fire).
In-game everything seems to run smoother in combat, even the executor. Actually my only beef atm is that I need to rescale the Strike-cruiser's guns individually. Heavy Octuples look odd coming out of those small turrets. Looks fine from the ISD though.
Right from the hardpoint.
I suppose I could run an FPS test modded vs unmodded.
(EDIT: I thought the loading screen seemed choppy, but it was only because I had ~18 editing windows open
. Much better now that I closed them all 
. )
Edited by Dalmp, 29 January 2008 - 02:15 AM.
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#9
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Posted 29 January 2008 - 06:45 AM
Yeah, I didn't get to producing models for the upgrades either; only one I missed. I need to go back and do that. You may be able to just attach the ISD's turrets to it, assuming the firing bone names don't conflict.Actually my only beef atm is that I need to rescale the Strike-cruiser's guns individually. Heavy Octuples look odd coming out of those small turrets.
#10
Dalmp
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Posted 30 January 2008 - 05:22 PM
Yeah it looks amazing, and looks far better in-game when you can see the projectiles moving. Keep in mind nothing that actually looks good is my work, so I'm just as impressed as you are.Wow, those screenshots look amazingly cool.
Ok, that looks much better. Thanks for the suggestion!Yeah, I didn't get to producing models for the upgrades either; only one I missed. I need to go back and do that. You may be able to just attach the ISD's turrets to it, assuming the firing bone names don't conflict.
Funny problem with turrets. <Turret_Elevate_Extent_Degrees> is a two-edged sword. It's a full arc both outwards and inwards. Setting it to 45 means the turret can point not only 45 degrees outwards, but 45 degrees inwards as well - right through the body of the ship.
Starboard turret pointing through the ship
It's possible to stop this by setting the y-axis in <Turret_Rotation_Offset> to -45.0, but that's a kludge. What it actually does is cause the barrel of the turret to point 45 degrees past the target (or direction of the projectile, not sure which, but essentially the same effect). So if the target is straight ahead, it would point 45 degrees upwards. If the target was 45 degrees up, it would point 90 degrees upwards. If the offset inversely matches the elevation it won't point into the body of the ship, but it won't point the direction of the target either.
I'm still trying to figure out if there's a setting that will limit the negative elevation of the barrels without misaligning them to the target...
In any case, the -45 offset does explain why the Lancer turrets are always locked outwards though. Considering how fast the Lancer turns to face targets you only see it move off of 45 degrees when a fighter burns past the ship, and even then only briefly. Normally the turrets point 45 degrees outwards when shooting straight forward. When the offset is at 0.0 they work better. They can still point inwards to the ship, but the turrets stick out over the ship's profile enough that it looks ok anyway.
Lancer pointing all directions in combat
<Turret_Rotation_Offset>0.0, 0.0, 0.0</Turret_Rotation_Offset>
<Turret_Elevate_Extent_Degrees>90.0</Turret_Elevate_Extent_Degrees>
You can't see it in this screenshot, but the fighter pilots are soiling their drawers.
I managed to catch a projectile emerging, so you can see it fires exactly along the barrel facing.
Edited by Dalmp, 30 January 2008 - 07:10 PM.
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#11
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Posted 30 January 2008 - 07:36 PM
Ah, you finally understand my problem with the turret code 
. In the end, I had to opt for proper arcs rather than appearance, so that's why all the barrels rest at 45 degree angles and otherwise look horrible.
. In the end, I had to opt for proper arcs rather than appearance, so that's why all the barrels rest at 45 degree angles and otherwise look horrible.
#12
Dalmp
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Posted 30 January 2008 - 08:36 PM
haha yeah I figured that's why you did all of that, but thought I'd type up my findings just in case anything was helpful. is there any way to stop the rotation with the turret model itself? To make the barrels collide and stop rotating past a certain point? Or will it always be free to rotate no matter how the model is built? (not a modeller, I wouldn't know).Ah, you finally understand my problem with the turret code
I still think the lancer looks better the other way though. The guns stick out so far it's not that noticeable when they turn inwards.
Edited by Dalmp, 30 January 2008 - 08:40 PM.
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#13
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Posted 30 January 2008 - 11:09 PM
The problem is that <Turret_Rest_Angle> and <Turret_Rotation_Offset> don't work like they should. I've tried every possible combination and I can't get it to function properly. I think something in the code is just plain broken here and it didn't matter for vanilla so it was never fixed.
#14
Dalmp
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Posted 31 January 2008 - 12:13 AM
Yup I think so. As near as I can tell turret rest angle does absolutely nothing. I've tried angle values, massive values - none of it made a difference I could spot.The problem is that <Turret_Rest_Angle> and <Turret_Rotation_Offset> don't work like they should. I've tried every possible combination and I can't get it to function properly. I think something in the code is just plain broken here and it didn't matter for vanilla so it was never fixed.
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#17
Dr-Ludvig
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Posted 09 February 2008 - 10:39 PM
The easiest way (i think) is using the program Fraps, then in-game press F9 and it will take a screenshot and put it in a folder (which i think by default is C:/fraps)
other than that you can hit PRT SC (Print screen), then minimize EaW and open paint and hit CTRL+V (or paste) and then save it
other than that you can hit PRT SC (Print screen), then minimize EaW and open paint and hit CTRL+V (or paste) and then save it
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#19
Dr-Ludvig
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Posted 09 February 2008 - 10:57 PM
lol, that's a rather important part of the process.. but your welcome.
But using fraps is quite easier, then you can take many screenshots in a row without having to minimize EaW, just press F9 again and again..
But using fraps is quite easier, then you can take many screenshots in a row without having to minimize EaW, just press F9 again and again..
-Is this a dream?
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-i thought not, if it were there'd be rum!
92% of teenagers have moved on to ©rap. If you are among the 8% who still listen to real music. copy this into your sig.
-No
-i thought not, if it were there'd be rum!
92% of teenagers have moved on to ©rap. If you are among the 8% who still listen to real music. copy this into your sig.
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