Matrix Games Forums

Coder Diary #3 - Variable Animation Speeds

ORIGINAL: what.if

Just installed JT campaign series on a Windows 7 64 bit pc and everything is working fine but the fast human play is now really fast, is there a way to slow this down a bit?

Why, yes there is! But you'll have to wait for the release of CS Modern Wars, and future CS updates, in order to accomplish it. [:'(]

The Campaign Series of games currently offers you two choices of 3D animation speed

[*]"Fast", which is way too fast, even comically fast, especially on recent speedy systems
[*]normal, which is way too slow, even painfully so, on any system old or new

by way of the Menu Bar Options

[*]Fast Computer Player
[*]Fast Human Player

which toggle between the "Fast" and (default) slow animation speeds.

I have implemented the promised variable animation speeds, with two new Options choices

[*]West Bloc Animation Speed
[*]East Bloc Animation Speed

(where "Fast Computer Player" and "Fast Human Player" have been junked), and a new Animation Speed dialog box. Please see the screenshot:



In the dialog box, the far left Slow slider setting gives you the traditional default slow speeds. The far right Fast setting gives you the traditional fast speeds, i.e., as fast as your computer and the current game code permits. Between those two extremes, you can set each side's Animation Speed to your taste, from 0% speedup to 100% speedup, in increments of 1%.

The coding for this has been done in such a way that, as computers get even faster in future, we can easily ratchet down the speeds by means of a simple code tweak. (But the 100% Fast setting will still run the animations as fast as the computer and game code permit.) We might put this tweak in the hands of a player via a new configuration .ini file or somesuch.

("West Bloc Animation Speed" and "East Bloc Animation Speed" -- the option text might change to something more generic -- for example "Side A Animation Speed" and "Side B Animation Speed" -- since the Campaign Series encompasses wars where "West Bloc" and "East Bloc" are not appropriate.)

Variable Animation Speeds -- a big deal? No, especially if you don't play in 3D. But it was low hanging tech fruit, some essential learning by doing, so I picked it, and I did it.

Work on deep internals; QAing the game data; also scenario, OOB, map & graphics development -- these all continue.

Until the next time ...

Thanks again Berto, I am really looking forward to your Coder diary entries. It is great to share the progress you make with the code base!

Regarding animation speeds, is there any chance to make the airplanes move relatively slower than the ground units? I keep my replays at high speed, as I do not need to see the details of each firefight in detail. However, I would like to enjoy the sight of fighters strafing and bombers dropping their load, as they are a rare occurance, and - well - the bitmaps are bloody gorgeous.

I am biased of course, having added a bunch of aircraft into a EF add-on.

Edit: forgot the link: http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/ ... ?tid=61908

While I don't expect to be fully able to recognice a difference between a Blenheim Mk I and Blenheim Mk IV zooming past, it would be nice to at least to be able to recognize which aircraft it was that flew by.

Again, this is probably just me

Good luck to you with your work as always!

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Regarding animation speeds, is there any chance to make the airplanes move relatively slower than the ground units?

Fat chance. [:'(]

Seriously, I've looked at the code, and I don't see where airplanes are treated differently from any other units in their animation speed parameters or code routines.

It is possible but unlikely I will rewrite the code, or change any data parameters, to single out airplanes for special treatment. As I playtest (I mostly "just" code), I'll keep it in mind.

With the new variable animation speeds, you should be able to slow down all animations to the point where airplane animations are just slow enough, and other unit animations just fast enough. There may not be the perfect one-speed-fits-all solution or slider setting that totally satisfies; but it's so much better than having the traditional just two speed choices, (comically) fast or (agonizingly) slow.

Well done berto! Thank you!

Patrick

I was off the grid for two weeks and just read your 3 updates. Well done.

Hi Berto,

Regarding animation speeds, the current version of JTCS reverts to 'slow', if one skips the battle replay, even if the animation option was turned to 'fast'. Then, one must observe the friendly arty phase in slow mo, before a chance to ensure the 'fast' option is on again.

I do not know if that is a bug or a feature, but I for one would like to have fast animation if that is what I had opted for. Have you tested how this change affects this behaviour?

Anyway, keep up the good work as always, I am thrilled to see the outcome when ever it is ready (and it is ready when it is ready, right)!

Enjoying your Coder Diaries too [:)]

bump 3

it happens to me too crossroads. whenever i skip the replay, it will go very slow

That legacy bug has since been fixed. In future public releases, of course. [;)]

Yay! [:)]

so next patch will be fixed?