It was over a year ago we were notified that some of the models we had purchased from Dexsoft might possibly have been stolen. After a period of investigation the probability was quite high this was the case and Dexsoft contacted customers to offer new packs. However months later I was unable to get a reply about these replacements and only in November when doing a review of outstanding assets and licensing we had to either press again or do a re-build.
Dave elected to take it upon himself to do a rebuild and not wanting to have to reposition every building adopted the same dimensions with the exception of adding much needed 'basements' (a basement is just an extrusion of the exterior wall so that it will sink under terrain so no gaps are left if the centre of the model is positioned on uneven ground.
Originally the models were made for use in first-person games and LOD0 had details such as railings and girders. Dave completely built (from scratch) versions complete with new textures and made them more efficient at the cost of some detail. An original building had 5213 polygons, after a rebuild only 728 polys (which is iPhone territory).
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| Original stolen model on left, rebuilt from scratch on right |
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| Scratch build on left, original on right |
Thanks Dave for once again being on the ball.
Update
Started work on the updater again.This is based in part on the Leadwerks SDK downloader which is pretty much everything I needed given a little twist and a slice of lemon. Hopefully some of you will be seeing this in the near future. At some point we'll add user names and a regcode system prior to any content downloads (these will not be required to play).
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| As much as you might want to click on it, you can't yet :( |
With any luck the 'one click' update system will let us add rolling improvements at the cost of occasionally annoying you with a download when an update is available. I just want to be able to push one button, get the latest changes to any content I own and go.
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| Support for different builds (content) |
the smaller poly count is gonna make for fast FPS. They look good Dave
ReplyDeleteBuildings look great. Thanks Dave.
ReplyDeleteFlexman, I have two questions which might be out of scope and only minor issues but I would really appreciate a short answer.
First, did you also consider Stinger missles as additional armament or is this not common today? I just thougt this could be helpful for self-defense. (Sorry, if you already dealt with this in an other thread but I haven't found anything.)
Second, I found some interesting picurtes of Apaches with sharksmouths in a book called "AH-64 Apache Units of Operation Enduring Freedom an Iraqi Freedom". Could you imagine to have those in Combat Helo? (I know this would have priority level 100.000 :) ). BTW this book might also be quite interesting for mission design (but I'm sure you already knew about about it).
It is amazing what you did so far and I would definitely buy CH.
Cheers.
@Christian
ReplyDeleteThat book is one I have on my shelf right here next to me with a few other Osprey books. I wish I could source the cover artwork for that book, it's an impressive work.
The book indeed contains a nice pictorial reference for the different units. As this is our first full game we built it to what we could reasonably manage which sets the scale of the conflict.
Historical campaigns were something I wanted to do in version 2.0, we designed an architecture and data pipeline the sequel for much larger and more detailed combat zones. Will we get to make it? I don't know, not without publisher backing for damn sure but the proposed FreeFlight engine has other more serious uses, all R&D on that has ceased till we get CH out the door. It's possible we could crunch down a Mosul or Karbala map into CH 1.0 DLC and if we get to build 2.0 supersize it accordingly (but I'm such a picky SOB I'd never be happy with doing that).
Some limited skinning will arrive in CH at some point. Just a matter of figuring a way around the instancing in the engine and getting a shader to apply the decals in a satisfactory fashion without clipping problems (which my last attempt resulted in). It ties in with visual damage so it's one of those things that we might get for 'free' when that's working.
I agree it would look awesome. Cheers back at you.
@ Flexman
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your quick answer. I knew you have this book.
Like many fans I wish I could help you in some way. Maybe best thing I could do is word of mouth recommendation and wait for publication.
Take your time, I think it will be a great simulation. (In German you would say "Gut Ding will Weile haben" --> which I think means in English "Haste makes waste")
I wish you a great year.
Cheers
That Update sounds promising. I can click on it, but it will just open the picture in a new window... ;-DD Do you have decided yet, who will be one of "the some of you"?
ReplyDeleteThe "some of you" is a super secret society. The first rule of "some of you" is that we don't talk about "some of you".
ReplyDeleteok, LOL. I should have known what answer I get.
ReplyDeletei know what the secret password is.... Higgs Boson!
ReplyDeleteI bet it's "I AM THE GREATEST!".
ReplyDeleteBonus points for whoever remembers where that is from.
Well if it's a cheat code then best guess is Desert Strike, if it's a movie quote then it's Nick "Not the bees" Cage in Firebirds.
ReplyDeleteYup, it sure was Firebirds. I've seen it a month or so ago after many years and I forgot how cheesy it was and all the things it got wrong ("I got a lock, firing missile" *bunch of FFARs being fired*), and yet I still enjoyed it.
DeleteAt least it had some aerobatics, a mean-looking MD-500, "The Bag" and it didn't try to be "Top Gun with Apaches".
Oh, on the question of A2A missiles. No we're not having any of that stuff on the helicopter. There was some discussion over at SimHQ about A2A operations. The case for them is weak and I don't want to do the work.
ReplyDelete