[gevatter Lars]

Good question. Do you miss more details on the ships or better textures or any special/better maps?

[KeldorKatarn]

HTL is Hardware Transform & Lighting isn't it? So basically hardware rendering. What's that got to do with ship models? I've seen references to "HTL-models" around the forum. What the heck are those?

[Wobble73]

HTL is Hardware Transform & Lighting isn't it? So basically hardware rendering. What's that got to do with ship models? I've seen references to "HTL-models" around the forum. What the heck are those?

That's people confusing Hi-Poly models for something else (HTL?? )

[KeldorKatarn]

Thought so already.
But then, why does High-Poly mean good looking? Too many details are usually hard to even see in a dogfight, especially with low ambient lighting and it will only slow down the game.
For WC Saga that is also a little hard to do since those WC3 models simply were mostly consisting of blocks. That's the way they were modeled back then for the old WC3 engine. So one can add a little detail to the surface maybe (while that can be done with bump mapping for the most part). But anything about the model itself would simply change the look of the entire ship. That way it wouldn't really be a Wc3 ship anymore.

And to be honest, I think some of the models are incredibely detailed already. Look at the lexington class or all those details in the hangars. I've yet to find a capship that doesn't look cool, even while flying over its surface.

The Freespace 2 ships have way too many details in my opinion. Maybe it's just me, but the Freespace design seems to build the ships out of very boring primitive combinations and adds lots and lots of details to that. Look at the Orion class destroyer. THat's basically just two blocks of different length put on top of eachother. That's it. from distance that ship looks like crap to me.
WC3 seems to go the opposite way. It tries to make the ship look interesting already when consisting of only primitives like blocks or spheres. Only then it adds some detail. So the WC3 ships look good from a distance too, when you don't see all that detail.

I also don't like all that glowing stuff on the Freespace ships. I mean, I recently got myself into Fredding. When I did the walkthrough I couldn't believe my eyes. With my low ambient settings and the default sun the shipyard and the Orion looked like christmas trees. What are all those colored lights for?
I don't really like that design. That's just me though.
I think a ship design should look interesting even on the lowest polygon level. Then you can start adding some detail. But when you start like that, too much detail isn't really necessary. The Freespace ships need all that detail to even look interesting. Otherwise they would look incredibly boring.

Just my 2 cents.

[gevatter Lars]

I think that WC ships where not only lowpoly for the reasons of the older engine but a complete different style of ship design.
Its by far more practical to have a simple box with a few bumps then building something full of grebble. Reparining and maintaining a ship that has to many edges and stuff is much harder then just cracking out a plate and then put in another.

Personaly I like the models for their simplisity. Also a reason why I mostly dislike the over grabblefied Starwars ships ^_^

[karajorma]

HTL is Hardware Transform & Lighting isn't it? So basically hardware rendering. What's that got to do with ship models? I've seen references to "HTL-models" around the forum. What the heck are those?

FS2 retail didn't have support for HTL. It did everything in software. That meant that you couldn't design any ship for FS2 which had a subobject with more than ~800 polys or it would screw up. Basically back then pretty much everything had less than 2000 polys as it was too much hassle to do more.

When the SCP added support for HTL that restriction vanished so basically a HTL model is a model that wasn't built with that restriction in mind. Given the development time for WCS they probably still have some non-HTL models still.

[Koth]

Great work !
Particulary the voice acting. It was the best one I've ever heard in a mod.
Oh by the way you were mentioned in a German gaming magazin,  the Gamestar.
They praised the mod, and I do too. They also said that it is more a complete game
than a just a plain mod.

[Tolwyn]

yeah, we know about that, since half of the core team is from Germany

[Scooby_Doo]

HTL is Hardware Transform & Lighting isn't it? So basically hardware rendering. What's that got to do with ship models? I've seen references to "HTL-models" around the forum. What the heck are those?

FS2 retail didn't have support for HTL. It did everything in software. That meant that you couldn't design any ship for FS2 which had a subobject with more than ~800 polys or it would screw up. Basically back then pretty much everything had less than 2000 polys as it was too much hassle to do more.

When the SCP added support for HTL that restriction vanished so basically a HTL model is a model that wasn't built with that restriction in mind. Given the development time for WCS they probably still have some non-HTL models still.

Several actually, but theres no way to get those to HTL without lots of additional support 

[RavenTS]

Anybody interested in a (german) walkthrough? 

[Tolwyn]

yeah, I am

[RavenTS]

yeah, I am

Oh...well... ...in this case I will see what I can do after I finished my actual work an M4 Mercenaries walkthrough... 

[Tricky8oy]

Tolwyn.

You and your people are dead set Legends. I am an old WC fan that hasn't been able to play any of them for the longest time. The closest game that i have that comes even remotly close is Freelancer. I never thought i would ever see WC again. Just downloaded the the prologue two days ago and just finished it tonight. AWESOME. Keep up the good work as i cant wait for the finished product.

Just two questions( i didnt read the whole thread as i only just signed up and am too lazy to read all 11 pages, so if these questions have been asked and answered, please indulge me)

1st Will the finished product be released worldwide from gaming outlets?
and
2nd Is there any plans to remake the original 4 wing comanders using current programs or technologies.

[Mancubus]

 
I just have upgraded my crampy PC, and i was finally able to play the saga on full details  (before it was close to lowest  ) and I just can't halp it....
 
 

Oh and @
Tricky8oy



Check old topics to get familiar with all invitation massages

[Paladin1]

Just two questions( i didnt read the whole thread as i only just signed up and am too lazy to read all 11 pages, so if these questions have been asked and answered, please indulge me)

1st Will the finished product be released worldwide from gaming outlets?
and
2nd Is there any plans to remake the original 4 wing comanders using current programs or technologies.

1st Well there won't be any releases from gaming outlets, only from the download locations put up by the Saga team
2nd We can only hope 

[Tricky8oy]

Ok

No worries love your work.

Keep it up.

[Renegade]

Wow what a cool game. I played the campain 2 times with not find a end
Also the Simulator missions are very cool. Defend the Ticonderoga is very intense.

When i play WCS i think often at the old Wing Commander games.
The score is pretty cool. The music from the old Games is a dream. Every time i hear this sweet theme i am see on my mental eye the old games.

The graphics are very impressive. The explosion from the ships are very cool.

I am looking foreward for the main episode of this nice game.

It is possible that you DEVS create a cockpit for the Darkest Dawn?
I now it's very difficult to create, but then the WC feeling would be then perfect.

I hope my English is not to bad ) I am don't use it a long time.

Greetings from Germany...
Peter

[Tolwyn]

cocpits are indeed an option - it depends on the development time if we can implemenet them. Right now we are adding small coee changes, that will allow us to move hud elements to different positions thus making 3d cocpits possible.

Also, we are currently working on fixing perhaps the most criticized part of the gameplay. I can't tell which right now though ... maybe you could find it out, eh?

[Renegade]

Yes you are right. First build the main game then when finished you can go to build Cockpits and other things. And then release it as a patch. In this case you save time for the main project and can later expand the game.

Greeting
Peter

[Cobra]

cocpits are indeed an option - it depends on the development time if we can implemenet them. Right now we are adding small coee changes, that will allow us to move hud elements to different positions thus making 3d cocpits possible.

Also, we are currently working on fixing perhaps the most criticized part of the gameplay. I can't tell which right now though ... maybe you could find it out, eh?

Do I smell TrackIR support?

I want TrackIR so bad.