RF 2 Discussion

Post by **AndyCR** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:18 am

i dont know about riddick since ive never seen it to my reccolection, and i dont want to get anyone's expectations higher than they should be, but i can say that it will be capable of d3 generation graphics. i'm not saying much, but it might even be capable of better.

i created a post about rf2 feature requests.

Post by **AndyCR** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:53 am

i'm going to hold screenshots back due to first impressions, if it shows anything related to rf2's graphical quality - however, heres a screenshot of rf2:

http://www.freewebs.com/andycr/itsastart.JPG

nothing except the loading screen are hard coded, and that is only hardcoded temporarily. no, it's not actually loading anything in that picture, but for instance, it centers the loading bitmap, loads the setup information from the rf ini file, and so on.

next stop: menu code. this will be a long one, though considering how quickly the rest has gone, that probably dosen't mean much.

BTW - the loading screen is a jpg. i think i mentioned it has native jpg support.

expect to say "wait - whats new?" alot when you see screenshots of rf2 at first - but thats what i want you to say, since i'm trying, beyond the vast graphical departure, my hardest to stay as close to rf's roots as possible.

Post by **AndyCR** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:56 pm

well, i have some bad news. there is a setback...

i was trying the menu code, and uon loading the background image, it is blurry. after some digging, i found that the background (640x480) was being scaled up to 1024x512, then scaled back down to 640x480 by Irrlicht. that would explain it. the difficult part is how to solve it.

i have a link to a class someone wrote which supposedly fixes it. ill have to look into that.

if i use software mode to draw the menu, it loads great. however, there would be a closing and opening of the window whenever you left or came back to the menu, and it would be a pain to code.

i could write code to break the image into smaller, compliant pieces. this may work, but would likely be more time consuming than is practical.

i will try the first option and see what happens.

Post by **AndyCR** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:15 pm

i've improved image quality drmatically by disabling mipmaps for the menu, but it still isnt quite as good as rf's. keep in mind this will only be for the menu and other images that are not powers of two.

what do you guys think? is the image "withoutmips" good enough, or should i try to get it better? original rf is included for comparison, as is how blurry it was with mipmaps. I really need everyone to give their vote in this. Keep in mind i can always change it later.

n321 · Post by **n321** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:29 pm

Riddick! (you must play demo!!!)

Without mips looks sharper and imo better but thats just mo

Post by **AndyCR** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:49 pm

oh, it definitly does, just wondering, is without mips high enough quality that i dont have to look any further for a solution?

looks great!

n321 · Post by **n321** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:13 pm

I think so...ya. does it compair to other games's menus? thats how you should rate your stuff

Post by **AndyCR** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:24 am

the image quality is a tiny bit lower, because the engines stretching it out and then shrinking it again. but other than that, it shouldnt be a problem. took a little bit of a break from rf2, im taking a trip starting Wednesday, i should be able to work on rf2 quite a bit while im gone. before then there will be alot of packing and work, so dont expect much in terms of rf2 "public relations" for lack of a better term for about 9 days.

again, i stress that this lack of image quality only applies to the menu and other bitmaps that are not powers of two (which are almost none).

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:51 am

This might be a good animation package Cal3d Very cool looking imvu uses it with their instant messenger thing.

Post by **AndyCR** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:14 pm

ill have to look into that, thanks.

posting from a hospital library on my trip, with a wonderful cold - long story...

Post by **AndyCR** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:29 pm

RF2's coming extremely slowly, simply cant seem to focus on rf2 dev in a hospital... so used to my nice desktop monitor, familiar keyboard height and a mouse... gosh is a touchpad useless for a whole days work... cant wait till i can use an actual MOUSE again... lugging a 20 - 25 pound bag around 12 hours a day isn't too fun either...

i plan on trying to make some progress soon, however. cold's mainly gone away, luckily.

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:05 pm

hey you might be able to port it over to mac. macport release

Post by **AndyCR** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:13 pm

perfect! to my knowledge rf2 currently will compile on pc, mac osx, and linux with no mods or hacks. just pass it to the appropriate compiler on your platform of choice.

rethinking alot of rf2, now taking a break from coding and designing alot, similar to what Nout does.

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:28 pm

YES!

I'm glad.

But how will you add physics that is compatible with both and other things. Will simkin work with mac?

Post by **AndyCR** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:54 pm

ill have to look into that seriously. its a good question. im pretty sure it would. i think ode is cross platform, ill have to see.

i dont remember if i said this before, so ill say it now...

rf2's code is designed so that most components can be placed into another project and work just fine. this means that updating it will be easier, and when rf2 needs a complete rewrite(which i doubt will be for a very long time, likely longer than rf1), alot, dare i say most, of the code from rf2 will go right into it with no issues.

im reevaluating my programming style, my work in the past due to language constraints has been quite procedural, and im really breaking away from that in rf2. rf2 is so object oriented it's incredible... however, don't think that means it's slow. it starts extremely quickly, and even though it's still in a very early state, it already obviously has a graphics engine loading with it. the fact that it loads almost instantly on a medium-low-end system is very encouraging.

i wish i could post screenshots, but i -really- dont want to let first impressions kill, or over-excite, rf2.