Little Powell's Shots - March 09

[BOSTON]

Little Powell

When you play the new game, is all the data on the screen like in the past and do you get AARs? If you do, could we get some SSs of them as well? If it's kosher. Also, moving around the battlefield, Is it the same as, or different than before?

Hoistingman4

[Little Powell]

Hancock the Superb wrote:

My problem is not being able to move from picture to picture in the picture screen. You have to exit, then click on the next picture, and reenter.

Well I noticed my shots are not cut off anymore, so that's good. But I did notice that you can't move from picture to picture. I'll mess around with the tag/code and see if I can get that to work.

hoistingman4 wrote:

Little Powell

When you play the new game, is all the data on the screen like in the past and do you get AARs? If you do, could we get some SSs of them as well? If it's kosher. Also, moving around the battlefield, Is it the same as, or different than before?

Hoistingman4

There will be battle reports and AARs in the game that show the casualties etc., but they aren't in the game yet. Yes, moving the camera around the battlefield is the same as in the previous games.

[pakfront]

Enjoyed the screenies, but I notice that the shading of the terrain is still a little flat and dull. I realise these are not final images and that the focus is on getting MP solid (yeah!); but if the dev(s) have a chance to spend some cycles getting the terrain rendering a little spicier, I think it would really improve the visual impact of the game.

I'm not talking more polygons or fancy texture maps, just some basic contrast improvements. If you pull any of the images up in an image editor of choice and look at the 'Levels' or the historgram you can see that the dynamic range is pretty limited. It would be nice to see full use of lights and darks... though of course not to the point where it makes the game harder to play.

It might be nice to also see more shadowing on the terrain itself to help read height variations. I just ran across an interesting article on realtime terrain lighting. The math seems pretty straight-forward; though it does require prerendering aperture maps. I have no idea if it could be used within the PR code base or if it is even appropriate for use with maps of the scale you intend, but it's a quick read.
http://ati.amd.com/developer/gdc/2007/O ... SI3D07.pdf

Anyway, perhaps a little out of line here. I realize the main focus is getting a great game working, not eye-candy, but just some thoughts.

[norb]

pakfront, I only wish that I had the time. But research projects take a while, even though they are the most enjoyable things for me to work on. I have had to learn a lot and would like to learn more, but there is just too much else to do. As the engine evolves, we'll get more and more stuff like this in there.

[Route 29]

Wow this game looks absolutely beautiful. It looks like I'm going to finally have to upgrade my system...

Anyhow I'm glad I finally stumbled my way over here from the TC2M forum so I can keep up with the progress on this. Those screen shots are going to have me drooling until I can get the real thing. Keep up the good work.

[Amish John]

Welcome to the War3DII forums!

[BOSTON]

SS #2 shows 4 lunettes, was it decided to give them a defensive value?

Hoistingman4

[louie raider]

hoistingman4 wrote:

SS #2 shows 4 lunettes, was it decided to give them a defensive value?

any screenshots of lunettes are obsolete; i decided they were of no value whatsoever so they've been deleted from the maps.

[Amish John]

Louie,

I agree with eliminating those already in place lunettes. When the game development gets to a point where it is an option for a gun crew to build a lunette (with an obvious fatigue penalty and defensive bonus) then that would be a good addition to game play.

[louie raider]

Amish John wrote:

Louie,

I agree with eliminating those already in place lunettes. When the game development gets to a point where it is an option for a gun crew to build a lunette (with an obvious fatigue penalty and defensive bonus) then that would be a good addition to game play.

I imagine this option would be in-line with building breastworks/gun pits if you're infantry (instead of arty).