Just dropping by

[Weylin]

Is this game still in development, or has it kinda died?
I'm just checking up on it because I just remembered it and wondered if anything had happened.

[Cykotitan]

In development, of course.
You really thought we could let SF die?  

[NiteHawk]

SVN updates, if you check the dev page for 2.0.

Now that we are focusing on 2.0, the updates come weekly normally, as we are working on rather big things..

[DarkSun]

SF will never die, at least not with Nite at the helm.

[Weylin]

We could use a dev/programmer like that at FreeAllegiance. The one we got now does nothin but bitch and put the rest of the staff at fault for anything that goes wrong.

Keep up the awesome work, guys.


If I could help in any way possible let me know. I'm beginner/intermediate in programming, so I don't know if I'd be of any use.
I might be able to do something graphics-wise.

[NiteHawk]

I'm defiantly looking for help graphic wise.

Alot of graphics atm are very fast, like the warping. Becuase the framerate is 64 now, everything would need to be x4 frames to have the same speed. I don't want to use 16/32 frames only because that kind of defies the purpose of going to higher FPS for smoothness. So alot/everything needs to be done by scratch again, unless theres a cheeky way to redesign things. There's also ship ideas in the works, though there mostly getting into the groove, it really needs to match the current ship designs in 2.0. Future ships can be changed but should match the race ships (like I'd like to modify some drengin ships, but there is no point too atm until we have a good game flow going)

If you can assist with any of that, hit me up

[Weylin]

Oh just dropping by again, what's up?

I've been kind of sidetracked with other things or I'd be helping.



I've been messing with blender, and I have a way I can make a 36 frame ship easy (once you make the model) 
You just make a rotational animation with a linear curve lasting 36 frames (or is it 35...)

I think you still have to string the images together, I wonder if there's a way to do that in blender... Might have to write a script for it.

[Sandtrooper]

I've been messing with blender, and I have a way I can make a 36 frame ship easy (once you make the model) 
You just make a rotational animation with a linear curve lasting 36 frames (or is it 35...)

I think you still have to string the images together, I wonder if there's a way to do that in blender... Might have to write a script for it.

Do you think you can adjust that to 180 frames?

[Weylin]

You can make it anything you want, though i'm still not sure how to automatically generate a sprite strip, and should probably look into figuring out how, because copy-pasting 180 frames doesn't sound too fun  

EDIT: I think gamemaker had a sprite strip output, I could just load images in there and output a sprite reel.

Is there a way to specify the way a sprite sheet should be handled in the new SF? Gamemaker will only generate a horizontal left to right. (Though, strangely, it has a much more extensive sprite sheet importer that lets you set offsets, rows, direction, etc)

[Sandtrooper]

Is there a way to specify the way a sprite sheet should be handled in the new SF? Gamemaker will only generate a horizontal left to right. (Though, strangely, it has a much more extensive sprite sheet importer that lets you set offsets, rows, direction, etc)

Frontier 2.0x can handle ship filmstrips separated into columns, one line of ship rotations followed by another set of rotations picking off from the first column.  That was installed for larger ships beyond 128x128 pixels.

[Weylin]

180 seems a bit steep doesn't it?

I hope you guys just consider the thing I suggested a while back using the normal maps.
With that, you have the added bonus of being able to have multiple light sources, and other effects like luminosity and shininess.
Imagine the glow of passing torpedoes lighting the parts of your ship facing that direction.
And you don't even need a 3D model to generate a normal map, I made one using a brush and colorpicker, and a sphere for a reference.

With the bitmap alone, one frame, facing upward (or whatever) the game itself would automatically transform the graphic to rotate as needed, no frame-based stuff.
Normal map and all the other layers could be optional to improve the quality of the ship.


If you don't know how, you could try asking the guys at StarportGE or whatever it was.  

[Harpor]

Starpor? Wow im flattered thanks Weylin  

i think he means Stardock.

Hmm HarporGE got a great ring to it 

yes i work for StarporGE 

[NiteHawk]

180 seems a bit steep doesn't it?

I hope you guys just consider the thing I suggested a while back using the normal maps.
With that, you have the added bonus of being able to have multiple light sources, and other effects like luminosity and shininess.
Imagine the glow of passing torpedoes lighting the parts of your ship facing that direction.
And you don't even need a 3D model to generate a normal map, I made one using a brush and colorpicker, and a sphere for a reference.

With the bitmap alone, one frame, facing upward (or whatever) the game itself would automatically transform the graphic to rotate as needed, no frame-based stuff.
Normal map and all the other layers could be optional to improve the quality of the ship.


If you don't know how, you could try asking the guys at StarporGE or whatever it was. 

For smoothness 180 seemed to be the best anyways.

Anyways, it would require a large change, plus I'm not about to break something that works right now. I'd love to change it in the future, but really 'after' everything in general is said and done and gameplay/network/etc is working. At the moment I have a 'must get done' pile and 'after the game works' pile

[Harpor]

errm all of this stuff is going way over my head anyways...

any plans on fleet avatars for 2.0 on the way just wondering night

[NiteHawk]

errm all of this stuff is going way over my head anyways...

any plans on fleet avatars for 2.0 on the way just wondering night

If you mean something like Continnum has for a logo beside your name it is possible yes. It would be super small though. Small flag size more or less. If you ever seen Continnum there are some here: http://www.trenchwars.org/SSBE/k/

Look over at 'super popular' for example, Leftmost beside the number ranking is how big it is. THOSE can go in easily without distracting everyone. It would be maybe "BANNERIMAGEHERE" "FLEETSHORTNAME" So for example:

^OE

That would be either below or above your ship name. It could be a tad bigger but not by much. It CAN'T get in the way of gameplay. And of course when you go to the fleet page online or in the fleet browser in game, it can display a bigger/nice logo etc.