Epic Code Release 3b

Wow!
Haven't had a chance to test this until now.

Wow.

Couple points.
1. Are you using LunarCell to make the planets? If not, that should help (it's a PS plugin for fractal generating planet (earth, gas, rock, cloud, etc) maps).
2. Have you removed traffic? Or am I just not hunting enough?
3. Tab will go to LF and close LF; if you click exit you go back to UniGUI. If this is intentional, fine: it's sure easier for me than pressing CTRL-ALT U to get to UG: just hit tab, then click exit.
4. Haven't encountered any bugs yet, that I know of.

www.battletechmodproductions.com/
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter, 10 Aug. 1787

I'm going to take a crack at answering two of these. Since I'm not in the Epic group, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Are you using LunarCell to make the planets? If not, that should help (it's a PS plugin for fractal generating planet (earth, gas, rock, cloud, etc) maps).

I'm going to guess that they are not. They are probably using the standard planet maps. If a new one is used for each planet, the image files would take up an enormous amount of space. The engine does allow many unique planets to be created with a just a few different maps. Every planet is made by combining two greyscale planet maps, then each one is assigned a color. With this system, you could say, make a planet with some stretches of blue ocean and a dark gray land covered in large cracks. There are many posibilities.

Have you removed traffic? Or am I just not hunting enough?

The game's traffic creation code does not work with the POG generated stations that will be used in Epic. I do not believe GrandpaTrout has written new traffic code yet, or at least I don't think he's released it.

Hello all,

Thanks for the note about EpicUniGui. It is clear I need to go clean up and post new content to the web site. I have a release to get out first, and then I will take care of that.

EricMan is right. Our textures are a mix of two texture files. Randomized actually, so even I have no idea what the planets are going to look like until I fly around and look. Which is pretty cool! Cambragol did the planet textures. And I think they have a neat 3d kind of look to them. I have even thought about putting in a few low orbit missions, so you have to get a close view.

And the traffic is vanishing by the day. This next release will wipe out the old traffic script entirely. And I don't have new traffic to replace it. [I do need someone to add some dockpoint nulls to the station models before stations can launch and recover cargo.]

Hmm. I thought the tab dropped you back into space. I will have to give that another test run. I like having location finder on the Tab. Especially now that most of the stations are off the map. You really need location finder.

Downloading LunarCell now. I am looking forward to messing around with this. I love building planets!

-Gtrout

Yeah, Lunarcell will generate color, bump, spec, cloud...and even illumination (for good city areas).

Re: traffic: I was pretty sure that various pieces of Epic code precluded EoC traffic, but I coulda swore I saw a reference of MajorTom doing some pirating, so I didn't know whether it was just me not seeing traffic.

Hitting Tab again /does/ drop you back into space; I mean clicking exit. Clicking Exit will put you in UG, even if you didn't start there (i.e. if you opened LF via tab). Which as I said is fine because tab is easier than CTRL-ALT U. Just for consistency's sake I point this out.


www.battletechmodproductions.com/
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter, 10 Aug. 1787

Yeh, I did run into some traffic once at an L-point. I don't recall which L-point it was, though. There were 2 freighters and an escort. I tried to pirate them and promptly got my tail whipped.

That was back with code release 3a. Since release 3b, I've been in nearly every system, looking for nice cut-scene locations, and haven't seen any traffic at all.


Have Gun, Will Travel