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Author Topic: The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade  (Read 21842 times)

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Offline Sandwich

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #20 on: July 25, 2002, 05:22:35 am
Quote
Originally posted by ##UnknownPlayer##
Do both - make it look for bump maps and use them if found, otherwise take the lightness value above a certain threshold. It would be a really cool effect, but it is graphically intensive. I'll look into this.


I've heard (but not done research at all, so I could be waaay off) that bump mapping is actually fairly, uhmmmm.... unintense?? :p
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"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline ##UnknownPlayer##

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #21 on: July 25, 2002, 08:43:07 am
Depends. On my GF4 it works very nicely, but I'm just wondering about other systems.
 

Offline RandomTiger

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #22 on: July 25, 2002, 08:45:10 am
As long as its optional who cares. DirectX can automatically detect hardware support and turn it on itself also.
 

Offline HotSnoJ

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #23 on: July 25, 2002, 02:57:16 pm
I got a neato idea. Anyone here ever play The original Rogue Squadron? If so you know that the laser points some what follow the enemy ship/gound force. If you don't get what I'm saying, PLAY THE GAME. Sorry :p 'bout that. What would be cooler is if you could turn this feature on and off.

BTW what would I need besides mountains of books on C++ programming and FS2 to work on the source and stuff?
I have big plans, now if only I could see them through.

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Offline Sandwich

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Reply #24 on: July 25, 2002, 06:15:38 pm
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
As long as its optional who cares...


:yes2: :nod: :yes:
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"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline IceFire

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #25 on: July 25, 2002, 08:11:21 pm
But we need to make it operational.  And that means that one or more people steps up to the plate with the knowledge and makes it happen.
- IceFire
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"Burn the land, boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me..."
 

Offline RandomTiger

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Reply #26 on: July 25, 2002, 08:25:33 pm
I'll give it a go when my current project is finished.
 

Offline IceFire

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Reply #27 on: July 26, 2002, 06:29:52 pm
Sweet!
- IceFire
BlackWater Ops, Cold Element
"Burn the land, boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me..."
 

Offline ##UnknownPlayer##

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #28 on: July 27, 2002, 05:05:03 am
Making it operation will be the difficult part. Because of the dated DirectX code we need to upgrade it's subsystems to call the directx8 routines, since as far as I can tell (I may be wrong) the older interfaces work but don't support the new features (I'm guessing this from the fact that Direct3DCreate8 is the new way to initialize interfaces).

The upside is that once we update it, it shouldn't have to be done again since the new create functions should apparently work on later sdk's for new features.

[EDIT]
With further study, I've determined that most of the upgrading that we will have to do will probably be localized to the initialization routines as far as the rest of the game engine is concerned, since these simply map the basic graphics functions to whatever API is in use.

The real question that presents itself is how to go about this: I propose that we might develop D3D 8 support in parallel to the existing support.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2002, 07:27:05 am by 383 »
 

Offline IceFire

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Reply #29 on: July 27, 2002, 08:34:15 am
Doesn't everyone already have DirectX 8 anyways?  So why support older versions when its easy to update.  Plus, if there's really a problem, people can still play the original game.  We're looking for the future a bit.
- IceFire
BlackWater Ops, Cold Element
"Burn the land, boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me..."
 

Offline ##UnknownPlayer##

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #30 on: July 27, 2002, 08:39:20 am
Well the issue is that we might want to revert to the original, and while we're developing the update other people might want to work on other sections. By working in parallel we can do as we please without harming the original (working!) code.
 

Offline vyper

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #31 on: July 27, 2002, 12:59:12 pm
Quote
Originally posted by sandwich


I think that one of the cheapest (performance-wise) yet impressive graphical improvements would be bump-mapping. Even if the standard POF doesn't come with bump-map info, amazing effects can be attained by taking the lightness value of any texture and appling that as the bump-map for that texture - especially on Vasudan ships. ;7


*has visions of this being DOT3* Nooooo!
"But you live, you learn.  Unless you die.  Then you're ****ed." - aldo14
 

Offline Sandwich

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Reply #32 on: July 27, 2002, 05:45:15 pm
Quote
Originally posted by vyper


*has visions of this being DOT3* Nooooo!


Pardon my ignorance, but... DOT3? :confused:
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"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline vyper

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Reply #33 on: July 27, 2002, 05:49:23 pm
Quote
Originally posted by sandwich


Pardon my ignorance, but... DOT3? :confused:


Its a type of Bump Mapping that comes with the Gforce's and the like. Which my Matrox G400 doesn't support. I can only use the original bump mapping.
"But you live, you learn.  Unless you die.  Then you're ****ed." - aldo14
 

Offline Sandwich

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Reply #34 on: July 27, 2002, 06:14:16 pm
Quote
Originally posted by vyper


Its a type of Bump Mapping that comes with the Gforce's and the like. Which my Matrox G400 doesn't support. I can only use the original bump mapping.


Ahh... well, I'm sure that the whole graphics code improvement will be a case of "Use what's available, and emulate the rest!"... at least, I hope it is...
SERIOUSLY...! | {The Sandvich Bar} - Rhino-FS2 Tutorial | CapShip Turret Upgrade | The Complete FS2 Ship List | System Background Package

"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline RandomTiger

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #35 on: July 28, 2002, 07:24:58 pm
Has anyone thought about resolutions?
We dont have access to the launcher code.
Does anyone know where it stores its data.
Is writing a replacement (at least for D3D) a bad idea?
 

Offline DTP

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Reply #36 on: July 29, 2002, 03:40:16 am
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
Has anyone thought about resolutions?
We dont have access to the launcher code.
Does anyone know where it stores its data.
Is writing a replacement (at least for D3D) a bad idea?


resolutions are set in the Registry aswell as color depth

here is an example of mine

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Volition\FreeSpace2]
"EregCount"=dword:00000003
"Videocard"="Direct 3D - Primary Display Driver (32 bit) (1024x768)" <- this is where resolution is set aswell as color depth
"Interlaced Movies"=dword:00000000
"Movie Fast Clear"=dword:00000000
"D3DFast"=dword:00000000
"ForceWFOG"=dword:00000000
"Detect Glide"=dword:00000001
"Detect D3D"=dword:00000001
"DisableZbias"=dword:00000000
"Soundcard"="DirectSound"
"LauncherSoundEnabled"=dword:00000000
"EnableJoystickFF"=dword:00000000
"EnableHitEffect"=dword:00000000
"CurrentJoystick"=dword:00000000
"ComputerSpeed"=dword:00000002
"NetworkConnection"="LAN"
"ConnectionSpeed"="Cable"
"SkipVerify"=dword:00000001
"PXOBanners"=dword:00000001
"ForcePort"=dword:00000000
"Language"="English"
"CmdLineOptions"="-window"
"StraightToSetup"=dword:00000000
"Gamma"="5.00"
"LastPlayer"="FrameS"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Volition\FreeSpace2\PXO]
"Login"="dohhimwithstupid"
"Password"="IMwithstupid;note this aint the actaul"
"SquadName"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Volition\FreeSpace2\Version]
"Major"=dword:00000001
"Minor"=dword:00000014
"Build"=dword:00000000

Just changing resolutions to something not supported will not work and proberly give you an error.

A whole lot of things would be have to be changed in the code in order to aquire bigger resolutions.
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Offline YodaSean

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #37 on: August 01, 2002, 10:51:30 pm
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
One significant thing from going to DX5 to DX8 or 9 is that the use of direct draw has changed. In DX8 you are not mean to use direct draw to make a 3D app but in DX5 you had to.


And the fact that there isn't a direct draw(or direct3D) in dx8, just directX graphics.
 

Offline Solatar

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Reply #38 on: August 04, 2002, 04:00:13 pm
If we upgraded the graphics largely, we could maybe talk to Interplay about producing it. We could add some MODs, remake it into an Freespace3, then try to get it published. Maybe even get it published as a sort of "Silent Threat" to Freespace2. If it went well, Freespace3 might be created. Just a thought. Had to get it out.
 

Offline Sesquipedalian

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The DX8.1 Engine Upgrade
Reply #39 on: August 04, 2002, 04:07:33 pm
*Pulls HLP standard issue flamethrower from under seat.  Starts fingering it idly, yet menacingly.*
Sesqu... Sesqui... what?
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