Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => Blue Planet => Topic started by: General Battuta on November 18, 2010, 09:44:05 am
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Optimized ships, some hints regarding the missions we've finished so far and our general design scheme, and stuff you probably already know! (http://www.moddb.com/mods/blue-planet-war-in-heaven/news/whats-next-release-2-preview)
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Nice stuff there. Also, are ya going Plinkett in the intro of the Developer Commentary vid? :P
Can't watch the second vid, "not available in your country, as it has content from WMG...yadda, yadda".
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After I recorded the intro I was asked to hide my real voice because it caused testicular shrinkage and involuntary bowel movements in heterosexual men and spontaneous arousal in women.
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oooo love the redone Narayana, the subtle blue shade works well. Reminds me a bit of WWII warships, sort of like Dazzle camo... well, not quite hahaha. Looking forward to the blue ring part being re-worked though definitely, a bit weird right now I suppose.
But expect to find yourself wielding a lot more tactical power this time out. Instead of moving down a tight, scripted corridor, you'll be given the tools you need to tackle your mission from multiple angles, with consequences that persist later into the campaign. Custom HUD elements will help you keep track of new capabilities, networking you to artillery assets and entire air wings.
yay ambitious! Looking forward to it and best of luck, the best thing about the BP team is that it seems well-organized (to the outsider) and gets things done.
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I, for one, like the aesthetic of Steve-O's original textures better.
These ones look a bit too...esarai :P
Sure, it's pretty and shiny and all, but its too shiny. Kinda a little too "high tech-y" and lost the dirty, gritty, low-tech feel... I guess smearing scorch marks all over it could remedy that partially...
Can plz has original-style textures (as optional dl or something?)
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There's so much to do that I don't think it's going to be a priority. Feel free to tackle it, though, it'd be a good public service.
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The one thing I don't like about UV-mapped ships is how much of a pain-in-the-ass it is to change its texture style efficiently.
Its nigh impossible without repainting the whole thing (I think), and I donno how to do that.
My texture editing skills consist of...using hue/sat on photoshop.
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I think it's a nice combo, makes it a bit more sleek whilst keeping entirely functional.
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I also like the new texture a lot better, though I can see the argument for more weathering.
We've had requests to support the Tethis model as well as the Narayana offshoot, and it's just not something I think we can do while also moving forward on optimization. But I'll tell you what, we'll at least talk about the texture style as we go.
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Looking forward to it and best of luck, the best thing about the BP team is that it seems well-organized (to the outsider) and gets things done.
Ironically, we actually don't have a lot of organization. We just .... do things.
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Indeed. We are like a large and unstructured blob, blobbing about and secreting things.
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Indeed. We are like a large and unstructured blob, blobbing about and secreting things.
That's how some of the best dev studios got their start.
EDIT: Oh and about the new texture: I personally am attached to the older style, but that might just be a bias because I've played R1 so much. The old texture gives that down and dirty underdog feel. The new one... so clean, so perfect. Maybe it's the color. I still haven't seen the new model in the game with the pixel shader and all, might make the difference. Nice work though. I have a high respect for all those who do modeling/texture work of this quality.
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+1 for the old texture scheme...
Also, while talking about textures - the Solaris has a mostly black shinemap, making it look like it's made of wood instead of metal. I do hope you won't continue that style in the other ships too?
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Speaking of new textures:
(http://blueplanet.fsmods.net/E/screen0142.png)
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I like the like the small details. Nice touch with the UEF Eagle! Looks pretty.
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Isn't it possible to extract the texture from the old (i.e. current) VP files and place them in the data folder for all those who like the old texture more?
Or are the textures already part of the pof and only shine- and glowmaps in the dds files?
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The problem is that the texturing scheme is completely different. The old Narayana, for example, uses something like 20 (?) separate textures. The new one pictured here uses only 1. Someone would have to redo the texture to better fit the original paint scheme.
While you can replace textures easily (and no, no texture data is ever stored in a pof), making those textures in the first place is the hard part.
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+1 for the old texture scheme...
Optimizing these ships for sane usage takes priority.
Also, while talking about textures - the Solaris has a mostly black shinemap, making it look like it's made of wood instead of metal. I do hope you won't continue that style in the other ships too?
Hrm. May be a technical oversight? You could send a fixed shinemap to Esarai and see how it works.
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+1 for the old texture scheme...
Also, while talking about textures - the Solaris has a mostly black shinemap, making it look like it's made of wood instead of metal. I do hope you won't continue that style in the other ships too?
(http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6547/screen0114.png)
I like the new UEF texture scheme. I think that the GTVA ships should be the ones with a down-and-dirty feel, while the Feds' are all shiny and uber-high-tech but kinda new to this whole fighting thing.
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Esarai confirms that sometime during final processing the Solaris shinemaps were borked.
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Hrm. May be a technical oversight? You could send a fixed shinemap to Esarai and see how it works.
I know Nighteyes made one... :nod:
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+1 for the new textures!
I love Esarai's style.
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I like the new textures. Hope the Sidhe is ballanced a bit more. It's just scary right now in Fred.. really scary.
As for the UX Accelerator, I love how it fires in salvos, but it seems if you fire several shots, it will only reload when a fixed amount of shots are fired. Slightly troublesome as the player has to fire an extra shot if they want a full chamber again.
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I don't remember what the original textures looked like, but the new ones look good to me.
FPS: 48 is a little scary though.
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48 where?
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:rolleyes:
Guys, seriously...
We can't give too much away. But expect to find yourself wielding a lot more tactical power this time out. Instead of moving down a tight, scripted corridor, you'll be given the tools you need to tackle your mission from multiple angles, with consequences that persist later into the campaign. Custom HUD elements will help you keep track of new capabilities, networking you to artillery assets and entire air wings
You'll meet new weapons - from the uncontained carnage of the Sidhe to the precise, packaged firepower of the UX Accelerator and the antimatter-cored Redeemer anti-corvette gun. If all goes well, you'll even be able to mount shield batteries, afterburner fuel reserves, self-repair modules or other, more exotic equipment: capabilities never before seen in FreeSpace.
And you people.... talk about a texture.
What's wrong with you people?
Why aren't you guys all over these awesome new features of gameplay!?
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Features, I may add, that Mr. Spoon's Wings of Dawn the Two is all over as well!
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Because they made no picture of the new features :P
Joking aside, while it does sound interresting, it's a bit hard to talk about it, since we (or at least I) havn't had anything like that in a FSO mod before. So for me it's pretty much wait and see.
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Sure you have. In R1 you got a taste of RTS pointbuy for reinforcements; in Vassago's Dirge you got to command some powerful artillery assets and do some basic electronic warfare.
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Why did you changed awesome Narayana maps? Old one was beautiful, made that frigate very unique. Esarai's textures don't fit with Narayana. Optymization is important thing, but you shouldn't replace orginal textures IMHO.
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Why did you changed awesome Narayana maps? Old one was beautiful, made that frigate very unique. Esarai's textures don't fit with Narayana. Optymization is important thing, but you shouldn't replace orginal textures IMHO.
My understanding is that the textures had to be redone as part of the process of reducing its texture count from something like 11 to something like 1.
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Why did you changed awesome Narayana maps? Old one was beautiful, made that frigate very unique. Esarai's textures don't fit with Narayana. Optymization is important thing, but you shouldn't replace orginal textures IMHO.
The old textures really hid the detail the Narayana had, not to mention the new textures fit in better with the Solaris.
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I'm happy with it, so long as the Karuna gets the same color scheme. Besides, for me UEF = less grimdark, but the GTVA gets all the shiny ships. New color fits in better with the UEF as a whole in my opinion.
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Why did you changed awesome Narayana maps? Old one was beautiful, made that frigate very unique. Esarai's textures don't fit with Narayana. Optymization is important thing, but you shouldn't replace orginal textures IMHO.
The old textures really hid the detail the Narayana had, not to mention the new textures fit in better with the Solaris.
Indeed, the new textures are very cool looking and fit the UEF theme more. I on the other hand think these textures fit the Naryana very well.
New features and textures = Me uber squeeing.
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*whining about texture schemes*
Guys, if you can redo the UV maps on these ships while at the same time keeping the original look, why didn't you offer to do it? We did ask for help in optimizing these ships a while back.
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Thanks all for the feedback on the new Narayana. I definitely can see where people come from when they say the new ship looks too high tech. I think I know why this is: the old Narayana texture feels more volumetric. The details on the diffuse map feel very intricate. Mine seem sleek and flat, conforming to the geometry of the model itself. At the moment, you see my new texture without its proper normal map. When the normal map is complete, I hope to restore the sense of intricate detail so masterfully conveyed by Steve-O. I'm in awe of what he did with the original texture.
But, if it still needs change after that, I will need your help. To continue, I need more tileable (aka seamless) hull textures that have a good varied-depth feel. If anyone interested in a change could send me links to candidate textures (preferably with heightmaps, but without is fine too) via PM, I'll see what I can do in between other WiH upgrades.
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I wish I could contribute to modeling/texture work, but I am afraid I don't have the technical skills or artistic talent. I gave a go at Blender and UV mapping... I was able to do some basic modeling, but the best thing I could do for texturing was apply materials via blender which is essentially a monochromatic texture.
Last few comments have been 'pro new texture' comments. The other side has brought up some good points and I'm warming up to the new style. I also like the new UEF Uriel design. At any rate, certainly a little back and fourth is healthy.
Just some friendly comments based on my love for originals. My overall disposition is that I am looking forward to all the goodies mentioned in the MOD DB post. "Durga strike inbound, guns hot"
Esarai, props for taking this on. Will these assets be released with WIH:R2?
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New texture scheme rocks :yes:, ignore the detractors.
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Just to clarify... I don't really prefer any texture yet. I'll reserve judgement untill I see ingame screenshots of the new one. I was just curious when I asked about extracting the old textures and using them in the data folder.
Sure you have. In R1 you got a taste of RTS pointbuy for reinforcements; in Vassago's Dirge you got to command some powerful artillery assets and do some basic electronic warfare.
It's a bit hard to explain what I mean. All those things really heavily depend on the mission they are used in. You can have the best system ever and it's still no good if you have to use it, while in the middle of a dogfight against multiple opponents.
And I really don't remember any electronic warfare in "Vassago's Dirge", only the artillary, though I do remember electronic warfare and subsystem managment in "The Blade itself"
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Hunting for the source of the signal in VD mission...3, was it? qualifies as ESM. That's what I was thinking of.
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To add (in VD): the random pirate ship which jammed communications, which when chased off or completely destroyed allowed the player to contact command again.
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Very nice. Also get me on the train overall favouring the new design. I think as soon as it is finished, it can surpass the old one. Now, VD, that i played and totally forgot to praise. What an awesome campaign.
Gotta make some time to replay it later today and give the proper feedback.
Not further wanting to derail the thread:
Can't watch the second vid, "not available in your country, as it has content from WMG...yadda, yadda".
Happening to me to.
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It's amazing how you're getting everything done so quickly! :yes: