[High Max]

;-)

[Leeko]

And that would be any easier?
And my 4gb of RAM, 8800 GTS, and quadcore processor would beg to differ with your predictions. FS2 always runs buttery smooth.

But as Jeff Vader said, it would take time and skill. Myself, I have plenty of time but no real FREDing skill...

[General Battuta]

I just want to make it clear that it'll never look as good in the FRED remake as it does in the original cutscenes anyway.

FSOpen has higher resolution and better models now, yes, but it can't do many things in-engine that you can do with prerendered video.

[eliex]

Yes, especially if you want to emphasize certain scene, e.g the Manticore/Herc chase in the FS2 Intro. The AI behaves differently and unfortunately uncontrollable.

[Flipside]

The most noticeable thing is that volumetrics turn up a lot in Voltions renders, and the odds of FSO getting those are, for the foreseeable future, zero, you might be able to do things like Pseudo glass-refraction using a shader, however.

[High Max]

;-)

[General Battuta]

Hush, High Max, you'll scare off the noobs.

[Spoon]

And that would be any easier?
And my 4gb of RAM, 8800 GTS, and quadcore processor would beg to differ with your predictions. FS2 always runs buttery smooth.

Not everyone wants to waste money on having top of the line specs like that and replacing their parts the moment something new comes out, assuming you bought it and your parents didin't. If your parents did, are you spoiled? Your profile doesn't give a hint on your age.

You realise the 8800 GTS is like more then 3 years old by now right? And that it wasn't the top of the line model at that time.

[High Max]

;-)

[Leeko]

High Max: I'm 16, since you seemed to want to know.
However, the quadcore and RAM came with the computer (it's a Gateway something-or-other, 15th birthday gift) and the 8800 was my 14th birthday gift. (i.e. before the recession, when my family could afford to spend money on non-necessities)
I don't consider myself spoiled, I am grateful for these things every day. Nor do I, as a lifelong gamer, consider buying good hardware a waste of money. And I also never said I intended to do such things myself, if you have been reading my previous posts you'd have known I intended to throw it out there to someone who has the skills more so than tell people I wanted to do it myself. And since the cutscenes would be played back as video files rather than running them with the in-game engine (they would just be recorded with in-game footage and edited) I don't see much of a hardware specs issue. I never said or thought it would be easy, which is why I'm not jumping all over it myself. I'm sorry if I seemed condescending, but I suggest you simmer down.

Spoon: I never said that the 8800 GTS was top-of-the-line, but for FS2 it's more than adequate. nVidea for life

[Colonol Dekker]

This is meandering off topic. Get back on it. Noone forces anyone to use the latest mvps. And scalable options are there to accomodate everyone. No more spec wars.

[portej05]

I'm currently running on a Quad Core with 4GB of RAM (yes, I know 32bit applications can't make use of it, but I was developing 64bit apps at the time), and an 8800 GTS. It's adequate for what I do (it even doubles as a room heater), but really, I could use something with more speed, more cores and loads more RAM.
That you 'use only Radeon' is an interesting statement. It suggests that you diregard nVidia and other manufacturers without looking at their products.
I evaluated all the options before deciding to use the 8800GTS, including the Radeons, and concluded that 1) their driver support wasn't up to scratch 2) their GPGPU support wasn't up to scratch 3) they didn't have the same support in the gaming or CAD world (think Tesla, Quadro, etc). These have changed now, but that was the situation then.
If you think only a server needs 4GB of RAM, think again. Many applications these days will benefit from having huge amounts of RAM available - think CAD systems and geologic simulations. Think modern games (which given only a modest RAM boost can perform much better), think modern photo processing, think video processing (how is daddy going to process little johnnies football game on a celeron?).

To top it off, I've been using this system since April 2007 and I expect to be using it for another few years to come. The only thing I've changed is to add more RAM and storage. It's about buying quality gear upfront and having it survive much longer than cheaper equipment. I've got a Dell 600Mhz P3 still running under the desk as a file server (it's 9 years old this year).

[Mikes]

Please... don't turn this into an Nvidia vs. Ati discussion. 

[Colonol Dekker]

Yep, I agree with miles. There are places for that. This topic doesn't fall under that mandate.

[portej05]

* portej05 snaps off salute.

Apologies Sir!
[resists temptation to poke High Max]

[Spoon]

Spoon: I never said that the 8800 GTS was top-of-the-line, but for FS2 it's more than adequate. nVidea for life

Never said you did, it was aimed at high max. Apparantly somebody pushed his rant button 

To top it off, I've been using this system since April 2007 and I expect to be using it for another few years to come. The only thing I've changed is to add more RAM and storage. It's about buying quality gear upfront and having it survive much longer than cheaper equipment.

I have a more or less comparable system (E6600, 8800GTX, 2GB) and I just recently upped my harddrive space. (and replacing that 6 year old drive really did wonders for my performance  ) and I too intend to keep using this system for an other year in the least. Buying high end quality parts really paid off.

But eeeh... what was this topic about again? 

[High Max]

;-)

[terran_emperor]

I've heard from several different people that the cutscene limit has been removed or will be removed in an upcoming version...

[Androgeos Exeunt]

* Androgeos Exeunt didn't know there was a cutscene limit.

[Kiloku]

I managed to make a beam effect on 3ds Max, that I believe could be useful if we really want to remake the Cutscenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-JetzhnD0
I still need to try to make it better, and find a nice video codec and compression