Pedro
Admiral
Ahh I did wonder. Cultural differences? It was meant in the sense of "Just to clarify" / "In case there is any confusion"
WC4 Remake
- Thread starter Pedro
- Start date
Ahh I did wonder. Cultural differences? It was meant in the sense of "Just to clarify" / "In case there is any confusion"
Whiplash
Rear Admiral
Panther's profile suggests he's from the same part of the world I am. AFAIK, "To be clear" means the same here as it does everywhere else.
Panther1.0
Commodore
Culture difference, no, just misunderstanding, sorry
subgeniuskitty
Spaceman
Pedro,
In the WCToolbox thread you offered support. I wanted to say thanks for that and I'll take you up on it when I inevitably run into problems.
This is the first day I've had free to work on the project and I just spent some time reading through this thread. Your remake looks awesome. Even knowing that the graphics are still in a preliminary stage, the side by side comparison shots you posted on page 3 are amazing!
In the WCToolbox thread you offered support. I wanted to say thanks for that and I'll take you up on it when I inevitably run into problems.
This is the first day I've had free to work on the project and I just spent some time reading through this thread. Your remake looks awesome. Even knowing that the graphics are still in a preliminary stage, the side by side comparison shots you posted on page 3 are amazing!
Pedro
Admiral
Thank you. Definitely a long way to go visually, we are still implementing core functionality (no time for polish yet). Sometimes it's embarrassing to show but the feedback from the community keeps us going.
I don't know how much I could help, there will be some overlap but I've only ever looked into the last 3 games.
That said any information on the old formats you can provide would be useful; sadly a lot that was known to the community is lost to the sands of time due to lack of documentation. I certainly plan to document some of the WCIII/IV formats closer to completion.
objectinspace
Petty Officer
This is a huge long shot, but if you don't ask you never find out:
I love the wing commander games, and space combat in general, but I've never been able to play very well due to being almost totally blind. It would be amazing if work could be done to make WC4 more playable without needing to see the visuals. A few things that would go a long way:
-TTS support: Tolk is an open-source abstraction library that sends information via the appropriate APIs to screenreading software. This should allow for reading of text such as menu options, your selected loadout, ship status, HUD information and so on. However, I have no clue how to integrate it into the project or how much work that would take (presuming significant.)
-Spacial audio support: object-based sound localization would be extremely helpful when dogfighting, so I can have a good sense of where the ships are in my headphones. This would be particularly fun for space combat where attacks can come from above or below the player.
-more sound cues: ideally, for every relevant visual change there should be one for audio, and vice versa for deaf players. Failing that, it would still be helpful to have more earcons so I can have a better sense of what's happening without needing to read or see stuff. For instance, the indicator for where the game expects an enemy ship to fly next is really useful for lining up a shot, but could be even more useful if there were an audio indicator that corresponded with that icon for me to try to center.
I'm sure you've enough on your plate as it is, but anything that can be done would be super appreciated! We are a small, but dedicated community, and it would mean a lot to have access to a game like this.
I love the wing commander games, and space combat in general, but I've never been able to play very well due to being almost totally blind. It would be amazing if work could be done to make WC4 more playable without needing to see the visuals. A few things that would go a long way:
-TTS support: Tolk is an open-source abstraction library that sends information via the appropriate APIs to screenreading software. This should allow for reading of text such as menu options, your selected loadout, ship status, HUD information and so on. However, I have no clue how to integrate it into the project or how much work that would take (presuming significant.)
-Spacial audio support: object-based sound localization would be extremely helpful when dogfighting, so I can have a good sense of where the ships are in my headphones. This would be particularly fun for space combat where attacks can come from above or below the player.
-more sound cues: ideally, for every relevant visual change there should be one for audio, and vice versa for deaf players. Failing that, it would still be helpful to have more earcons so I can have a better sense of what's happening without needing to read or see stuff. For instance, the indicator for where the game expects an enemy ship to fly next is really useful for lining up a shot, but could be even more useful if there were an audio indicator that corresponded with that icon for me to try to center.
I'm sure you've enough on your plate as it is, but anything that can be done would be super appreciated! We are a small, but dedicated community, and it would mean a lot to have access to a game like this.
Pedro
Admiral
I’d be very much up for this. I don’t know if you saw it but we posted an article asking for desired accessibility options.
We are early days atm, too early to start implementing these requests but if you’d be willing to write a design document, with weightings for each feature, I will do my best to implement your suggestions closer to completion.
We are early days atm, too early to start implementing these requests but if you’d be willing to write a design document, with weightings for each feature, I will do my best to implement your suggestions closer to completion.
objectinspace
Petty Officer
I did see that article! It was exciting.
I am happy to make a design document! Blind accessibility is my expertise, but in the spirit of inclusion I shall incorporate suggestions for all players, and whatever reference materials I can think of. Do you want me to post it here or send an email or something else?
If you want a sneak peak, I'll be pulling from this list of guidelines:
gameaccessibilityguidelines.com
I am happy to make a design document! Blind accessibility is my expertise, but in the spirit of inclusion I shall incorporate suggestions for all players, and whatever reference materials I can think of. Do you want me to post it here or send an email or something else?
If you want a sneak peak, I'll be pulling from this list of guidelines:
Game accessibility guidelines | Full list
gameaccessibilityguidelines.com
Pedro
Admiral
I did see that article! It was exciting.
I am happy to make a design document! Blind accessibility is my expertise, but in the spirit of inclusion I shall incorporate suggestions for all players, and whatever reference materials I can think of. Do you want me to post it here or send an email or something else?
If you want a sneak peak, I'll be pulling from this list of guidelines:
Game accessibility guidelines | Full list
Post it here is fine, or private message me.
Can you point me towards Tolk? I want to look into how practical it would be to integrate.
Panther1.0
Commodore
Hey Pedro, do you have a 'Playable Demo' in mind ?
objectinspace
Petty Officer
Whoops! My bad.
github.com
There might be other options depending on how you're making the game. Unity and Unreal 4, for instance, both have ways to work with screenreaders, but this does you no good if you are not using either of those tools!
GitHub - dkager/tolk: Screen reader abstraction library.
Screen reader abstraction library. Contribute to dkager/tolk development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
There might be other options depending on how you're making the game. Unity and Unreal 4, for instance, both have ways to work with screenreaders, but this does you no good if you are not using either of those tools!
Pedro
Admiral
Whoops! My bad.
GitHub - dkager/tolk: Screen reader abstraction library.
Screen reader abstraction library. Contribute to dkager/tolk development by creating an account on GitHub.
There might be other options depending on how you're making the game. Unity and Unreal 4, for instance, both have ways to work with screenreaders, but this does you no good if you are not using either of those tools!
Thanks, this looks super simple to integrate.
When you are specing it out be sure to include a list of audio cues you'd like included.
Pedro
Admiral
Initially we were thinking mission 1 but LOAF suggested that we re-create the WCIV Demo. I like this idea because it has FMV, a room file, mission, fighters, capships; and it can be distributed in a self contained package.
It could serve not only as a demo but a basis for troubleshooting before release and getting combat feedback (which mission 1 wouldn't give us a lot of). It also has a scoreboard to give some replay value.
The main sticking point is if it will have an online scoreboard like Standoff. You'll have to pester @PopsiclePete about that one
Panther1.0
Commodore
I see, I like the WC4 demo idea...
berndlauert
Spaceman
I'd love to see VR support. After Squadrons I cannot imagine any game like this without.
Pedro
Admiral
It's coming. I have a shot from an early test but it pre-dates the cockpits. The SDKs change relatively frequently (and now it ideally wants depth data too for re-projection) so I'll probably only come back to it around launch time.
Attachments
berndlauert
Spaceman
Amazing. I'm psyched!
Pedro
Admiral
It's a planned extra. But be aware we showed extra cockpit to show off some of the details like moving joystick that defiance had done (those normally would only be noticeable in VR).
Normally it shouldn't be too obtrusive, something like this:
More of a WCP cockpit than WC1 in terms of screen coverage.
Triple-B
Rear Admiral
I appreciate the work effort, however I always hated the Cockpitframe, since it is blocking vision. WCP style is ok tough.
BTW: Can you guys make a WCP all in one patch including the enhanced starfield patch, enhanced shipmodels, HD Vids etc. all in one package as an installer? That would be great, since it is hard to keep track what to install in which order
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