Posts by SWAT_OP-R8R

Nomad server event test has just started.

Goal of this test is to see if the event runs stable and if further balancing is required.

Feedback in terms of enemy strength, ability to destroy the Nomad Planet Killer and the amount of collected event token is highly welcome.

The Event will stay online for the next 24 hours.

• small fix on a visibilty issue with one rare type of steroids.

Small bug fix:

• A bug in mission 9 where the wingmen would attack the tradelane rings that are constructed there got fixed. Mission progress should not get blocked any longer.
• Also the a bug where the old Order fleet ships appeared in Omega 3 and in Sol instead of the new versions got fixed. Correct ships are appearing now.
• A texture bug with the APC got fixed.

sucks a bit that a bunch of details get lost when recording

Either next Friday or Saturday (most likely saturday) I would do a first test for the new Nomad server event.

This is mainly mant to be a stability test, gathering info for balancing the event and actually checking if the concept behind this kind of event is actually working. Would b cool to see some ppl on the server that day.

In the meantime... some more preview of the new renderer stuff. It's just a rough and tough texture work so far but it seems to be a good foundation for detail improvements later on.

it might

This is what CF might look like when switching from DirectX8 to OpenGL (make sure to switch the video quality to 1080p).

The possibilities are great but it is nothing that simply can be switched on/off.

Much work and time needs to be invested to modify the assets. I personally think that it might be worth all the effort.

Better lighting system, real time shadows, light scattering, new pbr material system and lots of other improvements.

The new renderer was developed in the past years by Schmackbolzen from the New Universe mod and now has been released to be used in other mods (where developers are up for the task to integrate it and create the new textures). Huor and I have been in contact over the past weeks sharing test results and trying to get a few bugs fixed. Meanwhile major incompatibilities between CF and the new renderer (instant crashes) no longer exist in the newest version. There were other stability issues which might also be gone but I will have to do additional long term tests.

If the final issues can be sorted out and if we can do the work required to edit the assets the FL engine can be elevated to signifiantly higher quality standards. CF has the benefit of already having insanely good textures in most areas. That is a very good foundation to work on.

both fixed

ok, since everything runs stable its time to move forward and take a look at what is next.

In the following weeks the new server event will be tested (without reward system) just for balancing reasons and checking if it would run stable.

Once done a reward system will be introduced and the event should run automatically then.

This requires a bit rebalancing ships which are going to be rewards. Not an easy task but nothing that will take ages.

The next bigger update will be the Blackstar story content since everything else that was meant in the original Blackstar fleet update already got released.

This story content will result in new bonus missions aswell as a 2nd automated server event similar to the Nomad planetkiller event.

Plenty of the suggestions posted a the ticketsystem also will in one way or another be turned real with that update.

Furthermore I have the intention to overhaul all asteroid fields in CF. For that I probably need some additional help (lots of work with lots of testing).

The update after that one might replace the FL render pipeline, either completely or as an option (dunno yet).

That means switchting from DirectX8 to OpenGL. For that however a bunch of issues need to be sorted out first.

This update will take a long time to complete since the amount of work is pretty insane. What that means in detail and what that might look like is something I will present later.

*sigh*

nothing without side effects

ok, I restored the fullscreen mode including the gamma, no longer forcing windowed mode

To prevent the freezing stuff the window mode no longer updates the visuals when FL is in background (when a different program is infront of FL). That means FL still runs and still is active and you might cruise 100k, but the screen will not update until you bring the FL window into the foreground again.

A compromise in lack of a better solution.

My own tests showed that the problem only existed when running CF in fullscreen mode. Windowed mode worked fine. Thats why I did not notice the issue before.

Alt+tab on vanilla shader option resulted in black screen.

Alt-tab on recommended shader option resulted into a frozen screen (but still visible).

In both cases doing alt-tab 3-4 times again would unfreeze CF and it would run normally again (without closing FL).

But that hardly can be the working solution so I just uploaded an update which forces FL to run in windowed mode, no matter what setting is selected on the launcher.

This will prevent this issue from happening until a better solution is found.

The only side effect I can imagine that FL won't pause on Alt-tab in SP. In MP FL obviously never did. You still can pause the game in SP with the F1 menu.

The other reported issues with clan bases have been confirmed to be fixed.

Considering the size and complexity of the update I am surprised how smooth it went.

As a German this efficiency impresses me.

The server seem to run stable after the update and the only so far reported issue is related to using Alt+tab.

Regarding this issue I might need some further information and people testing stuff.

The thing is Ive been using alt+tab in FL pretty much 50 times a day without issues during the past months so this is a bit surprising. Even now I did not have an issue but maybe it is related to specific settings.

I personally used windowed mode (on the launcher settings). Potentially this alt+tab issue is limited to the fullscreen mode. This needs to be tested on muiltiple PCs.

Also information about which shader version is used potentially would be important.

Every bit of info helps and testing various of the launcher options in combination with alt-tab might help to identify the issue.

EDIT: my initial tests showed that the fullscreen mode might be to blame; anyone with this issue, pls switch to window mode and leave a comment if the problem still exists

The server is back online. In theory everything should be working but in the end only tests will show for sure.

The update in theory is ready to be released.

I am just doing a few last minute checks this evening and probably somewhen tomorrow the whole thing is being released.

It will be a pretty large patch and will require to reconfig the server and the anticheat. I never managed to do that stuff without errors on the first try so... yeah... I probably will lock the server for a few hours to do tests.

A few things to mention:

• I'll provide a patch list but it will be almost identical to the stuff I posted on this thread 1-2 pages before.
• Not all changes are mentioned. Minor ones just simply are not worth writing down.
• Shader presets have changed. What previously was the default one (preset1) is now preset7. Preset 1 is a new one with more accurate sharpening, better color accuracy and a lens effects. If you don't like the lens effects you can switch to the new preset 8 which is identical to preset 1 with the exception of disabled lense effects.
• The fonts color has changed. Due to various previous updates on different stuff the color was set to a yellow tone, used by the modern UI. This has overwritten the color options of all classic UI options. This is something I can not fix until a new full all-in-one release with installer is published. That is planned later. Right now I have set the font color to a neutral light-grey tone which should fit most UI variations. It's not perfect but right now the best option.
• Also fonts related is that the font size has been adjusted a bit to the values which are compatible with certain widescreen options. This time this adjustment will recognize which UI option was used during the initial installation (in this case it is possible) and will use corresponding fonts.
• The moddern UI loading screen has been made available also for all classic UI options. The original loading bar never worked well and the new one will fit much better.
• There are a bunch of undocumented changes to the CF storyline. Certain missions got slightly improved and there is some experimental stuff that most likely will be used more often to improve the story telling. Improvements of the story campaign is an ongoing topic.
• The new Nomad event is not active by default. Before I activate it I want to know if all the other new stuff is working correctly. Afterall this update is significantly bigger than most other mods.
• Not everything I wanted to include into the update has made it. I think it is best to release that stuff later when there is a bit more time. There is plenty of stuff that still can be improved to make CF even better. I have plenty of good ideas but unfortunately only limited time.