[TheGardinator]

Best birthday present evar!

Fantastic stuff.

But by all the good.. is there a way to disable the shadows? They kick my fps down to 7 - 15......

adding -shadow_quality 0 to the custom flags box (under advanced settings in wxLauncher/somewhere on the yee ol' launcher) will disable shadows.

thanks, that helped a lot

Oh, happy birthday Suongadon 

[desertstorm]

thanks for the update just finishes playing AoA and WiH to refresh my memory of the story line.  eagerly awaiting the release of act 2

[Mongoose]

My (utterly shameful) continued lack of a WiH replay has finally paid off with dividends!

[Frak_Tastic]

Great news on WiH 3!

Now for the N00B questions:

So exactly what do we need to download?
Do we need to delete the current AoA files we have installed?

[The E]

So exactly what do we need to download?
Do we need to delete the current AoA files we have installed?

If you're on Windows, this: http://blueplanet.fsmods.net/BluePlanetAoA.exe
On Linux/MacOS, this: http://blueplanet.fsmods.net/blueplanet.7z

Do we need to delete the current AoA files we have installed?

Yes, however the windows Installer will do that for you.

[-Norbert-]

Shadows are awesome but they neatly offset all the performance improvements we've made since 3.6.12. :| I wish they could default to off, especially given what a performance monster Act 3 is.

Any chance the shadows could get their own toggle checkbox in the launcher? That would be a lot easier and "noob-friendly" than having to use the command line.

[The E]

Unfortunately, that is not really possible. But the builds included in the WiH update will default to shadow_quality 0.

[-Norbert-]

From the name I assume this is more than a simple enable/disable toggle-boolean. What's the current default value for the shadow quality?

[MatthTheGeek]

IIRC it goes from 0 to 2, with 0 being no shadows. Default right now is probably 2.

[Phantom Hoover]

Um, it's perfectly possible to add an option for shadow quality to the launcher.

[The E]

Um, it's perfectly possible to add an option for shadow quality to the launcher.

Indirectly, yes, by adding a boolean flag that _only_ turns shadows on or off. Everything else would need code changes in the Launcher, and that is not going to happen until shadows are in trunk.

[Trivial Psychic]

Perhaps, if the launcher were updated to allow shadow value figures, it might be applied to all the other value-based visual launcher flags like spec tube, ambient factor, etc.

[SF-Junky]

can't wait to see what people think of act 3! :toot:

Can't wait to play act 3!

Damn you, I knew it! I knew another BP release would impend which is why I replayed WiH R1 the other week. I thought it would be a Christmas Release, however.

[The E]

Perhaps, if the launcher were updated to allow shadow value figures, it might be applied to all the other value-based visual launcher flags like spec tube, ambient factor, etc.

You underestimate the issue. Because there is no way for the engine to tell the Launcher which of these value-based flags it accepts, and what the valid range of values is. That would have to be done first, and then the Launcher would have to be updated to generate proper UI elements on the fly.

It's not impossible as such, but a bit impractical.

[FSW]

Excellent! I'm very much looking forward to the next chapter of Blue Planet.

Some inital impressions of the AoA update:

The new lighting is beautiful. It might be worth updating some of the ships with the shadow build in mind; I'd expect hangars to have some permanent interior lighting. Currently, the Raynor's is pitch black.

The opening MOV is a little clumsy, as Petrarch's monologue is cut mid-sentence. I don't think it's really necessary for it to be there at all, as an FS2 player wouldn't need a reminder, and a new player wouldn't know the context of the Knossos anyway.

Is the title text in the opening sequence - Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius - supposed to appear in the top-left corner of the screen?

[General Battuta]

The opening is there because we were so tired of seeing the FS2 intro pop up and we wanted something with some pretty BP music.

[Axem]

One, tell Petrarch to use more pauses in his speeches.

Two, its not a reminder or recap of FreeSpace 2. It's a speech that gives you the attitude of the GTVA at the start of everything. They lost so much and the only bright point on their horizon is going back to Earth. And we only see it go downhill for there.

[SF-Junky]

Is the title text in the opening sequence - Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius - supposed to appear in the top-left corner of the screen?

I was wondering about that, too. It looks a little strange put right at the left edge. There should be at least some space in between, in my humble opinion.

The opening is there because we were so tired of seeing the FS2 intro pop up and we wanted something with some pretty BP music.

I know that feeling. It's nothing but annoyinger after the first 132468527 times. That is why I just renamed the intro sequences so they don't show up.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

The opening is there because we were so tired of seeing the FS2 intro pop up and we wanted something with some pretty BP music.

It's not that annoying for regular players, but modders tend to see it a lot, especially when tabling something new.

[General Battuta]

I'm pretty sure the AoA title text is the same place it's been since the campaign was first released in '07 or '08 or whenever it was.