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Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 09:13:00
by Snake Man
Falcon 4 Theater development needs some help. We are looking for:

TEXTURE ARTISTS to create terrain texture (tile) sets for Operation Desert
Storm and Vietnam theaters. These include roads, rivers, air base backgrounds
and remaining generic tiles.

BETA TESTERS who are willing to seek out any bugs in the theaters. please, only
serious beta testers need to apply for this task.

CAMPAIGN CREATORS who are going to make the existing campaigns work perfectly
including linking the objectives in a theater, and also to create some new
interesting campaigns.

REALISM EXPERTS who will gather realistic / historical data to be used in the
falcon database and also in the campaigns. This includes the aircraft squadrons,
ground units, features and related items.

If you are interested, please email me at nospam or use contact page for IRC info (real time).

Lets get this show going and share the theater development task to more people.

Thank you very much.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 10:50:00
by 87th_striker
Count me in, Snake Man ... I'll mail something over to you.

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 10:58:00
by Ninja
Snakeman
be happy to help as a beta tester

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 11:18:00
by kinggeorge
Tiles would be cool - need to get Photoshop first i guess - ima Paintshop pro junkie :D
Then some good aerial pics... :/

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 12:27:00
by Butcher_ss
Hey snake man, I can be a beta tester if you want me to. I can do some background research for the squadrons that took place in these conflicts but I do not promise anything. I shall send you an e-mail

Butcher_ss.

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 13:43:00
by ccc
always here. just too buzy with 3d stuff.
will try to help vnam..

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 14:44:00
by CAG
Snakeman,

You can count on my input in either Historical Research, or Campaign Creator as I have many ideas for new campaigns. Especially for tieing together an Iraqi and North Korean campaign for US and Allied Forces facing 2 concurrent wars...

Just let me know if you need my help.

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-08 15:28:00
by CAG
This is what I had in mind...(From the F4C Forum)...

"CAG Hotshot
Captain


Registered: Jun 2001
Location:
Posts: 117


Errr........ What I had intended for this string....

Was how we could build a new campaign for F4 based around these current events and where they could possibly lead...

A much more 'limited' form of campaign for the Korean Penisula by US Forces already tied down in Iraq. And how these limited forces could be best put to use.

Also how the NKs could attack the SKs, but suffer dramatic limitations of their own by their constantly worsening logisitic and economic situations and how these limitations would also limit their strategic capabilities, and possibly lead to a nuclear exchange and how CFC Forces could be put to use to prevent it by strategic attacks of their own on NK nuclear facilities and holding centers...

This in turn would be a good way to work Japanese Self Defense Forces into the mix as they would be heavily envolved in any such threat responce. Adding new items to Falcon 4 such as the F-2(based on an enhanced F-16), Japanese Frigates and Destroyers, Japanese ground forces, tanks, IFV's, artillery, etc...

CAG Hotshot


Fizk
Second Lieutenant


Registered: Jun 2002
Location: TEXAS
Posts: 46

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by CAG Hotshot


A much more 'limited' form of campaign for the Korean Penisula by US Forces already tied down in Iraq. And how these limited forces could be best put to use.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I like that idea. I have also always thought Japan has had a much too limited role in the campaign.

That would lend its hand to more strategy and the role of local forces in the campaign rather than just the US. It would be fun.

But I'm not sure who would do this campaign. I think most of the falcon campaign makers are busy on other projects and bug fixes to earlier campaigns...

I would look into doing it myself but I have too many obligations already prying my limited free time away from me.

Fisk

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30-12-2002 19:44



OddAngryShot
Major


Registered: Apr 2002
Location: Rockhampton, QLD, Australia
Posts: 214
Hey CAG, that is a great idea! I also see that PMC have released a developers 128 Korea Map which would be ideal to use to create the theater.

I also don't know who could do it. I certainly don't have any skills in that area, though if you were to start I would try to give you a hand where I could. I think it would be fun.

Happy New Year!


Cheers,

Odd

"Una salas victus" - The last hope of the damned - Virgil (loose translation of a longer statement)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Athlon XP1800+, 768Mb DDR, Lian Li Case, 20Gb Maxtor HD, 30Gb WD HD, 19" Phillips Monitor, SB Live, Soundworks Surround sound speakers, X-Micro 128Mb GF4 Ti4200, 16X Pioneer DVD, LiteOn 40x12x48 Burner
Cougar HOTAS #1711 (new Kitty)
Windows XP Pro SP1
Falcon 4 SP3, Aeyes 1600x1200 pit


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31-12-2002 01:55



Badger
Major


Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Posts: 393
Hey CAG, what about a series of TE's to start with e.g. a couple of deep strikes against a "facility" supported by EA6's for colour or stand off jamming , F18 as SEAD, F15 Escort, and using the F16 as the striker aircraft.


regards
Stuart "Badger" Aston
1st Wiltshire VFS

It's always the one you don't see that ge...


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31-12-2002 06:20



CAG Hotshot
Captain


Registered: Jun 2001
Location:
Posts: 117
Yes TEs sound interesting, but frankly more playability would be generated by a campaign... More folks interested in dynamic campaigns then were ever interested in TEs..

But I like the idea anyway! Also perhaps this would be a good way for me to work myself back into the production arena for Falcon since I gave up my Taiwanese campaign after F V was announced...

Now about that aircraft mix listed above....

Would it be USAF F-15Es as strike instead of Vipers and use the Vipers for SEAD instead of Hornets? Afterall the USAF was always the "strategic" hog in the 50-53 war! And the F-15E is a much better "sled" for the bombing. Heh...


CAG Hotshot"

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-09 07:24:00
by Snake Man
quote:Originally posted by Ninja:
be happy to help as a beta tester
Okay grab the ODS v0.4b and start testing, try to find as much terrain tile errors as possible.
quote:Originally posted by CAG:
Historical Research, or Campaign Creator
Well I'd say the historical research most likely falls into Vietnam Theater as of now, as Red Dog did great work with the airbases and squadrons in ODS. Sure the ground unit placement and numbers are still rather quake/doom style at the moment.

Campaign creation would be nice indeed, Iraq 2003 (ODS) and North Korea nuke crisis 2003 (Korea 128 - EKT).

Have you taken a look for the Tacedit TCL scripts yet?

You can download the PMC Korea Campaigns from the download page and also if you use search in the forum you'll dig up TCL Corner and possibly other tcl topics.

The TCL support in tacedit gives awesome power for campaign creator, I would refuse to work with campaigns now if it would be without the TCL support :)

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 04:12:00
by Butcher_ss
Hey snakeman, I have found two sites that have a lot of information concerning the squadrons that were used during the Vietnam War. The first one has all the carriers that were used and their squadrons and the other one gives a timeline of the various operations in Vietnam and it mentions a lot about the squadrons that were used for attack, etc. Here are the links:
http://www.danshistory.com/vietnam.shtml#start


http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/ordbat.htm


Tell me what you think.


Butcher_ss.

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 04:21:00
by ccc
the navy link shows.. we badly need A-4C and A-3 series. The rest are about ready.

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 13:57:00
by Guard
Okei. I want to help you guys to ;o) Like a beta-tester :)

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 14:46:00
by Taufiq
I want to help to be a beta tester.But i only can do in campaign mode as theres a problem with the joystick response in TE and Dogfight menu, so will it effect the beta works?

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 15:19:00
by Snake Man
quote:Originally posted by Taufiq:
i only can do in campaign mode, so will it effect the beta works?
No, campaign mode is the most important part to test at least. You'll see campaign + terrain from that "section" so its great.

Be sure to send in those beta reports :)

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 15:39:00
by Taufiq
Ahh, ok, thanks, i'll try to do my best

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 19:20:00
by wino
Id be happy to do some research, what do you need?

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-11 19:31:00
by Showtime
Searching for ODS textures...what I found so far are what area's have what kind of terrain...not real results further
I'll keep u posted

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-12 15:39:00
by kinggeorge
check the ods forum in this case...

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-12 17:12:00
by kinggeorge
ah yeah just for fun a 4096 texture :D (wrong scaling though...)
here

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-12 19:46:00
by Showtime
.............!!!!! :eek:

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-12 22:16:00
by kinggeorge
OK In case someone is interested this is how i make 512 textures using sat images - help woul dbe nice considering th eamount of textures needed...


1st get in the newnet theater irc channel #falcon4theaters ;)

Here's how i did the texture stuff so far:

- Get decent sat image (we have afew no i guess) scale it to the correct resolution 2pixel=1meter (look at cars, roads...) -adjust the red/blue/green gamma settings and saturation/hue if needed

- Select an area for the generic/ F /all directions texture cut/copy it(not scaling) to the 512x512 size

- manual make the texture objects evenly distributed by copying small irregular parts around / filter any rough borders

-with photoshop filter offset it 20 or more pixels and make the borders dissappear by filtering/soften/blur or copying small irregular parts over the border

- first tile done -save it in true color pcx

-for testing reduce color to 256, name it after a generic existing tile replacing all T,M,H,L* ones

- Now do either the 16 river or 16 road tiles (see texture tutorial about the texture structure from *1 to *F)

-select the generic tile as basis copy a road/crossing from your sat pic into it making it fit on the border (use a grid or so and finally choose the offset filter for 3-5 pixes and make the last adjustments, begin with the f tile (roads from all directions and a crossing in the middle).
Take this tile then as reference for the correct borders

- place a few objects on crossings for diversity, since those tiles wont get repeated nearby normally - be sure to keep the tile borders the same as the generic one always.

- when all are done copy all of them in a huge 2048x2048 pic and save the paletta. Edit the paletta change color 253 to 256 to white for instance (n8 lighting) - save the paletta!

- open your 16/17 tiles individually - for each one decrease colors to 256 and open(=apply) the saved paletta in the pic. Save the pic as alway sin the pcx format(should be around 300KB with 256 colors)

-Check correct/good file names -test them by replacing existing ones or send them to the theater makers/snakeman

DONE!

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 04:30:00
by ccc
OMG! that's turely photorealistic!!

KG, could you let us know:
1. FPS hit with 4096 tile in campaign?
2. how's other resolution? 256? 512? can 256 be visually acceptable?

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 10:07:00
by kinggeorge
The highest resolution without problems was 2048x2048 over one generic tile. fps without objects were more or less as high as usual with slight choppyness because of the texture loading (4MB per tex). THe sense of speed is fantastic - should be easily comparable to lomac. With many 2048 textures i guess youll soon hit the memory limit apart from that the downloads will be huge and there arent many suited sat images...

When doing textures from the scratch 512/1km tile is the way to go imo. Anything below is outdated at this point. btw Tom's 256 textures fit very nicely in the Korean theater as an update :)
Maybe in half a year / year the standart could be increased to 1024 pixels for testing...

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 10:46:00
by ccc
oh no..i think my rig can barely stand with..256x256 tile.. Snake Man, whats your *official* ODS tile format?

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 11:31:00
by Snake Man
ODS is officially/now with 128 res tiles.

And that was the last offtopic post here. This is about theater development and not texture editing, continue discussions at Creating 512 res tiles area.

Discussion here continue with Theater Development Help.

Thank you.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 12:18:00
by kinggeorge
good idea snakeman - i should have been smart enough to open a new thread myself :D
cya there...

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-13 14:41:00
by Ninja
hi SnakeMan

Been testing terrain looks good so far but trees in the desert? not sure if this is Ca related but if you go into AP in level flight you begin to ossilate quite badly

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-16 11:38:00
by Ami
Snakeman,
check your mail. I sent my ODS report 1.
sorry about the size 10.4 MB. All screens are in JPG format.
If nessecary, I´ll deleate the screens and send the word doc only.

Mark :roll:

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-16 11:50:00
by Ami
I can see it now when Snakeman grabs his e-mail ;)

"Mark, are you out of your mind"

:p

he he

Re: Theater development help!

Posted: 2003-01-21 06:13:00
by lonewolf77
Hey! I'd love to help you out with both realism and teh beta testing! Not much of an artist yet, but I do get quite involved on the technical end of F4! Let me know how I can help!

:cool: