[Galemp]

I take it you stopped reading this thread before you got to this post?

Merging soon, just waiting for you to notice.

[chief1983]

Just completely out of curiosity, why would it be called 3.7.1?  I'm curious how you jump a number like that in both the second and third digits.

[Galemp]

I've played a few missions up to the mission after "Mystery of the Trinity" and it seems that most models are not HTL'ed yet, but that is for 3.7.1, if they call the next vp release by that name.

Considering that there are about a hundred unique ship models in FS2, as well as a dozen missiles, and the amount of work that goes into handcrafted detailing and debugging each one (Ask about the Serapis, I dare you!) the fact that we have about 40% of them done is pretty good. And of course, those that haven't been totally remodeled still have high-res textures, glow maps, shine maps and normal maps, which make a huge difference. And that's not even getting into all the upgraded effects and backgrounds.

It is of course a continuous work in progress; and, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, if we ever finish the entire thing, we'll probably have to start all over again at the beginning and re-do old, inefficient assets.

[Vip]

(huge explanation about normal maps, artistic license and stuff)

Wow, thanks Herra for such a detailed post. It really cleared a lot of things I had on my mind. I don't really mind the new normal maps, it's just that as you said, I got used to the old ones. Add to this the jump from shaders from late 2007 to the ones that are in the new mediaVPs, and you should understand why I found it a bit strange.

whine

Let's have some before-and-after screenshots, and we'll point out what you need to do to get the effects you want. Especially if you have high-poly Hippocrates and Cain models we don't.

I'm glad you like the Demon normal maps! The drastic changes were controversial for a while but I'm really happy they made it in.

Yeaaaaaaaah. I went to the betas and somehow, well, ermmmm... they're the same or worse than the current ones. Sorry for whining about the old models, looks like imagination worked too much or my memory failed me again Sorry for "accusing" you.

[shiv]

Oups, sorry

[Commander Zane]

Okay, but if the model looks nothing like this: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27733.20.html I'm not convinced.

[neoterran]

Okay, I just played through with 3.6.10 (i'm on OS X, so i don't have normal or env maps, but it's okay) and i must say the new warp really is a huge improvement. Not only is it truer to the original than the beta one, (and I was a fan of the beta one) but the scale looks better and it just looks more realistic. 

Thanks a lot VA !

[neoterran]

Oh, and I must say about normal maps, If they're not done properly (and properly is kind of subjective) they don't really add to the model, but maybe even detract a little. I'm glad they're generally getting better, the one on the Uly now is much better....

[eliex]

I will admit that so far I am pretty pleased while playing through with 3.6.10. I just hope that someday, that explosion effect called exp06.ani will be replaced. I always thought it looked like a poor effect and it is from Retail FS2 and is the one when a fighter or bomber explodes. But the Retail exp05.ani is still very nice.

Is it so hard to give credit? The 3.6.10 mediavps are brilliant, especially considering those who don't have decent computers.

[blowfish]

I'm not sure what the 1st and 2nd digits represent and if the 3rd digit is all you ever change, what is the point of having the first 2 digits? The next one will be called 3.6.11? Why not just call this release "Release 10" for example? Of course I know it is not the 10th release. I think more like the 6th official release.

The mediavp versions follow the SCP versions.  The SCP is at 3.6.10 right now, so that's why the mediavps are named as such.

[sfried]

Wow. :eek2:The menus don't flicker anymore!

Anyways, fantabulous. I like how the normal mapping doesn't seem to to take any chunks from the performance. That said, is there an update to the videos-on-harddrive that I'm not aware off? They don't seem to playback properly (off-scalled).

[chief1983]

The numbering system had a plan at one point, but development has been much slower than any coder ever anticipated it would be.  We will probably keep releasing 3.6.x builds until the new pilot code is in place, and that would likely be 3.7.  Then the next bigger thing could even just bump it up to FSO4.  It's just a legacy thing though really.  It's not broke so don't fix it, but I am planning on tweaking it a bit.  In the future I think odd numbers are going to be testing releases and even numbers will be final.  So when people start saying they have 3.6.11 builds we'll know they're testing and no one thinks they have the forthcoming 3.6.12 stable build.

[chief1983]

I don't know what's changing in the next MediaVPs.  I was referring to the numbering system of the SCP engine itself.  There is a list of assets that need to be upgraded, and one thing the staff is talking about is revisiting some older HTL models again.  Not gonna say too much more than that, it may already be too much

[Aurora Paradox]

That said, is there an update to the videos-on-harddrive that I'm not aware off? They don't seem to playback properly (off-scalled).

If your referring to the cut scenes I'm having the same problem.  The scaling isn't correct.

Config is as follows:

Pentium 4 2.4GHZ with HT
Ge Force 5200 FX
512 MB of RAM


Aurora Paradox

[lefkos]

for some reason i cant enable the normal maps
you have to active this option via the features tab right?
i tryed it with custom flags (-normal) this didnt worked unfortunately
did i do something wrong?

[Rodo]

for some reason i cant enable the normal maps
you have to active this option via the features tab right?
i tryed it with custom flags (-normal) this didnt worked unfortunately
did i do something wrong?

they should show when checking the "normal maps" option in the Graphics tab of the launcher.

[Herra Tohtori]

for some reason i cant enable the normal maps
you have to active this option via the features tab right?
i tryed it with custom flags (-normal) this didnt worked unfortunately
did i do something wrong?

You're not necessarily doing anything worngly, but here's how you can make us see what exactly you're doing:

Change your build into a debug build. Debug builds have a -d when normal (release) builds have an -r in the filename. Run the game using that, and then navigate into your ..\FreeSpace2\data\ directory, and post your fs2_open.log, that will tell us what you are doing and what your system is doing.

If your graphics processing unit can't handle the shaders, that should be apparent in the debug log too.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Found out how to bypass shader problems in Mac by using -window.

[Zacam]

Windowed view however has it's own issues regarding performance. Granted, -no_glsl doesn't exactly render itself as it should by comparison to a windows or linux build.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

It's still a bit...wrong...at certain places, but at least it's smooth and pretty much accurate. Compared to fullscreen, where all the light reflections are blocky...