WC RPG Develops Storyline & Game Boards

This morning I was building an encounter map for the first Elegy mission using an online dungeon maker tool at pyromancers.com. It's a pretty slick little deal, especially for an online tool. Made this with it (and with a little bit of work in MS Paint):

Anyway, it occurred to me that I could be making a whole bunch of maps like these for Elegy, and that a fair number of them would be for locales of Kilrathi origin. I got to wondering - has anybody ever done an RPG tile set for a Kilrathi setting before? And if not, what kinds of objects do y'all think should be in one? What would one look like, stylistically?

The image above, incidentally, is supposed to be the flight deck of the Kilrathi Star Post at T'kon H'hra - you can see a Naktarg shuttle prepped and ready for launch there (the bit I did in MS Paint). The point of the encounter is to get from the entrance (around tile b16) to the shuttle's door (around tile r7) without getting caught by husuTerran'hra in the bay. This would've been a good spot to have had a Kilrathi tile set - I was limited by what was available. I would've preferred more of a brick red flooring and wall set.

Anyways, thoughts? Anybody out there have experience with building tile sets?

Watch The Cerberus' Fighters Go On The Offense

Here's a new update for the Wing Commander Secret Ops Model Update Pack. It showcases the new and improved F-108-S Panther as well as Dark Sentinel's excellent improved Manta model for the Nephilim. The updated F-103 Excalibur also makes a cameo at 5:48.

Quick update: Things are moving along with the MUP. Dark Sentinel has sent me a very snazzy Wasp model so after a coat of paint, I'll be putting it up for all to see. I've also finished a Seahawk model which is likewise waiting a coat of paint.

Other big news: gr1mre4per has given me a beta version of his engine updates for Christmas! Among the many improvements this little baby delivers are massive increases in polys-per-mesh that the engine can allow. Meaning that I no longer have to use the PART chunk to slice up the fighters. We can now make single-mesh high-poly fighter and capship models for the game (EPODS and destroyable objects not withstanding)! This will be a huge help because it ought to improve memory usage (ie. not having to re-render MATs multiple times for the same model). It also drastically increases the number of renderable objects per mission so we can kiss that 256 limit goodbye! There are a bunch of other improvements but I promised not to reveal any specifics so for now, this little teaser will have to do until he's ready to release it on his own thread. However, this is huge!

Mark Hamill Verifying Autographs Online

Homeworld Mod Amps Up Dogfight Action

I modified the dogfight script in a way that should do away with the slow furballs and make fighter battles more dynamic and dramatic.

Excalibur Front End Comes Together

And guess who's back with a new update just in time for the holiday!

As I said last time, I'd had an accident while working on the Excalibur card board mock up which resulted in a destroyed model. It was a bit of a bitter-sweet kind of screw up since on the one hand, I had to start over on the mock up. But on the other hand I specifically chose to work in cardboard for this part of the project specifically so that if I had a screw up, it wasn't going to cost me $20 in materials.

Anyway I have been working on rebuilding the mock up and been making good progress. Having built it once already I can zip through a lot of it while also correcting some mistakes I made the first time around. Here you can see I'm built the mark 2 model up to the level of the previous version at the time it was destroyed. The main body is actually stronger then the first version and has cleaner joins between the various parts.

I have started working on the next sections. Firstly there's the cannon mounting under-carriage, the part that holds the reaper cannons in Wing Commander 3. You ever start to work on something and think it'll be super-easy and you can just zip right through it, but once you start working on it, you find out it's actually way more difficult then you thought it'd be? Well, that was this part in a nutshell. Cut 2 side parts so they line up with the under side of the body and the forward boom, what's so hard about that? Simple, I have no formal 3D design experience or training. So because of that I had to re-cut the sides a couple times after I found I had not measured properly.

The initial shape was easy enough to accomplish, measure and cut the upper and lower sections as they appears in the line art. I had to do some interpretation to make the side and inner-section. There's little enough I can say about the sides that would really help any aspiring crafters. I had to estimate my measurements, cut a piece and test it. Find out I was wrong, and try to correct it with a new version.

No the real challenge was the scoop intake covers. See, it's an angle that extends in 2 dimensions, backwards relative to the body, and outward relative of the body. It's something that isn't immediately apparent from the 2D line art. So I had to cut and fit the ram scoop cover about 6 times before I got a sizing that fits.

Secret Ops MUP Gets New Heavy Panther

Merry Xmas Wingnuts! Panther ahoy! (it has some weird scaling issues in the game, not sure why and I'll have to do some debugging, the mesh is exactly 15m in blender but somehow comes out close to 30 in the engine.) Gigantism aside, the fighter works well - the EPOD chunk works as expected (which is nice, I thought it was going to give me some heartburn). I'll post another update later in the week when I can tackle the scaling.

Update: Curiouser and curiouser. So the model is actually the right size in the game (as evidenced by the shots). It seems to be something to do with the viewer and the scaling (or positioning) of the model in the viewer render. Which still causes problems in the game because the ship appears out of place in the HUD targeting window, and the ITTS leader appears in the wrong location causing you to miss (I know there are a few of you who want to gun down Maestro, admit it!!!). It might have something to do with the collision spheres as well, since the EPOD has its own collision sphere, I wonder if that is somehow overriding the base model's collision sphere. Anyone else run into this? I'll keep playing around with it though.

On the plus side I flew a few missions with it and haven't run into any performance issues thus far. And, they do look nice :). Also - Extra bonus for me: The briefing models aren't screwed! YAY!

Merry Christmas!

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays from everyone at the Wing Commander CIC! Hopefully all of you get a chance to rest, relax and catch up on some Wing Commander action during the holiday season. Thank you for taking the time to share your holidays with us!

Annual Call For Award Nominations

Have A Pink Dralthi

SpaceX Lands Orbital Booster Rocket For The First Time

Magazine Highlights Mark Hamill's WC Deal

Did Star Wars make you rich?

I said to my wife, Marilou, a while ago, "We should either think about adopting or providing money for needy children." Because we're so okay financially, and there's so much need in the world, especially for children. Star Wars provided the basis for that, but I also had a really good deal on Wing Commander. I said, "You know what, I'll take way less up front if I can have real points." So on Wing Commander I took a 50 per cent salary cut from what they offered me, but they gave me real points. And even they were surprised because we had a $12 million opening day. I thought, "Gee whizz, if I could have movies open like this, I'd actually have a career."

Wing Commander Models Ready For Home Printing

The Hellcat fighter from the Wing Commander game series. This one is very simple with very little of the detailing that I normally do with models from games. 100% scale should give a 6 inch wing span. Print one out and start turning some Kilrathi scum into kitty litter! ;)

The Dralthi IV light fighter from the Wing Commander game series. To me the Dralthi always seemed to be the best example of Kilrathi space fighter designing style. Plus, the Hellcat and Piranha I made needed a target to dogfight so I went with it. Again; a low detail model with a 6 inch wingspan. I hope the WC fans get a kick out of it.

Wing Commander on SyFy UK This Wednesday

Secret Ops Upgrade Sets Sights On Bigger Targets

Hi all, quick update: I've been battling a some kind of bug (pun intended) so I've not been able to make as much progress as normal. I'm currently texturing a Panther and Dark Sentinel is working on a couple of models for the pack. He's working on his Plunkett, the Wasp, and a Moray.

Whereas before I was simply hacking models into the viewer to test them, the Tigershark being my most common victim, I've started adding the extra fighters into the viewer in a more permanent basis. I'll also be updating the flavor text for the updated versions in SO; so for example the Piranha is actually a C variant and the Tigershark is a B. So here's the more or less "official" entry for the Excalibur. When I finish the Tbolt, it will also get an entry. I'll probably also add Confed capships into the viewer at some point as well.

In other news: gr1mre4per has teased a project he's working on that will give us a lot more flexibility in how we do Capships and some fighters by allowing the engine to accept substantially more polys than it does today per mesh. I won't spoil it for you and let him do the big reveal, but suffice to say what I've seen so far is pretty impressive and if it works as expected, it will really push the needle for the Vision engine.

So exciting stuff in the hopper! Watch this space.

The Shipyard's Spaceship Starts To Take Shape

Continuing my journey into learning 3D modelling in Blender. A primitive 3D model of the Drayman gives insight into its role and function, and I talk a bit about how faithfully I'll approach the original references.

Slice Through The Competion With New Wallpaper

I figured I'd share my current desktop background; thought you Wingnuts might appreciate it. :)

***Credits - the background was used from Deviant Art by a user named Funarium.

Homeworld Mod Single Player Demo Released

OK, ladies and gents, it's going to be an early Christmas: I'm pretty confident in the mission now, which is fully-playable and involves a lot of the challenges you can expect to see from the Captain's seat in the Wing Commander universe. You might have the TCS Victory, but victory itself won't come easily, trust me on that.

In any case, to start the mission, you'll simply have to select it under "Extra Missions" in the main menu. It's definitely winnable, but here, it's real war, which means that you have a limited number of assets and you will have to use them properly to win... particularly those very, very fragile Thunderbolt VII, heh heh. The mission should be relatively simple while covering a lot of the stuff you can see in the Wing Commander games, except for the poker games and the inevitable betrayals. :p

Keep in mind that this release is more a tech demo than anything else, though. Anyway, to give you an idea of the creative process for a mission, here is the structure:

• Write down a rough idea of what the mission will be.
• Write down precisely the assets of each side and what actions will need to be scripted for the mission (objectives, reactions to your presence, etc., until the victory or defeat).
• Write the scripts.
• Create the critical assets for the mission (campaign-only named ships with specific properties like the ability to jump on their own for the convoy transports) without which the game will CTD.
• Test-play the mission and debug the **** out of it to make sure all the scripts work as intended.
• Create the flavour assets for the mission that will make it releasable (icons for the new ships, possible soundbytes extracted from the other games, music, pictures, etc.), as far as I can, at least: no soundbytes, for example.

If you have ideas for a specific mission to create, what I will need will be the first two steps as detailed as possible and some time. :)

Flat Universe Teases Future Updates

As a general rule our engine has the following OS minimum requirements: Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.7+, Ubuntu 12.04+

But beware! From our experience this kind of behaviour happens when something is going wrong with the graphics card specifications or an outdated driver. Again the general rule of the game engine in graphics cards is: DirectX9 (shader model 2.0) capabilities; generally everything made since 2004 should work.

Taking this opportunity I would like to inform you that our project is in active progress and that we are in the process of doing undercarriage work for the Multipl... Ooppppsss, I am not allowed to reveal anything yet. Thanks again for your interest and have fun.

Get Into The Spirit Of The Season With Wing Commander Ships

I decided to do something with all these 3d printed models cluttering up my office! Happy holidays, wingnuts!

Secret Ops MUP Gets New Medium Fighter

Okay - finally got a quick break to finish the F/A-105-C Tigershark. I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't add the missiles in the launch tubes because the cost in triangles really wasn't there for the visual effect. If I want to get crazy at some point, I'll model the pods with and without missiles. Then the mission programmer can set flags to determine if the fighter has missiles left and render the appropriate model accordingly... don't know if that's possible actually and it seems like a bunch of effort for a non-critical effect. Enjoy!

Roberts Space Industries Amasses $100 Million!

Secret Missions Livestream Available On YouTube

Homeworld Mod Blowing Up Ships Again

Ok, people, we've got some good news all around.

First of all, I am happy to say that I was mistaken. After discussing with a programmer at Phoenix Interactive (the modding team behind the Stargate, Mass Effect and Halo mods), it appears that I misunderstood Gearbox plans for future updates, and the current 3D files ingame will not be made obsolete in a game-crashing way. That means the cool capital ships from Wing Commander Saga are here to stay, and most likely future-proofed!

The other good news is that since Phoenix Interactive released a demo with campaign missions and their main programmer was cool enough to give me some advice over Skype, I've been able to use their template to start programming single-player content. I want you people to understand that the status of this work is unreleaseable due to a major lack of support assets like soundbyte integration, music, etc., BUT, and this is a really big but, what is currently working, and I tested it five minutes ago, is a completely scripted mission, here the first mission of Wing Commander IV:

You have a pair of individual named fighters. As soon as they get close enough from Orlando Depot, they get attacked by a flight of Razor. Then, after dispatching the pirates and getting in close proximity to the depot, Seether arrives, nukes the Depot and jumps out. The player can then go to Bluepoint, where the fighters will automatically land as soon as they get close enough. Once the fighters landed, a shuttle takes off, and the player can send it to a jump buoy, where it will automatically jump out, ending the mission. It's a lot of scripts and macgyvering, but it works, which means that more complicated mission structures can be set up from now on. Also, what would be nice and immersive would be to play the relevant soundbytes from the game when each scene happens.

The less than good news is that we are having some weird issue with some of the new 3D files, which sadly cannot be easily solved, so we are trying to find out what mess them up in order to add the next Border Worlds and Black Lance units to the game. In any case, though, I'll try and see if I can start working on some single-player missions based in the Wing Commander III timeline, for which we have all the required assets.

GOG Wing Commander Discounted 80%!

Nephilim Attack Craft Sight Their First Target

Why remodel the bug ships, if you don't have a proper victim for them? Tadah! Plunkett, a deadly opponent for your bug cruisers, 10005 polies right now. Though they say Plunkett has 22 laser turrets, I managed to find 21 and some of them are sure tachyons. Where's 22nd, I wonder. Big heavy plasma turret and smaller particle turrets are slightly different. Textures will be here later.

Upgraded Nephilim Ships Added To WCSO MUP

So I got all of DS's bug ships into the game. So far no issues. I played through Ella 4 (or is it 5) - the mission where you have to escort the Plunkett and two Murphys back to the Cerberus. Anyway there's a huge furball when the capships jump in. Bunch of Mantas, 2 Devilrays, felt it would make a good test. No issues at all, the game performed like it would with the low poly models. Now there aren't any high poly Tigersharks, Panthers, or capships yet (but there are a few Excaliburs), but so far the engine is handling what I can throw at it nicely. I failed to get a decent shot of the Manta B, but it's in there.

As a happy bit of serendipity, the spec maps add a really nice touch to the Manta. There are times when the fighter is out of direct light and it looks like a hole against the stars, you can't see it except for the targeting reticule. Then it'll roll or jink and the spec catches the back lighting and you can catch some of the iridescence. It's a neat effect anyhow. I'll try and get a video of it.

Great work @Dark Sentinel!

Tiger's Claw Comes To The Rescue

The most detailed version of the Claw I’ve ever painted, if not the most accurate :P

Secret Missions Livestream Broadcasting Now!

Twelve Days of Bengal Turrets

	4x Dual Mount Forward Turrets Two mounted forward of each of the carrier's 'wing tips.' Sometimes appear to be single mount turrets. (First Appearance: Series Intro)
	2x Dual Mount Upper Squircle Turrets (Red) Directly rear of the conning tower, rear facing. (First appearance: Series Intro)
	2x Dual Mount Forward Batteries One each on either side of the 'bow.' (First appearance: The Last One Left)
	2x Dual Mount Forward Turrets One each mounted forward of the two 'rails' beneath the carrier. (First appearance: The Last One Left)
	1x Dual Mount Lower Turret Mounted centerline beneath the 'bow.' Note: often appears to have only one gun. (First appearance: The Last One Left)
	2x Dual Mount Waist Turrets Outward facing at the end of each 'wingtip.' (First appearance: The a Last One Left)
	6x Dual Mount Waist Turrets Banks of three each along the base of either side of the conning tower. Note that these do not appear often and seem to be part of a close range defense system, shooting down missiles and a kamikaze Grikath. Per dialogue, the starboard battery covers the "number six shield." (First appearance: The Most Delicate Instrument)
	1x Dual Mount Lower Turret Mounted beneath the hull, just ahead of the rear thrusters. (First appearance: The Last One Left)
	6x Single Mount Waist Turrets Two batteries of three each on either side of the upper hull. Note that the turret pictures to the right is most likely half of the three dual mount point defense guns located at the base of the conning tower. (First appearance: The Most Delicate Instrument)
	2x Dual Mount Forward Batteries One set forward facing on either side of the conning tower. The port battery is used for the twenty-one gun salute at funerals. (First appearance: The Most Delicate Instrument)
	2x Tractor Beams Located below the main hull, centerline. (First appearance: Invisible Enemy)
	7x Dual Mount Waist Turrets Exact location unknown, likely forward-facing. Four turrets on the top row, three below. (First appearance: Glory of Sivar)

WCSO Model Update Pack Gets Fancier Special Effects

I've updated the Piranha with the following:

1. Rebalanced the saturation in the MAT so the ship is the appropriate shade of blue
2. Repositioned the engine flames cone so it now appears in the proper position
3. Put a base spec map on the model! Hooray!!! Now the paint and greebles don't get washed out in bright direct lighting!

Organic Hull Texture Featured On New Devil Ray Models

Long story short: yellow sis' exported for use in Homeworld: Remastered. Still requires tweaks, I'm not 100% happy, neither I'm sure about how much wet does it look. Though HWRM lighting produces weird results sometimes.

These are 1024x1024 maps. 2k would be a sort of overkill and the difference won't be that visible anyway.

Secret Missions Livestream This Saturday!