Wow, I was ready to cry when the links didn't work, when I saw your last post. So, I could at least try this update version of Inferno Big grin
Yes, I imagined some people would happen to see that the links didn't work and end in a similar situation like Eugene, the true is that I left the links in the 1st page because I was hoping that FileH would come back, of course the chances aren't much less than winning the lottery.
Same! It just looks so neat, and making S:aH pretty is a wonderful thing to be doing.
I have been really inactive on this since my last post, but now that there are plenty of new builds and features I maybe feel motivated to experiment.
with the release of the Media VP 3.6.8 Zeta I need to update to make sure everything is ok, but most important, with the release of SCP build v3.6.9 RC 2 it seems that now the Alpha channel is really detected, so I need to fix effects/maps transparency (remember the invisible nebulae problem, I am refering to that).
Since it's been time since I downloaded the Zeta VPs, I noticed the following changes related to performance:
I have already modify *.TGAs to 24-Bit, and use RLE Compression, RLE compression basically makes the size of the image smaller without losing quality (8-Bit PCXs were already using RLE Compression).
I have trown the *.TGA maps used for the shockwaves, and maked DXT1c with the "-quality_highest" this resulted in more quality and better performance than the previous DDS (Using NVDXT 8.22, the last I believe, I download it recently but there is no version in the installer, neither in Nvidia website).
It's really hard to tell if to use DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5. For example the DXT1 doesn't support Alpha Channels, this is a requeriment for -shine maps. However as an example the Crossbow (Harpoon) texture results pretty distorted with DXT1, it seems DXT3 is used in the Zeta VP, I make the same for the Arrow and Trident (**).
(**) Before someone points it, the EA's Trident missile uses the model as the GTVA's Arrow, the Crossbow model (Harpoon), since the EA's is sequel to FS1 and has not any reference at all to FS2, it should be using the model of the Interceptor, it was using it originally in INF, but at the time I changed it I didn't notice. And because there isn't a high-poly Interceptor I choose to use the Crossbow with the different textures.
There are other changes, and bugs introduced with the Zeta VPs, mainly graphical, is the addition of the Yellow Bitmap for the Flaks. I have seen the Thruster Glows were removed, this maybe due to prevent those bitmap collisions, anyways the 2D glows will still be in there, I won't remove them, I have seen games like PainKiller which uses 2D glows for the main weapon, and as you start rotating, the bitmap rotates to face the player, and it just has the same problem, maybe if it were some kind of 3D artifact that wouldn't happen.
