RF2 Feature Requests

[MakerOfGames]

It would be nice if sound echoes could be automatically generated in game. Will this be possible?

[paradoxnj]

You can do this by adding delay to a sound. OpenAL is capable of that. Whether or not it's in the design, I'm not sure.

[MakerOfGames]

So it will be possible then just with some tweaking?

I know some games look at location of the sound generated and then add the effect if need be. Super Mario 64 uses it in the entrance to the castle. When you jump under the stone overhang, Mario's voice echoes there. This has to be because of an invisible location marker that makes that happen. So I will have to set up the hot spots for the echo to be applied or write my own script that does that by itself? Either way works for me I just wanted to see howcomplicated it would be for me to get the effect. Thanks.

[AndyCR]

Right now I do not have an answer as to how it will work and whether it will be in the first release, sadly. the first release will not have all the features I plan to integrate over the course of RF2's entire lifetime, but rather just the most important ones. An example would be that the first release will have shaders but may not have a completed visual shader editor, which is planned for some point in RF2's lifetime.

[Destron]

So it will be possible then just with some tweaking?

I know some games look at location of the sound generated and then add the effect if need be. Super Mario 64 uses it in the entrance to the castle. When you jump under the stone overhang, Mario's voice echoes there. This has to be because of an invisible location marker that makes that happen. So I will have to set up the hot spots for the echo to be applied or write my own script that does that by itself? Either way works for me I just wanted to see howcomplicated it would be for me to get the effect. Thanks.

That's called DSP (digital signal processing) and was implemented in games like Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (and as you say, Mario 64)... I think it's sort of an alternative to having large database of sound effects for every possible environment in the game. I'm not really sure if it's possible to do it with scripting (with the present RealityFactory stuff), but if RF2 will be scripted in Python, there's more of a chance.

[paradoxnj]

This can be achieved with RF1 if someone updates the Genesis sound system to use DirectSound8. Not sure if script would be the best way. Maybe XML configuration files to build the sound database?

[Destron]

Well, it wouldn't really be a database (if I understand correctly), it'd be like an processor algorithm - it would change the way a sound is heard (i.e. apply an effect to it in real-time) rather than just play an already-processed effect.

[paradoxnj]

RF uses ini files for it's content database. That is what I was referring to. In short, "how RF would define the sounds and their parameters".

[Destron]

I don't know how hard this would be to implement, but I've got an idea for a more advanced texture packer.
Assuming that you're going to keep the TXL format/design for keeping textures, I was thinking it would be cool if we could make directories within the texture library to keep things organized when using them in the Level Editor.

Also, is it possible to make normal mapping for brushes easier?

[paradoxnj]

You won't have to pack textures in RF2. RF2 will be using standard ZIP files as it's pack format. Whatever a zip can do, RF2 can do.

[AndyCR]

I was thinking it would be cool if we could make directories within the texture library to keep things organized when using them in the Level Editor.

Yes, this is already possible, though it's not exposed to the level editor as such yet it is exposed to the game in a way similar to what you described.

Also, is it possible to make normal mapping for brushes easier?

In RF2, brushes are models and models are brushes as far as the engine is concerned. Any kind of material, plain or shaders of any kind including normal mapping, are applied to brushes and other objects the same way - they are defined in a material file with a name, and then you just apply that material name to your object. If you have a "NormalMappedWall" material, you apply "NormalMappedWall" to whatever object you want to have it and it will take care of it for you.

Disclaimer: The above post was written at about 2:00AM on a day I got up at 4:30AM. If I can't make sense of it when I wake up I'll edit it then.

[Destron]

Nope, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!

Also, what's the status on vertex and pixel shaders in RF2? Can RF2 do whatever OGRE is capable of?

EDIT: Arg, another question (sorry!): Will RF2 be able to use password-protected ZIP files?

[paradoxnj]

Yes. RF2 materials are nothing but Ogre material files. RF2 is based on Ogre and uses the Ogre rendering methods. Anything Ogre can do, RF2 can do.

[AndyCR]

EDIT: Arg, another question (sorry!): Will RF2 be able to use password-protected ZIP files?

I'm not sure; if Ogre can, yes, if not, no. I fail to see the point of them, though - the game has to know the password somehow, and the user has the game.

[paradoxnj]

Unfortunately, Ogre cannot do password protected Zip files.