New Pre-CU Planet: Hoth

[Takhomasak]

What's interesting, too, with this obstacle gone, is that the hangar Bay portals seem intentionally designed for a one-way trip... from being teleported inside. I can look into that, and it's not game-breaking or E.B.- breaking - it just makes you jump to the back of the hangar if you enter from outside.

 

[Nee]

Echo Base is FIXED.

  So with this new fix, I can return fully to the creative processes...  something very nice will be ready very soon.

yay!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. Guess who finished  coding  your 'Takhomasak'  questline for eventual HOTH original content?

(hint: His name rhymes with 'e'  and he enjoys  drinking Blue-milk, fishing at Amidala's Beach, and giving out pep-talks)

 

[Takhomasak]

Echo Base is FIXED.

  So with this new fix, I can return fully to the creative processes...  something very nice will be ready very soon.

yay!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. Guess who finished  coding  your 'Takhomasak'  questline for eventual HOTH original content?

(hint: His name rhymes with 'e'  and he enjoys  drinking Blue-milk, fishing at Amidala's Beach, and giving out pep-talks)

Nice.  You can use Takh, since Takhomasak is a registered trademark of the silly restaurant I worked for when I made the toon in 2003.

So...  I redesigned the terrain, am laying it out today...  removed the entire Sher Kar encounter and am placing it on Taanab for part of its update... going to make the Wampa boss a random spawn in one of several caves now...   toned down the snow textures so that no one needs to adjust their brightness to go to Hoth...

On Echo Base.   I will eventually look even deeper into the portal file to see why two of them don't work properly. I have checked the vertices, and they seem to be correct.   I can live with this, though.   it will affect screenplays in one minor way, every time you reenter the hanger, the NPCs will spawn in the default point and run to their positions. This actually looks really cool with the pilots I have in there.   it seems that if someone gets teleported inside, it will break this. But that shouldn't happen for normal play.   screenplay and script experts may be able to deal with it better than me.[hr]Choice Test is now accessible from the launcher.

Here is the launcher download post:
http://www.swgchoice.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=329

I have my very alpha Hoth up and running.  There are many known issues, I will have a running list on the Choice forums.  It will also have testing emphasis points and access tips.  Note...   the color and lighing balance is still teetering around the very small ideal zone...   if somebody is better than me with the lighting color ramp TGAs...  currently you might have to slightly drop your brightness and Gamma settings to achieve a realistic look.

Here's my testing thread:
http://www.swgchoice.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=323&p=1761#p1761

  I don't want to gunk up this forum with discussion over the small issues, but Echo Base portals in the upper and lower hangar bays (both over 512m from origin) still display peculiar qualities.  Not game breaking, but inconvenient.  See for yourselves!

 

[levarrishawk]

You might try running the client in windowed borderless. Fullscreen in the pre-cu client really looks awful in comparison.

In any event, I could take a look at the colorramps, as well as take a look at what you've done with this thus far. I'm rather curious. Plus I could use a break from the three planets I'm currently working on. :3

 

[Takhomasak]

You might try running the client in windowed borderless.     Fullscreen in the pre-cu client really looks awful in comparison.

In any event, I could take a look at the colorramps, as well as take a look at what you've done with this thus far.  I'm rather curious.  Plus I could use a break from the three planets I'm currently working on.   :3

I know that one channel is sun, one is shadow, one is ground...   but the NGE uses a 256 by 10 color ramp, and after all of the stuff I've done in the past few weeks, my brain is starting to fizzle...   I can either make one that keeps it nuclear bright, or one that drops it down too low.   what I'm going for at High Noon is currently what it looks like at sunrise and sunset...  the sky I understand fully and am happy with, though.

Test server is down right now until I can figure out how to properly edit the launcher manifest. I updated my TRE and it won't patch for now. The status of my test server is always in green at the top of the second post I linked to above, or on the front page of swgchoice.com.

 

[levarrishawk]

You might try running the client in windowed borderless.     Fullscreen in the pre-cu client really looks awful in comparison.

In any event, I could take a look at the colorramps, as well as take a look at what you've done with this thus far.  I'm rather curious.  Plus I could use a break from the three planets I'm currently working on.   :3

I know that one channel is sun, one is shadow, one is ground...   but the NGE uses a 256 by 10 color ramp, and after all of the stuff I've done in the past few weeks, my brain is starting to fizzle...   I can either make one that keeps it nuclear bright, or one that drops it down too low.   what I'm going for at High Noon is currently what it looks like at sunrise and sunset...  the sky I understand fully and am happy with, though.

Test server is down right now until I can figure out how to properly edit the launcher manifest.  I updated my TRE and it won't patch for now.  The status of my test server is always in green at the top of the second post I linked to above, or on the front page of swgchoice.com.

What are you using to work on the .tga for the colorramp?   I use photoshop myself and have no complaints on the results.

 

[Takhomasak]

You might try running the client in windowed borderless.     Fullscreen in the pre-cu client really looks awful in comparison.

In any event, I could take a look at the colorramps, as well as take a look at what you've done with this thus far.  I'm rather curious.  Plus I could use a break from the three planets I'm currently working on.   :3

I know that one channel is sun, one is shadow, one is ground...   but the NGE uses a 256 by 10 color ramp, and after all of the stuff I've done in the past few weeks, my brain is starting to fizzle...   I can either make one that keeps it nuclear bright, or one that drops it down too low.   what I'm going for at High Noon is currently what it looks like at sunrise and sunset...  the sky I understand fully and am happy with, though.

Test server is down right now until I can figure out how to properly edit the launcher manifest.  I updated my TRE and it won't patch for now.  The status of my test server is always in green at the top of the second post I linked to above, or on the front page of swgchoice.com.

What are you using to work on the .tga for the colorramp?   I use photoshop myself and have no complaints on the results.

I found out that GIMP was corrupting the colorramps, so that's why I wasn't seeing any change. Until I can find a program that edits them correctly, I'm using the space colorramp. It's a little dark, but good and clear for testing.


**Choice Test is back online, as permanently as I can keep it**

quick link to my status thread: http://www.swgchoice.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=323&p=1761#p1761

aaaand one more teaser:

*Imperial troops have entered the base!*
http://i.imgur.com/icDcRKR.jpg

I think that the mountain environment is perfectly balanced
http://i.imgur.com/UN9WyI4.jpg[hr]I am trying not to get shut down for the holidays. Carving time out this week to go for the Hoth FINISH LINE.

 

[Halyn]

If I can work out all the bugs with this, it'd go well with Hoth. (I'm early in the process atm.)

 

[Nee]

omg Halyn !!!!!!

SO AWESOME

 

[Takhomasak]

Well, the project is not lost. It's backed up on my server.

My computer has bit the dust, though.

I was using the newest versions of GIMP and SIE simultaneously, editing THOSE DAMNED TGA COLORRAMPS.   Seriously...  while editing one, I got a blue screen of death.  Now, my OS can't load, restore point won't work.

LOL.  It was an older rig, but damn.  Merry Christmas.  

My laptop can't run SIE, but hopefully, whatever computer I can pick this back up on just won't have the problems with the TGAs that the other did.  Seriously, making a new lighting color ramp is the only thing holding me up at this point. The lighting is simply unacceptable to release it.

 

[Nee]

oh gosh Tak , i'm so sorry to hear that.

./technology-pep-talk

p.s. I have finished my original HOTH quest LUA code draft 'Takhomasak' mission, named after you to honor your work. It will be ready & waiting idle, for Post-1.0 potential...whenever that glorious day arrives. (I'll post a special *screenshot* for you in a couple days)

 

[Sytner]

My laptop can't run SIE, but hopefully, whatever computer I can pick this back up on just won't have the problems with the TGAs that the other did.  Seriously, making a new lighting color ramp is the only thing holding me up at this point. The lighting is simply unacceptable to release it.

If you haven't spotted it, you can use a software renderer or disable it entirely to get better compatibility .

 

[levarrishawk]

Well, the project is not lost. It's backed up on my server.

My computer has bit the dust, though.

I was using the newest versions of GIMP and SIE simultaneously, editing THOSE DAMNED TGA COLORRAMPS.   Seriously...  while editing one, I got a blue screen of death.  Now, my OS can't load, restore point won't work.

LOL.  It was an older rig, but damn.  Merry Christmas.  

My laptop can't run SIE, but hopefully, whatever computer I can pick this back up on just won't have the problems with the TGAs that the other did.  Seriously, making a new lighting color ramp is the only thing holding me up at this point. The lighting is simply unacceptable to release it.

What are your desired results, i'll make one for you.

 

[Takhomasak]

Lev, just been trying to make one like echo_base_global1 that doesn't have any pure white in it.  Hard to explain now if you haven't seen what the default color ramp does with the imported shaders and the standard dot3_terrain effect.  

***actually, right before the crash, I had been using the old patch 15 version of Kashyyyk_dead_forest and it was CLOSE to what I wanted, just needs brownish gray fog instead of bluish, and a little lighter reflection on the ground channel.

It's ridiculous that I haven't just found a way to edit these on my own yet.  Even more ridiculous that it was during that exact discovery process that I bugged my entire system somehow.

This has been ....  quite a process.  Just let me figure some things out.  At the very least, if I can't get a new system, I'll release what I have finished.  It's not done but it's 1000 times more Hoth than we had before.  

I tried to make a very readable and modular terrain code also...

 

[levarrishawk]

Lev, just been trying to make one like echo_base_global1 that doesn't have any pure white in it.  Hard to explain now if you haven't seen what the default color ramp does with the imported shaders and the standard dot3_terrain effect.  

***actually, right before the crash, I had been using the old patch 15 version of Kashyyyk_dead_forest and it was CLOSE to what I wanted, just needs brownish gray fog instead of bluish, and a little lighter reflection on the ground channel.

It's ridiculous that I haven't just found a way to edit these on my own yet.  Even more ridiculous that it was during that exact discovery process that I bugged my entire system somehow.

This has been ....  quite a process.  Just let me figure some things out.  At the very least, if I can't get a new system, I'll release what I have finished.  It's not done but it's 1000 times more Hoth than we had before.  

I tried to make a very readable and modular terrain code also...

Try photoshop instead of GIMP.   I have zero issues editing these the way I want them to with Photoshop CC 2015.

Also, the kashyyyk_dead_forest has no difference between night and day, is that what you want?

 

[Takhomasak]

alright, well I have a working system that I can use my tools on, again. I wish I could afford photoshop, ofc would have tried it first.

-looking around for a free demo... hopefully that'll work.
- yes it did.


and yeah, I've been going with a bright night illuminated by many moons to avoid trying to create an environment I've not seen on the screen. (that volcano got moved to another planet)

but it was a stand in, anyway, until I could edit them. which I can now, for 7 days.

so I'm gonna get off here til I'm done

 

[Takhomasak]

My computer died again shortly after the last post. Been rebuilding.

**I am still waiting on parts to arrive for my new computer - in the meantime, I'm away all this week for a work trip. Back on Hoth when I return. I bought a photoshop license too Xmas was good to me.

 

[langelusse]

Welcome back. We wait us

 

[Takhomasak]

I have not disappeared. TWO days til my last part arrives and I build my machine. I have been thinking about Hoth quite a bit over the holidays (rewatched ESB). Release is still close!

 

[Halyn]

Good to see a post from you. You're doing some of the most promising work anywhere for SWG, IMO. (About the only thing better would be progress on JtL...)