I wonder how flexible of this feature you design.
- Can I change the look of building after upgrade?
- Did it allow me to upgrade for multiply level [upgrade level 1-2-3]?
- Did it also apply to use by unit?
- Can I make player choose only 1 upgrade from many different kind of upgrade on the list?
This type of upgrade is NOT like in TS. You don't place it on your building, it's more like StarCraft. You build it, it complete's, you get the global effect permanently. I don't know if TS style upgrades are in already but I imagine they will be at some point for their TS mod. QUICK_EDIT
We've made some big leaps forward on TS (and RA2) terrain/art support over the last couple of weeks.
I have recently rewritten the way we handle tileset-specific actor art, and have PRs open for terrain variants, and fixing the input issue that stops units from going where you tell them to on maps with cliffs/slopes.
Here's a screenshot of our new (old) TS snow tileset:
If they wanted to, they could do lighting better than the official game did it. It looked quite blocky when the official game did it because the light amount was per tile, while here it could be per pixel or at least per tile which is then interpolated. QUICK_EDIT
Technically I did get around to programming a sonic beam effect, or at least how to draw it since I couldn't figure out how to do ambient damage properly. It would need to be modified if you wanted YR-style magnetic beams with the reverse draw, but it could work for sonic beams. I may push my code to my repository later if anyone wants to take a look at it; it's a pretty simple modification of the laser code though. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Germany
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:33 pm Post subject:
Darkstorm wrote:
Technically I did get around to programming a sonic beam effect, or at least how to draw it since I couldn't figure out how to do ambient damage properly. It would need to be modified if you wanted YR-style magnetic beams with the reverse draw, but it could work for sonic beams. I may push my code to my repository later if anyone wants to take a look at it; it's a pretty simple modification of the laser code though.
I certainly want to, and I guess a few others as well QUICK_EDIT
We now have a prototype (which will need some performance refinements before merging) for working TS-style shroud. This gives us a half-respectable looking TS mod
Good work that. Can it supported multiframed shp for animating/facing?
I think you guys could consider implement alpha channels same way to control what is opaque and what isn't in an artwork. 0=transparent fully, 255=opaque. 127=background (if need? frankly 0 would do too)
Since you can make 8 bit png with alpha channels, this would allow to do transparent 'glows' via alpha channel.
I realise OpenRA has alpha blending for effects but not sure it can be used any other way.
Once you can utilize both types of alpha layers ( WW & AC) you could surely make amazing buildings and else. QUICK_EDIT
That should work. I don't see technical problems. We just need to create appropriate render traits that adapt to the unit orientation similar to muzzle flashes.
Just did some quick experiments to test our new OpenGL blend modes to see what is possible. Vehicle/Building lights came to our mind:
and we did some tests with larger SHPs (courtesy of the Rewire project) for cloud effects:
which ran fine with no noticeable impact on rendering performance. QUICK_EDIT
Would it be possible to generate clouds similar to shroud, to cover the whole map without using large but fixed-sized SHP/PNG? Also, they won't really resemble clouds unless they are constantly moving, appearing and dissipating. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Well what can always be done is once the engine receives more graphical features such as lighting, they could always implement some sort of shader system to actually have real clouds and not workarounds with SHPs. _________________ Oh. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:49 pm Post subject:
Damn, that looks a lot nicer than you described in the PR. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
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Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:33 am Post subject:
https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/7874 _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Location: C:\Westwood\ TechLevel=12
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:22 pm Post subject:
Phrohdoh wrote:
Here is another (albeit not as action-packed) showing of proper shroud:
IMAGE.gif
About time. This should have been done long ago. RA1 has a triger to do this. It was used for It came from ra! 4: exterminate! and Let's Make a Steal that are indoor maps and it acted like lights _________________
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but it appears infantry doesn't use the few frames they have for transitioning between upright stance and prone, and vice versa. Rather, the transition seems instant.
Other than that detail, amazing progress as usual. I especially like the weather effects. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
So I've started building a prototype original game on ORA. There is plenty left to be decided about the mod itself, but the things I have so far:
1) Set in space, on space platforms and asteroids etc. Much inspired by my lunar terrain expansion and also of course StarCraft.
2) One faction that can adapt to new technologies. Everyone plays the same "faction" (a random space mining corporation) but gets to choose their technology ingame, while sharing a generic set of units that can also be adapted through upgrades.
3) Map control. I hate the campiness C&C gameplay can bring so I want to force players onto the battlefield. So far I'm thinking of doing it in two ways:
a) In order to advance tiers you need to build an extractor on a natural gas point on the map. These will mostly be in central positions of control, so get out there and grab 'em.
b) Finite economy. The minerals will run out however you can build mining drills on 'spigots' in the ground that will then start pumping out more minerals to collect. These spigots will only exist outside the starting position and therefore as the game goes on, fighting over resources should increase.
4) Three unit types and factories:
a) Light units - infantry and also small buggies, scouts and vehicle transports. Infantry can exclusively move across ROCK terrain.
b) Heavy units - tanks. Treaded (probably all heavy units) or hover vehicles can exclusively move across ICE terrain.
c) Spacecraft - jumpjet aircraft basically that can move wherever the hell they want.
5) Cool tech tree. I want to try make an interesting, dynamic, tech tree full of multiple options at any point with upgrades that can change the use of units, and technology choices that are irreversible. For instance one idea I have at the moment is an upgrade for the barracks that allows it to build light units such as buggies and scout vehicles.
6) Supply cap. ORA doesn't have a specific supply logic however units can also use POWER. So I'm going to reinterpret the power logic as a soft supply cap... you can go over but of course your production slows down to a grind and perhaps buildings will also go offline too, depending on how I do it. Of course it also means both buildings and units require supply, and IMO that is a really cool element of this. You'll need to balance between base building and how many units you want on the battlefield, and in mod all about map control that should prove rather interesting.
The overall gameplay will probably be heavy on infantry and light units, as unlike TS and RA2 five units will be able to occupy each cell. Tanks will be slow, heavy, expensive, powerful units. I could add neutral walls on maps that block line of fire.
The first thing I did was begin to set up the terrain, which is nice and easy.
As you can see, you can define terrain types as you like. You define each tile as a template here, which does mean a lot of code but also a lot of customisability. One cool thing is the game can use SHPs as terrain too.
Trying out some more interesting building foundations. As you might be able to see, the refinery actually as an X path through it that miners can use and they dump minerals in the middle. This of course gets rid of the imbalance fixed facing refineries had in C&C.
Random image of some infantry using placeholder RA2 art. The tiles are 120x60. QUICK_EDIT
for map control thingy while I think this function might not be problem for ORA dev to make but bigger problem should be how to write AI to play follow your rules this's same reason why I still design my mod base on classic C&C mechanic while truly I'm more like to use same function to Generals or at least Ra 3. QUICK_EDIT
I think it feels pretty good ingame, but this is something that can be worked out when playtesting starts. It allows a nice scale difference between infantry and vehicles.
Quote:
for map control thingy while I think this function might not be problem for ORA dev to make but bigger problem should be how to write AI to play follow your rules this's same reason why I still design my mod base on classic C&C mechanic while truly I'm more like to use same function to Generals or at least Ra 3.
Currently I'm only using features already in ORA, not gonna rely on anyone coding anything extra for me. I'm also never going to limit it for AI. RTS is most fun when played with other people so that's entirely what I'm going for.
A clever AI that properly expands and so on should totally be thought about way down the line, if this project goes anywhere and proves fun to play. Limiting myself at this point to what the dumbass AI can do is just stupidity IMO. QUICK_EDIT
You can't rely on AI to do real gameplay tests in C&C mods either. People don't usually just stick to one base and spam units like crazy (and if they do that's a problem with the mod design IMO ). The AI of C&C was never able to do the same stuff as a player. QUICK_EDIT
Oh and btw, I published the code I had for sonic beams. I totally forgot about it and with life issues I kind of stepped away from development. Anyhow, it's incomplete missing ambient damage but it renders properly to the best of my knowledge. I haven't tested it since I last worked on it. I guess I'll send reaperr a pm about it since he's the one that wanted to look at it. QUICK_EDIT
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The tiles are 120x60.
