Any chance of further development/improvement?

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Ratzki

Just outa curiosity, what happened to cause the debugger to not function?

Thanks for looking into it anyhow!!

I imagine it's related to my environment or compiler settings, and probably related to some DirectX functions, but I don't really know. I've asked a couple of folks, but haven't heard back. I may try a couple of things, but I don't want to raise anyones expectations.

Thanks
Rick

[Mad Russian]

With the idea that I could be wrong and that PCO may actually move forward there may be a trick or two I could pull out of this hat. With the understanding of course that I would put myself on two programming projects at the same time. Not to mention a long standing boardgame project.

But still PCO would be worth it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[KEYSTONE07950]

How about the option of using the Pz Command engine to resolve Flashpoint Campaigns combat???????

Maybe a stupid idea considering the grand tactical nature of Flashpoint Campaigns.

I really like both systems [:)]

[rickier65]

I'm still working at this and I've made some progress.

Thanks
Rick

[Ratzki]

Good news, for the time being.

[Commanderski]

Good news indeed. Thank you!

[madorosh]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

The biggest thing would be to rattle Matrix/Slitherine's cage. Without A LOT of noise an update for this game is probably not going to happen. Read that as being slim to no chance.

I, along with the rest of the team, would love to go back and address this game system for the West Front.

Good Hunting.

MR

Plenty of people watching, even if they are not posting.

[demiller]

I've always enjoyed this game and would love to see some level of development continued. So, consider that some more rattling.

[harley9699]

I watch and lurk all of these forums as well. Another nudge for this one in particular.

[rickier65]

I thought I would post an update. I have been doing some work on this, though it has to fit in between my other commitments. I have been able to fix a couple of issues and I plan to address a few others.

I do have some other commitments I have to complete, but I (or someone else on the dev team) will post of list of items we know of that should be addressed in a patch/update, and give players a chance to identify other outstanding issues. But I'm looking at primarily fixing issues that may not be working as intended.

Additional work (enhancements/improvements) will depend on how this goes.

Thanks
Rick

[Commanderski]

Thank you for the update. [:)]

[Mobius]

I kind of would like to add indirect artillery scatter.

[Ratzki]

A little work with the editor would be nice. I hate generating trees and grass clumps all the time. It would be great if forests ect. were pre-stocked with trees and such, then a person could just touch things up here and there. Maybe a tree tile somewhat like the grass clumps could be made to help with system performance and cut down on the number of objects on the screen.
As for gameplay, any infantry combat improvement would go a long way.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Ratzki

A little work with the editor would be nice. I hate generating trees and grass clumps all the time. It would be great if forests ect. were pre-stocked with trees and such, then a person could just touch things up here and there. Maybe a tree tile somewhat like the grass clumps could be made to help with system performance and cut down on the number of objects on the screen.
As for gameplay, any infantry combat improvement would go a long way.

At one point we created some map patterns that had vegetation pre-stocked based on the terrain map color used, and these could be used with the existing Map Maker. I'm not really sure what became of those. Perhaps I can revisit the use of map patterns to simplify the process.

I do recall that a couple of the guys on the Dev team created some forest 'clumps' to see if it would help performance vs individual trees and the outcome was pretty much a wash between the two.

Thanks,
Rick

[Ratzki]

Could a lower resolution set of vegetation be of help? Or is it the actual numbers of trees ect. on the map the real issue.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Ratzki

Could a lower resolution set of vegetation be of help? Or is it the actual numbers of trees ect. on the map the real issue.

I don't know the answer to that, though I'm inclined to think it's both.

Rick

[Mobius]

I think what they want is a select auto-gen forest type that select the type and density for the woods. Like 'conifer I' and 'conifer II' that loads all trees for the woods when you drag it to the terrain type.

[Ratzki]

You hit it dead on Mobius, it is a pain in the arse to have to mannually go through autogening individual trees every time. Plus a person is always wondering if you are exceeding the structures maximum on the map where it starts to affect game performance. What sort of performance hit is there with the smoothing of the maps to the extent that they are done now? Would backing that off a little and making it somewhat more coarse free up any resourses?

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Ratzki

You hit it dead on Mobius, it is a pain in the arse to have to mannually go through autogening individual trees every time. Plus a person is always wondering if you are exceeding the structures maximum on the map where it starts to affect game performance. What sort of performance hit is there with the smoothing of the maps to the extent that they are done now? Would backing that off a little and making it somewhat more coarse free up any resourses?

The map patterns I mentioned actually automated the process for forest, grass, shrubs, basicly if I recall, you used a certain terrain color and the applicable pattern and the map automatically used set of trees with preset densities based on whether you used light, medium or heavy. But like I said, I'm not sure what happened and if it still works. And it will take a while to track it down.

Thanks
Rick

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: Ratzki
What sort of performance hit is there with the smoothing of the maps to the extent that they are done now? Would backing that off a little and making it somewhat more coarse free up any resourses?

Smoothing wouldn't have any affect. A map mesh is typically 65x65 panels or
4225 panels whether smooth or not. This is about the number of panels in two high detail tanks. Trees can range from 64 - 450 panels each depending on detail. So a lot of 3D trees can really add up.

Also, the way the newer maps are made with the megatexture saves resources, unfortunately most of the maps are of the older design and consist of a number of separate color overlays which use more resources.