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BCG Sneak Peak (was BCM XP1)


Supreme Cmdr
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quote:


Originally posted by Epsilon 5:

Cool


Just to make that nobody else (includes you) sends me email about doing an AVI video; I'm going to post this here (from my private msg to you) one LAST time so that everyone actually gets it.

  1. I'm not doing a video because there will still be a contentious argument. You and I BOTH know that.
  2. I'm not interested in anything the VE usual suspects have to say. They don't play my game. You do.
  3. My last post on the forum about this, stands as it was originally written. I don't think I have anything else to add to it.

As I said before, everything to do with materials, lighting etc is done and being tweaked, revised etc. If the ingame test shots posted earlier are insufficient, frankly, I don't give a toss what anyone thinks. Especially some jackass yahoo on VE who doesn't play my game.

When I said I was doing a tech demo, I meant just that. Its ready when its ready....you know the rest of this verbage.

In fact, this was going to be a surprise, but just so I don't have to b*tch at someone else, I'm going to break the news here.

The existing BCM graphics engine has already been revised to handle materials, better lighting etc. For an upcoming patch (not sure if this will make it into 1.0.06 or not), some of the primary and important models (stations, capital ships) are being re-exported with materials support. Why just those? Well because the time it takes to do 400+ models (BCM has about 434 models), is time taken away from revising those models for XP1 - work that has to be done anyway.

A future patch (possibly 1.0.07) will have this revised graphics engine enhancements.

With this revised materials support, the ambient lighting will also be derived from the surrounding skybox aurora, rather than from the single light source from the Sun. I can't explain it. Wait for the patch.

I did this simply because I bloody well felt like it; and shouldn't come as any surprise to those who have bought my games over the years and have come to know that I'm notorious for continually adding cool stuff to my games, post-release. OK, so now go out and buy an extra copy and make the sales higher than they already are.

Of course, XP1 which uses a different third-party rendering engine, will look a lot better than this rendering enhancement in bcGFX (the BCM graphics engine) due to that engine's support for pixel/vertex shaders, bump mapping etc. The current three year old BCM graphics rendering engine doesn't support any of that and its not cost/time effective to implement it either. Hence the third-party rendering engine license - which also supports indoors rendering (required for BCO and BCTC).

In fact, BCStudio (a new version will be uploaded when I release GBS-II) already has this enhanced graphics support so that the modelers can check their new exports to ensure that it looks exactly as they intended it to look in BCM or XP1. This way, I don't have to put any models into the game in order to test it first before sign off.

If you already used BCS, you will recognize these shots and know that they were taken directly from it. Note the single point light. I am still using the type 9 station for tests, because it already has all the elements required for testing in any rendering engine. Once one of the existing stations are re-exported (e.g. galcomhq), I'll post some shots.

image0

image1

image2

image3

[ 02-22-2002, 10:58: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

In fact, this was going to be a surprise, but just so I don't have b*tch at someone else, I'm going to break the news here.

The
existing
BCM graphics engine has already been revised to handle materials, better lighting etc. For an upcoming patch (not sure if this will make it into 1.0.06 or not)


Don't you just love the man

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quote:


Originally posted by Commander Jamont:

wow is the station shining up cause the sun is near it??? rocks


Yep. And it can be colored depending on what color the ambient light source is. In the current version of BCM, its only one color. In the future patch, the color will be based on the surrounding skybox.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Yep. And it can be colored depending on what color the ambient light source is. In the current version of BCM, its only one color. In the future patch, the color will be based on the surrounding skybox.

Great news! I'll update my review on Multiplayer.it when you'll release this patch!

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This is the reason why I always look forward to new patches! Great news!! I wonder how it will look with that new feature. Cant wait to see a screen shot of how it will improve the existing stations (hint hint).

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quote:

Yep. And it can be colored depending on what color the ambient light source is. In the current version of BCM, its only one color. In the future patch, the color will be based on the surrounding skybox.


Does this mean that the color of sun reflections are based on the color of the relevant star?

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quote:


Originally posted by Urza:

Does this mean that the color of sun reflections are based on the color of the relevant star?


Which part of the word skybox was written in Swahili?

And where have you ever seen the concept of stars in any BC game? Haven't you been around long enough to know that the Sun is the only astral light source for the entire galaxy?

Siddown!

[ 02-25-2002, 08:10: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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He doesn't mean the sun (i.e. Sol) is the light source for the whole game. That'd be wierd. I think he means this: There is only 1 sun that provides a light source. Take the external view of your ship, for example. You'll get a bright side and a dark side. To clarify on Urza, that little sun won't change. It's just that the color of that light (aka reflection) will change. That's my understanding of what SC said; but that's just my POV.

Now, I'm pretty sure that wasn't in Swahili.

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Actually, I knew astral light sources weren't the only sources of light. (I'm not that stupid) By stars, I meant the star of the system you're currently located (the difference between stars and suns is only a matter of distance)

At any rate, I don't know what I was smoking when I posted that (d*mn vacpacks). I'll be heading for the airlock now...

[ 02-25-2002, 15:44: Message edited by: Urza ]

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Man I cant wait for xp1, I can see it now building a huge city or base on a moon, launching nuclear warheads at the insurgant bases on the planet the moon is orbiting.

All while your commanding a fleet launched from the space station you built around the moon.

I think its safe to say xp1 will be so beyond anything currently out its mind boggling.

This brings me to a small question I never seen a base get attacked on a planet, if you build a base will the ai be more compelled to attack user made bases or citys?

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quote:


Originally posted by Urza:

Actually, I knew astral light sources weren't the only sources of light. (I'm not that stupid) By stars, I meant the star of the system you're currently located (the difference between stars and suns is only a matter of distance)


*sigh*

Nova was right; but let me expand on that and put you out of your misery.

There are several light sources

There is no concept of 'star' in the game. i.e. you don't see the Alpha Centaur star.

The Sun is the only astral light source in the game and it shines within the region of any star e.g. Sol, Alpha Centauri etc etc

Currently, the light emitting from the Sun (the only astral light source in the game galaxy) is a pure light and it has an ambient color setting of 0xFF7F7F7F, a diffuse color setting of 0xFFFFFFFF and a specular setting of 0 (disabled). These colors are constant and never change.

In XP1 (and quite possibly a BCM patch if all goes as planned), those color settings will change depending on the skybox background in the region. e.g. if the skybox is predominantly yellow, the ambient light source will be colored Yellow. This will cast a Yellowish glow on anything that passes in front of that light source. Thats what you see in those shots above.

In XP1, it goes a lot further by adding several other different light sources i.e from lights on stations, passing ships, streakig asteroids, comets etc etc etc.

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Oh...my...wow...um....huge....doesn't cover it...

Don't take out the barns! It gives so much humor potential! "You can't hit the broad side of a type 10 station!"

Oh, um, forgive me for pointing it out, but the shot 2 and 3 links point to the same image.

[ 02-27-2002, 17:57: Message edited by: XenoZohar ]

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