NEWSA+SIMBION_tweaked Support and Gameplay

[Nightwatch]

Great pictures fiznerpin1962

____________________________________________________
Guys:

I managed to start the Xray SDK on VISTA PC, as full functional.
See the info thread on the matter:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=292

And...

edit:
OK no help needed for SDK guide. I've finally found, after two hours struggling, how to import the MAYA exported object file into the Xray SDK and the how to export it as OGF file. Now It's possible to work on MAYA and then tranform the work into OGF format (which is what STALKER understands) on a SDK installed on VISTA computer.

Video/pictures of the work will follow later.

[audioave10]

Nightwatch...just wondering about the textures in your mod. Have
you been able to incorporate any texture mods in this release? I
really like the "Argus" and "Sharper Textures" (cut down version)
mods. I would worry, however, about killing our PC's if they were
too heavy. I'm currently using the cut down Sharper version found
in S.W.O. v2 with "Rebalanced" and it does look amazing.
Just a thought...and I wouldn't want to delay you if you haven't
added anything yet.
Cheers.

[Nightwatch]

I had read that Angus mod flattened the textures so 3D effects of them and that the Sharper textures are only the sharpened version of vanilla ones; though I have not tested them myself to be honest and influenced with what I read, but read reviews in this effect. But you don't seem to have got that kind of impression. We currently use SKY4CE mod which has features that are used in the highest quality next-gen games. However, as you brought up the matter, I'll check those mods myself at the earliest time.

edit:

OK, I had a quick look at Angus' work, I had forgotten it, it is textures work not sghaders. That is even more problematic.
Because we have our custom textures, many hand picked from very high quality mods which are famous with their some texture works like SRP, AMK and ABC as the comp mod name suggests of course, also we have brilliant works from EggChen on many of the same textures, which are better. They are coming into effect on version3.0. Also, I've integrated some other textures, for example some apocaliptic touches from Nuclear Spring. We also have some Clear Sky textures. So, although I know that it's a very good work, and I was one of the first who congratulated Angus on his work, yet on overal comparison our textures are no way lower quality.

I would strongly advise against putting other textures, -though one can do it of course at his own risk- any addition of a texture pack without very careful comparison of each texture one by one, would quite possibly result in the loss of well-thought effects in the game and change the character of the mod; also our DDS files are not all compiled in vanilla way, and that it could cause many complications.

I will compare the texture packs, and EggChen has a better eye on such things, then if I see a better texture for any object than what we already have, we will gratefully use them then.
So, a lot of comparison waits on the way. It may wait for the service pack that I'll release some time after v3.0 is released.

Thanks buddy, bringing this to my attention.

[DARK TEMPLAR]

Trigger finger itching can't determine the cause tho oh well

[Nightwatch]

THESE ARE THE PHOTOS OF DAMAGED APCs AFTER THEY ARE HIT BY MISSILES.

Fresh out of MAYA-SDK (as I got lucky that the SDK worked on VISTA amazingly)

I've done some cropping in order to try to disguise some new APC locations.

I may make even more hard hit APCs later, if I got some time. Though these look nicely kicked enough.







AND YOU CAN GET INSIDE THE APC (INTO THE CARGO) AFTER IT'S DAMAGED.

[EggChen]

Well done mate, just need to ask something.

After you have released version 3, think you could export a "level object" APC into OGF for me? Without any changes or anything.... I would like to try and texture a burnt out husk like my idea was some time ago. If I get it good, you can always add it into the patch you mentioned.

Have you spawned it on death of an APC in place of the car parts? Looks good doesn't it!!

[busetibi]

nice
someplace new for me to hide,
heh, I know where they're at

[Grump642]

Just had a strange CTD. Came back to kill and loot after turning off antenna.
! Unknown command: abort=>FATAL_ERROR:~ERROR:_ILLEGAL_PLAY_SOUND!!!_sak_hello_for_Sak
Didn't think audio would crash game.
edit--Ah, your hidden trader. When I get close to him, CTD.

[busetibi]

yup keep well clear of Trader _sak and Doc_sak.
Doc_sak is in the basement of Monolith HQ, and Trader_sak is in one of the buildings in the BS complex.
it's very tempting to talk to Trader_sak in BS as he's the only yellow dot on your PDA, lol and if you forget.............
"crash"

[audioave10]

Nightwatch...NEWSA looks plenty good enough with what you are
using. I was just curious. I just wanted to have something pretty to
look at during my many "death" scenes!

[rockingmtranch]

Looks like Fallout 3 is going to be shelved when this comes out

[Ultradad]

Hello there

Its been a while since i posted last but check the boards regular to see what all you great modders are upto . I got all excited to see V3 of my all time favorite mod was on the way so i decided to warm myself up and get ready for the daddy of them all and got sucked into the game big time and been at it for a while now

I got a nice screenshot of 323 controllers to my name and here it is

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/323conrollersandrising.jpg

I am top of my game

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/topman.jpg

Its all gone mad in Pripyat, packs of monsters attacking everyone more contollers than i can shake a stick at and to top it all off the trader doc is on the war path and i am top of his s**t list

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/Drontheprowlandiamtopofhisshitlistl.jpg

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/Eventhedoctorhatesmelol.jpg

He runs up and shoots me for a bit then runs off agroing all the firebites running around , not sure what his problem is but its very funny

I told this controller that i was going to leave a message on the board here so he posed for a screeny

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/controllershowingoff.jpg

Someone realy needs to start cleaning these dead bodys away

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/yantar.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/yantar3.jpg

Theres no room for the weak in this mod, be rock hard or die in strange ways

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/agroprom2.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/gladidontworkaroundhere.jpg

Well thats it for now, i think i broke the game i havent had a blow out for ages but its all good fun, will update as i do my rounds and realy looking forward to the new mod and thanks for all the hard work you guys do to give me alot of enjoyment

[rockingmtranch]

LMAO....great pics and great commentary Ultra

[audioave10]

Ultradad is one serious ass-kikkin Stalker...

[Nightwatch]

Thanks Guys.
ps: weirdest thing happened, I was halfway answering the posts then my PC crashed giving a blue screen, and "dumping, etc" all that stuff. OK, PC is telling me in no uncertain terms that I need to rebuilt a new one, soon. This is after the Enermax PSU short circuited the whole electricity from the main switchbox. I thought for a second, OK now I've got it, but the mobo managed to ride it through as it seems.

OK, back to subject,
Thanks EggChen. I had tried to paint a burnt out design on the crashed APC on MAYA, but SDK didn’t accept those, saying (in pink!) that those were not compatible with it, MAYA stuff, something like that. So, the APC went through without those burnt out and smouldering effects. I think it could be done in Particle editor. I used the Actor editor to transport the object file to OGF as only the Actor Editor reads the object file.

Of course I can export a "level object" APC to OGF for you, buddy. Is it the kind of stuff that I see in SDK X-Drive\ rawdata with THM file extension? I've just started SDK yesterday, lol. Trying to find my way through its tunnels, lol.

====================

I made another missile-wrecked APC, I think this one looks better. It has the burnt out bodies around it as well:

(Some Mediafire servers don't work, I'll try posting it later.)
------------------

Grump642
Yes, busetibi right on the subject, we've seen the matter on earlier occasions. This trader is from
original SIMBION, and there’s some fundamental problems with it, small tweaks didn't work, always found a way to crash the game, now I've removed them both from version 3, no more Sak or Doc will come on your way. You just try to stay away from them for the being please.
------------------

busetibi, If you can get into the APC, then they (enemies, mutants) can do it, too.

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

Thanks audioave10 I'll check the Angus pack later one by one, as I mentioned we use DDSs (a lot of them) in a different packed way than that of vanilla, some of them have different names some same names do correspond actually different DDSs. And many of them really custom made, much better than vanilla, textures, which include EggChen's works as well. We may be able to use some of them with an additional add-on pack later.
--------------------------

Looks like Fallout 3 is going to be shelved when this comes out

That's a good compliment rockingmtranch
Strange thing (for me) that I haven't even managed to start Fallout 3, lol.
---------------------------

Hey there Ultradad, nice to see you around. You seem to have been doing some very nasty game-playing there. Top-grade photos Wow, 323 Controller kills! I'm foreseeing a very heated battle in the future within our top hunters, no need to be a clairvoyant for it, lol.
Never seen Doc wander off around that much. He usually appears in the mono HQ basement to crash the game, lol. Now he is removed. And it makes this shot even a better memorabilia, as this is maybe his last best shot!

(yup, those inside-the-wall NPCs are exactly of the very good examples of the same symptom that we discussed before
(xRay's spawning/respawning NPCs with slightly different coordinates (sort of random and not being able to remember their previous locations upon reloading)
===========

Phew, managed to finish my post before the PC goes blue again, lol.

[Ultradad]

Hello there

Thanks for the comments guys, this game is so much fun every day is a blast. Took a run round the zones to see what shape it is in at 300+ controller kills and its a mess . The dead bodys lying around is insane

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/lotsofdeadinyantar.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/lotsofdeadinagroprom.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/atbase.jpg

Another 2 mobs wanted to be posted here so here they are

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/mrhappypig.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/pigscanfly.jpg

The AI is great, these guys loot more than i do

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/masterlooter.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/lootking.jpg

Not sure what is going on but i am getting no more blowouts and cannot sleep as it says i am fully rested all the time. Dark vally and warehouses is unplayable as i can only get 2-3 fps and getting 40+ in all the other zones. I upload my shoc folder to rapidshare incase you want to check it out

http://rapidshare.com/files/200073453/STALKER-SHOC.7z

I am back at the entrance of Pripyat again and loaded down with ammo and grub for the next big fight

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/lockandloadiamgoingin.jpg

Got to go now and kill something now. Will check back in later

[busetibi]

excellent screens Ultradad it's great to see someone else get into the mass spawning Controllers, nice selection of artifacts you're carrying as well.
you seem to have a great game rolling. wd, I tip my hat to you

dont forget to add your screens/stories in the "Journal from the Zone" section.
as this thread moves fairly quickly and will increase after v3 is released it's a good idea to keep your screens easily found/accessible

[EggChen]

Thanks Nightwatch, no rush, so after you release v3!!

Yep, I think it is the .thm stuff, I really am a novice at the 3d stuff. If I remember rightly it is in .obj format or something in the level_editor, but I have to admit I never looked at the actor_editor. Would actor_editor be for the live APCs?? The reason I ask is I was trying to convert one of the static APCs found in levels into an OGF file. The static model is different with some panels removed and wheels twisted out of shape. I think the gun is also missing.

I think if it could be done, spawning one of these with appropriate texture on death of a live APC would look great. Of course if you succeed and I can texture the thing, you can put it in any patch to v3.

[Nightwatch]

Another set of great screenhots Ultradad :thumbright: many of them were saved to be put onto Players Corner later, after the release (because it takes many hours of work) so everybody's pics are waiting to be posted there.

About blow outs: have checked that on the main menu "blow out waves" are turned on? They are random, alright, some game will have more some less, but until now, you should've received one or two at the least.

I checked your Stalker log, everything seems alright, nicely loaded. DV and AW areas are always problematic from vanilla due to the wider sizes of those areas and when more stuff (than vanilla) come into the equation, processing powers are affected. There is also a poor management system of XRay which does not help particularly in such situations. You may try quitting the game, restarting your PC, trying to free the RAM, you may feel an improvement there.
Also PSU's role is very important particularly in such areas when more resources are called. If you PSU is not comfortably feeding your Video Card and other components, frame drops and stutter can be more evident.

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

EggChen

As far as I could see in one day of SDK use (now getting into the second day, but I'm not using it today) only the Actor Editor sees the "object" file. When you output a file from, say, MAYA in "skeletal-object" format, the Level_Editor would not see it, won't load it. It's what I saw. I loaded the APC that I made in MAYA (skeletal object) into the Actor Editor and exported it to OGF format there (file/export).

I used the normal in-game btr that fires at you to transform into a deformed shape in MAYA, then exported it as of skeletal object and then on Actor Editor exported it again, this time, to OGF format. Then it's what you see in the picture. Now I've made amuch better looking (better damaged) APC which is cracked, bent, weapon twisted, and all other parts. I was going to post the picture but media fire is not functioning well, in a few hours I can post the picture. So, I don't need to offer it later with a patch, it's already been done and already in the game, in version 3.0

PS: I've already managed to paint the cracked, squeezed, twisted APC with burnt out textures, but it doesn't look quite the way I intended then, because all the darkened surface this time conceals the artistic :cough: lines from being visible, which makes the APC appear very damaged indeed.
I had embedded some continuous smouldering effects, but as SDK (and Xray) has not discovered those high-tech effects yet ( )they couldn't pass though. But this is quite perfect still.