Imperial Quarters Remaster

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Re: Imperial Quarters Remaster

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Darksaber
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Post by Darksaber » Tue Sep 24, 2019 11:24 pm

Yes the DSUCPImpConcourseFix fixes the image of the concourse (Thanks the DTM), which as you found out crashes the game.

The Frontend_UCP.dat file Ual002 posted above, only changes the the position of the medals, none of the other room elements including the room image have been provided :(

Ual002, will you be finishing the room at any point? You made a great start but nothing more from you, it would be a real shame not to finish what you started :(
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Post by ual002 » Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:26 pm

Oh I fully expect to finish. I was hoping someone would make some more headway on finding offsets for record keeping and how different scores affect rank and stuff. It would have made field testing all the room decorations easier, but apparently justagai told me about a dev version of XWA that while activated allows me to just press the W key while in the family room to progress the missions and see the room decorations and medals pop up. With that I can keep going. Just need to hunker down and do it.
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Post by Darksaber » Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:38 pm

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Post by ual002 » Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:36 am

Ya'll's little poke got me working again. This is what it looks like so far. We absolutely still need more direct control over when and why these items show up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9M2WmT ... e=youtu.be
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Post by Darksaber » Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:24 am

That looks really really great, thank you :
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:00 pm

Nice

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Post by Bman » Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:33 am

Excellent
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Post by ual002 » Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:39 pm

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Post by Darksaber » Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:03 pm

Excellent mate :)

Your probably aware of this but the Awards and Medals are triggered with the FamilyAwards.txt and Medals.txt and the completion of the mission number,

Just thought you must know this as you've changed the descriptions for the items lol
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Post by ual002 » Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:20 am

Yes sir, I'm aware of how they function now. I'd like a hook or something to control these items with user defined triggers if we ever find the right offsets. I think earlier in the thread is an accumulation of what we know about how this stuff works by default.

I want the user/campaign creator to be able to have a more dynamic accumulation of room decor as he plays skirmish missions in the sim room or equivalent, rather than the linear accumulation of decor we have now just playing the campaign.
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Post by ual002 » Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:32 am

I am also very curious about item layering. What I mean by that is, right now I'm trying to decide what determines what décor item layer is on top. If I were to overlay them on top of each other to some degree in a more cluttered version of the room, is it the order they appear that determines layering, or a hard coded thing? As it is right now I had only the uniform over one of the posters and as a result of when the items were showing up it was causing the poster to show in front of the uniform.

Now this isn't a game breaker, I can better design the room so that there are no overlaps. We even found an offset that would in theory allow us to have a second container in the main room much like the container for the medals case, or maybe even further sublevels. None of this is super relevant unless we can make the experience more dynamic, there isn't really a point to more content in the form of room décor if much of it will never be triggered beyond a linear mission completion in the campaign room. Especially if I have to design missions in such a way that the pre-made room décor items are relevant to the mission that triggers them, rather than the way the default game was probably designed (Make campaign first, then create filler decor flavoring for the room).
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Post by ual002 » Sat Apr 11, 2020 3:28 pm

New Update:

Original post link updated: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfmxizvcl2hfe ... s.zip?dl=0

This is the changes I made from last last previews since my hiatus. An easy way to test is to use the developer mode, create a shortcut, at the end of the target line add "skipintro wkey" with no quotes. Then in the pilot room hit W to progress the pilot.

The update includes imperial-centric doodads, and cleaned up medals from the original Imperial install.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:13 pm

Can't test it myself right now but so far it all looked brilliant.
Hope you can complete it and even make new Rebel versions :)
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:02 pm

ual002 wrote:
Sat Apr 11, 2020 3:28 pm
New Update:

Original post link updated: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfmxizvcl2hfe ... s.zip?dl=0

This is the changes I made from last last previews since my hiatus. An easy way to test is to use the developer mode, create a shortcut, at the end of the target line add "skipintro wkey" with no quotes. Then in the pilot room hit W to progress the pilot.

The update includes imperial-centric doodads, and cleaned up medals from the original Imperial install.
Just checked out the files in Explorer and they are amazing!
You and I have similar ideas but you do it better lol
I've been making some new CBM files but I think I have been limiting myself. Depends on if the text is involved.
Can the CBM be up to 640x480 for all? I've been keeping my edits to the same picture size frame as the original.
Going to have to fire these up in game later and check them out :)
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Post by ual002 » Sun Apr 12, 2020 2:18 am

I hadn't really noticed what I can/can't do, I just did it, as far as size. There are some issues, like layering, as far as the order, I'd like to control what goes on top of the other so I try to keep them separated where possible. However if you feather you edges right, you can in theory place them in the same space and they look ok when overlapping, again you just cant control the layer order as far as I can tell.

I recommend you start with a room design, then fill the room with doodads later because perspective is everything. The base room design is everything, it really changes the feel. In fact I modeled my room around keeping the console in the same place for simplicity but in theory you can change it and its location as well.
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Post by haui » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:31 pm

nice work.
i have a question ist it not possible to run this in a higher resolution?
Is this fixed to VGA through the game?
It's better to burn out than to fade away .

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Post by ual002 » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:37 pm

The resolution is set to what the default was.
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Post by Trevor » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:37 pm

JeremyaFr wrote:
Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:00 pm
Nice
What limits the frontend resolution? Is it Direct2D or are there other limitations?

Trev

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Post by haui » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:57 pm

so if i run the game in 1280x1024 i can use a pic in this resulotion?
It's better to burn out than to fade away .

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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:42 pm

haui wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:57 pm
so if i run the game in 1280x1024 i can use a pic in this resulotion?
The game stretches images out to run in your resolution.
So you can run it in 1920x1080 and everything adjusts but it will look a little off
Trevor wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:37 pm
JeremyaFr wrote:
Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:00 pm
Nice
What limits the frontend resolution? Is it Direct2D or are there other limitations?
Trev
Right now the biggest image for the Concourse and family room stuff is 640x480
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Post by haui » Tue Apr 28, 2020 3:35 pm

Ace Antilles wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:42 pm
haui wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:57 pm
so if i run the game in 1280x1024 i can use a pic in this resulotion?
The game stretches images out to run in your resolution.
So you can run it in 1920x1080 and everything adjusts but it will look a little off
Right now the biggest image for the Concourse and family room stuff is 640x480
So is it possible to prevent the gmae from strechting the image?
When i run in 1280x1024 and i use a pic in this resolution streching is not needed.
I tried to use a bigger pic and the the game streches it and i see only a part of the Pic :?
It's better to burn out than to fade away .

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Post by Trevor » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:08 pm

Sorry but I would still like the technical answer from Jeremy aside from the obvious "biggest image for the Concourse and family room stuff is 640x480" which I already know.
also:
The game stretches images out to run in your resolution.
This is not true, ddraw does the stretching/scaling (depending on is PreserveAspect is 1 or 0)

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Post by ual002 » Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:53 pm

Lets put it this way, using the default image size helped me map the pixel locations for the doodads all throughout the room. I never even bothered to realistically test a larger scale image, as it made more sense to keep the resolution in line with all the other room resolutions. If I drastically upped the resolution, then all the doodads would need larger resolutions. Ultimately I was afraid the whole project would loose its cartoonish and nostalgic charm if suddenly you were thrust into this sharply defined room. All the doodads all over the place would potentially look out of place and pasted onto the background. Remember, the engine is old and lots of its flaws can be disguised and hidden with lower resolutions in the concourse areas.

My 2 cents anyway. If we begin to have more direct and user friendly control on elements related to the concourse and ancillary rooms, maybe then a resolution increase would be in order. But at that point it would more likely need to be a high res 2D image generated from someones brand new high def 3D model of the main concourse, sim and briefing rooms, and tech library.

The pilot room I drew from scratch, and was very time consuming. Changing the perspective half way through is not an option unlike if your base is done with 3D models.

Long story short, when contributing to a project like this you can NOT get tunnel vision. You have to consider the interplay with other areas you don't plan on touching, and respect the cumulative level of the art as a whole. If you broaden your scope, it lengthens your project, makes actual results harder to come by, and remember, people are motivated by results.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:05 pm

ual002 wrote:
Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:53 pm
Lets put it this way, using the default image size helped me map the pixel locations for the doodads all throughout the room. I never even bothered to realistically test a larger scale image, as it made more sense to keep the resolution in line with all the other room resolutions. If I drastically upped the resolution, then all the doodads would need larger resolutions. Ultimately I was afraid the whole project would loose its cartoonish and nostalgic charm if suddenly you were thrust into this sharply defined room. All the doodads all over the place would potentially look out of place and pasted onto the background. Remember, the engine is old and lots of its flaws can be disguised and hidden with lower resolutions in the concourse areas.

My 2 cents anyway. If we begin to have more direct and user friendly control on elements related to the concourse and ancillary rooms, maybe then a resolution increase would be in order. But at that point it would more likely need to be a high res 2D image generated from someones brand new high def 3D model of the main concourse, sim and briefing rooms, and tech library.

The pilot room I drew from scratch, and was very time consuming. Changing the perspective half way through is not an option unlike if your base is done with 3D models.

Long story short, when contributing to a project like this you can NOT get tunnel vision. You have to consider the interplay with other areas you don't plan on touching, and respect the cumulative level of the art as a whole. If you broaden your scope, it lengthens your project, makes actual results harder to come by, and remember, people are motivated by results.
I'm finishing up some upgrades to the Family Transport room with help from Trevor and yes it's damn fussy hard work at times.
If it looks too good then it looks out of place and getting things lined up is tricky. Still learned a lot.
Love what you have done and hope you finish it. Would be great to have a nice new Imperial conversion. I'm thinking how a full on Rebel one would look too.
So many nice options for editing the game now :)
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ual002
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Post by ual002 » Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:15 pm

I have alot of artwork ready to insert but without a proper hook to control it, there isn't much reason. As it is now I' think its ready to insert to the empire install. Changes can be made and tweaked as more people are exposed and have input.
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