Welcome

Cool idea with the planet and asteroids. You were able to get a working .sur for this? Well done!

You can’t remove the 21k poly limit from the groups, Freelancer won’t handle that. However, you can overcome the group polygon limit by splitting your model into multiple groups. As a result, you can have an unlimited amount of polygons for the total model, as long as there are multiple groups less than 21k each.

LancerSolurus wrote:
Just wondering, could you redo Dev Video #13 (SW Epic Space Battle) as a new dev video using the latest mod?

Ya, we could redo that. Would be pretty neat to compare

=Alex= wrote:
This is going too far. Please drop this argument now everyone.

Agreed.

We’re trying to get the mod as fast as we can. Unfortunately, we all lead busy lives and this hobby is just that, a hobby.

We have spent thousands of hours on this mod (just check our work logs) and finally the mod is getting close. The DX9 will come for all but we ask for patience and a bit of support.

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This is our second news for the final MotY voting phase and as with the last piece we give you more gameplay footage and information. Thanks again for your votes and please keep voting by logging into your MODDB account!

Dynamic Hyperspace Travel Concept

Our hyperspace travel concept has been established since a long time, however we never got to the stage of actual implementation. That has changed. The travel concept makes use of two known Freelancer gameplay mechanics, tradelanes and jump gates. But since we don’t like to cater to the limitations of the Freelancer engine we created dynamic versions of the two for a more interesting travel gameplay. Next to the static hypergates and hyperlanes it will also be possible to plot a manual course by setting a waypoint, in-system or inter-system. Suns and planets cast gravity wells which limit your choice of possible paths and creates chokepoints for players. The following picture shows a nav-map with visualized gravity wells and possible hyperlane paths:

Also, creating a dynamic hyperlane or gate will make you very visible for other players and there will be significant build-up and cool-down times so that spamming hyperlanes and gates will not be possible. The actual gameplay limitations and restrictions will be subject to change throughout our open beta, but here is an early ingame video showing off the technology:

<iframe width=“560” height=“315” src=“http://www.youtube.com/embed/XRPglefcddA”></iframe>

ModDB Video

Movement Improvements

Next to hyperspace travel we also work on improving some of our issues with overall movement which are due to limitations of the Freelancer engine. We improved capitol ship spinning by limiting the change in angular velocity. That means, cap ships are no longer be spinning uncontrollably after a collision with a tiny fighter. Also, we improved the netcode by updating ship positions more often. This results in a more fluid gameplay and, since network speeds have improved, is well worth the additional bandwidth.

Call for Testers and Open Beta

As already mentioned, we will have an Open Beta. Since we have a bad track record of meeting deadlines, we will not give a release date. We want to release the mod sooner than later and are hard working on getting the core features finished so we can start public testing early next year.
We are still looking for some dedicated testers with plenty of time on their hands to work out some of the critical bugs of the mod. To apply, please send a MODDB personal message to our development group.

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If you like what you see, and have been playing, please don’t forget to tell your friends, your communities you frequent and social sites like REDDIT/Twitter about this mod. Player word of mouth goes a long way and we’d appreciate any of the support we can get for this mod of ours! Thanks everyone!

SolCommand wrote:
Btw guys, I’m interested in general design changes you might suggest and also what other modules could I add to the ship to make it look more “realistic”. So if you’ve got something on your mind … feel free to write your ideas here or even paint over the image.

http://i46.tinypic.com/15ogtty.jpg

Nice stuff, Sol. You interested in a modelling/texture job for a SW mod I know ;)?

Looks delicious!

Schmackbolzen wrote:
This is very little info to make any conclusions. Are all the groups static? Who is colliding (player or npc)? What are the simplest models where it occurs? Are there models which don’t have that problem? You should experiment with the simplest model where the problem occurs. If you can’t solve it, give us the .obj and .sur and .cmp so we can have a look at it. After all it might still be a bug in the converter. If you solve it please post what the problem was so Skotty can add it to the tutorials.

To answer your question in order:

1. Yes, all the groups are static.
2. Player to NPC. Player to player also have this problem. NPC to NPC doesn’t seem to lock up the client
3. No, all models have this problem.
4. Already done. Had the same problem. :S

To take a look at the problem, I might have you give both you and Skotty access to the FW:TOW SVN, if that’s OK? I didn’t think about testing the ship in vanilla FL, although I don’t think it’s anything we did to the freelancer.exe.

I’ll add you both to our project on the SVN now and send you links.

So, I have this weird collision bug again with our .surs. It’s been around for a bit, more pronounced since the latest iteration of the obj–->sur converter, since I redid all the FW:ToW. Basically, before, I was just loading HpMount on my surs, just to get the wireframes working - before, for whatever reason, it used to be needed.

That said, I noticed that we only get the collision lag when two flying objects meet. There is no lag when one hits a solar. So, I did a little test. First with no hardppoints at all in the sur creation on all the ships within the scene. The next with all the ship hardpoints in the sur creation on all the ships.

Funnily enough, I get lag with both instances. It’s definitely more pronounced on the ships that have more hardpoints in the sur.

That said, any idea what could be going on? Most of my hitboxes, except for capital ships, are under 1500 polygons. So, I don’t think it’s complexity.

Any thoughts on what I should try? I guess I’ll try a run down of Skotty’s tutorial to see if there is any improvement overall.

Timmy51m wrote:
I’m just going to forget about it now and hope it’s a winner in a couple of years time. A recent heart attack has changed my perspective on life ever so slightly, and as a fit and active 36 year old, if it’s made me realise one thing, it’s that you never know what tomorrow will bring, and you’d be a fool to sit around waiting to find out. Enjoy the things that you can do now.

Wise words. I see this sorta thing every day, it really changes your perspective on things.

I think what makes me the most excited for this game is its transparency with modding. The fact that they’re going to embrace it and give software for modders…I’m so excited!

Awesome tutorial! Very easy to follow!

5.5 in the next few minutes. That’s an unreal amount of cash!

Wonderful tutorial!

I got quite a bit of bro love for the fella.

Nah, actually, I agree with many of the ways he’s advertising/marketing this product. He’s attempting to get a grass root movement - getting his backers to donate to his cause early. I think it’s something that we needed in the space sim genre.

I’ve also been impressed by the videos they’ve produced showing great modeling/graphic work already. I’m excited to see what else they’ll show the SC community. Furthermore, I can’t wait to mod the game once that comes available. Actually having ready made modding tools…I can only imagine the possibilities!!

Why485 wrote:

THAT is why I’m backing this. THAT is why I support this game. Am I worried that Roberts could be pulling a Peter Molyneux? Absolutely, but this is a chance I’m willing to take. If nobody takes that chance, then we are guaranteed to get nothing, and you can rest easy in your knowledge that your cynicism was rewarded.

Completely agree with this post! Well said!

Welcome to the boards! Glad to have you here.

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Over the past two weeks, the team has been fixing all remaining bugs, performance glitches as well as adding several new gameplay related programming features into the mod; like player dockable capital ships. We also have been re-editing our normal/specular maps to improve their overall look and feel with great results:

Probably one of the biggest changes in the 1.3 patch is the new fix for XP OS users. So, if you’ve had any issues in the past, please reattempt with this new patch fix and let us know if this improves your problems with launching the mod.

And for those people still considering whether or not to try this mod, please take a look at the video below:
<iframe width=“560” height=“350” src=“http://www.moddb.com/media/iframe/623001”></iframe>
Freeworlds: Tides of War - Capital Fleet Battle! - Mod DB

Patch 1.3 Change Log:
FREEWORLDS: TIDES OF WAR UPDATE III CHANGELOG
–-------------------------------------------

Bloom pixellation fixed
Added mobile docking (carriers) support
Added possible Windows XP crash fix ~w0dk4
Fixed Y-8 bug
Fixed Corellian Cruiser turrets (inverted, placement)
Added mag-pulses for fighter cruise disruption (50m explosion radius) and increased ion-pulses to 500m radius and only hp_torpedo_2 carrying ships
DP20’s HpTurret13 need to be fixed (bad orientation)
A-Wing Hitbox Fixed
Shield and Thruster hitbox fixed
B-Wing - made its agility to that of a light patrol ship to account for its smaller profile
Added three simple systems to allow for some degree of faction gameplay to take place.
Doubled Hull Hitpoints of all capital ships
Golans indestructible
Reduced k-wing turbo turret axis from 50 to 45 degree
fixed hole in mc90 sur
fixed docking moor issues in capital system
fixed ISD window bug
Corellian Cruiser model smoothing fixed
Corelllian Cruiser normal/specular mapping fixed
X-Wing normal/specular mapping fixed
Added ship docking points to all capitals with a hanger
modular_conveyor.sur fixed
lowered starfigher loot drop rate
fixed position of b-wing reticule
fixed position of quasar fire reticule
fixed position of VSD reticule
fixed position of TIE Defender reticule
fixed position of E-Wing Reticule
adjusted power/shield hardpoints for several capital ships
removed CMs/Ammo from NPCs
replaced Lancer hitbox
reduced speed of proton torpedos/heavy rockets/proton bombs and increased their lifetime
fixed lancer tractor beam error
cut collision damage in half
New A-wing normal/spec maps ~hakre1
New X-wing normal/spec maps ~hakre1
New Corellian Cruiser normal/spec maps ~hakre1
New YT-1300 normal/spec maps ~hakre1
New MC90 diffuse texture ~Sizer

Download the 1.3 Patch Release here:
Moddb link: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow/downloads/freeworlds-tides-of-war-demo-patch-v13
Mirror:
http://programexpert.net/Secure/fwtow_update_3.exe
Main Demo Download
To all our fans, if you like what you see, and have been playing, please don’t forget to tell your friends, your communities you frequent and social sites like REDDIT/Twitter about this mod. Player word of mouth goes a long way and we’d appreciate any of the support we can get for this mod of ours! Thanks everyone!

Bump

Hunor wrote:
And here is the updated version:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21604679/Updated_Freelancer_HD_Starsphere_pack_rar

I converted the textures format to dds, corrected some bugs, and upgraded the navmap background and. Also I created the ew01 and ew06 starspheres…

You sir, are amazing