Things That are Despratly Needed (IMHO)
Moderator: Moderators
Don't you know? Size 26, bold and colored, isn't enough to grab his attention. It's got to be red.
And imo, varied detail texture and explosion on model and not on the collision sphere, while they would be nice, should be rather low priority. They aren't as deseperatly needed as unreclaimable indestructible feature.
Detail texture only show on close up view. The kind of close up view that isn't ever used in an actual game where people play to win.
As for the explosion not being placed on object face but a bit away, you could just imagine shots have a timer to explode just before impact, or that all units have an invisible force field against which shots detonate, or just look further up and away and not notice.
But on the other hand, feature being always removable mean we can't yet use feature as part of the scenery, like asteroid features that hide conic isle, like humongous tree dwarfing all units, like vertical walls hiding the strected texture, etc...
And imo, varied detail texture and explosion on model and not on the collision sphere, while they would be nice, should be rather low priority. They aren't as deseperatly needed as unreclaimable indestructible feature.
Detail texture only show on close up view. The kind of close up view that isn't ever used in an actual game where people play to win.
As for the explosion not being placed on object face but a bit away, you could just imagine shots have a timer to explode just before impact, or that all units have an invisible force field against which shots detonate, or just look further up and away and not notice.
But on the other hand, feature being always removable mean we can't yet use feature as part of the scenery, like asteroid features that hide conic isle, like humongous tree dwarfing all units, like vertical walls hiding the strected texture, etc...
Spring need developper. Now, it's even more important.
Having the port on linux could attract a lot of good developper. (You can take the example of Open Transport Tycoon , where there is only one win dev and 4-5 wich work on linux)
Another thing is the newGui : the gui is the first thing you see. And you always see it. While detailed texture is pretty much never seen.
Having a more profesional gui is really needed ihmo.
Having the port on linux could attract a lot of good developper. (You can take the example of Open Transport Tycoon , where there is only one win dev and 4-5 wich work on linux)
Another thing is the newGui : the gui is the first thing you see. And you always see it. While detailed texture is pretty much never seen.
Having a more profesional gui is really needed ihmo.
Now hang about here... Everyones Highjacking my thread for there own gripes! Start your own!!
Now, this thread is about features and what they need.
Whats realy needed:
1) Permanent features. (surly this ones easy!)
2) Upright Only features. IE featurs that are forced to be upright like K-Bots are.
3) Forced drawing. For large features it would be handy if you could cause them to always be drawn and not go to the dodgy box things when they are to far out, and not to dissape entirly when you look away.
So... Now we just need Zaphod to make someone do this...
aGorm
Now, this thread is about features and what they need.
Whats realy needed:
1) Permanent features. (surly this ones easy!)
2) Upright Only features. IE featurs that are forced to be upright like K-Bots are.
3) Forced drawing. For large features it would be handy if you could cause them to always be drawn and not go to the dodgy box things when they are to far out, and not to dissape entirly when you look away.
So... Now we just need Zaphod to make someone do this...

aGorm
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=1724
That is the changed featurehandler.cpp and .h files.
They add the following tags to the featuredefinition file with their respective default values if I remember them correctly.
burnable =1
indestructable =0
drawfar = 0
drawfar would be the one ideal for features such as golden bridge, or aGorms map with the big trees. When the engine picks out features to be drawn as if they where further away it skips over features with this tag.
I might warn that there could be a slowdown as a result of lots of such features, afterrall drawing far away features differently was done to prevent slowdown.
I tried doing upright tags, but I found myself confrotned with OpenGL code and didnt want to change it incase I broke it.
That is the changed featurehandler.cpp and .h files.
They add the following tags to the featuredefinition file with their respective default values if I remember them correctly.
burnable =1
indestructable =0
drawfar = 0
drawfar would be the one ideal for features such as golden bridge, or aGorms map with the big trees. When the engine picks out features to be drawn as if they where further away it skips over features with this tag.
I might warn that there could be a slowdown as a result of lots of such features, afterrall drawing far away features differently was done to prevent slowdown.
I tried doing upright tags, but I found myself confrotned with OpenGL code and didnt want to change it incase I broke it.
People will try use it in the future to find it doesn't work, then ask why it doesn't work, then it will have to be explained that the spelling error is in the source, and that they must continue using that error to make it work... it's easier to just get it right the first time, rather than making people guess at which spelling error every particular tag has.
SinbadEV
However, the spelling should definatly be changed...
burnable I can live with happalie however.
aGorm
Rather ungracios and seeing as were talking about FEATURES not UNITS here, rather irelevent as you cant import OLD features. Please be carfull befor openin your mouth. If theres one thing I cant stand its whole sentances in Caps, shouting obviose things that are irrelevent. It just gets on my tits.BECAUSE SPRING IS SUPPOSED TO LET YOU IMPORT OLD UNITS AND HAVE THEM WORK!
However, the spelling should definatly be changed...

aGorm
According to dictionary.com it is "flammable", so I would think TA uses this as well am I right?
I added the flammable and indestructible featuredef properties to the code, however I'm not sure if drawfar would have the correct behavior, because it only avoids the culling based on distance. The features are also culled by checking which parts of the map are being drawn, so in that case a large bridge will still be culled. I'll try to do a different approach to this later...
Does anyone have a map with features that don't work correctly right now but should with upright and the culling fixed? It's kinda hard to test right now...
I added the flammable and indestructible featuredef properties to the code, however I'm not sure if drawfar would have the correct behavior, because it only avoids the culling based on distance. The features are also culled by checking which parts of the map are being drawn, so in that case a large bridge will still be culled. I'll try to do a different approach to this later...
Does anyone have a map with features that don't work correctly right now but should with upright and the culling fixed? It's kinda hard to test right now...