Preview of Legends Modding

[tjhkkr]

[It's also worth mentioning if you do the character's background as transparent then the background will be based on their location, planet type or space if they are in a ship.]
So you can mark whether to see all their traits or not?

And yes, thank you IGARD, I have been MOST unkind. Thank you for taking time to share!

[Haree78]

ORIGINAL: tjhkkr
So you can mark whether to see all their traits or not?

Ahh sorry I was talking about the background of the image. The alpha channel of the .png file.

When you first get a character most of them will be unclear what their skills or traits are, it is only after you get to use them in their role you will know.

[lancer]

G'day,

You will be able to set skills and traits, more on that when the customisation guide is released.

Is it possible to randomise these or do characters have the same set of skills and traits every time the turn up in the game?

Nice screenshot!

Cheers,
Lancer

[Erik Rutins]

In regard to a previous post, before Legends DW used 200x200 and resized to that. For Legends, we improved the memory management, reduced the compression and increased to 300x300. The new ships and the previous art all look much better than in the earlier releases without the extra compression and at higher resolution. I think you'll be happy with how they look.

Regards,

- Erik

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Great screenshot, Haree! And thanks for all the info. Glad to see you guys are working on the beta.

Just wait til you see what's happening in the Delta Quadrant Igard! [:)]

Real soon now!





{ Friend of yours Igard? } [:D]

[Igard]

I don't believe I've met that rather sinister looking gentleman, Ed.

I think the 300x300 pixel size will be a good compromise. I'd rather start putting more ships into the game without worrying about memory. If it's got to be done, might as well do it now.

Must say though, it's painful reducing the quality of the ship images, even if it doesn't show up ingame.[:(]

I'll keep the old files handy, just incase Distant Worlds 2 supports higher res images.[:)]

[lordxorn]

ORIGINAL: Haree78

The reduction to 300x300 isn't new, Distant Worlds always scaled to a maximum of it.

The new loading mechanism you are talking about is to manage memory better and allow for mods that use a lot more images.

As for anything to gain by going smaller than 300x300, I'm not sure, it certainly wont stop scaling but whether the scaling algorithm works quicker with enlarging compared to reduction I'm not sure. Will it save memory? Also not sure because I imagine the game holds the scaled image in memory, not the original so I would guess a smaller original wouldn't affect memory much if any.

Here is the direct statement regarding ship sizes that was asked.

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1
Elliot, has any thing been attempted at dealing with ship image scaling yet?
For instance, in making different size Cube ships (i.e. the Borg).
Remember before, no one could make large or different sized Borg cube ships?

ORIGINAL: ELLIOT G

Hi Ed

I assume you mean 'can you set the size of the ship image independent of the ship size'? Unfortunately there is no provision for that. The size of the ship image drawn in the game is directly scaled from the size of the ship design (i.e. total size of all components).

If I've misunderstood the above, please explain further.

BTW - for all modding: because Legends now loads ship images at full resolution the source images should not be bigger than 300x300 pixels. Using the full resolution images in the game means that scaling performance is directly related to the size of the image, i.e. big images will take longer to scale and can very negatively affect performance. I just say this because I noticed a lot of ship images in some mods were typically 500x500 pixels or even more. These images will take nearly 3 times as long to scale as 300x300 images.

Thanks
Elliot

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Igard

I don't believe I've met that rather sinister looking gentleman, Ed.

I think the 300x300 pixel size will be a good compromise. I'd rather start putting more ships into the game without worrying about memory. If it's got to be done, might as well do it now.

Must say though, it's painful reducing the quality of the ship images, even if it doesn't show up ingame.[:(]

I'll keep the old files handy, just in case Distant Worlds 2 supports higher res images.[:)]

To be honest Igard, in my playing around with reducing some of your previous Federation ships to
300 x 300 for testing, as long as the resolution is around 96 pixels per inch or higher, they look
just fine to me. We'll meet on Risa again very soon to discuss my progress! Must get some of this
damned Briar Patch Dark Matter out of my collector ships' warp manifold first though! [:@]

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

In regard to a previous post, before Legends DW used 200x200 and resized to that. For Legends, we improved the memory management, reduced the compression and increased to 300x300. The new ships and the previous art all look much better than in the earlier releases without the extra compression and at higher resolution. I think you'll be happy with how they look.

Regards,
- Erik

Thank you for answering the question for me... [8D][:)][:)][:)]

[Data]

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1

ORIGINAL: Igard

Great screenshot, Haree! And thanks for all the info. Glad to see you guys are working on the beta.

Just wait til you see what's happening in the Delta Quadrant Igard! [:)]

Real soon now!





{ Friend of yours Igard? } [:D]

Ooooooo yeeeeeeees, mod some romulan / vulcan / any ST characters into the game.......epiiiiiiic [:)]

[tjhkkr]

All of this looks like neat stuff...

[Kalthaniell]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

ORIGINAL: Haree78

The reduction to 300x300 isn't new, Distant Worlds always scaled to a maximum of it.

The new loading mechanism you are talking about is to manage memory better and allow for mods that use a lot more images.

As for anything to gain by going smaller than 300x300, I'm not sure, it certainly wont stop scaling but whether the scaling algorithm works quicker with enlarging compared to reduction I'm not sure. Will it save memory? Also not sure because I imagine the game holds the scaled image in memory, not the original so I would guess a smaller original wouldn't affect memory much if any.

Here is the direct statement regarding ship sizes that was asked.

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1
Elliot, has any thing been attempted at dealing with ship image scaling yet?
For instance, in making different size Cube ships (i.e. the Borg).
Remember before, no one could make large or different sized Borg cube ships?

ORIGINAL: ELLIOT G

Hi Ed

I assume you mean 'can you set the size of the ship image independent of the ship size'? Unfortunately there is no provision for that. The size of the ship image drawn in the game is directly scaled from the size of the ship design (i.e. total size of all components).

If I've misunderstood the above, please explain further.

BTW - for all modding: because Legends now loads ship images at full resolution the source images should not be bigger than 300x300 pixels. Using the full resolution images in the game means that scaling performance is directly related to the size of the image, i.e. big images will take longer to scale and can very negatively affect performance. I just say this because I noticed a lot of ship images in some mods were typically 500x500 pixels or even more. These images will take nearly 3 times as long to scale as 300x300 images.

Thanks
Elliot

I think I finally can fully understand the resolution thing. Thank you for clearing that up Lordxorn.

That means if I plan to convert ships I made so far, I'm in for a LOT of rescaling. And it's true what Woodman wrote earlier about remaking the engine trails and position lights. Much depends on how big is the difference between the two resolutions. Even so, I'm really happy with the graphics improvement. Blurry ship images ingame is something that was bugging me a lot in ROTS. Though knowing myslef, I'd sooner make new shipsets rather than work on all the old ones Not sure if that makes me lazy or productive [;)]

I also have a question for you guys: what about weapons sprites? If the same loading system is used for them, what is the recommended optimal resolution?

[Shuul]

Please tell me, weapons and research trees are moddable?
Its a main feature im looking to get with legends.

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: Shuul

Please tell me, weapons and research trees are moddable?
Its a main feature im looking to get with legends.

It remains hardcoded from I gather.

[Nedrear]

ORIGINAL: Kalthaniell

Though knowing myslef, I'd sooner make new shipsets rather than work on all the old ones Not sure if that makes me lazy or productive [;)]

If you have visited the AAR section you might have noticed, that I use your shipsets of BG and ME for my AAR. If there is a possible improvement, might you try to recreate them too?

[YourConscience]

From what I see, apart from races and some pictures it will be impossible to mod any important values? For example what if I want a 30x30 sector, not just 15x15 max. Or what if I want to modify the damage values of weapons? Or ranges? Will I at least be able to binary hack such things or will there be counter-measures against this (such as checksums all over the place)?

[Nedrear]

I believe Hardcore Modding will be possible... though people need to make a special game folder for your version then...

[Kalthaniell]

ORIGINAL: Nedrear

ORIGINAL: Kalthaniell

Though knowing myslef, I'd sooner make new shipsets rather than work on all the old ones Not sure if that makes me lazy or productive [;)]

If you have visited the AAR section you might have noticed, that I use your shipsets of BG and ME for my AAR. If there is a possible improvement, might you try to recreate them too?

No need, the ships are already 300x300. To be honest I didn't really think that anyone is still using any of my oldest ships. It's quite rewarding to see I was wrong after all xD

Btw, I don't mind hardcoded dmg values for weapons. I'm interested solely in pic resolution.

[Data]

Your ships are like forum lurkers, man, you don't always see them but they are many [:)]

[Shuul]

ORIGINAL: Nedrear

I believe Hardcore Modding will be possible... though people need to make a special game folder for your version then...

So its possible to add new components and techs? Will it be difficult?