joltan
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Posts posted by joltan
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Whew, just got my Apcalypse Now Redux dvd today. After seeing this movie again, I can't barely wait to get a Huey (and a Littlebird or whatever the other Heli from the big chopper scene is called) for OFP.
We already got the boat (unfortunately only with the front machine gun), so you modellers just have to give us the chopper and the tropical river delta to play with.
Eviscerator, I just hope that you succeed in finishing that chopper soon, looks very promising.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ April 16 2002,12:27)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Edit: Also you could digitize the elevation data from topographic maps (1:25000 scale or better recomended) and generate the elevation modell yourself.
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I was thinking about doing this. I have access to tons of maps but I'm not sure if it will be legal to use them because they are produced by defense mapping agency<span id='postcolor'>
Mhhh... I guess this depends if they are considered confidential. Usually if you buy a topographic map and generate your own dem manually from it, it's perfectly legal to put the dem to whatever use you plan to. Of course that's for comercial maps, not military stuff.
Also comercial topographic maps aren't very expensive and if you plan to generate the dem manually you won't be able to process too many of them anyway (lots of work and not much fun). So why not just grab a comercial map instead of the dod ones?
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ April 15 2002,20:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Also be aware that it is hard to find good DEM's for other parts of the world. (Outside of U.S.)<span id='postcolor'>
Not really, it's not that hard to find good DEMs (50m or sometimes even better) for most parts of the world - you just have to pay for them.
Here in Germany a km˛ (at 50x50m grid resolution) costs about 3€ if you buy data for less than 5000 km˛ and gets cheaper if you buy more (down to around 0.30€/km˛ for more than 50000 km˛). Of course 25m, 10m or 5m resolution are much more expensive. For a standard OFP map (12.5x12.5km) that would be around 375 US$ (less if you consider that the islands won't really occupy the whole map area). Probably too expensive for a noncomercial addonon, but definitely available.
Hell, you get these even for tropical forests in Mexico (used one once - good quality, delivered as GeoTIF by INEGI). Just check the website of the country's (or state's) geography and mapping department when looking for dem data for any part of the world.
Edit: Also you could digitize the elevation data from topographic maps (1:25000 scale or better recomended) and generate the elevation modell yourself.
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Got to add something to this topic:
I just installed the demo version (1.42) on my girlfriends notebook today - also a Sony Vaio (P3-mobile 1GHz, Intel onboard graphics, 512MB ram, XP home edition - running in 16bit@1024x768 in DirectX mode).
The demo runs fine, but somehow most landscape textures are missing (also all the buildings and some trees). There's no difference when selecting hardware T&L or Glide alternatively.
If you want, I can collect more detailed specs tomorrow. Looks a bit like the winter islands...
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Hobo Sniper @ April 14 2002,02:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">BTW: OFP is ONLY $29.99 last time I checked in some US stores... where'd you pay like $100s of dollars for just 1 copy of OFP?<span id='postcolor'>
Don't know, gold edition cost me about 40€ (around 35 US$) when I bought it. But most probably it wasn't US dollars that the talk was about, but AUS or NZ dollars (still it would be very expensive).
About the TDK - I don't think so. At least according to the CloneCD website (http://www.elby.org/CloneCD/english/index.htm - see under CloneCD 3.0/supported cd-writers) it doesn't have this ability.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ALDEGA @ April 13 2002,13:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I know you pay for the license. But how could you protect that?<span id='postcolor'>
You can't - not without an uncrackable copy protection (something that - like the perpetuomobile - just doesn't exist). But then they'd have to offer a cheap and fast solution for people to get another copy if their original copy gets ruined.
Fast means (to me) not more than one or two days, cheap means only the cost for the cd and p&p (shouldn't be more than maybe 3-5 euros). Still, I'd probably feel ripped off and I'd surely be angry for not having being able to make a backup in time.
And what would keep me from telling them that my cat ate the cd for lunch, while in fact I gave it to a friend?
There is no way to protect intelectual property, if you want to give it away (like selling your game). Once it's out of your own head, it's basically free game.
The only things that keep people from stealing it are either the fact that they don't need it, that they can't get it for free (so they have to buy it) or that they want to pay for it (to support the developer, because of moral scruples or fear of prosecution). Of course legal restrictions and prosecution of software pirates help a bit, but you simply can't expect a fouteen year old kid to have any scruples about using a pirate copy (hell, I had no scruples when I played Frogger as a kid).
One solution would be a personalized version of the software - but then you'd have the problem to produce a different version for every user. And they'd still have to keep it uncrackable while allowing for backups and the possibility to resell the license second-hand or to give it away as a present, etc.
Oh hell... It's a dilema the industry has no proper solution for (regarding customer rights and needs), so they use crap like SafeDisk that offer no real protection but restricts their customers. At least according to german law the backup copy, selling my license to another person or giving it as a present is something they can't restrict, even if they wanted to - it's a right our federal laws grant me.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (theavonlady @ Mar. 14 2002,14:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">So, once you've successfully created a backup CD that won't cause FADE to kick in, please post the detailed steps you peformed, so that others can do the same without searching for crack/warez sites.<span id='postcolor'>
All you need is a cd-writer that supports correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns (check your manual). Then make a copy (raw mode for data and audio, no error correction). Enjoy.
I have a Plextor cd-writer (Plexwriter 24/10/40A), works fine. It only takes about 15 minutes alltogether.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ALDEGA @ April 13 2002,11:34)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">If there wouldn't be any cd protection, wouldn't lots of people copy the game instead of buying it? Wouldn't the very fact of not protecting it at all be like "hey guys please don't buy our game, just copy it, we didn't include any protection so you can freely copy it, go ahead, make us happy"?<span id='postcolor'>
Well I don't know - I have a cd-writer that is able to copy the ofp cd (and other protected cds) as is - no special background tool needed. And still, all my games are originals, no copies. I play with a backup cd, but the original stands right behind me on a board.
I don't see copy protection providing any advantage to the industrie. It's a question of moral and ethics not of protection. If people want to make ilegal copies, they can. On the other hand copy protection prevents those that lack the criminal energy to circumvent it (or the money to buy the right hardware) to make legal backups.
When you buy a game (or other software) you buy a license. That means that only a small part of what you paid is for the cd or manual, most is for the right to use the software and thus for the effort the company put into developing it (intelectual property). Your lizense isn't bound to a certain piece of hardware or a certain cd, it's nothing that you can grab with you hands - it is a right of use! You can legally make a backup of any cd you own, as long as you are the one using it.
As for the need to make backups - I had cds get ruined (lucky me!
). Since then I always use a backup. -
I noticed that too. I had an enemy M2 (East), the gunner already dead for some time, and the friendly apc that came to help me (after the m2 gunner was already killed) started immediately shooting on the empty gun, ignoring all remaining hostiles in the area. It was a night mission, too.
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@ALDEGA - regarding w-buffer
What exactly does the w-buffer do? It seems to improve image quality, but does it have any performance penalties (e.g. on a GF2 Ti, XP driver version 2312)?
@DV Chris Death - regarding MP editor
Well, I think I'll have to pass on it. No way I'm shutting down my firewall (ZoneAlarmPro - my comp is always online) just to edit missions. I gave it client and server rights for the local intranet, but as soon as I press the "new" button, the game stops dead: the screen goes black, the "loading screen" shows up and then... nothing. And it's a clean 1.46 installation - no inofficial addons.
@DV Chris Death - regarding check of addons folder
As ALDEGA mentioned the game does already check the addons while it starts up. I guess it creates an temporary index so the resources can be accessed much faster during gameplay. You can see this also by adding a new unit while the game's already up running. The new unit won't be available in the editor (or through scripts) before you restart the game.
In order to validate a request for any resource (like when using the 'addweapon' command) only this index has to be checked. That shouldn't take much time.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (DV Chris Death @ April 09 2002,19:56)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
OK first you said it's anoying, because you have to hope to
have saved the game before trying it.
...
Now we arrived at missing addons.
Well, BIS would do that only for official addons/weapons/magizines etc.. - they could create
a database where all those would be inside, and you could
do a quick (?) check, if all
(if they really would do it).
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Ok, first of all, I can see that your're having a good time making fun of me, while I try to explain something that really annoys me. How nice of you. I'm not the spoiled kid that want's the developers to change his stinking nappies. I think (and you may disagree) that my concern is justified. Lecturing me won't change that opinion a bit. If you're having a bad day just get yourself a punching ball or go for a walk.
1. It is annoying if the game crashes - wether you loose everything or nothing at all. Often at least the last edits are lost.
2. It is not nescessary to create any database. Just check before you execute the mission. The parser reads the mission.sqm (and probably the scripts, too) and checks if the resources needed can be found in the addons folder. If one can't be found it's either a typo or a missing resource. It's that easy.
My concern is primarly about typos being able to crash the engine. Well, if a possible solution to this can also help under other circumstances (missing addons) then it just makes even more sense to implement something like it.
After explaining all this for the third time now I will not repeat it again for you. Discussion finished - let's agree to disagree.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (DV Chris Death @ April 08 2002,17:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
And a typo is a typo, and you can't expect a program to be able to deal with wrong written words (especially at keywords) a game, where you can change settings in initialisation routines (and there are many changes you can do) can't be able to understand wrong written stuff.<span id='postcolor'>
Software can not be expected to correct the errors made by the user, but to recognise them as such and react accordingly.
Typos are something everybody writing a parser has to expect and prepare for. BIS obviously did that as most typos in scripts won't crash the game, not even abort the mission, as long as they don't concern a resource (like a weapon's name).
The point I complained about was not that the program aborted processing my mission, but that the whole software crashed!
I mean, aborting the mission and presenting an error message is one thing, crashing to the desktop is another.
So why not check at the start if all resources needed by a mission are available? Spelling errors would surface without crashing the system (as there obviously are no "nvgoogles" in the game), and it would be less frustrating if you found out that you're missing some small addon for the mission you just downloaded and that the mission designer unfortunately forgot to mention in his readme file. BIS obviously hasn't implemented such a check, but it can't really be very difficult do.
BTW: Thanks for the hint with the MP editor - I'll have a look at it.
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@DV Chris Death
Oh, so it's a feature, not a bug? The game crashes when I try the preview (to test things out, as you recommended), just because of a typo! That's a bug, even if I did the spelling error. I would expect an error message and the chance to correct the problem without having to restart the game.
About the saving of missions: I save my work regularly, but as it happens sometimes I make some changes and test them and forget to save the mission before I do. Of course, this is an error by me, not the software. Still, it happens - and what leads to desaster is not that I forgot to save, but how easy it is to crash the software.
Never used the MP editor (and haven't seen such a thing - there's a seperate editor for that?), as I only create singleplayer missions.
So here I stand and still claim: the software shouldn't crash because of something as small as a typo in a weapons name.
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It's a really nice one . Best thing to get rid of those damn fortified M2 machine gun posts. Haven't tried it against APCs yet, but the old beta modell was more or less useless against them.
If only it would work with hw t&l (this gun being actually the reason for asking my question about hw t&l in this forum).
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Something that really annoys me: the f*cking parser.
When using the addweapon-command in a units init line and you spell the weapon wrong (like "nvgoogles" instead of "nvgoggles") the game crashes to the desktop. You can only hope you saved before that happens, because else you'd have to redo the whole mission...
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I'd recommend to install the latest updates for XP and OFP. The XP updates also contain a new driver for your NVidia card (besides the load of security updates that you really should install anyway). Never had any problems with the updates, all to the contrary. But then I don't have to use a slow modem connection to download them.
The game has obviously a high cpu load independently of the graphics adapter used. There's just so much more to ofp then the 3d graphics. Try stopping programs running in the background and use a tool like NVmax or other NVidia teak utilities (there are better ones than NVmax).
OFP runs very smoothly on my XP professional (Athlon XP1700+, GForce 2 Ti, Gigabyte VIA266A-motherboard, 1 GB ddr ram), usually playing in HW T&L mode, with antivirus software, personal firewall and internet connection running all the time in the background. I never had the system crash because of ofp, only a few crashes to the desktop when editing missions (give ofp a weaponname it doesn't know and it will crash faster than you can say "sh*t!").
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This might be a dumb question, but then...
There's a load of weapon addons that has problems with hardware T&L, i.e. if activated the muzzle flash is always visible, due to the modells being based on ones from the old demo.
Human players of course can see this flash, giving them a a big advantage at night time. But what about the ai? Does the ai recognice it only when the weapon is fired or can it also "see" the flash at other times.
I guess it can't, but does anybody know?
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Rob @ Mar. 02 2002,09:53)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i aint sure mate! all i can say is practise moving them at different distances to see which is more likely to hit!<span id='postcolor'>
Well, I found a solution to my problem (hinted to me on one of the german OFP forums): One AA unit and a machine gunner.
If the AA missile misses, the machine gun will at least make enough noise to make the effekt of the SETDAMMAGE command more believable. Also, the tracer bullets add a lot of atmosphere to the scene (especially at dusk or dawn).
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That's what I'm doing: aa1 dotarget heli1, and a few moments later: aa1 dofire heli1 (for each unit aa1 to aa4 seperately).
They have a free field of fire (no obstacles) and enough time to target. The helicopter is just about 200 meters away and flying at very low velocity as it approaches one of it's waypoints. Of course it's even daylight, just to make it even easier...
It's not a problem to start them shooting at the right tagets - it's that they miss far too often. What I need is a way to ensure a hit.
As it is now i have to cripple the heli (heli1 setdammage 0.7) and use 4 (four!) AA soldiers to get a 95% chance of succeding. In some cases they miss even then - that's why I use heli1 setdammage 1 on the chopper after the shooting anyway. But that solution doesn't satisfy me very much. During gameplay I couldn't care less - Â but I need that hit for the intro.
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Is there a way to force a hit by a AI controlled soldier? I know the SETDAMMAGE parameter, but it just looks silly if you have the AA soldier shoot and miss the heli and then he falls down anyway. I'm asking this because I want to make cut scenes where helis or tanks/apc get shoot down - and I want to see the missile hit!
As it is now, I either use 4 soldiers at 100% (and the helicopter at already 70% dammage - so he falls even if hit by only one missile) - I'd prefer to use only one, instead of a battery that scores more misses than hits. They have a good view of their target, lot's of time for aiming, the AI is on SUPER-level and still... hell the heli even hovers for a moment over one of his waypoints, just to give them a good shot.
Any ideas how to secure the hit for cinematic purposes?
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Hehe, when I was juggling a bit with mines (I wanted a remote controlled impressiv car bomb), I was first quite annoyed that the cars flew dozends of meters on just a single HEAT125. THEN I remembered, that the trigger was locked to the car (carbomb="HEAT125" camcreate getpos car in the on activation field of my radio trigger)...
Ever tried to propell your foes to the stars by using successive explosions? A few hundred meters of horizontal distance can be covered without any problems. You just touch off of one bomb after the other... Orion drive for the poor!!!
Of course there's no way to control the direction your "Bombrocket" is going off to, and sometimes the shells miss the tumbling car (they can be seen falling to the ground where they explode) and your projectile start's crashing down. But what the heck - it's just pure fun. You could even start playing pingpong or something with it... Â
Terrain modeling with dem's
in ADDONS & MODS: COMPLETE
Posted
I'd like Corsica or Creta, but I guess they're just (a little
bit) too big. I guess the Falklands will be done by the guys from the Falklands mod (I think there was such a message on the ofpinternals forum). Mhhh... What about a group of medium sized islands that fit in one map? Arctic or maybe caribean style (with a reef perimeter!
).