WCU 0.3 TODO

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klauss
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Post by klauss »

chuck_starchaser wrote:2) The opening hatch has to be a subobject in order to be animated. The cost of displaying it as a subobject could be ameliorated by making it share the texture with... which model, now? The inside? The outside?
Neither.
There's a solution: skeletal animation.

Skeletal animation does not require multiple submeshes, it may animate different parts of the same submesh, because each vertex is assigned to a bone (or more than one), and shaders (or software) does the vertex animation as required.

So... keep the hatch as a part of the outside mesh.

As a general rule, you must get outside models as close to a single batch as possible (that is... a single submesh - a single material, a single texture).

Inside models (or docked models) are not necessarily that critical, because they're meant to be rendered themselves only. Outside models will be all over the screen - you may have 20 ferrets and 10 hellcats on screen, while you will only have 1 ferret cockpit or 1 docked ferret. So making cockpit/docked models use several batches is OK.

And models are divided in three "variants": space model (seen from outside), cockpit model (seen from inside), and docked model (seen from outside, when landed - up close, and by itself or with very few others on a hangar bay). Usually, you make the docked model equal to the outside model for simplicity, but the new engine's specs already support separating them, in case you need to.

For instance, the landing gear is a model component that is Dock-only (ah... you can flag submeshes to be dock-only, so you have a generic hull and need not duplicate the hull for the dock-only version).

Do check Model.h. It will change (I'm redesigning it), but only to expand the featureset and unify interfaces a bit, so all you see there will still be a feature.

The problem with aiming only at a replacement engine is that the design itself is very flexible and unified, so I can't write the framework without all the features. But what I can do (and I'm doing whenever possible), is to only implement a subset of the interface. Like, for instance, CEGUI interfaces will wait (they get a tad difficult to implement, and aren't at all critical).
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chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Man! What a neat piece of code! I'm reading it for pleasure... :D
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Post by Privateer Ferrius »

And Marzo thought I was a programming neat freak...
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Post by crouton »

Hot dang, you guys are still pushing for a release?

:lol:
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Post by Spaceman Spiff »

this was just unnecessary
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

crouton wrote:Hot dang, you guys are still pushing for a release?

:lol:
Any of your business?
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Post by klauss »

He's right, though. It's taking really long.
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

What is taking long? Since last summer there've been a number of updates. Right now we're working towards a WC1 remake, and that's probably going to take at least a few months. Of course, each upcoming release is not released yet, by definition; I don't see that as a justification for abuse...
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Post by mkruer »

Confusion over what WCU is again?. Besides 0.3.0 is going to be the largest revision to date not only are we overhauling the entire system, but we are future proofing it as much as possible, which is no easy task in itself.

Of course to my knowledge there have been 4 releases of 0.2.x and each one consisted of ~10 patches. Its not like we are not doing anything, and there is nothing stopping a 5th (0.2.5) release. Its just that the 0.3.x target is set in stone and it will be done when its done.
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Wing Commander: The Wasteland Incident
klauss
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Post by klauss »

I meant since the "a working version" thing started, there hasn't been a definitive solution to it for too long. It should have been almost instantaneous, but lots of things are interfering (like RL, for instance).
It makes outsiders think there isn't "a working version".
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Well, the last version, when Spirit was around to release it, she was all mixed up; had wrong executable, lost her updated version of units.csv; and that has remained as the last "official" release, so yeah. But this is still a WIP, and IMO "working version" and WIP are a bit of a contradiction. And any effort to come up with a "major-bug-free" version would slow down progress, as bug-hunting is an asymptotic process, and anathema with adding new features; so new features would have to stop, and several minor updates released for users to evaluate and report bugs, just to get to a "working version"; and then it would fill up with bugs right away again... Pointless exercise, I'd say; better to work to a full featured version, bugs and all, and not waste major efforts for the sake of "releasing"...
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Hi!

Post by DragonsClaw »

Been a long time silent reader on these forums. Breaking the silence now.

A few thoughts:

Crouton's post is pointless and uncalled for.
Aiming for an at least partially playable version seems not such a bad idea to me - after all you will receive more feedback from ppl such as myself, which in turn should help you to get things done more efficiently.
You are doing fine!
This is a very ambitious project, so take all the time you need!

A few things I noticed with the current version:

1. Some ships appear to be limited to 4 jumps. Since many of the PR/RF missions require 6 jumps, that should be changed in the interest of letting the player choose which ship he wants to use for completing the campaign/s.
2. All ships should be customizeable to certain limits (Example: Limiting the Demon to light weapons only was a very good idea. Making it completely un-customizeable not so good). After all testing different configurations for ships adds a lot to the fun of playing!
3. You sometimes die when completing a jump. Possibly this is the result of a ship sitting right within the jp on the other side, so both ships being destroyed due to collision.
4. The BH-frigate slowly self destructs whenever an enemy ship approaches (I think it's the flak).
5. All parts of a ship must be "visible" in the equipment screen so that one can select what needs to be repaired.
6. During bounty-/defend- missions enemy ships sometimes just "hang around in space dead". They shoot sometimes but wont move. Sometimes they start moving after a while, sometimes not.
7. Enemy ships should attack the mark during defend - missions. They should only deviate from that behaviour when being attacked themselves.
8. The Arrow and Darket appear to be a bit slow for light fighters.

Hm, Im quite sure I forgot a few things above...

Suggestions:

1. Aim for playability/fun primarily, eyecandy last. See "X³ - Reunion" (Egosoft) for a "good" example of "what to avoid by all means".
2. Mission: Due to continued attacks from -enemy faction- capship - shipname- in sector -sectorname- is in dire need of resupplies. Pick up a load of replacement pilots/torpedos/missiles (possibly even fighters?) and deliver it to said ship. Attacks from -enemy faction- are extremly likely! - This should be high-paying/high-risk mission. It's outcome should have great impact on the relationship between the player and the factions he's flying for/against.

My respect to all working on this project! I hope you will accomplish what you're aiming for.
The best of luck, and keep the good work up!
DC
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Post by Privateer Ferrius »

Crouton has a point though.

How am I supposed to test my textures in game if I don't even have a working copy of the game?

(feel free to disregard my opinion as I'm going to be offline indefinetely, though, see my workshop thread)
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Post by klauss »

Privateer Ferrius wrote:(feel free to disregard my opinion as I'm going to be offline indefinetely, though, see my workshop thread)
That's sad... good luck with your problems, and I hope you're able to resolve them.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
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