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WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:40 am
by Driftwood
Okay, this is merely a proof of concept at this point, so don't get "too" excited just yet as there will either be caveats or work arounds to get this fully functional, per-se.

As it stands, the wingspan is canonically accurate at 60km. As you can see there are no triangulating to infinity bugs at any point ingame thus far (though to be fair this is technically fixed).

However, there is a catch. As some of the more experienced of us know (DTM) certain large meshes disappear at certain angles, at certain resolutions, at a certain distance. The interesting thing with this particular opt at this point, is that it only disappears when you are "close" to the model. Point of reference what I would define as "close" for this is less than 10km, you can't even see the whole thing unless you're in third person, and even then it's kinda hard to do even then. Which is when you run into the disappearing act.

A few things to note:
Scaled to 25km width single opt, it's still rather massive but it's not quite as impressive. It does not vanish at a given range.

Scaled to 60km as a single opt is absolutely immense, you start getting jammed between 9-6km distance, so getting close does you no good either way. (But it does dissappear when "close") One would need to intentionally keep their distance, or risk losing their "immersion".

Splitting this into three 20km sections would be ideal aesthetically, but then it is unavailable in skirmish mode and must be scripted in and placed precisely by hooking in to replace three different opts, and requires being set to untargetable, and invincible.
Alternately some more care could be put into it and each section (classed as a station) could be modeled to be destructible and have stats to match with damaged sections being visible when one section is destroyed. (I'm toying with this idea) The downside is that this uses three slots and requires careful placement via mission file.

In any case unless it gets scaled down to 25km, it's so huge it really doesn't warrant needing to move since it's pretty much perpetually in range (in skirmish) 100% of the time barring a custom scripted mission file. And canonically it's so huge it's rarely been moved until post end of the "cold war", and functions as shipyards, manufactories, dry docks, training grounds, ect, so moving it probably isn't overly practical and generally not necessary, there's literally nothing barring a death star that could take it on*. (*without serious shenanigans)

I'm leaning towards the third option, but it'll take longer to release since I have to figure out positioning based on replacing specific opts via hook and making sure the meshes all line up correctly, and then requires cutting it into thirds, vice the two halves it's currently is in, and I haven't really played around with that at all. Unlike DTM's Cloud City, I can't simply make a single mesh and replace a single opt simply due to the fact it's not a circular "symmetrical" design.

That said, I'm open to suggestions at this point.
Screenshot 2019-06-23 17.05.44.png
Screenshot 2019-06-22 21.28.32.png
Screenshot 2019-06-22 21.27.47.png

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:35 am
by Driftwood
Okay, small update. I've got the mesh split into thirds, it still didn't cut within 26km, so I reduced the overall width by 15% on a sliding scale, so it spans roughly 51km and each section is less than 26km. Thus, the disappearing at certain angles within 10km bug is "fixed".

I realize it's 9km shorter than it "should be" but frankly it's not really noticeable given how immense it is to begin with. Gameplay/Function vs Screen Accuracy I regret must take precedence in this case.

Given the size, it shouldn't need to move at all, I mean 8mglt for a ship this size is pretty negligible anyways. I'm not going to do any damage model between the section breaks at this point, so my recommendation is to simply set it to untargetable/invulnerable for gameplay purposes. I'll release a FG library/Template mission, and the rest is up to you guys at that point.

I'm going to continue working on this towards a future release. Opting should be done in the next day or so, but I think I will be refining a few things here and there detail wise possibly with the window lighting, bridge superstructure, and the hangars need a complete overhaul. Warb did a great job on the model, but given it was originally for EAW some of the "finer" details are not quite up to spec for XWA.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:42 am
by Jaeven
Gonna enjoy cruisin' around with the Snokemobile.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:37 am
by Bman
Nice

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:43 pm
by Warb_Null
Wow! I did not think it was possible. Goot job.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 4:21 pm
by Driftwood
Thanks, I mean it's not 100% straight port, or functional in the ideal sense, but until that 26km limit is removed or fixed it's the best I could do.

Glad you like it. Still needs some texture updates but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 5:58 pm
by JeremyaFr
Nice

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 2:46 pm
by Marcos_Edson
Whoa!!!

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 3:23 pm
by Phoenix Leader
Looks outstanding!

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:28 am
by Epsilon Eridani
Oops that ship exits from the map reticle (Screenshot 2019-06-22 21.28.32.png)

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:46 am
by Phoenix Leader
The map you access by pressing "M" is 32x32 squares. I don't recall if the side of each square is 1 klick or 1.6 klicks long, but it's not enough to have the Supremacy entirely contained in the reticle in either case. Judging from the screenshot I'd say the side of a square is 1.6 klicks.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:49 am
by Driftwood
Well, it still loads and you can fly to either end and still have room to keep going in-game so it's obviously not a hard limit, just a limit of the MAP GUI.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 4:04 pm
by Mark_Farlander
Oh men, this is awesome! I thought I would never see a craft larger than the blue map.
Let's keep breaking records.

Re: WIP: Supremacy Dreadnought

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:49 am
by Griffin
Amazing!