[Tolwyn]

I have another question, this time regarding messages.tbl. Is it still limited to 2 main halls?

[taylor]

I think that it's around 10 or so.  Deffinitely more than 2 though.

[[DW]-Hunter]

cool, i was thinking about having a different main hall theme for my mod for every mission in my campaign.

[Tolwyn]

excellent

I can use different animations in the main hall, depending on the campaign progress

[karajorma]

I think that it's around 10 or so.  Deffinitely more than 2 though.

How would you select the other mainhalls though? FRED only supports Bastion and Galetea.

[taylor]

How would you select the other mainhalls though? FRED only supports Bastion and Galetea.

Really?  Hmm, didn't really consider that.  I think that Goober was the one who bumped the mainhall limit though, so he might know better what to do there.

Either way though, we really need to make it dynamic rather than at any sort of limit.  I like Tolwyn's idea about changes based on progress, but sometimes you just need one, and sometimes you might want 20.  It would be easier for everyone to just make it dynamic.

[karajorma]

Ah I double checked and Goober's gone over to specifying a mainhall index instead of the radio buttons.

I knew I hadn't seen any new combo boxes but I hadn't noticed that.

[Tolwyn]

Now, this is not exactly related to the mainhall.tbl, but when will it be possible to use 32 bit animations in the main hall? I am strugling with gradients, transparency, etc. ANI format is very, very limited

[taylor]

EFFs can't be used on the mainhall, just ANIs.  I've got a new animation format specifically for that purpose on the way though.  But, it doesn't support transparency.  I'm currently evaluating what to do about that since I can see a real need for it with FLUID.  Adding transparency support would actually defeat one of the primary goals of the new format though.  I might try and do a sort of fake transparency instead.

[Tolwyn]

well, transparency per se is not required, it is the 8 bit limitation that gives me headache. I.e. if I would be able to use 16bit or 32 bit instead of 8bit, then it is more than enough for me

[taylor]

It would be 24-bit using JPEG compression on the frames.  That keeps the animation filesize really low and offers per-frame quality control, but also rules out transparency support.

[Tolwyn]

that would be fine

How difficult would it be to implement it?

I mean, should I waste hours on trying to get the transparency right or should I wait for the new format

[taylor]

It probably won't hit public code for 3 to 4 months.  The format and in-game stuff is mostly done already, I did it last year.  The userland tools (a utility to create the new files, and probably a plugin for something like VirtualDub to directly convert an AVI to the new format) won't be available for a little while yet though.  So it's not that it will be difficult to implement, just that it's not very high priority right now.

But whether it supports any sort of transparency at all is iffy at best.  Other than giving you a 24-bit palette, it isn't going to offer much in that area compared to ANI.

[Tolwyn]

But whether it supports any sort of transparency at all is iffy at best.  Other than giving you a 24-bit palette, it isn't going to offer much in that area compared to ANI.

As I said, my only problem is the 8 bit palette. I might be able to fix this by altering the baclkground image, but it is still visible, and longer animations have some flickering issues. So, 24 bit support is all I need. Heck, it is the easiest way to create the animation in the first place. Just animate the main hall, render it in 1024*768 and then crop it until only the desired animation is visible.

[taylor]

Hmm, well I can't promise that it will get in 3.6.10, since I really don't want to put many new features in there, but I guess if it were an official mod request then it might get bumped up on the priority scale. 


Either way, I'm planning an "X" series of builds starting in the next couple of months.  These "X" builds will basically be feature prototype builds, making use of certain new features slated for 3.7, but based on the stable code base of 3.6.9/3.6.10.  Things like normal mapping, new OpenGL code, new sound code, shaders, compressed VP support, and various other smaller improvements will intitially show up in these builds.  Larger changes like the new pilot file code, replacing FS2NetD with PXO and the new profile/Launcher stuff, which are things that would have far reaching effects, would only go into unstable builds.  Basically, the "X" builds are going to be intended to be an unofficial, and not fully supported, way to get some of the new features without being incompatible with the existing official 3.6.9/3.6.10 builds.

[Tolwyn]

Hmm, well I can't promise that it will get in 3.6.10, since I really don't want to put many new features in there, but I guess if it were an official mod request then it might get bumped up on the priority scale. 

Consider it an official request, please Either way, I think that not only WC Saga will benefit from 24 bit support.