[FireCrack]

no

[CP5670]

I found a whole bunch of problems in the suns I posted earlier (the sizes of the sunglows, specifically). I have updated that file with a newer set that should be much better.

[phreak]

I think we should be including the IBX files in the VPs whenever we add in high-poly models.  These files take a while to generate for complex models and we don't want people thinking that everything loads slow in general when it only should happen the first few times since not all high-poly models are used every mission.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Has the code that generates IBX's changed between builds at all? Or is it likely to change? If so, might it be possible to just display a "Generating model IBX (This will happen once for each model upon loading)" or some-such text message on the screen?

By no means saying that including them upon VP release would be a bad idea, just that there may not be much point if they'll only be recognised as valid for a handful of builds.

[taylor]

Any IBX code changes are strictly related to bug fixes in error checking and some data sanity checking.  The actual format of the IBX file hasn't and won't change.  Even if you are using an IBX file generated by the original public beta code it's readable and usable by current versions of FS2_Open.  Eventually the POF format will be expanded to already contain this needed data but IBX files will remain as they are now for the remainder of their use.  I had thought of adding some sort of IBX generation indicator but that requires a big change to how the loading screen works and I didn't think it was worth it.

I always make my own MediaVPs and stick the IBX files in there by default.  I also have a volition_ibx.vp that contains pre-generated IBX files for all of the original models.  Mass generating IBX files for all POFs is simple and all of the IBX related bugs that have been reported were fixed so there isn't really a reason to not do it at this point.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Couldn't any such load IBX indicator just consist of a small text overlay, top left of the screen rather than anything fancy? Or is that what you meant you'd considered already?

Anyways, excellent - thanks muchly. I'll include IBX's in all my future HTL stuff then.

[taylor]

Couldn't any such load IBX indicator just consist of a small text overlay, top left of the screen rather than anything fancy? Or is that what you meant you'd considered already?

That's what I had intended, just some text in the corner to signal that it was doing something.  The problem is that the loading screen needs to be refreshed every time new text or a graphic needs to be displayed.  That's done with a game_busy() call which can show text in debug builds and moves the progress bar.  The code would have to be modified to support doing that for each model that's loaded which throws off numerous things and complicates the code to a degree that I didn't feel comfortable with.  Maybe in the future that code can be reworked to handle such things a lot easier but by then IBX could largely be obsolete, replaced by the new POF format.

[Pnakotus]

If you're going to build IBXs for everything anyway, why not check and build before launch?  Quake's used preloaders for ages.

[WMCoolmon]

It'd add 6-10 MB to the mediaVP downloads. (I just compressed my cache folder) That's not as bad as I thought it was, so hmm. It'd probably double the size of mv_models though. (At least increase it by a third)

[FireCrack]

Gha, just realised that the beampatch i posted dont work at all, an annoying prediciment, the parts i changed are so many levels down in the beam information...

[WMCoolmon]

Since HLP was down, I figure I'm going to release the 3.6.8 beta in place of the patch.

It'll actually require some sizzling hot features, so hot one isn't even in yet, so we'll see when that gets released. Probably not tonight, but maybe tomorrow or this weekend.

[StratComm]

Wait on it.  There's at least one sizzling-hot model about to be released too.



EDIT: and if you still need the nameplate fixes for the cruisers, here you go.

[FireCrack]

Ugh... i just cant get my beam stuff to work, it has to be manualy copied into the tables...

[WMCoolmon]

I'm guessing your problem is that beam sections are added, not replaced, by default.

One of the two new features I needed for 3.6.8 (now in CVS) is a "+Index:" field after "$Section:". This will override the adding stuff. So if a beam has three sections and you wanted to replace all three, you would use:

Code: [Select]

   $Section:
      +Index: 0
;;...
   $Section:
      +Index: 1
;;...
   $Section:
      +Index: 2
;...

[FireCrack]

Ah, cool, much thanks!

I'l fix my tbm's now...

[Galemp]

Patch 3 is crashing 3.6.7, something about "+nocreate" where it's expecting something else. Does 3.6.7 support TBMs? And how did this get into an official patch if it hasn't been tested?

[Admiral Nelson]

That nocreate is from my gun barrel angle fix, which only works with post 3.6.7 builds.  There is a note about that fact on the source code project page.

[FireCrack]

Okay, I got it done. In addition i added in a few goodies, a pair of (purple) vasudan AAA beams, and an alternate version if you're nuts and want to use those animated beamglwos... anyways...

[attachment deleted by admin]

[StratComm]

****

Ok, so I broke the Deimos when I fixed it.  Specifically the engines.  Another model.  None of the graphics changed, this is strictly a POF data fix.  corvette2t-01.pof

[Galemp]

That nocreate is from my gun barrel angle fix, which only works with post 3.6.7 builds.  There is a note about that fact on the source code project page.

Aha. Can anyone recommend a stable post-3.6.7 build, then?

Re: purple Vas beams. Cute, but I'd rather see green ones to match with their shields. I don't recall a single Vasudan ship with anything purple on it.