@guy, on Jul 4 2008, 03:27 PM, said in New EV Override port:

No, that wasn't what I meant. The data formats are not proprietary and are in fact well documented ;). But it's still pre-release stuff which we can't show.

No I'm saying that they shouldn't have gone and reinvented the wheel again. There are plenty of data formats in existence that would have worked fine for this, but they wanted to create their own. Thus they had to do a bunch more work, and content editors will have to do more work unless someone goes through and makes a really good editor specifically for this game. But the tools that exist now, they work, they're just tedious, just like the last 3 games, and that's the problem.

I'm not sure I understand. What sort of a data format are you talking about that would make it easier for content editors? What sort of existing content editor do you think could be useful for editing EV4 content, even though it wasn't specifically designed for it?

Keep in mind that no one has given any indication as to what the data formats are (other than files inside an archive) so you don't actually know whether anyone has gone and reinvented the wheel again. Keeping it a secret doesn't mean it's a new thing, it just means it's different to the previous games.

This post has been edited by Guy : 07 July 2008 - 02:11 AM

@guy, on Jul 7 2008, 12:08 AM, said in New EV Override port:

I'm not sure I understand. What sort of a data format are you talking about that would make it easier for content editors? What sort of existing content editor do you think could be useful for editing EV4 content, even though it wasn't specifically designed for it?

XML for one, it has existing, powerful editors.

@guy, on Jul 7 2008, 12:08 AM, said in New EV Override port:

Keep in mind that no one has given any indication as to what the data formats are (other than files inside an archive) so you don't actually know whether anyone has gone and reinvented the wheel again. Keeping it a secret doesn't mean it's a new thing, it just means it's different to the previous games.

Don't tell me you haven't actually bothered to look at it yet, have you? It was one of the first things I did. You must be using the simple provided editor that was made to get this project up and running? Don't you hate how tedious it is? It makes res-edit look look like Maya. It's unlikely that any more work will be put into it either, as it technically covers all the bases. The problem is, the data format is complex and proprietary. Any new editors will have to be written from scratch. That's what I'm saying.

I hope I haven't said too much. :hector_bird:

Cham

@chamrin, on Jul 7 2008, 10:44 AM, said in New EV Override port:

XML for one, it has existing, powerful editors.

For another game, Civilization IV, XML was more like black magic than something a add-on developer would want to use. For one thing, none of the features were documented very well, if at all, and the more powerful editors for it were not free. Combined with the cryptic error messages that one got from Civ IV when something in the XML didn't add up, it become a bloody mess very bloody fast. If this EV4 uses XML, I'm going to puke. I'm never touching XML with a ten foot pole.

Well, this is looking good. Keep up the work! EVO was my favorite of the series. If you wanted to make it REALLY easy for users to make a plug-in, like including software and information with the game, that would be great.

I honestly don't get it here. But that's OK. :unsure:

I really don't want an Online EV though. <_<

Um, why not, Beric?

@beric, on Jul 7 2008, 11:59 PM, said in New EV Override port:

I really don't want an Online EV though. <_<

if you mean like WoW where your only choice is to play online, no. no one here wants that (at least no one that matters ;p).

however the option to play online, such as Freelancer gives you, would be pure awesome.

Give me a Universal Binary (optimized for Intel), millions of colors, and higher monitor resolutions, and I would be content.

@chamrin, on Jul 8 2008, 04:44 AM, said in New EV Override port:

XML for one, it has existing, powerful editors.

How could an existing XML editor possibly be any better than ResEdit templates? It certainly wouldn't be comparable to something like MissionComputer.

@chamrin, on Jul 8 2008, 04:44 AM, said in New EV Override port:

Don't tell me you haven't actually bothered to look at it yet, have you? It was one of the first things I did. You must be using the simple provided editor that was made to get this project up and running? Don't you hate how tedious it is? It makes res-edit look look like Maya. It's unlikely that any more work will be put into it either, as it technically covers all the bases. The problem is, the data format is complex and proprietary. Any new editors will have to be written from scratch. That's what I'm saying.

Wait wait, the 'simple' editor? The editor hasn't been 'simple' for ages (since way before the beta started) - I was just boasting about its capabilities earlier. Have you not been keeping yours up-to-date? The editor builds are separate from the engine builds and you have to get the updates separately.
As for the data format, I suspect you haven't unpacked the archive. Add .7z to the end of one of the data files and then you should be able to open it with something like 7zX. Take a look inside, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised - there are no proprietary formats anywhere

This post has been edited by Guy : 10 July 2008 - 06:45 PM

@mackilroy, on Jul 8 2008, 07:52 AM, said in New EV Override port:

Um, why not, Beric?

First and foremost, every game I know is either online or single-player. Sure some games have "both", but if there's online, chances are the single-player is totally neglected. It's one or the other. When EV goes online, single-player will get demoted to "practice" for n00bs before facing the "experts" online, on the "real game". EV is and always has been about single-player. Online will ruin the single-player experience forever.

Besides that, my parents dislike online games, because they're so addictive and "require" you to be online all the time. You can set a single-player game down at any time (it may be hard, sure), but if you set down a multi-player game, you'll hurt your status by not being on all the time. As such, they can be extremely harmful to your real life. So my parents don't permit me to play those types of games.

Anyway, I'm an EV fan, having spent literally thousands of hours in all three versions of EV (I like EVO the best, though EVC has the best plugs). I no longer have a computer capable of running the first two EV's, and as such, heartily applaud this work in progress for a new version of EVO. But please, don't forget what EV is really about. The incredible single-player experience.

I'll remind you, this is about the EVO port, not EV4. Sure, we're using the engine, but that's about it. Anything else we really can't say.

Update on the sound front:

The .snd to .aiff file conversion still has some kinks, but most of the weapons and interface sounds are working fine. mp3 and AAC conversion still doesn't work at all, so sound files are taking up a lot of room in resources. 4.1 surround support is coming along, atmospheric stereo lib is almost done. For those of you with big subwoofers ( ;D ) you should get more of a kick out of explosions and weapon hits.

No support for the iSub though.

JacaByte : I take it you didn't realize his posting that screenshot was a joke, because he'd've been kicked off if he'd posted a real screenshot.

Hamster : awesome. Thanks.

@beric, on Jul 11 2008, 10:20 PM, said in New EV Override port:

First and foremost, every game I know is either online or single-player. Sure some games have "both", but if there's online, chances are the single-player is totally neglected. It's one or the other.

says who? ever play half life? quake? unreal? (no, not UT, i mean the original game) Freelancer did an admirable job of being insanely fun in single and multiplayer (because literally the only change in multiplayer was to drop the campaign and add other real players) Marathon? Halo? Sketchfighter? Redline? Ares? Avara?

all of these games are quite playable in either single or multiplayer mode, and have extensive single-player content. there may be a trend int he past few years of making games that are exclusively online, and there are a few recent game (such as the Elder Scrolls) which are exclusively offline, but by no means are these the only two sorts of game available.

Quote

Besides that, my parents dislike online games, because they're so addictive and "require" you to be online all the time. You can set a single-player game down at any time (it may be hard, sure), but if you set down a multi-player game, you'll hurt your status by not being on all the time. As such, they can be extremely harmful to your real life. So my parents don't permit me to play those types of games.

this argument is more than slightly invalidated by the following statement:

Quote

Anyway, I'm an EV fan, having spent literally thousands of hours in all three versions of EV (I like EVO the best, though EVC has the best plugs).

if you're spending thousands of hours on the computer anyhow, it hardly matters whether you are on or offline doing it.

@edwin-, on Jul 12 2008, 09:55 PM, said in New EV Override port:

says who? ever play half life? quake? unreal? (no, not UT, i mean the original game) Freelancer did an admirable job of being insanely fun in single and multiplayer (because literally the only change in multiplayer was to drop the campaign and add other real players) Marathon? Halo? Sketchfighter? Redline? Ares? Avara?

all of these games are quite playable in either single or multiplayer mode, and have extensive single-player content. there may be a trend int he past few years of making games that are exclusively online, and there are a few recent game (such as the Elder Scrolls) which are exclusively offline, but by no means are these the only two sorts of game available.
this argument is more than slightly invalidated by the following statement:
if you're spending thousands of hours on the computer anyhow, it hardly matters whether you are on or offline doing it.

Well, I don't know about those games. Hopefully ASW is different. But think AoE, for example.

I've had games for the last 8 years. "Thousands of hours" is only about an hour a day.

@hamster, on Jul 13 2008, 02:21 PM, said in New EV Override port:

mp3 and AAC conversion still doesn't work at all,

Oh come on, like you can't convert them yourself :p. They play fine once you get them converted, though it's still best to keep short sounds uncompressed.

Could I make a small suggestion? Its entirely possible that you've already implemented something of this sort, but since the details of your project are so hush-hush I'd have no way of knowing.

Anyway, while you're at it, could you add stuff like shield recharge, ion capacity/dissipation, and exact acceleration and turn values into the ship and player info boxes? 'Cause invisible statistics are no fun, really.

Guy, you know anything about that? I haven't really looked to see if the EV4 engine supports it.

Yes. I know this because I had to recreate all the dialogues from the EVO. DITLs and DLOGs no longer exist, of course, so there has to be a replacement of some sort. A much more versatile replacement :). You can't add new functionality though, like a button to take a walk around a planet or something