Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Napseeker on May 09, 2009, 08:59:29 am
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Hello FS2 modding community!
Let me offer a few quick background notes about myself first:
- I discovered FS2 (and the FS SCP) only a week ago after someone told me about the excellent BSG BtRL demo
- was blown away when I played the demo and after much online reading of various FS sites, really wanted to try my hand at making a standalone Star Trek game using the engine
- while I've never played FS1 or 2, or modded for it, I did spend enough time the last week so that I understand some of the basics of what is involved (what .vp files are, using PCS2, converting COBs to POFs, what FRED is, etc) and I now have all of the tools installed including TSpace
- I've hunted around for old posts in the hopes of a tutorial that would help FS2 newbie modders get started with making a standalone game, but the best I could find was this thread from 2007:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50050.msg1011938.html#msg1011938
So I do realize that all I have right now is the FS2 open engine exe and Fred2. And that it's up to me to make the rest of the Trek resources for the game (in fact, I should have most of what I need since my assets from my old Invasion of Cardassia mod are on my hard drive). Where I am totally lost is how exactly to organize everything and get it to a playable state like the BtRL demo. I did use VPView to take a peek at the BtRL vp files so I am guessing that I have to split up the resources into folders (models, maps, etc) and then use a tool like QuickVP or VPCS to encapsulate it all into a single .vp file. Is that right?
Then once I have a .vp of the ships, backgrounds, I would load that into FRED to make a mission? Does that then make a mission vp for me? Is it playable at that point? I hope to at least stop seeing that error message "web cursor bitmap not found" when I do eventually run the game engine :D
Any guidance would be hugely appreciated. I'd just like to have a small group of Federation and Cardassian ships shooting at one another eventually, nothing complicated at all.
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1) Making a standalone game is a huge amount of work so I suggest you start out as a mod for FS2 and slowly work your way towards being a stand alone. BtRL didn't go to standalone until a month or two before the demo release.
2) You don't make a VP file until the end of the modding process. VP files are for when you release the game. If you look in your data folder you will see a set of folders with a similar structure to the inside of a VP file. All you do to create a mod of the game is to create a folder called Star Trek in your Freespace2 folder and then copy the entire data folder into it. Any file in there will override the version in the FS2 VPs. Simply select Star Trek as your mod in the launcher or use -mod Star Trek in a FRED shortcut.
3) There have been attempts to get Trek working on FS2 and FS2_Open in the past. Mostly they seem to have failed due to a lack of interest rather than any huge technical problems. Getter Robo G is someone you absolutely should talk to as he probably knows where you can find the files from those attempts.
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There was working Star Trek TC ,without campaing and a bit buggy ,but it gonna be a good start.
It was on german site ,unfortunately I don't remember what is exactly it's adress.
I have this mod and I will soon upload it to FSMods large file section ,but you will
have to wait for Snail to accept it. You can find this mod yourself on it's main site.
Also you can check FS2 Sector themed models: http://sectorgame.com/f2s/downloads.php?action=category&id=39
Those are only models ,they need lot of work (like adding turret subobjects).
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Thanks guys, I will probably just try and convert my existing Trek ships from my earlier mod for this project. That way I'll get some good experience with PCS2 and have a better understanding of what doesn't work.
I'd still like to understand the process of getting it to standalone state however as I've never found much talk about that online anywhere... the only thing I have as a guide right now is BTRL (which is an excellent guide let me say) but even looking at that I am confused.
Let me try and ask some probably "dumb" questions just based on what I see inside the BTRL vp so that some of the fog will lift away:
- is the HUD for a ship totally customizable or must it adhere to some fixed layout determined by the engine? I think I see in the vp that the HUD is broken up into smaller pcx files but I don't understand how those HUD elements would be arranged on the screen.
- when you run the FS engine, does it always look for/load a specific vp file for the assets and then a specifically named vp file for the missions (and tables) or can this be configured thru some external .ini or text file?
- just where is the "web cursor bitmap" that the engine is looking for? Does it expect to find that in the vp interface folder?
- how do I generate a DDS file? Is there a specific advantage over using DDS rather than a PCX?
EDIT: one more question... over at http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FS2_data_installation
I noticed there is mention of some SCP upgrade files e.g.
SCP upgrade files
Download these from the SCP site.
mv_100patch.vp
mv_core.vp
mv_effects.vp
mv_models.vp
mv_music.vp
mv_textures.vp
Were these upgraded assets derived from the retail resources in any way? If not, would they be then allowable to be used for a standalone game? Obviously the FS2-specific resources like ships would not be useful but I was thinking about space backgrounds or simple weapon effects, or other periphery items.
EDIT: after some searching around I am going to assume that the upgrade assets refer to "ShivanSPS's SCP Update Pack" which he has stated only installs with the retail FS2 already installed on the machine... so there I go, answered my own question in due time.
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1. Unless you modify the code it has a general layout ,but you can change the bitmaps.
Names are quite self-explantory for me ,just look at the
bitmap and try to find similar looking gauge on hud.
2. The only limitation in the .vp files naming is that they need to have .vp extension.
Loaded are all .vp files from your main folder and all from the mod folder selected in launcher.
3. The web cursor bitmap is the one named webcursor.ani in
the data/interface folder ,or in interface folder in .vp.
4. You can use this for generating .DDS files: http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412#Download
DDS are smaller than other files (not everytime) and are easier to use.
Bitmaps need to have dimensions that are power of two ,you will suffer very
problematic crashes (no error message even on debug builds).
DDS converter don't convert any files that do not fulfull this requirement ,so you will avoid crashes.
(PCX files will not cause the crash ,but will simply not show up with no apperant reason).
I hope this will help you.
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Thank you Dragon, yes that was definitely very helpful...
I think I know how I shall figure out how to make a standalone game which doesn't rely on the FS2 retail assets. The debug exe will report anything I am missing when I run it (like the web cursor) so as I put in temporary files to satisfy each error I can make a list of what I'd need to recreate for the FSO to run.
So far it needed the cursor and fonts, but it seems to also want some kind of game palette file. Does anybody know what this is? Is this a palette stored inside a PCX file somewhere? <- EDIT: Found it after some searching :) It was in the effects folder, not interface as I'd thought...
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You're going about this all wrong. You really do not want to try to build a TC from ground up as a stand alone. Yes you can replace the cursor, font and game-palette files but what are you going to do when the game starts demanding all 1000+ interface files? Sure you can try a scripted interface, but as far as I know no one else has tried that before so you wouldn't get much help.
Starting off as a mod and then going stand alone is the only sensible way to do things. It allows you to spend the first few months actually working on your game. You can start putting ships and weapons into the game from day one that way and then slowly replace the bits of FS2 that you're using as scaffolding with your own mod. By the time you're ready to release you'd have replaced all of FS2 and would be able to release as a stand alone.
If you try to build from ground up you're going to spend an enormous amount of time building interface files. AFAIK there isn't a single total conversion for this game that didn't start off as a mod of FS2. I know for certain that BtRL, Diaspora, Inferno, and TBP did. And I'd be very surprised to find out that any of the others didn't.
EDIT : Hmmmmm. Now that I've written all that and re-read your original post it occurs to me that you're doing things this way not to be pig-headed but because you don't actually own FS2. :D
In which case I suggest you follow my advice about using another game as scaffolding but instead of FS2 start this off as a mod of BtRL, TBP or WCS Prologue. All three of those are available for free download and have most of the interface files you need. BtRL lacks the new multiplayer lobby while WCS lacks the multiplayer interface completely IIRC. TBP has all the interface but due to the bugs in TBP final would probably be the most difficult to work with. If I were you I'd pick BtRL and simply replace the lobby files when you need them.
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Template files for the interface are available, but they use the FS2 style (only colour/background is changed). Those are more for mods than TCs.
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They are? From where?
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Hmmmmm. Now that I've written all that and re-read your original post it occurs to me that you're doing things this way not to be pig-headed but because you don't actually own FS2. :D
In which case I suggest you follow my advice about using another game as scaffolding but instead of FS2 start this off as a mod of BtRL, TBP or WCS Prologue. All three of those are available for free download and have most of the interface files you need. BtRL lacks the new multiplayer lobby while WCS lacks the multiplayer interface completely IIRC. TBP has all the interface but due to the bugs in TBP final would probably be the most difficult to work with. If I were you I'd pick BtRL and simply replace the lobby files when you need them.
Yes, I only discovered FS2 very VERY recently thanks to the awesome BTRL demo so I don't own the game (not that I wouldn't someday like to play it, but my focus is mainly on redoing my old Trek mod under FS2 rather than getting hooked on another space combat game :) ) I didn't realize there were 1000+ interface files though, that kind of has made me stop and reassess my plans, lol. I was using the BTRL .ani and font files just to skip past each error until I could build a list of everything required but you're right, it may just be better to mod off an existing standalone game until I really understand how much is involved in recreating all the missing pieces. I probably don't have to worry about the advanced features of FSO, since my original was a fairly simple (but fun) single-player "arcade" style Trek game not a Bridge Commander-type action-sim and that's all I really want to make - the more complicated it gets, the less likely it will ever get finished and never released (if it even warrants a release).
I did try tonight to see if could take my Galor-class model and just replace the cylon raider in BTRL with it, to prove to myself that I could make my own FS2 ships but alas it crashed the game. What I think I will just try now is to create a proof-of-concept of my eventual Trek game using the trek.vp from the Unimatrix team's Star Trek TC. They seemed to have done the best job at converting some Armada and BC models for their FS2 mod and the assets are very complete. It occurred to me that if I can turn their FS2 mod into a standalone BTRL-style game, I essentially have a rough version of what I would eventually like to make and I can gradually replace all the pieces with my own models, textures, etc. I'll also try to ask the unimatrix guys if I can reuse some of their converted ships although their website is all in german and I don't recall seeing an email address. If anybody is in contact with them regularly, please let me know how I can reach them (or if they speak english - because my German is fairly lacking :) )
And if there are any templates or any existing resources that will cut down on the amount of time to rebuild the interfaces, I'd also be quite happy to use them to say the least.
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They are? From where?
Here (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ou4einxygm3) (self pimpage :pimp:). I don't know if they're good enough or if anyone else finds them very useful, so I haven't gotten around to sticking it on freespacemods. I also haven't received many bug reports, so I don't know if there's too much wrong with it.
And if there are any templates or any existing resources that will cut down on the amount of time to rebuild the interfaces, I'd also be quite happy to use them to say the least.
I did it once for my mod and was a pain. :(
I made these so I'd never have to tweak all 1000+ files ever again (1024x768 only, 640x480 would've meant double the work for something hardly anyone uses).
Anyway, notes and instructions are included (requires imagemagick, and you have to create/obtain the backgrounds yourself) and the result is everything except the mainhall and the medals screen (yes, it does the loading bar ani, but you'll have to create the ani out of the pcx files it creates).
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Thanks FS, but unfortunately for some reason when I go to the page there doesn't seem to be a download button to press (and nothing pops up to ask if I want to download). Not sure why - I'm using IE and I even turned off the security to see if that would work. Can this be uploaded onto rapidshare or some other host?
Just an update on my progress as I try to merge the standalone BTRL game with the trek VP, the debugger seems to complain about not finding a needed texmap for one of the fighter POFs even though I can see it in the effects folder of the trek.vp. I'm wondering if I misunderstand how the loading of VPs works. Right now I have:
a.vp <- I generate this and it has any files that are needed to fill in the absent FS2 assets. It has an
effects folder with some explosion anims in it.
startrek.vp <- this has all the trek ships, weapons, etc. It also has an effects folder and it has the
laserglow04.tga which the POF uses but which right now the debugger says is missing
I assume that the FSO engine loads VPs in alphabetical order (so a.vp then startrek.vp) and it will load the files in the effects folder of each VP into memory. I assume that loading the Startrek.vp's effect folder doesn't purge the previously loaded a.vp's effects folder or vice-versa. Is that correct?
Now if both VPs had a tables folder and inside there each one had their own ships.tbl, I am guessing that the last-loaded ships.tbl (so in this case, startrek.vp's ships.tbl) completely flushes the ships.tbl from "a.vp". Or am I wrong here and instead it actually appends the contents of the two tables into one in memory?
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unfortunately for some reason when I go to the page there doesn't seem to be a download button to press
There is. On the left side should be a box saying "Processing download request" first and "Click here to start download" shortly. Tested with Firefox.
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Ah, yes it does work with Firefox. For whatever reason IE seems to obscure the download area.
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Here (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ou4einxygm3) (self pimpage :pimp:). I don't know if they're good enough or if anyone else finds them very useful, so I haven't gotten around to sticking it on freespacemods. I also haven't received many bug reports, so I don't know if there's too much wrong with it.
That's actually pretty helpful but it's not a complete solution. I found it was missing quite a few files which I would then have to supply.
That said it is a huge help to anyone trying to replace the entire interface.
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Here (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ou4einxygm3) (self pimpage :pimp:). I don't know if they're good enough or if anyone else finds them very useful, so I haven't gotten around to sticking it on freespacemods. I also haven't received many bug reports, so I don't know if there's too much wrong with it.
That's actually pretty helpful but it's not a complete solution. I found it was missing quite a few files which I would then have to supply.
That said it is a huge help to anyone trying to replace the entire interface.
I'm open to suggestions on improvements. :)
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Well like I said, it's missing a few files so it's not a complete replacement yet. Add the techroom ones for instance, the PXO lobby (if you haven't already).
If you turn on show ship and show weapons you should probably be able to get rid of sparky_hi and run the game in debug builds once you've got all the interface files it needs.
What you have so far is great. But it's not quite a replacement for the VP files yet.
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Hello napseeker, starlord here.
Welcome to the HLP.
From what I remember, only one true space sim on the trek universe was created: that would be star trek invasion for the PS1.
Perhaps you might want to take a look at it? Also, it's quite interesting as the kam'jatae and hur'q are not common species in the trek universe, yet their ships are awesome...
Anyhow, I truly commend your efforts: I always wondered what starfleet command might look like as a space sim. Hopefully we'll find out...
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Well like I said, it's missing a few files so it's not a complete replacement yet. Add the techroom ones for instance, the PXO lobby (if you haven't already).
If you turn on show ship and show weapons you should probably be able to get rid of sparky_hi and run the game in debug builds once you've got all the interface files it needs.
What you have so far is great. But it's not quite a replacement for the VP files yet.
Which ones are missing exactly? The techroom (3 of them, iirc) and lobby ones should be in there, I think. I originally grabbed files from sparky_hi and sparky.
Currently it's meant to be for mods in addition to the existing vps, so not a complete replacement (it requires the existing <screen name>-m files, after all). I already mentioned the mainhall and medals.
I see scope creep. :D
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I think this is the german startrek site discussed eariler in the thread. :D
http://www.unimatrix01-fs2.de/13906/home.html
(edit) I noticed that it doesen`t contain any cardassian ships, awh well.
But does have extensive weapons, torpedoes are primaries tho, that may cause problems if mixed with other conversions.. :nervous:
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Trek in Fs2?
Never happen...
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/Sci-Fi%20amp%20Anime/fbbd.jpg)
I will never match Omniscaper's efforts, but I try.
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/FS2%20Trek/courageous.jpg)
I've got a 4-5 year jump on you but have come from the opposite way.
Models first! No assets = no mod. Plus I don't know how.
I focused on weapons and ships and a general outline of what sorts of arcs the campaign involves.
Other than that since I had no assistance, nothing has been done aside from me still securing permissions and making conversions...
Plus PCS2 doesn't work on my system for making COBs into POFs I have to use MV or PCS1, that realy slows me down so I probably have a few hundred half converted assests scattered across 6 drives.
Plus since Jan, RL pretty much sucks right now...
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those ships still leave me awed... :eek:
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Pretty nice! Is there a thread dedicated to your trek game anywhere? Would be interested in playing this at some point if you also have plans on turning yours into a standalone.
@starlord: I do have screenshots for ST:Invasion (from many years ago) I think at one point I was going to recreate some of the fighters from that game although eventually gave up since I couldn't get enough angles of the ships for a decent modelling reference. Also I ended up only wanting to focus only on ships that were either in DS9 or in ST:Armada rather than go too overboard on a ton of ships. As mentioned, this wouldn't be much of a space sim so much as a more arcade-ish type battle. Anyone who ever played my original mod, Invasion of Cardassia, would know sort of what I am aiming for here.
@whitelight: yes, that's the site! It's too bad the link to Omniscraper's conversions are dead though. Anyone know how many models he ended up converting or if his files are still archived anywhere? I really hate it when someone goes to a lot of trouble to convert assets and then over the years all that work is lost and seemingly gone forever. If I can find them, I'll upload them to one of the more larger FS2 hosting sites to make sure they stick around for other future trek modders.
UPDATE: so far I've now gotten the non-debug version of FRED to run standalone, and I can make a mission that uses a few ships. I had to extract out the Defiant, Vorcha and Galaxy from the trek.vp and make a smaller, more manageable vp of my own to work with, but I was quite pleased that I'm at least able to do some FREDing!
When I run the other versions of FSO or Fred however, I keep getting these error messages:
Unable to load starfield bitmap: 'dneb01'!
(Where is this dneb01? I found no trace of it in BTRL at all anywhere)
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dneb01 is the first nebula referenced by the FS2 stars.tbl. You should probably start replacing those with more Trekish versions anyway.
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Ah thanks - found it and fixed it!
Do beam weapons in FS2 rely on a POF model? I noticed that when I fire my phasers, the game crashes. In the weapons file, the reference is a bit confusing as it says:
$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
It looks like it uses "none" and that laser1-1.pof is commented out, but I'm not 100% sure as I've put in the other required assets other than this pof, yet I get a crash. I can recreate this model I'm sure but I'd like to be sure it is the cause. Every use of a beam weapon seems to specify the model file in this way, which seems odd unless there's a reason why the pof is included.
EDIT: also if it is in the FS2 assets, can anyone tell me if it's a cylinder or a flat plane?
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Beams don't use model files, just the textures. Semicolons ( ; ) mark off comments.
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Thanks - I must be missing something else related to the beams then... :mad:
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Beam weapons can use models ,but they are not shown.
Try to change none to some random model and check if this works.
You will not see this model ,but it can make things easier.
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When in doubt, copy/paste stuff that works :P
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Oh I've copied and pasted, believe me.... my eyes are bleeding from how much I've randomly tried stuff to get past each bug. :D
Update: I do now have my mini-Trek mission running standalone (with a Peregrine squad fighting it out with a Vorcha). The techroom, options, etc. all work fine and no, I do not look forward to the months ahead as I will have to replace all the screenies with a Trek-style theme. I had been hoping that maybe there was some "fat" that I could trim from the BTRL demo so I could reduce the amount of recreation required but as it turns out, aside from the obvious BSG-specific additions, the BTRL gang already did a really good job at making a very lean and mean standalone game. I pretty much ended up copying over 85% of what was in BTRL in order to get it stable enough to play (and then of course merged in a few of the ships and weapons from the Unimatrix TC mod).
The phaser (beam) crash only seems to happen when my phaser actually hits another ship. If I fire it off into empty space, no probs but if the beam collides with an enemy or friendly, it's crash to desktop time. This is while running the Release version. In the debug version, I can't even get into the mission since I am stopped out by an assert that says:
Assert: bm_bitmaps[bitmapnum].handle == handle
Without a debugger, I can only guess that maybe the handle = 0 or -1 but presumably it's an indicator of some other underlying problem that may be related to the crash too. I put in all the background bitmaps into the VP (blue, red, planet) and my fs2 mission uses a few of them for the background, so not sure here.
So close... so close....
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This is just a bit of random guessing, but maybe you should take a look at the Babylon Project's Minbari fighter weapons. Those are pretty phaser-y, and they don't crash the game.
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Cool, okay I'll do that....
EDIT: Hmmmm, still no luck. Is the source code for 3.6.9 available for download in rar or zip from anywhere? I realize it's under source control but I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of how to grab the code that is based on the 3.6.9_stable_build.rar I downloaded already. At least if I had the source I could understand what the beam implementation was looking for as it loads and what I might be missing.
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I don't know where you could get a matching codebase as a download. The BtRL one might be close but I don't know if I even still have that uploaded.
That said using SVN to get hold of it is easy. Follow this guide (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,52845.0.html) but instead of checking out HEAD select revision 3825 instead.
Although I don't know why you haven't moved up to 3.6.10 instead. It's much better.
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Okay, let me look into SVN...
I was thinking about switching to 3.6.10 but being a worrywart, I thought it might be safer to stick with the same version that came with BTRL (or I guess not exactly the same, I didn't notice until the other night that the exes I got from the main page's download weren't the same exes as what came with BTRL).
After still getting nowhere this morning, I think I'm going to first start from scratch and just see if I can get a phaser working in BTRL instead. There's just something I've done wrong somewhere and the beams keep crashing the game. :( I did manage to get the Vipers to use the training beam DET-21 so I do know BTRL itself can handle beams fine.
UPDATE: Okay, phasers seem to be working on AI, no crashing.... have Mirandas and Vorchas blowing each other up, so seems good.
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FS2 Open 3.6.9 Source tarball (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/linux/fs2_open-3.6.9.tar.bz2)
From the Current OS X and Linux versions post on Cross Platform Dev :)
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So basicly ATM your modding a mod?(BTRL)
I started from regular 3.1 and now use 3.9
Well you got teh phase thign solved, good.
I was going to post my hybrid-Omni phaser for caps and my conversion of TBP Nial beam for fighter phasers (I asked for permission). But seems your all set now...
Let me know when you get to animated torps, I was working on 12 or so... Had 5 finished I think including fighter variants.
Yes, my Trek weapons test is still on youtube...
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FS2 Open 3.6.9 Source tarball (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/linux/fs2_open-3.6.9.tar.bz2)
From the Current OS X and Linux versions post on Cross Platform Dev :)
I saw that download before, but I couldn't figure out what tool would be needed to unpack the archive. I'm familiar with .tar files but is there a Windows app that can handle .bz2?
Otherwise, progress has been good: I've created a number of small combat missions and everything appears to be loading with no major debug warnings. It's running standalone perfectly on my PC, no doubt due to the stability of BTRL itself. I'm starting to convert my own Trek models over to POF to replace the Unimatrix ones, and putting in my own effects. I still have some remaining questions that hopefully someone can answer:
- I've read over the FRED cookbook in Karajorma's FAQ and was really impressed by the examples. Other than the regular walkthrough, are there other FRED cookbooks online? I already have a ton of questions about how to do various things with FRED and using SEXP, but I don't want to re-ask questions that have probably been asked/answered already. And yes, I am going through all the postings in the FRED forum to learn by what's already been asked from years back.
- speaking of which, so far I haven't come across an answer to this: I'd like to have a large ongoing battle between two fleets as the player is busy flying about accomplishing his task. The problem is, as I understand there's a limit to how many ships in total one can have in a mission (around 100?). I'd like to set it up so that when a ship dies (on either side), it goes through the process of exploding, but is then resurrected and randomly placed somewhere in space so that it can then return back to fighting. That way, the appearance is of an ongoing background battle with seemingly limitless ships until the gamer has finished his task...
- is there any way to set up a restriction for all ships, including the player, that they cannot completely roll their ship or do a loop whereby they ultimately end up "upside-down" from their initial orientation? Most battles on Trek (tv and film) typically keep both parties "right-side up" so that you don't have the Enterprise facing against say a Klingon ship that appears upside-down from their perspective. There is a command in FRED under the ship editing's Misc section which says "Doesn't bank when turning" but even with it checked on, I've noticed that in-game it doesn't entirely prevent banking and yes, I do still end up upside-down. It's a pain to have to constantly roll my ship after an engagement to return to the up-side orientation again. It's very un-Trek like, regardless of the realities of 3d space combat, so I'm hoping to find a way to limit rolling.
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It's BZip2 or Bourne Zip 2. 7-zip (which you should be using :) ) can handle it and GNU Zip (.tar.gz, .tgz). .tar.bz2 is just the other one, they each have their strengths. But yeah, use 7-zip.
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That's BS (or rather misinformation).
back in DTP3.1 build I was making a Robotech mission (Blind Game) where you get ambushed in an asteroid field and three main characters get kidnapped for 3-4 months. You're part of the escort wing and witness it.
Took me over 10 Hour to get the placement of the asteroids just right to hide the enemy cap ship (like in the episode) but kinda obvious, "Why are there so many rocks clumped together almost like a huge mass?" :)
Anyway i was doing other stuff and when I finally tested it again there was an error.
All the asteroids I laced turned into FIGHTERS! I had 300+ more enemy fighters attacking 12 friendles!
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/Sci-Fi%20amp%20Anime/CivialWar1.jpg)
I did not crash! I couldn't do ****, but I did take a few screnies. That's what got me testing BOE type missions 100 vs 100 ect (200 total)...
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/Sci-Fi%20amp%20Anime/BDFE2a.jpg)
And this was back on a PII 400 / 32mb ati card/ 256mb board memory I think.
The problem is the CPU is controlling all those AI's, plus all the turrets and subsytems on cap ships, PLUS all the firing efects (only so many can be rendered at once).
Any of those stress the engine out for random crashes...
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Looks like you ran full speed into the object limits to me.
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Well yeah :lol:
But those scenarios I limited myself to after that incident was like 25 caps PER side and 50-100 fighters. That made it 150-250 max depending on how intensive I was going for. I really don't do that anymore as most of my time is on individual conversions instead of mission stressing.
I don't think I've done a BOE test in over 4 years actaully... ;7
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But then you have secondaries being fired, other objects, number of models (only 128!), debris, weapons limits, etc...it's a lot of stuff.