Announcement : Rewrite of project will start, heads up everyone!

[nemafakei]

Wow. I really like the interface. Do the edges of maps and so forth look better at the edge or a few pixels from the edge, by the way?

Which colour index is translucent shadow? (if possible, could you make it or alter it to something in the first 16, since a lot of things are likely to use )

Incidentally, can transparency and shadow work with buildings?

[stefanhendriks]

For shadows i have this:

- a 16 bit mask picture. Where color (RGB) 255,0,255 is NOT shown. The mask color. Any other color will be transculent. So that also means, i'd like to have some cool flashing effects when units shoot. Explosions will not be opaque either. It will make the whole graphical experience a little better.

For units its easy, i can send you my pack of units. You can see the MCV is forgotten btw ;)

[stefanhendriks]

I am trying to apply the shadow code as much as possible, but not too much. It eats up CPU a lot if used not properly. So , to make sure the computers who have trouble running with the blending procedure, i have an option now. So you can turn it on/off.

Turning OFF will not give the program less 'blitting' commands, yet, they are simplified, giving more fps.

A little comparison  , you can see at the screenshot.

The biggest notices are on the units. Also the shroud, but the shroud should be imo more noticable. Yet i am not a real gfx artist, so its progress is slow on that part ;)

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

Unit movement is in, to give you an idea what is new/changed , i compare it with the current 0.92 demo of D2TM:

- infantry can walk on mountain

- ALL units behave more dune2ish, ever noticed they 'bump' a bit every cell? Its like they move 1 step, wait a little, and move further. Depending on unit speed and such, i try to do this too. I

can simply deactivate it though, perhaps a nice thing for in the 'options' menu

- improved path finding, though its not 100%

- quads/raiders/trikes behave 'bumpy' on rocks... not 'smooth straight' movement there.

Other new stuff:

- shroud has more noticable shadow

- mouse cursor has shadow

- nice 'movement indicator' thingy. You cant see it, but i made something out of my own, and i

quite like it.

- TIMENN gave me some updated buttons, after i sent the old ones to him. Thank you very much! :)

Last but not least, a screenshot for you all:

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Kazuma]

The improvements look great. I have some suggestions. In my opinion the bottom bar is too large the height, maybe the buttons can be made smaller too. Will the infantry and the terrain textures become higher quality, more detailed? I like the more detailed structures.

[MrFlibble]

Hm, I think this way the proportions of the main screen and control bars are somehow kept close to the original, although the interface is completely different. But yes, the side.. sorry, bottombar's height could be somewhat narrowed to match the icon height.

[stefanhendriks]

I can probably snap a few pixels away, but dont expect too much. Also, keep in mind its only showed when needed, so most of the time you wont even have it on your screen.

The infantry, well, it woul dbe great when they are on higher pixelated gfx. I have some work of Nema here, but he's still working on it when he has time ;)

The buttons will remain the same size, i've experimented with sizes in between (not original dune 2 , too small, but a bit larger), but it messes up the gfx.

[Brutus]

The best of luck to you! I can't wait to try the finished product.  :)

By the way, will D2TM be compatible with the original D2 content? For example, can one use the original graphics and sounds? And how similar will the interface be?

[stefanhendriks]

interface: see screenshots

dune 2 data: no, we totally use our own data format, actually they are just plain BMP files in a .DAT file.

[Brutus]

Since you are using new formats, are you (eventually) going to convert the original content to the new format(s), for that extra nostalgia factor?  :)

[stefanhendriks]

i don't understand? Convert what into what?

[Brutus]

Convert the the original graphics and sound into the new format(s) you are using, so one can use the original sound and graphics for that "nostalgic pixelated" feeling.  :)

[nemafakei]

Well, so long as we retain the original double-sized stuff (which, from some of the file sizes Stefan has been talking abou that, sounds to be the case), that's graphically possible, and the sounds and music, unless I'm mistaken, will be just the same as the original.

[vidiware]

Well, so long as we retain the original double-sized stuff (which, from some of the file sizes Stefan has been talking abou that, sounds to be the case), that's graphically possible, and the sounds and music, unless I'm mistaken, will be just the same as the original.

I think Stefan is adding support for mp3 soundtracks to. Wich will make it possible to use the Dune 2000 music found for download here at dune2k, or maybe remixes of the old sountrack (improving some of the instruments and drums etc., visit www.frankklepacki.com and browse to the Dune 2 Medley 1 at the bottom of "Song of the Month" for some inspiration).

[stefanhendriks]

true. MP3 playback is supported. So on this side the possibilities are 'endless'. It would be nice to have some 'moddability' here, so one can define what music fits to what type of situation. I am not sure how to do that, ie, like Dune Legacy (different directories) or all music controlled by one single INI file (though you can split the files into sub-dirs to make it more readable).

[stefanhendriks]

New shot arrived, nema sent me a new pack and some gfx has been updated. I am also playing around with the unit ai already. Like, harvesters... its a bugger. I also have carry-alls flying and such (with a nice shadow yay!)...

the next thing will be to make carryalls useful, so when i build a refinery, they bring me a darn harvester to work with. Also, i will make 'power usage' useful.

Last but not least, power drain/give is now moddable already.

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

Another update:

- carry-alls bring in new reinforcements and leave (if specified in code) or stay...

Working on:

- carry-alls being able to pickup harvesters and bring to a refinery:

- setting a 'pick me up' flag on any unit, in order to give carry-alls auto-commands to bring

a unit to any given location

- power has some use... not enough power has consequenses.

[Brutus]

By the way, are you going to put in what you talked about a little while ago, about giving a "carryall assist" command to units  to use when moving so caryalls would move them to their destination?

Also, nice image. The terrain looks great (exactly as I remember it), but I somehow feel that the construction yard looks too "clean", so I really hope we'll be able to use the original artwork (no offense to your art-making capabilities, I'm just very much a nostalgic retro guy  :P ).

[stefanhendriks]

i will deliver a utility you you can edit the DAT files. This way you can totally go back old-skool style. Probably i will deliver such a package as well, so you can see the immense difference between the gfx update.

Also, the carry-all assist, yes. I mentioned it in my previous post ;) I will try to add that feature as the code should be flexible enough now.

[nemafakei]

"the construction yard looks too "clean""

I know what you mean, and trust me, I felt guilty when I made it.

[stefanhendriks]

yay. Thanks to nema for figuring out the 'shading' logic in the palette. I can now create ANY house shading color i want. Just pass the base color, and the rest will be done by the game itself. It took some time to get it working,  but the results are great! :D

[neonext]

i'm a little confused about what your saying. do u mean something different than converting the colors of the units into custom house colors?

[stefanhendriks]

No. I simply mean that i am not stuck to the dune 2 palette anymore when it comes to drawing house colors. :)

It means, give me any RGB value and i can make a shade out of that for a house color. And render it appropiatly. In other words, moddable houses are under way ;)

EDIT: i have made an example shot for you...

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Dunenewt]

(improving some of the instruments and drums etc., visit www.frankklepacki.com and browse to the Dune 2 Medley 1 at the bottom of "Song of the Month" for some inspiration).

I'm sure Frank would be glad to give you any tracks for use in this game as well.  Just drop him an e-mail and he replies pretty quickly.

[vidiware]

Maybe if some of the "Elders" like Stefan or Nema asks... :D Would be wonderful to have official permission to use the music