[The E]

One day, I had the uncontrollable (but understandable) urge to re-play Blue Planet. In an effort to do something useful as well, I decided to use the beta mvps currently undergoing testing instead of the released ones. I'll use this to make notes about anything strange I'll see graphics-wise, as well as a few non-mediavps related things.

Okay, here goes:
First Note: The erected gunbarrels of the Orestes(?) in the first mission do look a bit silly. Considering that they have strong indications that something is wrong, wouldn't they be at combat readiness? Especially considering the "The enemy is only 2 minutes away" bit mentioned in NGTM-1R's post about pirates?

Second:
I'm not certain whether this is something that is wrong in BP, or in the beta mvps, but the skybox in the first mission seems stretched. Please note the red star I've boxed in.

[Aardwolf]

Sol wasn't supposed to have nebulas, period.

[General Battuta]

IT DOES NAO

Right, Darius?

[The E]

So, the Lucifer has arrived, and Earth's final hour has come.

No, wait, in a cunning plot twist, the Terrans have replaced Earth with a giant, floating, cardboard cutout of Earth! Surely the Shivans will be fooled by that...
But alas! Exposure to vacuum has deformed the cardboard cutout so much that the shivans see right through this cunning deception, and go looking for the real Earth...



Hmm, Journey of a thousand Miles:
Nothing obviously wrong (except for the buggered starfield, which looks somewhat ugly when compared to the mvp one), but one thing should be considered: Its first stage starts off with the "Subspace" loading screen, the other three do not. Breaks the mood a bit, IMHO.
Also, a custom load screen for the last part would be really cool.
While we're on the subject of mood-breaking: Skulls and Bones? Why would the refugees put skulls and bones on their ships? Consider this a bit of fridge logic.

[-Norbert-]

Maybe they kept to the tradition of giving squadron names like suicide kings, or simply skulls (in the first commandbriefing of vanilla FS2, you can see a list of the Bastions fighter squads in the ani. One squadron was called "skulls", with the obvious number before it, but I forgot which one it was).

[Kolgena]

The charred earth also looks a lot different from what I see. Given it's darker, better, and way more realistic, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

[The E]

Yes, but I believe that was a change in BP 3.6.10, not in the mvps.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

That Earth is stretched by the FOV settings. The skybox as well, probably. Do you use a custom FOV?

[General Battuta]

The cutscene, at least, could benefit from set-FOV.

[The E]

That Earth is stretched by the FOV settings. The skybox as well, probably. Do you use a custom FOV?

Nope, my FOV is untouched.

[Dragon]

Is the beat testing of new mediavps open to everyone (I would like to help with it).
As for first note (Orestes guns pointing straight up), thanks for poiting it out, in fact I completed turret angling for stratcomm's ships some time ago, I must haven't noticed that BP is missing it.
I think it will be done in voice acted version.

[General Battuta]

Dragon, could you post those up on internal?

[Dragon]

OK, I actually have angling done in other mod, so I will soon make a handy .tbm for BP.

[The E]

Is the beat testing of new mediavps open to everyone (I would like to help with it).

No, it isn't. I have them primarily to test them in Multi, and that testing phase will be over soon. You'll have to check with the actual FSU people if or when there will be a public beta.

Damnit, and now "Forced Entry" comes up. This is going to take a while...

That went better than expected. Only three tries until I finished that one.

Now I'm at "First contact", and I have to say that the skybox in that one is really, really deformed, especially when viewed on a widescreen monitor. While it looks gorgeous, it's also a bit dizzying.
The best description for the effect I can come up with is "like being stuck inside a globe". Could this be due to using a skysphere, instead of a skybox?
Another note: When playing FS2, you're being conditioned to wait for a "Depart" or "RTB" objective before actually jumping out. Not seeing one is a bit unsettling...

[Mobius]

Sol wasn't supposed to have nebulas, period.

IT DOES NAO

Right, Darius?

That's an Inferno tradition which isn't even canon. In the last cutscene of FS1 it's possible to see blue nebulae when the spacecraft that destroyed the Lucifer emerged from the node. Those nebulae are not prominent in the cutscene, but they can still be seen.

And thanks to the modified milky way starmap, who needs nebulae?

[General Battuta]

Yeah, no. Not an Inferno tradition so far as I know, nothing you can take credit for. It might be a case of parallel evolution.

which isn't even canon.

In the last cutscene of FS1 it's possible to see blue nebulae when the spacecraft that destroyed the Lucifer emerged from the node. Those nebulae are not prominent in the cutscene, but they can still be seen.

Wow, funny, you just contradicted yourself and proved it is apparently canon.

And thanks to the modified milky way starmap, who needs nebulae?

Can I get a look at it? Could be useful/cool.

Nice of you to take a moment to point out why your Sol campaign is better, though. You're a prick.

(sorry for messing up your forum zen, Darius   )

[The E]

Keepers of Hell....And the mission before it...

Again, that damn (comparatively) low-res starfield and those distorted skyboxes.
Gameplaywise: What I said before about RTB objectives? Applies here as well, especially in Keepers of Hell. While the dialogue makes it clear that you won't be executed for AWOLing, the conditioning months of FreeSpace give you kick in in full strength.

Now, graphical issues with the models:

I know this was mentioned elsewhere, but chrome spacesuit is chrome-y:


And highly reflective Vishnans are sort of mirror like:


Although, to be honest, I believe this doesn't really have to be fixed, as it actually enhances the "otherness" of the Vishnans.

[General Battuta]

Notin' it all down, The_E. Thanks!

We've got a fix for the turrets all lined up thanks to Dragon, and I bet we can get a cool new skybox for those missions. It's pretty crazy distorted.

Darius has some kind of magical ability to make assets appear, so I'm sure it'll be good.

[The E]

Another thing: I mentioned this in IRC before, but I think I should repeat it here: Some of the command briefing texts (I'm looking at you, intro to Demons of the past!) would work better if presented through the fiction viewer instead of command briefings.

While we're on the subject of Demons: Shouldn't that mission use the backgrounds of "Apocalypse"?

[Droid803]

Well, it should be Capella at the very least.