[TrashMan]

And yes, the typhon, like the zephyrus before it was removed because it simply broke too many things and would have been too much time and effort to fix for relatively little gain. IIRC it caused a couple of inexplicable crashes from time to time.

Broke things? Caused crashes? When? What? (always worked fine for me)
How come nobody told me anything?


Oh, b.t.w - I've been getting PM asking me about the HTL Demon lately. Just to tell you guys - it's not dead, but it's not moving much lately. I've been working on it, but in the last few weeks I got an urge to mod something else, so it's kinda in a slow phase. Not to mention that no matter what I do, I hate the rear end

[Commander Zane]

Guilty.
Glad to see progress on it, looking really nice there.

[Vasudan Admiral]

As I recall, opening the typhon caused an immediate CTD upon viewing it in the ship lab under debug - probably due to the missing texture.

Sorry Trashman, but the model also:
-> Had 3 additional textures over the already hefty 6 textures of the original
-> More turrets than the original, and though they don't actually fire unless table activated, they still look like turrets to players trying to disarm by sight
-> Lacked LODs and debris - the latter would have especially been a problem for a certain ST:R mission as it turns out
-> Replaced the hanger tubes that bend out of sight with an indented wall that docking fighters fly straight through whilst still in plain sight
-> At least doubled (sometimes much more) the tiling factor on every texture on the map, making the repeated patterns stand out rather painfully in a lot of places
-> Added only a small amount of smoothness to the surface and added very little in the way of detail beyond a handful of indents and a couple of extrusions not counting the added turrets

None of the team was willing to devote time to fix such issues, and so it was voted to remove it. I personally think of it more as a modification (upgunning) of the Typhon than a HTL upgrade in terms of detail added.

[Narvi]

I don't suppose you could post a picture? It sounds interesting. 

[Vasudan Admiral]

[TrashMan]

As I recall, opening the typhon caused an immediate CTD upon viewing it in the ship lab under debug - probably due to the missing texture.

Sorry Trashman, but the model also:
-> Had 3 additional textures over the already hefty 6 textures of the original
-> More turrets than the original, and though they don't actually fire unless table activated, they still look like turrets to players trying to disarm by sight
-> Lacked LODs and debris - the latter would have especially been a problem for a certain ST:R mission as it turns out
-> Replaced the hanger tubes that bend out of sight with an indented wall that docking fighters fly straight through whilst still in plain sight
-> At least doubled (sometimes much more) the tiling factor on every texture on the map, making the repeated patterns stand out rather painfully in a lot of places
-> Added only a small amount of smoothness to the surface and added very little in the way of detail beyond a handful of indents and a couple of extrusions not counting the added turrets

Which version of the Typhon did you use?
I know I have several. One where the extra turrets are modeled differently, so they look like panoramic windows, one without extra turrets ...and I know I did make a version with all lods.

[sfried]

I think that was not entirely correct.  The new shaders in the final MediaVPs do have some tweaks, to slightly lower the requirements among other things, but I don't believe it was dropped to SM2.0.   The way GLSL was implemented just could not work well at that level from what I understand.  All the OpenGL fixes Taylor and Echelon have been tinkering with in the last couple of weeks should be in a test build within a couple of days and in SVN within a week I hope.

I guess there goes my hopes for viewing normal maps with my measly built-in GeForce GO 5200. Still looks nice with all the other fancy effects, though. The only thing that sticks out is the Myrmadon model, which isn't as "shiny" as the rest.

[Droid803]

Is it REALLY that hard to chop off turrets in PCS2?
There is a version with the (retail) Typhon debris, and with LODs.

However, the tiling factors should really be fixed, along with the stretching in front of the hangars, and the odd triangle in front of the bridge deck. A bit more detail to the front area would be very nice too.

[Lukeskywalkie]

Two things I dread - The yearly reformat of my entire computer, and the bi-annual reorganization of my freespace folder.  Not that I don't love the benefits that come along with both procedures.
This year, I've finally caved and started using Turey's installer, and I have but 1 question. Does Turey's handle this latest update? If not, what must be manually upgraded?
Thank you for your time.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Which version of the Typhon did you use?
I know I have several. One where the extra turrets are modeled differently, so they look like panoramic windows, one without extra turrets ...and I know I did make a version with all lods.

To be honest, due to the nature of the typhon's main texture, I would say you couldn't have picked a more difficult ship to upgrade out of the entire FS fleet. The details of the texture and the shape of the hull it's being applied to just do not mesh very well when it comes to corners and other bumpy parts, and the weird subspace light texture on the bridge and tips of the arms just makes it trickier. It definitely needs careful UV mapping and a lot of careful shaping to form distinct hull surfaces rather than just lumpy/smooth polys connecting to more lumpy/smooth polys.

Two things I dread - The yearly reformat of my entire computer, and the bi-annual reorganization of my freespace folder.  Not that I don't love the benefits that come along with both procedures.
This year, I've finally caved and started using Turey's installer, and I have but 1 question. Does Turey's handle this latest update? If not, what must be manually upgraded?
Thank you for your time.

I'm not sure if the installer has the new VPs yet. The easy way to find out is to have a look in your mediavps mod folder. If you have lots of VP files and some that begin with '710' then it's using 3.6.8. If it's just showing 'MV_Complete' (or the individual MV files listed in the first post of this thread) then it's using the 3.6.10 VPs.

[Droid803]

Well, the lights on the bridge and the arms were done well on Trashman's Model.
Its not ugly with four corners like on the retail one, but just a single eye. Its the capital03-01 which gets warped in places.

[mr.WHO]

Hello I intaled 3.6.10 and media vp, everything is working fine but I'n unable to activate the new radar icons like on this image:

http://fsport.hard-light.net/extras/fsport31screen4.jpg

Those icons are for "FS port only"? I saw few images of other mods with those icons.

[Jeff Vader]

You'll need the icons themselves, as well as a build that supports them.

[mr.WHO]

...so could you direct me to the link to them? also does this:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/board,173.0.html

 support them?

[Jeff Vader]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,58437.0.html

[chief1983]

They're not for the port only, they work with FS2 and also just happen to work with FSPort.

[mr.WHO]

I just tried a FS2 campaign with all of those candies and it's greate.

However I noticed somenthing:
in "sixth wonder" mission, NTF corvette Hawkwood forward beam cannons are acting strange. They shoot like normal Terran slash but sometimes they shoot something that looks and soonds like SGreen (from the same turret) - how it's possible? Is it possible to change turrets weapon during mission via FRED, or even force a turret to fire some other type of beam/turret without forcing them to change weapon loadout DURING mission ?

[Commander Zane]

I just checked, you can change weapons of any ship through a SEXP sequence.

Example...

Event Name
   when
      has-time-elapsed
         16
      turret-change-weapon
         GTD Orion 1
         turret01a
         MjolnirBeam
         0
         0

After 16 seconds (And yes this is an odd weapon swap) one of the THT barrels becomes the Mjolnir's beam cannon.

[ssmit132]

I just tried a FS2 campaign with all of those candies and it's greate.

However I noticed somenthing:
in "sixth wonder" mission, NTF corvette Hawkwood forward beam cannons are acting strange. They shoot like normal Terran slash but sometimes they shoot something that looks and soonds like SGreen (from the same turret) - how it's possible? Is it possible to change turrets weapon during mission via FRED, or even force a turret to fire some other type of beam/turret without forcing them to change weapon loadout DURING mission ?

I don't think they would be coming from the same turret. If I recall correctly, one of the front beams is a TerSlash, and one is an SGreen all the time in that mission.

I just checked, you can change weapons of any ship through a SEXP sequence.

Neat. I'll bear that in mind, if I need to do it in a mission. Actually, come to think of it, that could come in useful in High Noon, as Command says the Colossus needs to put more energy to it's main guns. BGreen to LRBGreen, anybody?

[Lukeskywalkie]

First off, great stuff, love the new media vps, its great to see the project progress so much so often. I'm lurking always, and I get so exited when new toys come out.
I like most of the cosmetic changes, especially the retro warp effect...not that hyperintelligent blue wasn't cool, but these are just great.
not as thrilled with the new engine glows, though - does anyone know where I can find the previous incarnations of the engine glows? you know, the slightly fan or fishtail like stringy orange rays from vasudan engines, and the pulsing organic shivan ones? the ones I have now are good and all, and more faithful to the originals, but I've grown fond of the more stylized glows. if the glows haven't changed from .9 to .10, let me know, and I'll know it's on my end.
once again ,thank you all for a great job on the new mediavps. It seems freespace will suck me in, yet again, and now that I've determined the correct fov, it even looks great on my widescreen HDTV Christmas present. merry Christmas indeed.