[Thaeris]

As with the other masses of new forum members filtering in from Game-Warden, recently discovering the break-up of BtRL has prompted me to either search for answers or ask questions.

By all means, I respect the team's desire for privacy and the integrity not to comment on what was discredible enough to cause BtRL to split. What I do feel is appropriate to ask is, due to this split, what has happened to the sim and what has happened to the gameplay in the sim gameplay in the sim?

(A.) What are the model differences? What is new/rebuilt, and how is it different?

(B.) Have the physics been altered?

(C.) How will the respective differences between Diaspora and BtRL cause the two programs to stack up (at least right now)?

I ask these questions from the experience of following BtRL up to this point (and imaginably beyond) as well as enjoying the excellent demo currently available.

Many thanks,
-Thaeris

[karajorma]

A) Anything you've seen made for BtRL that is 100% the work of members of the new team is now part of Diaspora. Some of that stuff may still appear in BtRL as well.

B) We're rebuilding the tables at the moment. BtRL was pretty close to perfection in my opinion thanks to UT's solid work on the flight physics (and the team's solid nagging whenever he got it wrong ). We might tweak things a little but we're unlikely to make any huge changes.

C) There will be no difference in terms of the abilities of the engine since we both use the same one. However since R1 is based on 3.6.10 while the BtRL demo was based on 3.6.9 you can expect significant differences from that. Improved net code is one of the more obvious ones.
 As for other differences, it's hard to comment on what BtRL will be like as my information on that project is now 4-5 months old. We've made a few changes but I can't say that BtRL hasn't or won't make those changes sooner or later themselves. Obviously our plot line is different. Can't say how similar missions based on Hand of God or Resurrection Ship, etc will be since we've obviously got to make the same plot, in the same engine.

[FraktuRe]

I've been reading up on the new project and I gotta say you guys are doing the right thing.

I know multi will be a big issue so,
What's the situation like on a dedicated server?

[Shade]

Dedicated servers (called standalone servers in this case) are working now, thanks to Karajorma sinking a lot of programmer-hours into fixing them. Which, of course, means that the problem of 'host advantage' is a thing of the past whenever you use them.

The improved net code mentioned before also reduces host advantage even when standalone servers are not used, as lag in general is reduced a fair bit - though of course no amount of improved net code can completely overcome the effects of distance and network congestion, so lag *is* still a factor... just not as much as it was.

[FraktuRe]

That's awesome news. Being in Australia I was never really able to play btrl multi. But with stand-alone servers there'll be a central place to play. Awesome!

[DaBrain]

Well, in terms of the graphic engine, things also moved on since the BtRL demo.
While the demo was still using a fixed-function render pipeline and T&L, the first release of Diaspora will be using pixel and vertex shaders.

This should illustrate the difference:

Fixed function:


Shader model 3.0:

[FraktuRe]

Shiny!

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Dedicated servers (called standalone servers in this case) are working now, thanks to Karajorma sinking a lot of programmer-hours into fixing them. Which, of course, means that the problem of 'host advantage' is a thing of the past whenever you use them.

Don't forget about Taylor.  He's put quite a bit of work into both FS2netD and the standalones in the last couple of weeks too.  Between the 2 of them the standalones are actually pretty stable.  I'm actually getting fewer crashes with the standalones then just hosting.   

[karajorma]

Taylor's been working on multiplayer in general. Wanderer helped me get the other big issue with standalones working as well.

Like much of the SCPs work it's been a team effort

[Snagger]

Well, in terms of the graphic engine, things also moved on since the BtRL demo.
While the demo was still using a fixed-function render pipeline and T&L, the first release of Diaspora will be using pixel and vertex shaders.

This should illustrate the difference: (deleted photos)

Wow.  Reading the post, I saw the fist picture and thought it was pretty impressive, before realising that was the "before" picture, with the "after" following it.  It's stunning.

I have no idea how the multi-player aspect will work because I have never tried palying on the net before (and currently can't do so with the BtRL demo beacause firstly, I have no firewall (I'm hoping my wife will set one up because I don't know how to), and secondly, because I have no idea of how to play online either.  I'm not what you lot would consider "computer literate", and will probably need a lot of hand-holding when it comes down to installing and running this game.  I apologise in advance!

[Thaeris]

Many thanks for the speedy response, Kara! I suppose one of the major questions I had in mind was what ships in particular needed to be remade due to the split. Much of this is just wondering what to look for when sighting for visual differences in the programs, which I'm sure will be minor at best. I ask this as I can't really compare the two apps yet due to a beta of Diaspora not being released yet.

Again, thank you.
-Thaeris

[LuaPineapple]

Shader model 3.0:

Wa? I thought we were using OpenGL vert & frag shaders.