Call out to all D2 level designers (old and new)!

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:09 pm

good to hear, what exactly is the name for the new player ship you'll be piloting? I kinda need to know for the briefing file I'm making.

Thanks.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:54 pm

The file name is Hunchback. Up to you whether you want to use it.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:01 am

Boss robot spawns will be something else to watch out for. Just caught level 15 spawning Smelters. Fixing that now.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:39 am

yes, just add the mules to the HXM file and it should be fine.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:09 pm

Crashes when the Kalki fires at the moment. Not sure whether it's the joint setup or the weapon types. They blow up fine so long as you stay out of their range.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:53 pm

so if you don't get them to fire, they are okay to destroy? But once they fire upon you, it crashes? That's odd. Well I hope you can fix it.
As for the Mantid mentioned in your email, if the model touch-up doesn't fix things, I can easily remove all instances of robot making Mantids in the levels.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:40 pm

That's right. They display fine and even blow up fine, so the fact that this happens under such specific circumstances leads me to believe it's an easily fixable problem.

Mantid could probably use some going over anyway so I'd prefer to make alterations to it. Some bosses are going to spawn it whether we like it or not so optimization is the best way forward.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:48 pm

RFB always spawns diamond claws, yeah.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:16 am

Easily fixable indeed.

The problem was the primary weapon - switching it to the robot version, instead of the player version, solved it.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:41 am

Mantid works now. Hope I don't have to do too many more of these.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:03 pm

are we having a new cockpit view? if so, are we also replacing the cockpit bar (pressing f3 once) also?

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:14 pm

That's a good idea actually.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:47 am

Was planning to finish the ship yesterday but more pressing issues with the Crysis dev team had my attention. I'll look into it this week.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:57 am

preliminary testing with the new robots started last night on my end. The levels are immensely harder with the new robots compared to the standard D2 robots. So some adjusting is in order. Will continue throughout the week.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:05 pm

up to level 19. Noticed some things. The very same levels with normal robots run fine when there are 5+ robots on screen at once. But once you plug in the new robots created, anything above 3 robots on screen + firefighting and missiles, it slows to a nice chug. Level 15 boss arena was a very pleasant experience because of this...NOT.
I suspect its D2-XL and its high requirements that causes this to chug, but I know normal Descent 2 doesn't have lag issues when running the new robots. Not sure about Rebirth however. So system requirements?
Normal Legacy D2: Any old computer really.
D2-XL: Top of the line computer released literally this past week.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:33 pm

I was running ... probably Rebirth. Can't remember at the moment. I didn't ever check the framerate, but it would have been running at the cap the whole time.

XL will actually run slower than Crysis if you turn the settings all the way up so I'd suggest leaving some features such as per-pixel lighting off until they're optimised.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:09 pm

Take out per-pixel lighting and lightmaps, and turn the smoke down and the coronas down or off... should make it run faster.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:15 am

yep, pretty much take everything out that makes D2-XL worth using. LOL It does run smoother now though.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:41 pm

Here is a boatload of images for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the pics. The set should be ready for testing real soon. And should be released soon thereafter. Be ready Descenters!

Enjoy the shots!

zico · Post by **zico** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:42 pm

Want ... play ... now!

Wheeze87 · Post by **Wheeze87** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:58 pm

Excuse me while i go and find my jaw..... i think it's by my feeet somwhere

Sedwick · Post by **Sedwick** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:20 pm

The third from bottom on the left has a haunting, beautiful surreality to it. Excellent work!

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:08 am

OMG! That is wicked!

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:14 am

heh, thanks for the comments, this will definitely be a interesting mission. And I've yet to show the real interesting structures. Regardless, we're having an issue with two midi songs that will not loop properly. Sirius says it has probably something to do with the drum track not being in the right position. IF anyone is willing to take a look at them and fix them (if they can) so that they loop properly in Descent 2, you'll definitely be credited and appreciated. Thanks.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:39 am

I got some better information about what works/what doesn't for speeding stuff up if you're interested in further tweaking.
viewtopic.php?p=223970

I remember there's a performance slider somewhere that automatically configures some of that. I haven't tried using it though.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:43 pm

The player ship. This is an old brute pre-dating the Pyro GX by a few years.

Pumo · Post by **Pumo** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:35 pm

That ship is absolutely awesooomee!!

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:23 am

looks like a mini-van with guns. .. er Space Balls guns.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:27 am

That ship is indeed awesome. However I'm going to have to reiterate for those who might have missed it, we are needing a bit of outside help:
\"we're having an issue with two midi songs that will not loop properly. Sirius says it has probably something to do with the drum track not being in the right position. IF anyone is willing to take a look at them and fix them (if they can) so that they loop properly in Descent 2, you'll definitely be credited and appreciated. Thanks. \"

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:16 pm

Which ones would they be? I saw two .hmps that DTX2 said went well over 20 minutes.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:36 pm

um game 25 and game 26.
Games 01-06 are fine.

Pumo · Post by **Pumo** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:47 pm

Well, i can check the MIDI files, and i suppose i can fix them

So if you want, send them to my mail.

EDIT: I've fixed (and tested) the MIDI files already. I've sent them to your mail already

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:16 pm

Thanks Pumo, they work great. However, I hear Darkhorse and Sirius are having trouble getting the new Pyro to work, but I'm sure they will figure it out. Not that I know what the problems are, heh.

Good luck!
As for the overall mission, I've already difficulty adjusted it for the new robots on the Hotshot difficulty level. (I consider that difficulty level a honest evaluation of difficulty on any Descent mission) And the robot adjustments should have been made already by Sirius on that preliminary testing so it should be almost ready for testing within a week or two.
We'll also need a hosting site/link so we can get testers to download the beta.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:09 am

The cockpit may take me a little while to do but work has started on that. Unfortunately you can't just move too much around so I have to be careful with component placement.

Some of the interface elements are going to be adjusted in Photoshop as well. Cockpit itself will be a rendered 3D model.

Sirius has been looking at implementing the ship. So far he hasn't asked me to make any changes to the model itself.

BUBBALOU · Post by **BUBBALOU** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:34 am

As long as it can be played in any version of descent2, i look forward to playing this when you are done

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:00 pm

BUBBALOU wrote:As long as it can be played in any version of descent2,

That is the plan. Although a few cloaks/invul placements won't make sense in normal D2 since they take into account the D2-XL feature of inventory. But beyond that, all item placements should make sense minus a few oddballs here and there.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:44 am

Ship's done, I just have to rebuild the HXMs. Only model I'm thinking might need a change is the Terapinner because of too many polygons.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:05 am

might have to, he sometimes comes out invisible from robot makers.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:33 am

The front cockpit scene is nearly done. Of course there's still the status bar and rear view to go.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:03 am

Completed the front view, just have to build the palettes and low-res versions.

Rear view is going to be quicker because there are only two bitmaps and no gauges. Status bar is a whole different story but I'll be sticking to the same theme.

Call out to all D2 level designers (old and new)!

Descent Vignettes a good idea?

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