Wing Commander Prophecy: Secret Ops Model Update Pack

So...it isn't often we jaded MUP-pers get really excited over something, but this is one of those times. The dynamic graphical duo of @Pedro and @PopsiclePete have been hard at work performing dark magics and alchemy on the Open/GL patch and have given us a gift long sought after: Emit maps!

Up to this point we've had to be creative in how we do things like glowing windows and engines in the MUP. @Kevin Caccamo 's awesome Wing Blender tools for Blender allow us to fake emitting surfaces by letting us use shadeless textures. But that means in things like capships we have to ensure that emitting surfaces are attached to other destroyable objects or fake it with a hidden CARGO chunk. Nephilim models were especially difficult because they aren't symmetrical. So we have to do really wacky stuff like use transparency functions on the windows and create a second "emit mesh" that lives just beneath the hull so when you view the model head -on the emitting mesh shows through the hull - and the emit mesh has to be attached as a destroyable chunk like CARGO so it can stop emitting once the ship dies. Because Vision inexplicably doesn't support destroyed base hull meshes or even texture swapping on a destroyed main object, some of this is still necessary. However for ships like corvettes and fighters, this is a huge win!

Why? a couple of reasons: 1) for some reason rounded objects like the engine on the barracuda (being one of the most obvious offenders) as well as the gun pods on the Nephilim fighters don't emit properly using the shadeless texture approach and 2) we are limited to selecting faces and creating shadeless materials for those faces - with proper emit mapping we can actually bake real glows onto the fighters and ships. Hangars can actually look like they're lit by the overhead lamps, hull around intakes can now properly render soft glows, etc. it will add a new level of visual enjoyment to the MUP.

Here are some new shots of everybody's favorite Maestro-killer - the Barracuda, using the new emit maps.

CudaEmit - corrected transparency.jpg CudaEmit5.jpg CudaEmit6.jpg CudaEmit7.jpg CudaEmit - distance.jpg
 
Further updates! Got the first of the major stations imported: the Confed Relay. It plays a larger role than the other stations, especially in WCP where Blair lands on one only to get subsequently captured because Blair and Decker's marines apparently missed the 8-foot tall bug hanging out in the landing bay sipping a Mai Tai - or the obviously alien fighter which launches from the station from one of the two landing bays which are currently full of Tigershark and/or Hercules LC...oh well, it's best not to think too hard on it!

One of the other improvements to this mesh is that it now will actually be destroyed. The original simply replaced the destroyed components with...themselves! So really if you destroyed a relay in vanilla WCP or SO, it would basically just turn gray on the HUD and make exploding sounds (because the only hardpoints were in the mesh). I know, I know - it was never meant to be destroyed. But now it can be used in future projects (were someone so inclined) and it could be destroyed and actually look good.

There are two versions of it actually - I made an original version with a single destroyable mesh so as not to effect game balance, there is another version where the core, hangar, and individual antenna are separately destroyable - however the only way to totally destroy the relay on the second version is to destroy the core and the 4 antennae.

I also tested the docking pathing for WCP, the LC and Tshark land appropriately.

SO_INtro1.jpg

Crelay_dest2.jpg



Crelay4.jpg Crelay6.jpg Relay_WCP.jpg Relay_WCP_Dockpaths.jpg SO_INtro.jpg Crelay_dest1.jpg Crelay_dest3.jpg
 
Very impressive. :)

Have you thought about on how to handle the Commstation's hangar bay?
(A few months ago, I mentioned that the Commstation's Hangar ROM looked like a refurbished version of the BWS Intrepid's. Perhabs that could also be done for your mesh.)
 
Actually, it's Beer Wine Spirits - an Australian network of drive-through stores that sell, you know, beer, wine, and spirits. Every time I see on of those BWS signs, it goes a little further to entrench in my mind the association between the Intrepid and booze.
 
Quarto said:
Actually, it's Beer Wine Spirits - an Australian network of drive-through stores that sell, you know, beer, wine, and spirits. Every time I see on of those BWS signs, it goes a little further to entrench in my mind the association between the Intrepid and booze.
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Maybe Tolwyn was just trying to grab a Lager when he got captured by the Intrepid. Easy mistake to do when the ship looks like a couple of beer freezers stuck to the side of a fly-through deck.
 
Hello wingnuts. Apologies for the delay in the latest release, my PC suffered the equivalent of a stroke and needed to be replaced. I'm in the process of getting all the tools and installs set up and I'll see what else needs doing for the next release. New dates forthcoming.
 
Greetings MUP fans! So we have a date for the next release for the MUP. August 18. If that date sounds familiar it's because it coincides with the birthday party. So we'll be giving everyone a birthday present. In the meantime I'm finishing the Midway but I wanted to post some updates on a "nice to have" we've been tinkering with. A while back we looked at the possibility of adding real cockpits to WCP and SO, now that the open GL supports glow mapping, we can finally start implementing them. It'll be a selectable option at install so if you want to keep the original cockpits which don't eat up as much real estate on the screen, you'll be able to.

Below you'll find the clays for the Piranha and a redone version of the Panther cockpits. Not sure if they'll be done in time for the birthday but I'll try. Stay tuned all.

Piranha_Pit1.jpg Panther_Cpit_redux.jpg
 
I go away for a few years (ok maybe 5, I have a miniature wingnut now who I hope to introduce to Wing Commander in a few more years) and I come back to this. Amazing work all round.
 
Adm_maverick said:
hmm think you could convince that Angel is the princess of the Wing Commander story?
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Yes... and then she meets a real prince (who happens to look a lot like the one from Beauty and the Beast!). The prince falls in love with her, and steals her heart. Well, rips it out along with her guts, really. But I'm sure it was a gesture of love :).
 
Quarto said:
Yes... and then she meets a real prince (who happens to look a lot like the one from Beauty and the Beast!). The prince falls in love with her, and steals her heart. Well, rips it out along with her guts, really. But I'm sure it was a gesture of love :).
Click to expand...
So we're going more to the Grimm's Brothers source material now... :)
 
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