[WMCoolmon]

Right, well...yesterday redmenace happened to message me about recontinuing the VPs. I've got a little extra time due to Thanksgiving, so I leafed through HLP a bit more in-depth than occassionally skimming over the thread titles when bored. I happened upon Lightspeed's shinemaps thread, and was impressed. I continued on to the Modding forum, saw the new Cain, Aten, and Hecate, and was even more impressed.

I'd told redmenace that I wouldn't come back and do VPs, but since it's the holiday season, and there are so many nice improvements around I figure I don't mind making a new VP set...if only to try them out myself.

Instead of trying to hunt down all the new improvements myself, I'm going to request that people post improvements in this thread, with the form specified below. Any posts without improvements will be deleted (to keep the thread tidy), though if you do post an improvement in your post you may chat about whatever.

So, the form:

Name (Author) - http://www.linkgoeshere.com
Look at all the pretty descriptive text. Maybe some notes about minor bugs and such.
Installation
Any special install instructions beyond copying files to the appropriate locations. If you need something else installed for whatever-it-is to work right, this is where it goes. Also if you have to fix a cup of coffee or sacrifice a lamb to a local diety for it to work.

The final VPs will be released the Monday after the first weekend of December (the 6th); submissions will definitely be accepted until December 4th. After that, I'll try to get things in until the VP release, but I make no guarantees.

Note to mods - I realize this is technically the wrong forum for a thread like this, but it's the only one that I have the power to keep the thread clean.

[redmenace]

There is a high poly zues(I think), Orion, and Sobek.
Sobek http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27593.0.html
By Raa
 
Orion
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27491.0.html
Bobboau

Deimos
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=501551
Bobboau

Medusa
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,25059.0.html
Krackers87

3d Shockwaves
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,17641.0.html
Various authors

I am going to post in the Freespace modding forum a call for all High Poly ships to be finished.

[Trivial Psychic]

Don't forget about Nico/Venom's Hi-poly Perseus.
Here
Of the Hi-Poly models Redmenace mentioned, only the Deimos and Sobek are in any way useable, though the Deimos could use LODS and debris (IIRC) and the Sobek needs its forward nose turrets re-positioned.

[redmenace]

well that is why I am going to start PM soon those who are working on it.

[Lightspeed]

Okay, I shall list my own stuff:

The "original" shinemaps
Base Shinemaps (Shine 1.1c)

Work-in-progress high quality textures and shinemaps as well as static glowmaps - full alpha env support!
ShineLT builds
Installation: data\maps

Animated glowmaps (additional to the ShineLT package)
Animated Glowmaps (ONLY PACKAGE THE LTL BUILD!)
Installation: data\maps

Explosion upgrades
Explosion upgrades 2.0
Installation: data\effects

Replaces the retail nebulae with some altered images from the new nebula effects
Retail Nebula Patch
Installation: data\effects

New textures and model for subspace missions
Subspace Textures
Installation: data\effects

New weapon effects with validated table for multiplayer
Weapon Effects
along with the fixed table for multiplayer compatibility

New sun images for Freespace2
Freespace2 sun images 2.0
Installation: data\effects

Thruster images
B-L hybrid thruster effects 1.2

High-res planets, full blending support
TGA Planets 2.0

Note: Finished hi-poly models are included in the ShineLT builds as well as the textures are individually optimized for them.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Animated glowmaps (additional to the ShineLT package)
Animated Glowmaps (ONLY PACKAGE THE LTL BUILD!)
Installation: data\maps

I can already imagine the pain in the arse it's going to be if the High Quality versions get packaged!

[Trivial Psychic]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Note: Finished hi-poly models are included in the ShineLT builds as well as the textures are individually optimized for them.

I do ask a minor change.  Would you support change in the filename and table entry for the Leviathan from cruiser01x to cruiser01b, to match the FSPort?

[taylor]

It would also be good if the IBX files were included for all models in the MediaVPs.  The hi-poly ones take so long to generate that at least including those would help out a lot of people and cut down on the hundred or so bug reports we'll be sure to get.

[redmenace]

excelent point taylor.

[karajorma]

Put them in a seperate VP if possible though. No sense in making a 56ker take 20 minutes to download files he could generate in 5

[redmenace]

lol, well how long would those IBX files take to be generated?

[taylor]

Originally posted by redmenace
lol, well how long would those IBX files take to be generated?

Depends on the model and the computer but I think that on my AMD64 3400+ it took about 3 and a half minutes for the hi-poly Fenris.

EDIT: It was about 6 months ago when I last generated that model which prompted me to write the IBX code.  I remeber 3.50 minutes but that may have been for the whole level load and not just the buffer generation.  Also it would probably be a good idea to include the IBX files in whatever VP that the models are in.  You'd have to figure in the download size of everything but it would be a pain in the butt to keep track of two VPs which would be dependant on each other.

[redmenace]

Well it might be a good idea to notify individuals about the wait at download. Especially with a computer like that.

[DaBrain]

My first EFF effect is complete.

Shockwave There is a better effect now, but it's not up yet - Ok forget about the new effect. It too memory intensive!... duh...

Although I did not had any performance problems (somehow the EFF effects run even faster), this effect should be in a high-end only VP.

More informations on the effect here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,28128.msg569676.html#msg569676

Instructions: All files need to be placed in the data/effects folder.
All shockwave01(_x).ani files have to be deleted.


I have a complete package with many effects(ANI, uncompressed DDS) included, but not enough webspace to host them.

[taylor]

Originally posted by DaBrain
My first EFF effect is complete.

MUCH better memory wise than the JPG version.  That one was just over 101meg and this one is 24.75meg.  It's coming in at 0.25meg per frame by the way.

I haven't actually tried this myself but you could do an experiment with different widths/heights per image and see if it still renders right.  You should be able to cut down on memory usage even more that way.  Don't know if it would render correctly but it will load the images with different sizes.  May not work but it's worth a try.

Oh and for to two or three people who, like me, prefer OpenGL this doesn't work.  A bit of missed code makes DDS textures in an EFF not get seen as being compressed and therefore will crash.  A fix is going into CVS shortly but if you want to test this thing out just use D3D for now.

[DaBrain]

I love the EFF feature.


Do not use the shockwave effect I've posted! I've a better and smaller one on hand. But ATM not the space to host it. (6MB)

Check the EFF thread.

[redmenace]

stupid swooh

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic

I do ask a minor change.  Would you support change in the filename and table entry for the Leviathan from cruiser01x to cruiser01b, to match the FSPort?

Because it all had issues with the hi-poly model anyway.

[Nuke]

should the tables be modified in future releases, would it be too much to fix some of the referances to fs1 interface art (loadgun**.ani and loadmissile**.ani).  they are only used in non-selectable weapons but seem to be causing problems with modular tables. there might be other references to phantom interface art in the ships.tbl as well.

[MatthewPapa]

As soon as I get Game Warden's bandwidth problem (a day or so) with my ISP sorted out I could host them as long as the file doesnt exceed about 15 mb. Currently I am having a...err..rather deluge of downloads of the freespace ISO files. Like I said I will be able to get it sorted out in a day or so. You might also ask An0n.

Originally posted by DaBrain
I love the EFF feature.


Do not use the shockwave effect I've posted! I've a better and smaller one on hand. But ATM not the space to host it. (6MB)

Check the EFF thread.