Adventures in Explorations: WC1 Edition

Shades2585 said:
Has anybody tested if the 64(?) angles will work? This is what I was talking about earlier but I mistakenly posted 32.
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I'm pretty sure one of the original WC ships (the Kilrathi starbase?) had been mentioned as having the full set of angles instead of just 32. So yes, it should work - but I would assume that also the same 64,000 pixels limit would apply. So, unless that limit can be changed, more angles means lower resolution.

Howard Day said:
..And just because I could.
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Howard, you're so evil. I really don't have time to be modding WC1 right now, and here you are, practically daring us to design a mod. Why not import the rest of your incredibly amazing ship inventory while you're at it? :p
 
Quarto: Don't tempt me. I threw the 07 in there, but it'll just be mirrored. who cares!?
Updates to both, fixed the sorta assymetrical engine lighting on the Cruiser.
Bengal_dithered6.gif
Tolmacs_dithered2.gif
 
Quarto said:
I'm pretty sure one of the original WC ships (the Kilrathi starbase?) had been mentioned as having the full set of angles instead of just 32. So yes, it should work - but I would assume that also the same 64,000 pixels limit would apply. So, unless that limit can be changed, more angles means lower resolution.
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Good question @Quatro. Something worth exploring, I think.

Didn't some of the back up files have the 3D file for some of the other games? I'm sure there wasn't any WC1 files but I'm thinking there might have been some WC2 3D files. I think I remember the Concordia. If this is the case we might be able to upres the games using their original files.
Thoughts?
 
Hey all. Sorry for the delay but I finally had a moment to create a thread specifically for sprite enhancement and experimentation. You can find it here:

Wing Commander Sprite Enhancement, Experimentation, and Information

At the writing of this post, the first post in that thread is a WIP just to get the thread started and I will be updating it as necessary.

Loving all the work @Howard Day ! The Tiger's Claw is just slightly too big from those most recent renders. Specifically, this sprite when cropped is over 64,000 pixels:

tc.png

If you don't mind rendering those at resolution 366x366, that will be small enough to then try these out in game. Thanks, it's awesome to see the Tiger's Claw like this! Anyway, see you in the new thread! ;)
 
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Shades2585 said:
Didn't some of the back up files have the 3D file for some of the other games? I'm sure there wasn't any WC1 files but I'm thinking there might have been some WC2 3D files. I think I remember the Concordia. If this is the case we might be able to upres the games using their original files.Thoughts?
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That is correct, the WC2 ship sources are available. A couple of them had missing textures, but I think the community had already taken care of that... or if they haven't, it wouldn't be a big challenge to do so.
 
So, if people were interested, and if someone were able to collect all the 3D files and post them, (going through the 12+ CDs is a pain not to mention at least two of the images would never work for me.) This may help move that forward.

Question: Is there any way to upgrade the game engine? Upgrade WC1 to WC2 or WC2 to Privateer? I see the color pallet in the extracted files but I know there have to be a lot more then that?
 
Shades2585 said:
So, if people were interested, and if someone were able to collect all the 3D files and post them, (going through the 12+ CDs is a pain not to mention at least two of the images would never work for me.) This may help move that forward.

Question: Is there any way to upgrade the game engine? Upgrade WC1 to WC2 or WC2 to Privateer? I see the color pallet in the extracted files but I know there have to be a lot more then that?
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WC1 and WC2 are pretty much upgraded thanks to Kilrathi saga, Only Academy and Privateer still uses DOS, though all 4 of them uses OriginFX
 
ShadowArm said:
WC1 and WC2 are pretty much upgraded thanks to Kilrathi saga, Only Academy and Privateer still uses DOS, though all 4 of them uses OriginFX
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No not the platform the engine. Can we upgrade WC1 to have the same color depth as WC2? Upgrade the resolution to WC2? (I think WC2 has a higher resolution doesn't it?)
 
WC1 and WC2 have the same resolution (320x200) and color depth (8-bit, 256 colors). Same goes for Privateer, Academy, and even Armada, if I remember right.
 
I had to double check. Thanks to WCTool. And while they both had 256 colors they had different color pallets. For people trying to make new skins I have included the color pallets for their convince.
 

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This stuff is amazing! You guys are doing stellar work.

I'm not sure if what was mentioned in discord was a joke or not but I can't get the idea of letting the player choose their sex at the start of WC out of my head. With the way the game handles your name and callsign, it feels like something the dev team really would have originally done if it didn't mean extra resources they didn't have room for. It feels llike it should be pretty straight forward compared to the magic you guys are pulling off here. I'd have to go through the script to see what - if anything - would need a rewrite to accomodate the change but I would guess you could probably trade places between him and one of the other pilots without too much effort, though maybe we're missing the art for sitting at the table? The more complicated challenge would be integrating the choice into how you start a new campaign. Otherwise you would have to just patch the game to make the swap.
 
AD said:
I'm not sure if what was mentioned in discord was a joke or not but I can't get the idea of letting the player choose their sex at the start of WC out of my head. With the way the game handles your name and callsign, it feels like something the dev team really would have originally done if it didn't mean extra resources they didn't have room for. It feels llike it should be pretty straight forward compared to the magic you guys are pulling off here..
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I don't actually recall any instances where the script would refer to Blair as "he" - in WC1, hardly anyone ever talks about Blair in third-person (I mean, he's there with them), while both first-person and the second-person form used occasionally is gender-neutral in English. I suspect literally the only change content-wise you'd have to make is add a female face for Blair. Beyond that, the only issue would be how to allow the player to select their sex inside the game (as opposed to having a special replacement file you use to become female).
 
I think it was Wing Commander II that Ellen Guon had wanted to allow selecting your gender.

The easiest option would be to swap Blair and Angel and then edit some pronouns. I think you're only really going to run into trouble when Jazz attacks Angel and then flees... there you'd need to rewrite that scene and the following briefing (Jazz would attack you, then you'd tell the Major you were chasing him...)

The Blair/Minx kiss in Special Operations 2 would also be a problem, but it'd be outside the boundaries of the original challenge.
 
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