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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 08:33 am 
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Location: Ostrava, Czech Republic
CAG Hotshot wrote:
Its not true? That is how every level of the shape is designated, along with additional F6 coding. I have edited all the levels of the shapes I have edited, plus the landing gear, flaps, and air brake shapes and locations.
Well, we're both kind of right. I went through my notes again and some parts of the sub-shape really start with only a list of vertexes - header '82 00'. Anyway, most new sub-shapes start with the header 'FF FF 00 00'.

You can see that in my 'F22.SH - Shape Explanation':
https://mega.nz/file/RU0ACDZC#TMz8eBqgg3VQf3gWE3AgwvSvgj-6uY-fgG7J44wIAik
I'd really like to ask you to look into it - maybe you'll think of something.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 09:21 am 
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Location: Ostrava, Czech Republic
CAG Hotshot wrote:
What would be very very helpful is to be able to change the medium distance shape into a duplicate of the close shape so that more detail could be seen at distance, hut I never got around to experimenting with that… I thought it might crash the game with its demand on additional memory when a large number of objects are present, because of the limitations of the old game’s DOS roots…. but if it could be solved it would improve immersion by having objects appear at farther visual distances and not be so under detailed. I always found the way objects appeared in the game to be very unrealistic even at -100 magnification…
Yes, my ultimate goal was to improve the main shape, including the addition of new polygons, along with the subsequent improvement of the medium and long distance shapes.

I'm not a programmer and I have no idea what this would do to memory requirements and how the game would accept it.

Anyway, I think we are able to implement it at this point. That is, if the issue with nested offsets is thoroughly investigated (video with XMOOSEA.SH)

FA has a big problem with visualization of objects in general. All the objects are just too big. Hence the perpetual problem with the feeling of speed relative to the terrain. All of this was due to the low power of the graphics (which was computed only by the main CPU) and the resolution of the monitors at the time. The game inherited this problem from 'Chuck Yeager's Air Combat'. It's all due to the large pitch of the base grid - 1 integer, no decimal places). We can't shrink models anymore, instead the entire environment of the FA world has to be enlarged.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2023 18:07 pm 
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Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 18:54 pm
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plurry wrote:
CAG Hotshot wrote:
Its not true? That is how every level of the shape is designated, along with additional F6 coding. I have edited all the levels of the shapes I have edited, plus the landing gear, flaps, and air brake shapes and locations.
Well, we're both kind of right. I went through my notes again and some parts of the sub-shape really start with only a list of vertexes - header '82 00'. Anyway, most new sub-shapes start with the header 'FF FF 00 00'.

You can see that in my 'F22.SH - Shape Explanation':
https://mega.nz/file/RU0ACDZC#TMz8eBqgg3VQf3gWE3AgwvSvgj-6uY-fgG7J44wIAik
I'd really like to ask you to look into it - maybe you'll think of something.



Ive edited almost every aircraft shape in the game. They all denunciate the various layers of the shape that way. Same with the vehicle shapes Ive edited… What shapes are you talking about?

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"FAF Shape Meister"
FAF/FA-2 Design team
TSH Member/Developer
VNFAWING.com Forum Administrator

VNFAWING Forums
VNFAWING Website

FA Futures/FA-2 is Still Being Worked On and Will Be Released...


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2023 18:19 pm 
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plurry wrote:
CAG Hotshot wrote:
What would be very very helpful is to be able to change the medium distance shape into a duplicate of the close shape so that more detail could be seen at distance, hut I never got around to experimenting with that… I thought it might crash the game with its demand on additional memory when a large number of objects are present, because of the limitations of the old game’s DOS roots…. but if it could be solved it would improve immersion by having objects appear at farther visual distances and not be so under detailed. I always found the way objects appeared in the game to be very unrealistic even at -100 magnification…

Yes, my ultimate goal was to improve the main shape, including the addition of new polygons, along with the subsequent improvement of the medium and long distance shapes.

I'm not a programmer and I have no idea what this would do to memory requirements and how the game would accept it.

Anyway, I think we are able to implement it at this point. That is, if the issue with nested offsets is thoroughly investigated (video with XMOOSEA.SH)

FA has a big problem with visualization of objects in general. All the objects are just too big. Hence the perpetual problem with the feeling of speed relative to the terrain. All of this was due to the low power of the graphics (which was computed only by the main CPU) and the resolution of the monitors at the time. The game inherited this problem from 'Chuck Yeager's Air Combat'. It's all due to the large pitch of the base grid - 1 integer, no decimal places). We can't shrink models anymore, instead the entire environment of the FA world has to be enlarged.


Yes we all realized that decades ago. (Both the scale and the origination of the game from CYACB) The scale of FA is wrong across the board. We all know that. Even vehicles are wrong sizes in relation to each other and Terrain tile pixels are much to large but you can compress the tiles from 256 x 256 to 512 x 512 and have them display that way while still keeping the map the same size and not try to exceed the tile limit allowed. It requires more hex editing… Of each tile graphic tile after increasing their size to 512 x 512 you need to edit the header and list it as 256 x 256 and the game will Compress the tile. Ive done that but never for all the tiles at once because the game fell out of popularity for that much work… also have created a 512 x 512 map (back in 2005) but could not get around tile max number limits to tiles on the entire map so it was of no use…

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Hotshot
"FAF Shape Meister"
FAF/FA-2 Design team
TSH Member/Developer
VNFAWING.com Forum Administrator

VNFAWING Forums
VNFAWING Website

FA Futures/FA-2 is Still Being Worked On and Will Be Released...


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