june gloom on 3/10/2006 at 03:15
really, this could be incorporated into straylight's mod (which also includes modified .mis files) and any other gameplay changing mod that affects .mid.
Bjossi on 3/10/2006 at 18:41
That kind of a mod could get pretty damn big in filesize...
ZylonBane on 3/10/2006 at 18:56
Indeed. And three or four years ago, I would have screamed and moaned about it. But these days, even game demos are ten times the size of every SS2 MIS file put together. We happily download Christine's huge SS2 campaigns. That kind of bulk just isn't a big deal anymore.
Bjossi on 3/10/2006 at 19:22
Yeah, good point. But with every single texture in SS2 updated to high-res, and every modified MIS file included; we may be talking about a ZIP file that can reach 100 Mbs in the worst case. But I doubt it'd get that big, ya never know though.
Matthew on 3/10/2006 at 20:06
Pffft. 100Mbs is nothing in the broadband era, as ZB pointed out. If it got to 1 Gb, then I'd start to get worried.
Pre-emptive defence: yes, I know that not everyone has broadband and plenty use dial-up. But since when has computer gaming really based itself on the lowest possible system spec?
Bjossi on 3/10/2006 at 20:14
I would download 100 Mbs in a matter of few minutes if I got the "native" download speed of my connection, it is my monthly download quota that worries me more.
Ultraviolet on 4/10/2006 at 01:50
The biggest shame about being stuck with dialup is that if I lived five miles down the road one direction, I could actually get broadband of some sort, and it would be cheaper than most dialup.
blaydes99 on 4/10/2006 at 03:23
Okay, now that we've established that everyone has an internet connection, let's get to work. Who knows the most about the .mis file structure? We can start there and work on getting the texture refs for each surface. Worst case scenario: We simply modify a single face/texture and save a duplicate copy of a .mis file. Then we compare results in a hex editor to see what changes and how the changed values are represented. Perhaps shocked even has a switch to export missions in verbose mode or something to help understand.
Once we crack this, I'll be more than happy to get to work and produce some preliminary results, with screenshots and a sample earth.mis (that works off the original).
Zygoptera on 4/10/2006 at 03:52
I had already done the hex hunting, by texturing the start box and playing around with the x,y and scaling values. It did not look like a trivial undertaking and would, I suspect, require a decent programmer to do. Unfortunately what I had worked out is stuck on my orphan HD until I get my new computer, otheriwse I'd be happy to share.
blaydes99 on 4/10/2006 at 04:22
Quote Posted by Zygoptera
I had already done the hex hunting, by texturing the start box and playing around with the x,y and scaling values. It did not look like a trivial undertaking and would, I suspect, require a decent programmer to do. Unfortunately what I had worked out is stuck on my orphan HD until I get my new computer, otheriwse I'd be happy to share.
Sounds like it is possible then. Here's what I want to do once we have it decoded:
* First, convert all textures that don't need special attention (floors, walls, ceilings) and reduce the scale (like 14 to 12 if I remember ShockEd) so that all higher res textures will look their best.
* Second, parse and adjust (this means, find and replace) all special attention textures (tech panels, etc) that will need alignment once we mess with the scale. So yeah, it may take a few hours to do, but come on, a few hours is not much. That's really all that will need to happen.
I think ZB has the best plan of action - add new families of textures to the mission and use those in addition to any unmodified textures.
Once we update the references and adjust scale and alignment, our job is to see how they look!
Note: After thinking this over, it looks like we will simply have to multiply the offsets by a certain multiplier. So, for example, if the original texture is 64x64, with x-offset of 32 and y-offset of 32, then a high-res texture of 256x256 would have an x-offset and y-offset of 128 (because 256/64 = 4, so 32*4 = 128). Negative offsets are handled in the same fashion. The scale in this case (if I remember correctly) will go from a higher number to lower number. 14 to 12 maybe (to get 32 to 128)?
So at this point, we could frankly find and replace every single texture reference as specified in the original campaigns. No offsetting errors at all. We will need to write a program that find each reference, replaces it with the new texture name and family, changes the scale value, calculates and changes the offsets, and then we see what happens. Adding additional texture families will be as simple as opening each mission, adding the family, saving the mission, editing the references, then reopening the mission (so that unused textures - which are now used - show up). Then, time to save and playtest.
