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Altureus: Awesome! Why not Github? Is bitbucket better? I guess I'm just more aware of Github. I know a few people who are good with the shaders and 3D stuff if you need help, I'm sure they'd be willing to help out. I'm a part of the Star Wars Battlecry team responsible for voiceovers and sound, and sometimes music but it looks like Laserschwart has taken care of that already. Anyway, that's where the majority of my contacts are from.
The main reason I started using BitBucket is that it allows free private repositories. Github free ones are always public.
And the reason why I need a private repository is twofold:
- I cannot make the XWAU models public, and I have them as assest in the project, so I cannot use a public repository.
- I am scared to death of getting a Cease and Desist letter from the IP owners. Everything is okay as long as you keep it private. But as soon as you start putting "Star Wars" on your creations and distributing them, you will get "invited to stop". It has happened to many fan projects I have taken part of. The only hope I have with XWVM is that we are focusing it like an elaborate mod to an existing installation of X-Wing, not an independent free product.
I got mine working with the oculus rift but in the editor only. Building to a standalone gives an error about not being able to switch resolutions :( googling it doesn't offer any fixes.

It looks great in the editor though...makes you want to press buttons and stuff in the cockpit :D
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MjrParts: I got mine working with the oculus rift but in the editor only. Building to a standalone gives an error about not being able to switch resolutions :( googling it doesn't offer any fixes.

It looks great in the editor though...makes you want to press buttons and stuff in the cockpit :D
I wish I had an Oculus Rift to try it out. :) I need to get myself one.

Still implementing aspects of the AI, at the same time I have created the foundation for the cockpit. I have one person working on making an interior Y-Wing cockpit in 3D that mimics the one in the game. Meanwhile, I will place the instruments "floating" just in front of the camera.
I think, when/if we implement support for the VR headsets, the instruments should not be so much visible in the default POV. Instead, I think it would be better if the player needs to actually look away from the main window towards the instruments to read them.
Again, I have no VR headset, so I prefer listening to people that actually do have one. So what do you think about that?
Attachments:
xwvm.jpg (293 Kb)
I don't think looking away from the main view would be the way to look at instruments. Ideally, you would only move your eyes to check that stuff. If you look away to the left for instance, the instruments would appear outside the window?
If it's correct that Unity 5 allows rendering to textures in the free version now, everything should have it's place modeled within relevant places in the cockpit.
I've only just started dabbling with the rift and apart from the build error, another problem is the UI. I designed the menu screen to select faction and class with the old UI and this doesn't get rendered to the rift. It has it's own UI and needs text meshes or something. So you could have the original style HUD that stays in view all the time but apparently the rift user guide advises against that as it disorientates the viewer by spoiling the immersion.
I look forward to seeing yours. Mine is a long, long way off being playable, as I have no AI ships and still haven't figured out how to destroy multiplayer clients over a network. I'm happy to fly about in VR for now though :D

Another thing with VR... you really get a better sense of how big these ships are!
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MjrParts: I don't think looking away from the main view would be the way to look at instruments. Ideally, you would only move your eyes to check that stuff. If you look away to the left for instance, the instruments would appear outside the window?
If it's correct that Unity 5 allows rendering to textures in the free version now, everything should have it's place modeled within relevant places in the cockpit.
I've only just started dabbling with the rift and apart from the build error, another problem is the UI. I designed the menu screen to select faction and class with the old UI and this doesn't get rendered to the rift. It has it's own UI and needs text meshes or something. So you could have the original style HUD that stays in view all the time but apparently the rift user guide advises against that as it disorientates the viewer by spoiling the immersion.
I look forward to seeing yours. Mine is a long, long way off being playable, as I have no AI ships and still haven't figured out how to destroy multiplayer clients over a network. I'm happy to fly about in VR for now though :D

Another thing with VR... you really get a better sense of how big these ships are!
No, the instruments will stay fix on the cockpit's dashboard. Looking left or right will have exactly the same effect as using the Num Pad keys in X-Wing and TIE Fighter. That is, you stop seeing the instruments and instead you look around. I didn't like the virtual instruments in XWA.
I have yet to decide what to do with the angles where the pilot cannot see anything at all. Like for example, looking up on a Y-Wing, you would see only the cockpits ceiling, that isn't transparent. But probably the player doesn't want to see that. Instead, the old games showed some kind of computer screen showing out like if the ship would have a camera installed at different angles.
I am really sold to the idea of not having UI at all. Instead, having all UI elements built on to the instruments in the cockpit. Even goal tracker, damage control and message logs. Not only that would go well with a potential VR headset, but also that would clear up the screen.
The TIE fighters are better examples...apart from the little strips of hatch on the ceiling, you could only see out the front. With the headset on they are quite claustrophobic :D But, it's real (as real as something fictional can be haha)
Considering that both imperial and rebel pilots wear helmets and they have some kind of HUD in front of their eyes, we could make some kind of Picture-in-picture box that appears when the player looks at an angle that the game detects it's mostly blocked by the cockpit interior.
Think on it like some kind of screen that "falls" in front of the player's eyes like a welding mask does, and inside it shows the outside view that the player would see if he wouldn't be blocked by the ship's chassis.
I don't know if I am explaining myself clearly here... :P
I'm still around. Soon I'll be back from my long vacation and hopefully not long after that I will be able to upload a new version and open the code repository for a more open collaboration.
I'm more than happy to help out where the rift is concerned. I need to look into a way of making it an option in the stuff I'm messing with. At the moment, I've had to do 2 separate builds as a few things need changing and fiddling with.
Good to see the thread isn't knackered anymore! :)

edit...

just noticed they've added an r after star_wars on all the star wars board addresses. You'd think they'd link the old board addresses to the new :S
Post edited May 06, 2015 by MjrParts
Just wanted to say that I am tremendously excited by this project - the thought of being able to play X-Wing (and hopefully, in time, Tie Fighter) in antialiased 1080p with a controller makes me very happy indeed. I would be happy to volunteer as a beta tester when the time comes!

As a small thing for the suggestion pile, would it be possible to add a configurable deadzone when implementing joystick support? I say this as it's a real bugbear with some games and the 360 controller, e.g. XWA is annoyingly sensitive and can be difficult to play.
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scotsdezmond: Just wanted to say that I am tremendously excited by this project - the thought of being able to play X-Wing (and hopefully, in time, Tie Fighter) in antialiased 1080p with a controller makes me very happy indeed. I would be happy to volunteer as a beta tester when the time comes!

As a small thing for the suggestion pile, would it be possible to add a configurable deadzone when implementing joystick support? I say this as it's a real bugbear with some games and the 360 controller, e.g. XWA is annoyingly sensitive and can be difficult to play.
The deadzone is definitely something that I am putting in there. I don't own a 360 controller, but an older Logitech one, and the neutral position for one of the sticks seems to be off the center, and that makes the flight annoying without that deadzone setting. So don't worry about that. :)
The major problem I am having with the development is just time. I code this in my spare time and my spare time has been basically nonexistent in the past weeks. :S
But patience! I expect during this summer I will be able to have a demo to download.
It will require the GOG game purchased, whichever edition.
Okay, I have come to a point where the real ship stats start to matter in the simulation.
I have checked the ship stats from the BFlight.OVL file with the ship editor and, I have most of them.
However, I need to make sense of some of them to implement them in XWVM.
Let's see some examples:
X-Wing
Power: 300 Hull: 2100 FShield: 2500 RShield: 2500
Speed: 225 Accel: 12 Roll: 44 Pitch: 15

Y-Wing
Power: 250 Hull: 4200 FShield: 3750 RShield: 3750
Speed: 180 Accel: 8 Roll: 28 Pitch: 13

A-Wing
Power: 400 Hull: 1500 FShield: 2500 RShield: 2500
Speed: 270 Accel: 16 Roll: 60 Pitch: 18

B-Wing
Power: 250 Hull: 6300 FShield: 5000 RShield: 5000
Speed: 205 Accel: 12 Roll: 36 Pitch: 14

TIE-Fighter
Power: 100 Hull: 1000 FShield: 0 RShield: 0
Speed: 225 Accel: 15 Roll: 48 Pitch: 20

Lambda Shuttle
Power: 100 Hull: 2500 FShield: 5000 RShield: 5000
Speed: 150 Accel: 10 Roll: 40 Pitch: 13


Power
Looking at the different ships, it seems that all AI-only ships have Power 100. So I will assume it is a placeholder value, and has no purpose for the AI.
However, what does that stat actually do for the player? I know you can see the power rating changing on an instrument on the dashboard as you tweak the LSE configuration with F9 and F10. But what does it mean?

Speed and Acceleration
I think the speed in m/s is the Speed rating divided by 2.25, resulting in the Speed at 100% Throttle when the LSE configuration is at the default balanced state. That would give a speed of 100 to the X-Wing, that sounds spot on.
Now, is the acceleration rating given in straight m/s^2 or should it also be divided by 2.25?
Does an X-Wing speed up by 12 meters per square second, or by 5,3?

Roll and Pitch
Okay, these are the hard ones. Is this rating in degrees per second? This cannot be. Otherwise, a TIE Fighter with a pitch rating of 20, would do a 180 degree turn in 9 seconds by pitching up or down. That's absurd.
Maybe it needs to be multiplied by 10?
Then a TIE Fighter would do half a loop in 0,9 seconds, while a Y-Wing would take 1,38 second, with its pitch rating of 13.
Does it make sense?

Okay, Pitch is quite understandable, if only we need to find the right multiplier, but for me the Roll rating is a tougher bone. I just don't know what it means.
It clearly doesn't mean the angular speed of the ship rotating around the Z axis (being the Z axis the one that goes into the screen from the player position).
When you press your control left or right, your ship doesn't just yaw or roll, it does a mix of both, right?
Anyone knows in which proportions?
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Azrapse: Okay, I have come to a point where the real ship stats start to matter in the simulation.
I have checked the ship stats from the BFlight.OVL file with the ship editor and, I have most of them.
However, I need to make sense of some of them to implement them in XWVM.
Let's see some examples:
X-Wing
Power: 300 Hull: 2100 FShield: 2500 RShield: 2500
Speed: 225 Accel: 12 Roll: 44 Pitch: 15

Y-Wing
Power: 250 Hull: 4200 FShield: 3750 RShield: 3750
Speed: 180 Accel: 8 Roll: 28 Pitch: 13

A-Wing
Power: 400 Hull: 1500 FShield: 2500 RShield: 2500
Speed: 270 Accel: 16 Roll: 60 Pitch: 18

B-Wing
Power: 250 Hull: 6300 FShield: 5000 RShield: 5000
Speed: 205 Accel: 12 Roll: 36 Pitch: 14

TIE-Fighter
Power: 100 Hull: 1000 FShield: 0 RShield: 0
Speed: 225 Accel: 15 Roll: 48 Pitch: 20

Lambda Shuttle
Power: 100 Hull: 2500 FShield: 5000 RShield: 5000
Speed: 150 Accel: 10 Roll: 40 Pitch: 13

Power
Looking at the different ships, it seems that all AI-only ships have Power 100. So I will assume it is a placeholder value, and has no purpose for the AI.
However, what does that stat actually do for the player? I know you can see the power rating changing on an instrument on the dashboard as you tweak the LSE configuration with F9 and F10. But what does it mean?

Speed and Acceleration
I think the speed in m/s is the Speed rating divided by 2.25, resulting in the Speed at 100% Throttle when the LSE configuration is at the default balanced state. That would give a speed of 100 to the X-Wing, that sounds spot on.
Now, is the acceleration rating given in straight m/s^2 or should it also be divided by 2.25?
Does an X-Wing speed up by 12 meters per square second, or by 5,3?

Roll and Pitch
Okay, these are the hard ones. Is this rating in degrees per second? This cannot be. Otherwise, a TIE Fighter with a pitch rating of 20, would do a 180 degree turn in 9 seconds by pitching up or down. That's absurd.
Maybe it needs to be multiplied by 10?
Then a TIE Fighter would do half a loop in 0,9 seconds, while a Y-Wing would take 1,38 second, with its pitch rating of 13.
Does it make sense?

Okay, Pitch is quite understandable, if only we need to find the right multiplier, but for me the Roll rating is a tougher bone. I just don't know what it means.
It clearly doesn't mean the angular speed of the ship rotating around the Z axis (being the Z axis the one that goes into the screen from the player position).
When you press your control left or right, your ship doesn't just yaw or roll, it does a mix of both, right?
Anyone knows in which proportions?
I don't know about the low level operation of the game beyond what I can infer as a casual player, but I did a quick bit of experimentation if it helps:-

-Speed
In X-Wing 1993, using an X-Wing starting from a fully stopped state (speed 0), going to full throttle (speed 100) in a balanced power configuration (maintenance level for shields and lasers) takes 20 seconds, i.e. a measured acceleration of 5 m/s.

-Pitch
Again, in X-Wing 1993, an X-Wing at speed 0, pitching directly up using the keyboard, takes approx 8 seconds to pitch 360 degrees, i.e. perform a full vertical loop in a static position.
In the same Speed 0 state, using the keyboard to steer right does seem to do a mix of yaw and roll, resulting in an arc that forms a rough circle if the origin position is 12 o'clock. However, I say rough circle because using input that is only the right key, the original position is not returned at 12 o'clock, but is instead a few degrees higher (i.e. origin y + ~5 degrees). I would speculate that this is due to inaccuracies / rounding errors in the original flight engine.

I also found two documents online which may be of some use, both of which are vintage x-wing editing documents that contain observations about some of these features.

X-wing Ship Editor Readme - http://www.rebelsquadrons.org/xwing/files/xwse30.txt
X-wing Ship Designer's Guide - http://www.renegadewing.com/assets/zips/XWMDG.PDF (see page 34 and also Appendix A)

In the case of the latter document, one of the editing tools seems to use the following scales (it is implied that different editing tools use different scales):
Power
This field allows you to set the engine output of the ship. This affects how much energy is available to
recharge shields and lasers. The exact correlation of Power to recharge rate is unknown.
Hull
This field allows you to set the hull strength of the ship.
FShld
This field allows you to set the shield rating of the craft towards the front. Typically it should be identical
to the value for the rear shields.
RShld
This field allows you to set the shield factor of the craft towards the rear. Typically it should be identical
to the value for the front shields.
Speed
This field allows you to change the maximum speed at which the craft can travel when shields and lasers
are at normal recharge.
Accel
This field allows you to change the acceleration rate of the ship (change in velocity per second).
Roll
This field allows you to change the rate at which the ship rolls around its axis in degrees per second.
Pitch
This field allows you to change the rate at which the ship can change its angle of attack in degrees per
second.
Hopefully this is of some help!
Post edited June 27, 2015 by scotsdezmond
First of all I am very pleased of this idea and thread. I did not red through it all, though. :)

Of course, there are fields I disagree with, but it is not the point now.

So, I see quite a work is going on here to understand how the game works. I just red the last post. I've been extensively studying X-Wing '93, and made some results on ship characteristics (shield and hull ratings, speed, manouverabilty) and weapon characteristics. The above linked document (XWMDG.PDF) defined laser power merely damage as 5. In reality it is a bit more complicated!

If anyone can use these data let me know!
Post edited June 29, 2015 by Sekir_Delyn
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Sekir_Delyn: First of all I am very pleased of this idea and thread. I did not red through it all, though. :)

Of course, there are fields I disagree with, but it is not the point now.

So, I see quite a work is going on here to understand how the game works. I just red the last post. I've been extensively studying X-Wing '93, and made some results on ship characteristics (shield and hull ratings, speed, manouverabilty) and weapon characteristics. The above linked document (XWMDG.PDF) defined laser power merely damage as 5. In reality it is a bit more complicated!

If anyone can use these data let me know!
I can absolutely use them if you will share them.
I know overcharged lasers deal 5 damage and travel 1500m, while undercharged lasers probably deal and travel half those amounts. Also, I estimated laser speed at around 600m/s, but I might be remembering wrong, or remembering the speed of lasers in TIE Fighter or XvT, where they are faster.
I don't have numbers for ions. They travel slower and father away, that's everything I know.
Which fields you mentioned you disagree with?
Post edited June 29, 2015 by Azrapse