NodGuy Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 9 hours ago, Einstein said: It's beautiful. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted February 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 1 hour ago, NodGuy said: It's beautiful. Haha the original team would be proud. Just another useless tidbit: So the original 0.900 was a .pkg mod, which isn't really "cool" nowadays. Making it into a standalone wasn't really possible/worth doing (it would use the Renegade menu and tons of other stuff if someone did that), so instead I was able to fool around enough with it to get it to run in version 0.9915, which is 3 versions later, and standalone. And just FYI the two versions in between, 990 and 991; I can't find 990 anywhere. Its the only one I don't have. And 991 was simply broken, damaged in "shipping" and DOA. 9915 is nothing more than a fix to make 991 run at all, and they are otherwise identical. So now 0.900 lives on as a single map within 9915 (both of which are broken in various ways) See? There really are people in this world who are a wealth of considerably useless information 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChopBam Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 Holy shit nice find Einstein. xD 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted February 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 "Stop playing with that thing!!!" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganein14 Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 wtf did you do Einstein... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted February 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 8 minutes ago, ganein14 said: wtf did you do Einstein... I can't seem to find my lab assistant.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted February 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 16 hours ago, Einstein said: I can't seem to find my lab assistant.... Found him! He was just hiding in a corner busy working on this! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted March 2, 2019 Report Share Posted March 2, 2019 Oooo. Ahhh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted June 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 Lots of silence lately, and for that I apologize. I just wanted to make a quick note here that this thing is not dead, not at all! I have just not had time to work on it in a couple months due to some IRL things. But stay tuned, it is coming soon™ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted September 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2019 Update! A much-needed scripts feature was added today. Developers using the latest 4.6 update can now globally enable or disable the VIS (visual culling) system permanently. What and why? Well, VIS was used originally as a way to squeeze some performance out of the game by "culling" visible objects once they were a certain distance away. It uses fancy math and requires lots of manual setup on the part of the map maker in order to work correctly. So from then (long long ago....) to now, some changes have been made to this system, as well as the level of meticulousness paid by the map makers to its implementation. So what we get when we dump new engine code in with a 12+ year old version of a W3D game, is some really funky looking stuff. What we call VIS errors or "holes". Things that display incorrectly, and can actually be very distracting or confusing depending on where and when they appear. Ok so why is this important? So with 12+ years of engine improvements in other areas, coupled with the (comparatively) simplistic nature of older games/maps, what we get is the lack of need for a visual culling system. So we turns it off The ability to toggle the system off completely with a setting, INSTEAD of having to import every single map and remove or fix the VIS information is obviously desirable. And it has instant benefits! Compare the screenshots below for a fine example of the weirdness that VIS can cause (first shot), versus just turning it off (second shot). Notice that the FPS is still pegged out even with the system disabled. Performance impact is zero. In other news, development on this has been stalled for a little while now, but hopefully will pick up again in the near future. This is the first notable update in a while, but a very important stepping stone on the road to release. We are so close! Stay tuned and hopefully this thing will be in your hands soon! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2019 One of my lab assistants has made an observation that we felt was worth sharing with you... Back in 2007, this is how APB Beta 1.2.0 appeared: And now: Hmmmm... Differences. Seemingly very minor differences, yes. But significant differences indeed! But what ever could this mean? See you soon comrade.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonsense715 Posted October 22, 2019 Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 Moar maps! :D ...and always.dat is 80MB smaller? o.O 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 1 hour ago, moonsense715 said: Moar maps! :D ...and always.dat is 80MB smaller? o.O More maps indeed! And hopefully a few more to come in the future if they can be fixed. So, waaaay back somewhere in alpha, AircraftKiller added several unused assets for things that were planned to be introduced in the future. They were just hanging out in always.dat and went unused for years, along with tons and tons of assets that had been replaced from previous versions, but were never removed, and even pieces of stock Renegade that never got removed. With the help of some fancy new tools we have now, I was able to isolate these unused bits and remove them, reducing the size by quite a chunk. Also the removal of the nostalgic but unfortunately broken and unusable old launcher of that era, and some scripts 3.4.4 and APB custom pieces that were still in play back then helped to reduce the size and file count, as shown in the screenshots. The folder structure of modern W3D games is far simpler than it was back then. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeod Posted October 22, 2019 Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 Release date when? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 15 minutes ago, Jeod said: Release date when? Time will tell......sooner or later.....time will tell..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeod Posted October 26, 2019 Report Share Posted October 26, 2019 So, I imagine there's a reason for this, but given the Beta Remaster, is it now any easier to import old Beta maps into Delta? The nostalgia goggles might wear off after a while. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 On 10/26/2019 at 7:23 AM, Jeod said: So, I imagine there's a reason for this, but given the Beta Remaster, is it now any easier to import old Beta maps into Delta? The nostalgia goggles might wear off after a while. Possible - yes. But more trouble than it is worth really. What would be the gain? Sprinting??? Pasting a 12+ year old map into the current version of APB would be very out of place, and again, difficult to do. And I can guarantee 100% before he even sees this, Pushwall will say no Keeping old maps alive is one purpose of the Beta revamp. Same for the 9935 revamp, and others coming. Snapshots of a period of time, made playable with QoL updates and nothing more. Pasting the old maps in their virgin state into a new game would undermine and invalidate that concept entirely. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraYaSDF Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 Does anybody even remember that beta of APB with GameSpy Comrade was a thing those days? When GameSpy Comrade came out, I switched to it from regular GameSpy Arcade and was playing for Soviets and Mother Russia. Lol. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 That would have been sometime in alpha (9935 or earlier) if APB ever came with Comrade. Im not sure on that one, it could be a version that I'm missing. I remember that software but dont remember what I played that used it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pushwall Posted October 29, 2019 Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 20 hours ago, Einstein said: Possible - yes. But more trouble than it is worth really. What would be the gain? Sprinting??? Pasting a 12+ year old map into the current version of APB would be very out of place, and again, difficult to do. And I can guarantee 100% before he even sees this, Pushwall will say no Out of place yes, difficult no... unless we're fixing everything that makes it out of place, in which case yes, fine-tuning the map to fit Delta balance and visuals would be a huge timesink. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 4 hours ago, Pushwall said: Out of place yes, difficult no... unless we're fixing everything that makes it out of place, in which case yes, fine-tuning the map to fit Delta balance and visuals would be a huge timesink. Well for starters, some buildings got renamed so that breaks stuff right off the bat. Old maps call for scripts that dont exist in Delta, etc. It would be out of place both visually and under the hood, and yeah a big timesink to even begin to fix it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted October 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 On 1/28/2019 at 5:40 PM, thedisclaimitory said: is it possible to get renegade alert on there aka the alpha or pre alpha to apb?? It seems that I overlooked this question, my apologies. The older versions of "renegade alert" suffer even worse than stock beta does on a modern PC, but indeed the same treatment renders them playable as well. In the same way that 1.2 Beta has been updated, I also plan to release version 9935, which was the final "Alpha" release. For versions older than 9935, I have built a "combination" version that doesnt really have a name yet... 9925x? Simply "Alpha"..? Anyway, pre-993, the versions were all very closely related, and thus compatible with each other moreso than other versions (like Beta -> Delta). Unless someone digs up more, there were/are less than 10 public maps up until 993. So instead of updating 5 old versions of the game with 1-6 maps each, I chose to go a different direction and build this "combo" version from 9925, as it can use maps from all previous versions. With some work, it might even do it correctly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted November 2, 2019 Report Share Posted November 2, 2019 Wait so what exactly are the changes that are going into this? I just figured that Beta was perfectly playable right off the bat, besides some n00b-unfriendly stuff like ships getting stuck in the naval yard. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einstein Posted November 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2019 12 hours ago, delta said: Wait so what exactly are the changes that are going into this? I just figured that Beta was perfectly playable right off the bat, besides some n00b-unfriendly stuff like ships getting stuck in the naval yard. Playable, yes. But there were several issues that were caused due to various changes and fixes in the newer engine, and it could not be released in that state. If you want to see what I'm talking about, install stock Beta, and apply the latest scripts update from the TT website. Thats exactly where I began. Purchase terminals were broken, helicopter cinematic scripts, shaders, screenshots, mechanic and medic healing balance, fog on some maps, function keys, ID collisions on some maps, menu element colors, and a laundry list of other small things I dont remember. Several issues were the product of hacky stuff that was done in the engine back then, and had to be undone in order to work now in the "standard" way. No more special game-specific hacky stuff - we're using the same TT 4.6 engine that Renegade uses now. Just had to make the game's configuration understand that 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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