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Art Experiment.

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 10:17 pm
by ual002
So with lots of experimental changes to the multiplayer aspect of this game in progress, one of the things is the ability to run custom missions with full campaign features thru a menu listing all your custom missions in the combat sim. It got me to thinking that the combat sim doesn't really fill the immersion void for me if all the missions I play are done in a "simulator". Hoping to somehow make all the progress and points accumulated apply toward campaign kill lists instead of the combat sim, (which would also affect campaign rank), I decided the combat sim room as it currently appears wouldn't really be appropriate and decided to throw some new art together. I started with the original, and decided to "re-draw" a TIE hangar leaving the original clickable points in tact. Maybe one day we could have a separate room devoted to these missions, but until then this is what I came up with.

Vid with animations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YXE-DX ... e=youtu.be

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Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 10:25 pm
by Jaeven
Dear lord, that is absolutely epic.

Would love to see more interpretations!

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 11:43 pm
by Darksaber
Brilliant, but personally I would replace the ENTER signs with your own design

Are you going to replace the imperial Animated CBM files such as

Doors.cbm
Single.cbm
Multi.cbm

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 12:59 am
by ual002
Thanks, yes I am going to change the signs, I was just so excited to be done with the ramps. The animated parts will get set however they probably wont animate, Other than the door. I'm going to keep that original.

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 1:19 am
by ual002
I'd like to modify the engine so that there is a completely new room for this. That way Justagai's MP hook additions could be their own "area". Maybe even dump the flight records from that room into a new records tab in the pilot quarters that still affects player campaign rank and not just skirmish rank.

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 3:16 am
by ual002
Here's a vid with the little animations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YXE-DX ... e=youtu.be

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 3:30 pm
by ual002
Darksaber, do you happen to still have a copy of X-Wing Alliance Cutscene Player v1.0?

Edit: I found that a new TGmush allows avi to play but my pod.avi file is just a black screen when I overwrite the original.

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 6:09 pm
by Darksaber
What compression are you are you saving it as? and what are you using to save the *.AVI file?

It's a bit old but I still use Rad Video Tools to convert the images to AVI then add any sound using the same tool,
I usually use Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec v2
Oh and I usually use 15 frames per sec

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 9:02 pm
by ual002
Heh, I got it. Had to save the vid bigger than 640 x480 for the dll to kick in.

Check this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ecWQSi ... e=youtu.be

The idea would be to click on a new door in the concourse... then lead you to a rack of ties, then enter inside, there's a little monitor to your side you look at that has list of single missions to play through with briefings if included. Ideally this "new room" would have a new tab for records in the pilot quarters and the points here would contribute to campaign rank, skirmish rank and somehow award medals.

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 9:25 pm
by Darksaber
Looks great, but are you allowed to use footage from the TIE Fighter Anime Short Film?

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 2:16 am
by ual002
Yea that was just a taste. I'm working on approval currently with the author, possibly commission something more appropriate if he's willing.

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 5:53 am
by Bman
Very nice. Had same thoughts on the bucket list for TF, specifically redesigning the Crewman's Quarters room to something that also leads to additional officer briefings since training/historical missions 0 to 9 take place there (like Azzameen Family missions in XWA). An idea was perhaps removing the static R5Q2 / R2D2 droid image and replace it with clicking on a background hallway, door, receding stairway or whatever to start a mission briefing. Could you brainstorm & experiment some ideas on that too?

The Anime is nice, but why not film in real-life someone climbing down stairs in a TF pilot uniform? You could always add a static background using models and "photoshop" things after .avi is broken down frame by frame. VirtualDub is a good program. Do you know of anyone in the 501st fan group?

Re: Art Experement.

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 1:10 pm
by ual002
Me. lol. I have the TIE Kit and Officer kit.

Im not about to get that involved until a couple of things happen.

1. Need to figure out how to make the engine know there is an additional room. (No idea how)
2. Animate a new door in the main imperial concourse for it (I can do this)
3. Copy most of the functionality of the Simulator room. (No idea how)
4. Use my new art for the room (as long as I'm told what to tie the .cbm to I can do this)
5. Have the engine look for a new "pod.avi" movie in the /movies folder (then I can make a fancy video.)
6. Tie Justagai's MP hook improvements, including the COMBAT missions folder he uses into my new "Single missions" room (no idea how)
7. Tie all mission points and kills to a new section/tab in the pilot quarters, so there is Campaign, Family, Simulator, and the NEW Single missions. (no idea how, but can do the associated icon art if I know what to assign the .cbm or .dat file to)
8. Have the new single missions room and point progression affect Campaign Rank, Skirmish Rank, and all of the previously mission triggered medals. (no idea how)

So I obviously know far less than what I don't know. At this point, what I'm doing here is meant to inspire some others with experience to come forward with some ideas and help.

Additionally, if these engine improvements are liked, and needed for a "rebel install", I'm willing to bite the bullet and attempt a similar rebel hangar art for the "single missions" room.

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 4:13 am
by Bman
RE: 1) Not an additional room. Just clicking on an image that represents a door to a briefing room, or perhaps clicking on a briefing officer in the back ground for example. I don't think we can have multiple rooms beyond what's available in the main concourse.

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 12:33 am
by ual002
RE: RE: 1) I ask, because my first intuition is to agree with you, but alot of the things Ive seen happening lately make me wonder if we are just getting started here. Im not sure how it works truly, but if they coded the game in such a way that they left "space" to add more rooms for potential future projects in the same way there were extra shipslots...

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 1:04 am
by Mark_Farlander
You are right, ual002.
1 room has already been added: there was no Film Room in X-Wing Alliance v1.0.
The Film Room came with X-Wing Alliance v2.02.

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 4:00 pm
by Darksaber
Ual002 have you got any further with this?

Any plans to release it as a new combat chamber animation and screens, it would work just as well with or without Justagai's MP hook

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 5:54 pm
by ual002
True. But I never heard back from the animator. I even sent him a little donation. I can release it and let you decide if you want to use it. I just enjoyed the idea of having this in addition to a simulator room. I can seem to dig through the art in the game no problem, I just don't know if its possible to accomplish the entire scope of the project... Somehow tying the engine into some new art and animations for a new room that acts similar to the simulator, but has a separate tab in the quarters for all the records and score.

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:00 am
by Darksaber
Hi ual002, Haven't heard from you in a while, so I thought I would ask do you have anymore news about if your going to release this, what you have would make a great addition to the imperial concourse and have you any plans to update or make any other artwork i.e. Imperial Concourse?

Thanks

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:11 pm
by ual002
Well, never heard back from the animator but he did get a 10 usd donation from me.

I can release it and let you decide. Ill compile it this evening.

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 10:40 pm
by ual002
Ok, I never packaged it for distribution when I stopped working on it so I think I got all the pieces together. It should function like it does in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9& ... e=youtu.be

Click the combat chamber room, enter a TIE hangar, click SP or MP, video plays, then new sim background appears(reused the monitor for stats, seems like a screen in a TIE maybe) The new monitor isn't perfect but that's how far I got.

DL Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2vcdqh5tkw8a ... rt.7z?dl=0

Re: Art Experiment.

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:46 am
by Darksaber
Thanks so much :)