Hard Light Productions Forums
Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => Topic started by: Enigmatic Entity on April 07, 2011, 07:22:28 pm
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I just "upgraded" to 3.6.12 media vps, and they look really good, however, there are a few things:
- The shockwaves are too saturated and look like a stretched blob of white light with blue edges - I like the 3.6.10 look.
- The explosion glow is too strong for my tastes, plus if a ship is moving really fast, a glow occurs where it went to 0% hull, even though the ship is somewhere else when it blows up; looks kind of weird (but you don't usually have ships exploding as they come out of subspace)
- The shield hit effect is radioactive and seems to look less detailed, at least on the Shivan ships.
- Less of an issue, also in 3.6.10, the beams seem to lose their detail at distance and are a little like the shockwave issue.
- My computer can't handle the assets vp on 1280*1024! :p I will have to settle for the old ships or reduce resolution :nod: especially since I want to play BP AoA (the first BP campaign?), and it needs 3.6.12 vps.
Can I just edit the vps to fix the first four? Otherwise everything works fine! :)
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Never actually edit the vps.
Instead take advantage of FSO's mod directory capabilities (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/-mod#-mod) and put the .tbms and/or textures that need to be changed in the data directory of the mod dir (in this case the mediavps folder) this leaves the actual .vps unmodified so that if you break anything you can just remove the file from the data directory and you have a working mediavp set. These changes will still work if you are using the mediavps as part of another mod (like Blue Planet, for example). See the link above for details on how this works, if you have questions about mod directory feature feel free to ask. Otherwise, if you need help ask in the Modding Forum (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=8.0).
Try the mediavps (and bp) without the Advanced packs. They contain the higher resolution textures and such, so they will be harder on your graphics card. This way you get to keep most of the prettiness that .12 added and still have your high resolution.
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Also, Matththegeek has been working on a sort of MVP-lite pack for those unfortunate people with low-end hardware.
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Also, Matththegeek has been working on a sort of MVP-lite pack for those unfortunate people with low-end hardware.
He has? Wow, good on him, I suppose with the issues he's had he's the best man for the job. :)
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Never actually edit the vps.
Instead take advantage of FSO's mod directory capabilities (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/-mod#-mod) and put the .tbms and/or textures that need to be changed in the data directory of the mod dir (in this case the mediavps folder) this leaves the actual .vps unmodified so that if you break anything you can just remove the file from the data directory and you have a working mediavp set. These changes will still work if you are using the mediavps as part of another mod (like Blue Planet, for example). See the link above for details on how this works, if you have questions about mod directory feature feel free to ask. Otherwise, if you need help ask in the Modding Forum (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=8.0).
Try the mediavps (and bp) without the Advanced packs. They contain the higher resolution textures and such, so they will be harder on your graphics card. This way you get to keep most of the prettiness that .12 added and still have your high resolution.
Thanks for that, I'll have a go at trying to find the relevant files from 3.6.10 vps ;)
As for Advanced, I haven't even touched those, as I knew they would be too much for my PC! It handles the effects to a playable level, but include the models at a detail level that doesn't make them look like LOD furthest creates low FPS. I'll try 1024*768 if needs be, after all, I'm using an older LCD.
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I'm pretty sure the shockwave didn't change from .10 to .12. We just made munitions (bombs) use the 2D effect to help keep frame-rates up.
I could be wrong though, I'll have to see. But I'm pretty positive that the 3D one is still the same.
Initial Release of 3.6.12 VP's had beam fading. This has since been corrected in the .3612.vp Patch files and should now present beams along the full length like they were in .10. We also have some map and color corrections to make the RED shivan beams actually red instead of a fuzzy purple/pink that I still have no idea how it happened.
Strange that MV_Assets is causing such an issue without MV_Advanced being present. Is the AnimGlow package present? If so, try without it.
The explosions happening where Hull = 0% is a known issues, sort of tied in with warping display issues. This is not a MediaVP issue, but something code side (AFAIK).
Feedback on the Shivan Shields: Noted, we're contemplating refining that effect.
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Regarding the shockwaves - maybe 3.6.12 just changed some of the lighting effects? It's just that I see a large amount of pure white in the middle, seemed more than what I'm used to; but is covered up by the explode glow most of the time.
As for fading beams, I haven't been taking much notice of that, I just notice that when you are say 1km form the beam, there is 50% width of the beam of white, but when you are right next to the turret, it has the texture and seems redder because of that.
Strange that MV_Assets is causing such an issue without MV_Advanced being present. Is the AnimGlow package present? If so, try without it.
I tried this with a normal mission instead of my Hell Gate copy with about 50% of the ships, and it is better, not surprisingly. An Orion filling the screen with stuff blowing up still puts a dent in the frame rate, but I guess that's what you get with a 128MB GPU. Also changed to 1024*768
Feedback on the Shivan Shields: Noted, we're contemplating refining that effect.
Yay! ;):nervous: As much as I took notice of it, the 3.6.10 shield effects seemed OK.
After further playing, I'm getting more used to the new effects, so the explode glow isn't so wtf anymore.
One last thing - I've noticed some really tiny suns being used as stars, and the white out effect is over the top for such small things, as it is for some background nebulae; there's no sun visible, but looking at the nebula whites out. Isn't noticeable when fighting Dragons though...
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Did you touch bloom settings? That might explain the extra saturation and white that you're seeing.