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[Doktor von Wer]

'Howdly doodly doo, I'm Talkie, Talkie Toaster. Talkie's my name, and toasting's my game' - a little greeting for the British fans. Yanks, I expect, shall think I'm insane! Greetings again, it's time for another issue of the Dev's Blog, and this is your Christmas present and New Year's celebration wrapped into one bundle! The theme is 'retro' methinks; since we've been revisiting some old content and changing it from good - into great

'So, what to tell you?' I ask myself rhetorically. Well, I could tell you about the thousands of lines of code re-making the game from scratch we've been up to, or I can show you some eye-candy. I'm guessing you want the eye-candy?

Well, in terms of eye-candy we've been up to a lot recently - much of it not just superficial but also related to the intended new game experience. I could show you a good deal of really awe-inspiring work; not just in terms of Evilbob and I dealing with entity graphics such as ships and explosions, but also in maps, both tactical and galactic, that newer members of the team are responsible for. I'm not going to though; I'm going to, as usual, give you a little sniff at what we've been up to and keeping all the best, flashy bits for the final product .


So, where to start? My pride and joy is the re-created Nebula Class Star Destroyer. You'll probably remember a rougher version from V4; but in our quest to perfect everything (and in light of modern system capabilities putting to sleep any doubts about limitations on what we should do), we are not only making new graphics to replace old things but also re-creating our own work from the past: the Nebula SD's model has been enhanced, her skins and shaders improved, and most importantly carefully crafted lighting and shadow meshes added, and the result is beautiful! Fully interactive with the game environment, casting shadows very precisely (the shadow mesh is a fully detailed mesh of the hull; no detail sacrifice) onto itself and the environment depending on the tactical map's lighting! If you haven't already seen her on our Moddb, here she is:

Also just off the press are the re-mastered Dreadnaughts - you'll remember there were multiple variants in V4; these (seriously re-coded ) will be making an appearance in multiple eras of V1, and have themselves had their models optimised with the addition of lighting and shadows, and look far better for it.... Mmmmm lighting definition :

And because I can't bring myself to leave you with only 2 images in this eye-candy edition (no matter how wonderful they are ), you can also take a look at our re-skinned Acclamator, whose texture files are now in many, many times greater definition with a re-created skin and re-created lighting (original file 256x256; new recreated skin 1024x1024) - do forgive me, however, since the faction hull paint is not on these vessels yet; they are now canonical markings and no longer block colours like vanilla (all ships have proper paint-style instead of block colours, now), however not available for these screens:

That's your fill for today! Good night!

LTCC
Head of Coding, Jack-of-Most-Trades

[Stockholm Syndrome (pORG13i)]

it's beautiful Chris....really nice done. thank you.

[M Doyle]

Neb looks perfectly awesome, however the other 2 pics appear as Red Xs

[Doktor von Wer]

Should be fixed now.

[M Doyle]

ah, much better and 300% more awesome...

[Argonnath]

Its most beatiful EAW Mod what I have ever seen!!!

[Clone Kyle]

they look awsome   keep up the good work guys

[Tanus]

Damn good job.  Shadows and the running lights in the ships look wonderful. 

Can't wait to play it!

[M Doyle]

Btw; those that don't know what

'Howdly doodly doo, I'm Talkie, Talkie Toaster. Talkie's my name, and toasting's my game'

i direct thee thus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec&NR=1&feature=fvwp


BTW, still looking good chris.
any word on the hard points on these?

[Doktor von Wer]

V1 hard-points will be very interesting; more numerous and far more specialised and realistic each (not realistic weapon amounts; but representative of them to a high degree of accuracy in terms of each vessel's equipment) - but I won't give away some of the major changes that you're going to see in them; but don't worry about having too many hard-points to deal with with the numerical increase, that's one the new strokes of genius UEAW deals with!

Of course each of these ships will be affected by these changes; not saying how apart from the general comments above; and the notes that the Nebula SD will have functioning turrets (also fully shadowed ) on its weapons platforms; and the Acclamator I and Acclamator II will have their distinct canon armament differences, whilst the Dreadnaughts will show a big change as described in general above.

[M Doyle]

When you say functioning oyu mean each will have a hardpoint or like each will rotate, take aim, fire, ect?

[Doktor von Wer]

When you say functioning oyu mean each will have a hardpoint or like each will rotate, take aim, fire, ect?

For the Nebula I did indeed say

functioning turrets (also fully shadowed )

by which I mean visible, rotating, aiming, firing turrets for its main weapons; on those 6 mounts near the rear which simply had invisible hard-points in V4.

[M Doyle]

ah, now that WILL be awesome.

A realistic looknig set of starships, but i'm guessing the SSDs would be a challenge ot do.

[Doktor von Wer]

ah, now that WILL be awesome.

A realistic looknig set of starships, but i'm guessing the SSDs would be a challenge ot do.

Of course there aren't going to be turrets for every weapon for every ship: I referred to these main weapons only, not every hard-point.

To illustrate with examples that everyone will be familar with, Acclamators are unlikely to have many if any visible turrets; whereas an ISD II will have its 8 barbette turrets at the rear, a Venator her 8 heavy dual turbolasers and her side-mounted duals; a Nebulon will have none visible.

The SSDs might have a few major batteries but not every hard-point by a long stretch.

It's only major batteries on a few select vessels; not every tiny PDS laser, to be sure.

(the dual light turbolasers on CR90 corvettes have been rigged and rotate, by the way ).

[M Doyle]

i knew that   


The turrets will more, but will they move appropriately? meaning

If the ISD is; HERE

and the enemey is here

will the turret aim at the target or just move about moronically?

[Doktor von Wer]

i knew that   


The turrets will more, but will they move appropriately? meaning

If the ISD is; HERE

and the enemey is here

will the turret aim at the target or just move about moronically?

Only incorrectly rigged turret models move around to face the wrong direction. They will aim their rotation and elevation at their targets.

[M Doyle]

cool, i wasn't doubting oyu, but was wondering if it was beyond the game engine.

[Corusca Fire]

Hot damn! Look at that Neb! What a beaut'!