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Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => The FreeSpace Port Upgrade => Topic started by: mjn.mixael on August 13, 2012, 08:16:41 am

Title: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 13, 2012, 08:16:41 am
I was getting tired of keeping track of where things were in the old thread, so I'm starting a new one. To start off, here's a brand new Beta release. Downloads are below the screenshots. I'll be using this thread to go from this beta to final releases.

Notes


What's New


Screenshots

Galatea A
[image removed]

Bastion A
[image removed]

Krios
[image removed]

Soyakaze
[image removed]

Galatea B
[image removed]

Bastion B
[image removed]

Download
Bastion A v1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/?pdad6aaola0q41o)
Bastion B v1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/?2mezszey7vevgmj)
Galatea A v1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/?1z62f0qby5upcd2)
Galatea B v1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/?emn7cwpkc3o4go3)
Krios v0.5 (http://www.mediafire.com/?amgf78b7bm7q94b)
Soyakaze v0.5 (http://www.mediafire.com/?skq4oq5navm5o4x)

Install

I recommend creating a new mod folder to place these in, I have them in 'freespace2/mainhall testing'.

I also recommend creating a new pilot. Once FSO is loaded, you will be given the standard FS2 Aquitaine mainhall. Go to the Campaign Room. You will see a list of all the beta mainhalls you decided to install. Click on one to load that mainhall. (Note: the campaigns are just empty campaigns.)

The mainhalls take advantage of a new naming option. That means that to use them in FSPort or ST:R, you will need to alter the campaign file in question. The old way uses mainhall index numbers, so you'll see something like '+Main Hall: 0' or '+Main Hall: 1' in them for each mission. You'll need to replace the number with the name of the new mainhall... like '+Main Hall: Galatea B'. However, these are incomplete beta releases. Once they are finished I'll include edited campaign files with them for popular/requested campaigns.

Feedback

I'm interested in thoughts/opinions on the sounds, especially how they are working and their timing with the animations. I'm also interested in "benchmarks", specifically with Bastion. How long are you waiting for it to load up? I'd also like to know if you see any artifacts around moving objects (like the cranes in Bastion).

I also wasn't entirely sure what levels to mix the new sounds at since anyone can change the effects-music volume ratio in FSO easily. So I mixed at my settings, hoping it's a good compromise. I'd like to know about sounds that are too quiet or too loud and what your volume settings are.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Killer Whale on August 14, 2012, 05:22:14 am
Sweeet... I have to reiterate that we all really appreciate your contributions to the community mjn, a redo of the cutscenes and anims is something I would never have expected (though perhaps hoped) and your work here is pro. When I think of where I wish I could be on FSO/FSU had I the time and ability, I think of you (... and others as well obviously, but importantly you).

Longest load time for me was 3 seconds, didn't really see any obvious graphical errors, but I'm no expert at that. The big fluoro-like lights have a bit of hard pixels on them, some ant-aliasing would be nice. Perhaps I'm too used to the sun being the only light source, but I kind of miss the specular maps in-game on the ships here. I'm looking forward to the F1 help option being custom made for every mainhall as well. The characters look a little weird, you can only see them from a distance off (except for welder-man, he's cool) but the light comes off them a little oddly, as if they're made of plastic (though this being the future, plastic body armour on all personnel is anything but impossible). I don't know what those bastion dudes are talking about, but I'd imagine them either more relaxed posture-wise, or more stiff gesture-wise, their movements at the moment almost seem too fluid. That extra door on the soyakaze (mess hall) confused me for all of half a second; "it should do something shouldn't it?" Are there marines in the FS1 mainhalls, or is that only the Aquitaine? I mentioned before that the guy on the cherry picker brakes almost instantly and ends up exactly where he wants to be which I don't really like. Not sure if it would actually be better, but the fighters fly past the window on very straight paths, maybe if they had a little bank on them and didn't travel exactly along the x-axis (or from side of window to side of window perfectly horizontally) they might have that much more interest. At the ends of the... landings? where those loki fighters are sitting is a bright band of yellow and black stripes to warn people from walking off the edge, however, there's a great big ladder sitting right on top of them, the only way you can enter the fighters is by walking perilously close to a rather high drop, and imagine if you were in a hurry.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 14, 2012, 08:07:32 am
I suppose now's as good a time as any to make this clear. The animations, materials, lighting, or whatever may not be perfect... and you guys can comment on that if you wish. However, it takes days to render most of the animations in these mainhalls. Days. There would have to be some pretty major errors for me to spend that much time re-rendering some of these animations.

Artifacting is different because that is almost always due to transparency added later. That I can fix much more easily.



Three seconds to load the Bastion mainhall is par for the course. I'm not seeing the "hard pixels" you are talking about. I'm guessing you mean the light casting on the bump mapping. That looks exactly how I want it to look.

Marines and Officers are still on the way. They will be added shortly, I think.

Also, people of the future have better balance... just like how cherry pickers of the future are faster and have computerized braking systems. Everyone knows this.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Killer Whale on August 14, 2012, 09:21:17 am
Yeah they seem better in your screenshots, but to me they just look a bit jagged
(http://i49.tinypic.com/1ya6p4.jpg)

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 14, 2012, 10:57:30 am
You res is 1920x1080.. these are made at 1024x768 (because of code limitations). That's not an anti-aliasing issue, that's a stretching issue.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Oddgrim on August 14, 2012, 11:01:45 am
it works well so far mjn, great job!
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 15, 2012, 11:59:20 pm
Krios mainhall updated. Now includes animated Officer character. There was some discussion about the dude in the Aquitaine mainhall being the only black dude left in FS. I disagreed with this theory, and so to combat this ridiculousness I've added Marcus (Officer variant). He's 6'3", 210lbs, and the top of his graduating class. He enjoys studying the history of star systems, especially Procyon A, in his free time. Also, he's single. :p

More seriously, a downside to higher resolution and clearer mainhalls is that it will be pretty obvious that I'm reusing character models all over the place. Deal with it.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Cobra on August 16, 2012, 12:22:47 am
Considering the same officer model is in the Bastion, Galatea and Aquitane, I'm sure nobody cares. :P
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 17, 2012, 12:19:22 am
I've updated Soyakaze and both Bastion variants to include the Officer model at the options desk. You can see them in the screenshots about and download the new packs if you wish.

Galatea is going to take a little more work. The Officer is much closer to the camera.. so I have to actually rig him correctly. I can't cut all the same corners I did for the others. Hair is also kind of an issue.

Furthermore, thanks to Oddgrim... you can expect to see the Marines in the mainhalls next week too. When that's done, Bastion will be more than complete with Galatea close behind. Yes, that's right. I might actually finish this project.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/Private/ImageBin-11.jpg)
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Killer Whale on August 17, 2012, 02:19:45 am
 :D
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 18, 2012, 11:07:45 pm
All mainhalls now include an Officer model. Also, this new build (http://www.mediafire.com/?n19jnyno00y13a0) is required to run these. This build changes how EFF animations are handled. The Bastion mainhall should load much faster and can use all animations now!
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 20, 2012, 10:56:50 pm
DOUBLE POST FTW

Alright, after a marathon of working, rendering, tweaking, testing, etc... the mainhalls have reached the biggest milestone to date.

The all have officers manning the options desk, and they all have marines guarding two doors. BAM. With that, Bastion is fully completed. Galatea has all the pieces from the retail version. I want to add a few things to take advantage of new mainhall features, then it will be complete also.

Soyakaze and Krios require full sets of misc anims each.. so the will still take some time. However, the best part is that I'm no longer waiting on character models for these.

EDIT: You can see the latest screens of the mainhalls in the first post. You can also download the latest mainhall packs that include these changes.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Rodo on August 20, 2012, 11:01:58 pm
wow man, awesome.

dwnloading!

scratch that, will do in a couple of hours under better interwebs connection.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Oddgrim on August 21, 2012, 04:13:11 am
downloading! c:
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: MLCBotMan on August 21, 2012, 10:19:10 am
do these require a specific antipodes build or have the those changes gone into antipodes trunk?
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 21, 2012, 10:21:17 am
They require a specific build right. I'm keeping an eye on the Antipodes branch though. When it's synced to trunk, I'll make new builds available.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: MLCBotMan on August 21, 2012, 10:24:46 am
ok cool
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: MLCBotMan on August 21, 2012, 01:29:12 pm
what would be cool though it's probably a code issue, but proper panning of sound in the mainhalls. e.g.  a door more or less in the middle should sound like its opening up in front of you and not way off to the left or right. at least that is a problem i seem to be having
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 21, 2012, 01:50:23 pm
I've already set the mainhalls up to do that. Can you be a little more specific as to which door this is happening on?
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: MLCBotMan on August 21, 2012, 05:51:43 pm
for example both galatea mainhalls obviously the ready room is straight forward in front of you. but when it opens it's sound only comes in front the right speaker, the exit door from the left
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 21, 2012, 07:31:33 pm
Ok, well I just did some testing. It's already supposed to do this. However it's not working correctly code side. I'll have to mantis it.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: MLCBotMan on August 22, 2012, 12:21:20 am
yeah i thought it might be a code issue, ok, other than that awesome so far
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 22, 2012, 03:16:57 pm
The Galatea mainhalls are now complete. You can get them in the first post.

I'll be discussing with the FSPort team on how to get these to work in FSPort now that both Bastion and Galatea are completed.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Rga_Noris on August 22, 2012, 05:45:28 pm
These look HORRID.

If HORRID = AWESOME
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: The_Force on August 23, 2012, 06:42:57 am
Any chance of a patch file of the build?
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 23, 2012, 06:51:49 am
No need. Antipodes was just synced to trunk.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on February 16, 2013, 07:43:01 pm
Thanks to Flaming_Sword for the tidbit on how to do this little number... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv7tpxMcvbE)

Now I just need to be able to specify 2 keyframes so I can have door intro, door loop, and door outro. :D
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Cobra on February 16, 2013, 07:46:06 pm
Should make the marines salute too... :nervous:

I mean uh great work mike.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on February 16, 2013, 07:52:30 pm
The marines do exactly what they did in the original mainhalls.. deal with it.

But now they can do with without going from POSE to POSE.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on February 17, 2013, 03:40:07 am
Thanks to Flaming_Sword for the tidbit on how to do this little number... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv7tpxMcvbE)
Cool :yes:
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Rodo on February 17, 2013, 06:50:42 am
I have a request, would it be possible to make the valky that flies outside do the flyby faster and with a motion blur effect?

Note that I haven't checked with the original one to see how it plays on it, I'm just saying it might look better this way.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on February 17, 2013, 07:41:15 am
No, it's not possible. Because I'm lazy. Because there's no reason the Valk's can't be flying slow. Cables are too thick.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Rodo on February 17, 2013, 07:49:37 am
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4rrd0U3NS1r05tymo1_250.jpg)
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Oddgrim on February 17, 2013, 08:16:03 am
Thanks to Flaming_Sword for the tidbit on how to do this little number... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv7tpxMcvbE)
Cool :yes:

Yes indeed, this is so very cool c:
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Cobra on February 17, 2013, 09:38:48 pm
The marines do exactly what they did in the original mainhalls.. deal with it.

But but the marines in Bastion did
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on February 17, 2013, 09:53:59 pm
The marines do exactly what they did in the original mainhalls.. deal with it.

But but the marines in Bastion did

Oh yeah. Forgot that we had that conversation... But as I recall, YOU already know why I didn't make them salute.. so stop asking for it.

For those not in the know.. the shoulder pads clip pretty bad if I go for the full salute.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: T-LoW on February 18, 2013, 12:54:03 pm
I thought they would trip over the way too thick cables while saluting (srsly who cares?).
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on February 18, 2013, 01:15:50 pm
I thought they would trip over the way too thick cables while saluting (srsly who cares?).

Indeed.

In other news, I updated the download links in the first post with a bit of a reorganization/fix.

First, many of the sounds were still stereo (oops) which mean panning wouldn't work. All sounds are now mono OGG files.
Second, some of the mainhalls had incorrect sound panning properties, which I have now fixed.

Finally, all the mainhalls use the same pool of sounds and mainhall-snd.tbm. Originally, they all used similar sounds but they were tabled individually for each mainhall.

(I was trying to keep the amount of data down and the original way meant only the sounds used were packaged with any mainhall. But, I couldn't use a tabled pool for one main reason. I would need to use +nocreate for every sound because FSO warns about duplicate sounds otherwise. But since this are supposed to be built to be additive and individual, I had no way to table sounds that would be created only if they didn't previously exist. After converting all the sounds to mono OGG, they take up almost no space.. so I just decided that I would include them all in every mainhall whether they are used or not. Each mainhall pack includes the same mainhall-snd.tbm which ensures all sounds are tabled and none are needlessly duplicated.

This also fixes an issue where if you had all the mainhalls in a mod and flipped through them in a single instance of FSO, some sounds wouldn't play due to some overload in the number of Interface Sounds tabled or something that I never really tracked down.)
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Luis Dias on February 19, 2013, 04:53:45 am
It's so full of win that those small details are completely unimportant for me.

The only relevant question I have is... when is someone going to use these in their mods?
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Crybertrance on February 20, 2013, 01:51:04 am
It's so full of win that those small details are completely unimportant for me.

The only relevant question I have is... when is someone going to use these in their mods?

These are gonna be in the next MVPs most probably.  ;7
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: sgparry on July 06, 2013, 08:07:14 pm
These main halls are fantastic - Thanks mjn.mixael, as always you excel at breathing new life into something long since thought dead. Looking forward to the remaining cut-scenes too - Awesome so far.
Dumb questions:

Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on July 06, 2013, 08:23:48 pm
While recreating the mainhall, it was brought up that FS1's Galatea mainhall always featured the Herc, even when the Herc wasn't built yet. So I made an alternate (B) Galatea version that featured an Apollo for that chunk of the campaign. The same is true of Bastion. There is one little story arc where the player is on the Bastion before the Herc is built. That version of the Bastion contains Valks on the racks instead. So you have Galatea-A and Bastion-A which match the original retail ships and the Galatea-B and Bastion-B which feature alternate ships.

As for question 2.. you'll have to ask the FSPort team. I'm not longer a part of it and have no idea how they intend to implement different music (or mainhalls for that matter).
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mpez on July 09, 2013, 01:15:45 am
Ok, if we're into dumb questions, here's mine. Would it be possible to convert the mainhall model and place it as an actual submodel of the orion in the game? I suspect it's not as simple as it sounds (a need to retexture the whole thing? remodelling it because I obviously don't know something about FS modelling? the cables are too thick?) - I'm just curious if it's possible.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: X3N0-Life-Form on July 09, 2013, 01:23:30 am
Even if it was possible, it would be completely impractical. These models were not designed to be rendered in real time, FSO would probably choke trying to do so.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mpez on July 09, 2013, 02:01:28 am
You mean, they have a gazillion of polies? Ok, that probably is an answer to my question.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mongoose on July 09, 2013, 02:22:21 am
Pretty much.  It would be almost infinitely easier for someone to whip up a game-appropriate submodel from scratch, if they wanted to.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Kopachris on July 09, 2013, 03:56:18 am
Ok, if we're into dumb questions, here's mine. Would it be possible to convert the mainhall model and place it as an actual submodel of the orion in the game? I suspect it's not as simple as it sounds (a need to retexture the whole thing? remodelling it because I obviously don't know something about FS modelling? the cables are too thick?) - I'm just curious if it's possible.
Pretty much.  It would be almost infinitely easier for someone to whip up a game-appropriate submodel from scratch, if they wanted to.

@Mpez: Just FYI, a game-appropriate mainhall submodel has been done with the MediaVPs Hatshepsut model and the FS2 Vasudan-style mainhall.  Fly into either of its fighterbays.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Arpit on July 09, 2013, 05:15:00 am
Ok, if we're into dumb questions, here's mine. Would it be possible to convert the mainhall model and place it as an actual submodel of the orion in the game? I suspect it's not as simple as it sounds (a need to retexture the whole thing? remodelling it because I obviously don't know something about FS modelling? the cables are too thick?) - I'm just curious if it's possible.
Pretty much.  It would be almost infinitely easier for someone to whip up a game-appropriate submodel from scratch, if they wanted to.

@Mpez: Just FYI, a game-appropriate mainhall submodel has been done with the MediaVPs Hatshepsut model and the FS2 Vasudan-style mainhall.  Fly into either of its fighterbays.

Don't know actually (so correct me) but even the Colossus (in the next mediavps  ;) ) is going to have a mainhall-like fighterbay, i.e. you would see Herc IIs placed on it.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mpez on July 09, 2013, 04:15:34 pm
@Mpez: Just FYI, a game-appropriate mainhall submodel has been done with the MediaVPs Hatshepsut model and the FS2 Vasudan-style mainhall.  Fly into either of its fighterbays.

Yeah, I know (and I immensely appreciate the fact that somebody took the time to do it). The Arcadia has also a neat hangar bay.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on July 12, 2013, 05:56:46 pm
The best person to ask about getting a modelled hangar in the Orion would be Hades. He's currently working on a new HTL model.

Also, I'm finally getting around to creating the Misc Anims for Soyakaze and Krios. Hope to have a V1.0 release for those 2 in a couple weeks depending on render times.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Arpit on July 13, 2013, 03:30:16 am
That's great. :D

Also AFAIK you can remove the build from your post. They do work with a recent nightly build or 3.7 RC builds.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on July 13, 2013, 11:57:54 pm
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/Private/ImageBin_zps80ecd95d.jpg)

What's new? More on the way.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Luis Dias on July 14, 2013, 04:54:13 pm
O_o
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mpez on July 14, 2013, 05:57:24 pm
Awesome!
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Cobra on July 14, 2013, 06:21:32 pm
I see dudes in the hangar, stealing Zeuses.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Crybertrance on July 15, 2013, 09:19:55 am
Needs thicker pipes... This ruins 'errythin!!!!!  :hopping:



Hahaha jk! Great work mjn! awesome stuff! :yes:
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Tomo on July 15, 2013, 02:09:25 pm
There really is No OSHA Compliance (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoOSHACompliance) on GTVA ships, isn't there?

You'd have to be near-suicidal to climb into those Loki cockpits!
- Or even just to fit the ladder in place...

The originals were all like that of course, it's just so much more obvious from this angle.
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: mjn.mixael on June 27, 2014, 05:14:31 pm
Thanks to new code features, I'll be re-rendering these. Get your complaints in now because it's a great chance for me to make changes.

inb4cablesaretoothick
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Mongoose on June 27, 2014, 06:30:22 pm
The brackets holding the cables to the floor are too thin!
Title: Re: Orion Style Mainhalls [NEW BETA THREAD]
Post by: Lorric on June 27, 2014, 06:49:30 pm
No! Don't you see?! What's important here is the thickness of the glass!!!