Messages

451

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: December 16, 2011, 01:26:23 pm »

What I see there is the full range of colors available, grouped into gradients (more or less)

As I understand it, each pixel has a "daylight color" and a "night color" (the start and end of a specific gradient) and a twilight pixels' color is calculated depending on the position in the twilight, and then, the appropriate color from the palette (in between those pixels) is used.

Did I get i right?

So, by using this algorithm, the original Xcom created those"bands" of shading, because only that set of colors were available.

Then... this sucks

Anyway, any plans on increasing the depth? After 1.0 I mean. I'm pretty sure that there will be quite a lot of people out there who would like to give Xcom a facelift. Higher resolution/redone graphics and maybe audio. That would require a 24/32 bit depth.

452

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: December 16, 2011, 09:55:57 am »

It's technically impossible in 256 paletted color mode.

I don't know much about graphics, but can't it be faked? I mean, this is not a state of the art engine with countless shaders and post-processing effects, shadows and what else.

Since Yankes is already doing the calculation per-pixel, how much overhead would this type of faked shadow will add?

453

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: December 15, 2011, 09:49:41 am »

No, I do not want the stripes back. They are ugly as hell 

But if you look at the screenshots, the twilight was done by dithering. Even the night makes use of this system. And to be honest, it does not look nice.

What I would like to see in the final version is a linear "gradient" used for calculation.

Can't you apply an per pixel alpha blending effect depending on it's position in the twilight?

454

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: December 14, 2011, 10:23:05 am »

@SupSuper: +1

Yeah, the effect is kinda dicey... I wouldn't quite go with it for the final version....

455

Suggestions / Re: The 80 items limit

« on: December 07, 2011, 11:57:22 am »

Dammit Daiky, why do you have to always be right?

456

Suggestions / Re: The 80 items limit

« on: December 07, 2011, 10:14:51 am »

I still believe that that transport capacity would be a nice (optional) addition to the game.

Too bad I only know PHP/MYSQL/Javascript/ActionScript/HTML/CSS. Useless junk

457

Suggestions / The 80 items limit

« on: December 06, 2011, 01:51:13 pm »

Disclaimer: I had a sleepless night and this is the direct result

I had recently browsed the OpenXcom section on the Ufopaedia Wiki and the following got my attention (in the "Differences to X-COM (OpenXcom)" article):

Since there's no 80 item limit, items in crafts count towards your Base Stores to prevent exploiting infinite storage. This also lets you freely move items between bases and crafts without storage issues.

I believe that the original XCom had the 80-items limit imposed due to practical and technical reasons (640k anyone?). The number 80 was chose probably because it will allow a commander to equip a 10 man squad with 8 items of equipment each. A loadout of 1x weapon, 2x clips, 2x grenades, 1x medkit, 1x psiamp will leave room for several extra items for a specialized class (blaster bombs, grenades, etc).

The above quote got my eye because in any troop transport, no mater how technologically improved it is, there is that much space that can be used for equipment storage. True, some transports have a large carrying capacity, but there still is a limit.

Besides, I don't believe that being able to carry your entire base armory into combat is a realistic option.

As I see it, there are two options:

• Increase the transport item limit by 30 or 50 items (you should be able to carry 130 grenades on any average transport, right?)
• Count not the items, but their weight. So basically, everything you load into the transport has a weight, and the transport can only carry that much load. Everything means soldiers, armor, tanks, weapons, ammo, corpses and other recovered items

I'm for the #2 option, but then we should guesstimate the weight of all items except equipment/corpses (perhaps using the base storage space as a baseline?).

Also, the limit should apply all the times, meaning that when returning home after a mission, if you have more equipment/artifacts/corpses recovered than the transport's maximum carrying weight, you should be asked to discard items to allow the craft to lift off (or you could have the option to send another team to recover your loot (not an actual team, just a button click) that has only a % chance of recovering what was left behind).

Comments? Opinions? Questions? Frowns? 

458

Offtopic / Re: Aliens vs. Human

« on: December 02, 2011, 02:38:39 pm »

The engine is kinda portable - there is a version of it for Javascript

459

Open Feedback / Re: 0.4 This year?

« on: December 02, 2011, 02:29:04 pm »

According to Daiky, there are hopes for this:

I'm planning to implement the medikit, motion scanner and proximity grenade this month, so if all goes well, the battlescape 0.4 is ready before end of year, as promised.

I'm hoping to get a 0.4 beta sneakpreview video on youtube around christmas.

Or is this a "we want 0.4 this year please" kind of thread? 

460

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: November 29, 2011, 09:23:34 am »

new complicity useless feature! we can have polar night!

Useless indeed, but I won't mind having it in an "openxcom custom settings" page somewhere. Good job.

Does it behave like the real deal? Meaning that at the poles it's slowly drifting between night and day over the course of six months?

461

Programming / Re: Globe improvements

« on: November 28, 2011, 09:51:10 am »

Looking good. Can't wait to see it in the official builds.

Keep it up!

462

Offtopic / Re: Doom 3 source code released

« on: November 23, 2011, 03:29:02 pm »

This is going to be a busy day for Open Source fans everywhere.

463

Suggestions / Re: Geoscape: re-launching craft with less than 100% fuel?

« on: November 18, 2011, 09:17:33 am »

Personally, I see this as a "feature" - meaning hat should be an option for it somewhere.

Speaking of options, will there be an "advanced settings" screen the game sometimes in the future, or it will all depend on editing the config file?

464

Translations / Re: Japanese version

« on: November 04, 2011, 09:36:55 am »

I majored in Japanese Studies so while I am certainly not a native speaker I might be able to support the translation efforts.

And with luck, a native speaker will find it's way sooner or later to this page and help where there are mistakes (IF there are any mistakes left to correct  )

465

Suggestions / Re: Pathfinder

« on: November 04, 2011, 09:32:19 am »

What if you're playing it on a device without a SHIFT?

There could be one user defined setting that will activate the path preview - this should work on all platforms