TIE Fighter addons

[Lenyoga 326]

After watching too much Star Wars Rebels and playing IL-2 Sturmovik I've decided to finally pick up the old TIE Fighter addons again.

 

Contrary to the previous fighters I made, the new ones will be based on fixed-wing aircraft instead of helicopters - the handling is much better and now even the weapons are doing just fine. I'll try to stick as close to the movies as possible (instead of the game TIE Fighter like last time), while filling in the blind spots with info from the EU/Legends.

 

 

Some screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

(Now let's get to the barrage of technical details)

- current units

The top speeds are somewhat variable, because they're depending on both mass, shape and maxSpeed value. I tried to come close to the values below, but most faster fighters don't really reach their top speed, which is alright because their acceleration is a lot better due to higher maxSpeed.

Spoiler

TIE Fighter - 2 x Ls-1 laser, 1200 km/h top speed

TIE Bomber (bomb loadout) - 2 x Ls-1 laser, 4 x proton bombs, 32 x thermal detonators, 850 km/h top speed

TIE Bomber (missile loadout) - 2 x Ls-1 laser, 4 x proton torpedoes, 8 x concussion missiles, 2 x proton rockets

TIE boarding shuttle - 2 x Ls-1 laser

TIE VIP shuttle - unarmed, shields

TIE Interceptor - 4 x Ls-9.3 laser, 1500 km/h

TIE Defender - 4 x Ls-9.3 laser, 2 x ion cannon, 2 x multi purpose warhead launchers, shields, 1680 km/h top speed

TIE Advanced x1 - 2 x Ls-9.3 laser, shields, 1200 km/h top speed

 

 

- flight system

Spoiler

The fighters are based on the plane class, steering values for both players and AI have been tweaked - AI seems to handle it well enough. Now and then they crash or fire into each other when swarming an enemy. They also don't like evading tall buildings, but I guess that's natural.

Currently there's no takeoff and landing script. The faster TIE variants are able to take off almost instantly, but I will implement a takeoff system for hangars and launch bays and the shuttle variants as well.

Acceleration now works well without scripts, because I've tweaked the maxSpeed values to allow some variation there. AI and player are on par in terms of acceleration.

The weird geometry and light weight make them somewhat easier to steer than other planes. In some cases I even reached a near-hovering speed and managed to do precision landings on platforms. AI units aren't able to maneuver as sharply as players, so they are at an disadvantage against human players.

 

- weapon system

Spoiler

The current system for the lasers is based on the machine gun class. Custom tracer objects are positioned (and adjusted) to the cannons using a drop effect that utilizes memory points as position reference. This system has proven to be the best one so far. Although I do miss the turrets the helicopters can have...

I'm using a fire check function along with several repositioning scripts for each laser type and firing mode. Invisible bullet objects are placed along the tracers with correct velocity (while the original bullet is removed), to give each individual laser a chance of hitting a target. I tested it on my old laptop at home, even with extreme frame drops it still fires and hits - there is a failsafe in place to prevent floating tracers if the script doesn't fire correctly.

 

 

Download here: [v0.99 beta] http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-wars-tie-fighters/downloads

 

If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas or threats, this is the time and the place.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Lenyoga
Updates

[Macser 776]

Wow. I didn't expect to see anyone else to wade into a SW project. Excellent. I like what I'm seeing so far. I'm surprised you didn't have more problems with those blaster bolts. They seem to work fairly well though. 

[Lenyoga 326]

On 22.4.2017 at 7:14 PM, Macser said:

I'm surprised you didn't have more problems with those blaster bolts.

I'm surprised about this myself. The quad lasers just need some fixing now, I think a light velocity script that uses the vehicle's velocity vector as basis might be a good idea.

 

The exterior of the standard TIE Fighter is done, the textures are basic color with some shading and bumps (it looks better on the pictures because of Blender's ambient occlusion feature.) Next up will be the cockpit, which is the real challenge I think.

 

[Macser 776]

That's looking fantastic Len. Will you be keeping the glass opaque?  I know the reasons why you might want to. But I was curious nonetheless. 

[Lenyoga 326]

1 minute ago, Macser said:

That's looking fantastic Len. Will you be keeping the glass opaque?  I know the reasons why you might want to. But I was curious nonetheless. 

I'm planning to make the glass transparent, with a low detail interior plus pilot proxy in the closest LOD and some flat pseudo-interior in less close ones. I first thought I might keep it completely 2d, but the hatch would be animated, so I'd have to do it either way.

[ProfTournesol 956]

This is very impressive, great job mate 

[Lenyoga 326]

The basic 3d work with most of the textures for the cockpit is done, all that's missing is the joystick and all the displays. It's kind of a challenge to construct the interior based on the movies, but there were pictures of an exhibition of sorts with a 1:1 TIE Fighter model. That helped a lot. Here's the blue proxy man in his cockpit.

 

[Macser 776]

What ever the reference you're using it looks great. 

[Lenyoga 326]

The last one for today:

Bypassing the transparency bug worked. I think it's the first time I said that. It already works well enough in the game, and the AI seems to aim better now, too. Maybe that's because of the new cockpit.

 

[Lenyoga 326]

The interior is pretty much done and as close to the movies as possible while still adding a little bit of interesting stuff. I will have to adjust the pilot's posture again (somehow OFPanim doesn't really correspond with the p3d anymore) and relocate the status and "radar" (artificial horizon) display, because they're being blocked by the joystick.

 

[Lenyoga 326]

The TIE Interceptor is now basically done, too. It also needs a more optimized paint job and a more functional 0-LOD and a few lower-polycount LODs. The TIE Defender is basically working, the model is just pieces from the Interceptor rearranged with the addition of the two torpedo proxies in the front (which need a better 3d model too).

 

 

I've also improved the proton bomb/torpedo particle effects and added some damage/explosion effects. To somehow simulate the TIE Defender's shields, I've added a script that detonates incoming missiles early to greatly reduce or even nullify their damage - it's deactivated after a certain damage threshold. Next up is the TIE Bomber 3d model, then I'm on to reworking the textures a bit and adding the LODs. I'm still somewhat undecided about adding Vader's TIE, as it doesn't serve any specific combat role and probably wouldn't appear in a lot of missions as a regular craft.

 

Performance-wise it looks like we're still good, it still runs okay with 70-80 of those things in the air doing battle (on desert island.)

[Macser 776]

What ever you come up with scripting wise, will be the icing on the triple layered cake. The models look excellent. 

 

This is purely a personal question, rather than criticism or complaint. But is the blue colour reflecting your own taste? Or are you going off some reference?

[Lenyoga 326]

2 minutes ago, Macser said:

This is purely a personal question, rather than criticism or complaint. But is the blue colour reflecting your own taste? Or are you going off some reference?

I was going by the Return of the Jedi TIE Interceptor but the coloring on the current version is still off. I'll tone it down quite a bit in the final version.

The confusing bit about that is that they used white-gray in the first two movies, then this blue-gray in the third one. I guess I'll go for something in between.

[Macser 776]

I didn't realise there was such a blue tint. You can see it clearly in that first image though.

[Lenyoga 326]

1 minute ago, Macser said:

I didn't realise there was such a blue tint. You can see it clearly in that first image though.

It's like the Emperor thought that Imperial Navy doctrine had to be reformed - a little color makes the pilots less suicidal.

[Macser 776]

I just had a look, and apparently it's a fairly common question. Seems to have been a combination of filming technology at the time of the first one compared to the later two. Looks like the originals were supposed to be bluer, but it messed with the filming technique. By the time ROTJ came round it seems they sorted out the issue and added a bit more blue .

 

Anyway. I wasn't making a roundabout request for a repaint. I don't see anything wrong with the blue tint personally. 

[Lenyoga 326]

2 minutes ago, Macser said:

I just had a look, and apparently it's a fairly common question. Seems to have been a combination of filming technology at the time of the first one compared to the later two. Looks like the originals were supposed to be bluer, but it messed with the filming technique. By the time ROTJ came round it seems they sorted out the issue and added a bit more blue .

 

Anyway. I wasn't making a roundabout request for a repaint. I don't see anything wrong with the blue tint personally.

Sounds about right, I think blue screen would have been problematic for the bluer models... The way I've set up my Gimp files makes it easy to simply swap out the color layer without any troubles, so I I'll just correct the hue when the time is right.

[Lenyoga 326]

Yeah, the movie model hue is about right I'd say - this is what it looks like in nice weather in the game. Also, explosion effect, I got lucky with a screenshot.

 

 

Is there a way to have the screenshots appear smaller in this forum? The old img code makes it all appear a little huge on my screen...

[Marc13Bautista 60]

SEXY

[Lenyoga 326]

10 hours ago, Marc13Bautista said:

SEXY

Thank you! Mother always said the blue skin really brings out my red eyes.

 

Oh, you mean the TIEs... fair enough.

[Lenyoga 326]

TIE Bomber 3d model is almost done, UV mapping and texturing are still in progress.

Meanwhile, here's how an A10 is doing against a couple of TIE Interceptors: YouTube Link

[spad 64]

great job lenyoga !! your tie interior is perfect, (and i love the blue ;)  ) 

i especially like the explosion effect of the tie (specific one i suppose), you should work with macser on the same map world for all your marvellous star wars addons, how do you make the different panel so luminous for the tie ? in the dark inside of the fighter they are so great.

I take a great pleasure to follow your progress on the different sci fi project you have keep on :)

[Marc13Bautista 60]

I really can't wait to go into editor mode and have a dogfight with these things! Glad CWA isn't dead!

[Lenyoga 326]

3 hours ago, spad said:

how do you make the different panel so luminous for the tie ? in the dark inside of the fighter they are so great.

 

I'm using additional triangles which only have the red lights as texture - those are set to 'shining' in O2. The rest of the cockpit uses a little bit of baked red lighting from Blender.

 

3 hours ago, Marc13Bautista said:

I really can't wait to go into editor mode and have a dogfight with these things! Glad CWA isn't dead!

 

They're already performing pretty well! Except for all the friendly fire, but I could blame that on Imperial Navy doctrine.

I'm already looking forward to having them explode against Macser's X-Wings! Maybe there is some asteroid field map or something similar out there, if not, I could try to come up with something in WRPedit or Visitor/Poseidon (but that's future music, I don't quite remember how to use these anymore anyway).

[Macser 776]

That's the other area I'm not well acquainted with myself. Terrain editing. I think mappers are as rare these days as hard core scripters. The best we can do in the meantime is create some quality addons I think. 

 

As for spad's suggestion, I think we are working together, in a way,  just on separate elements of the universe. I've opted not to bother with imperial craft after seeing Lenyoga's work so far. He's doing his thing and I'm doing mine. But the results should work well together.