Mike.nl

Sure, but can you see in the dark? ;D Those lighting values are all the aloviewer uses to light the models. You can drop the intensity to zero, or the color to black, which in effect disables the light. But then it gets dark quickly.

That AloViewer is now released And your tutorial looks great. You might want to split that block of text up into paragraphs though, but for the rest it looks good. Just one thing... what's this about the aloviewer being "optional"? :'( j/k

I was going to wait until I had finished rewriting the viewer, and call that 0.7, but it seemed worthwhile to release what I have now, just because it's got some neat features, and people kept asking about it after screenshots Get it from one of these mirrors: http://alpha1.dyns.net/eaw/ http://alpha1.dyndns.info/eaw/ http://mikedev.everythingeaw.com/ To sum up the changes and new features: It now searches Forces of Corruption's path for textures and shaders as well. A simple log. When it can't find textures, or cannot load or compile shaders, it will tell you why. Background color. Tired of that everlasting blackness? You're not alone. File history. The last 9 opened files are remembered and displayed in the file menu. A nature panel. Similar to the one in the map editor (only slightly more compact), this panel allows you to play with the lighting and wind. Shadows. It now renders the shadows of units, assuming they have a shadow mesh, of course. Some visual artifacts may still occur. Better render order. No more light sabers behind bodies and such. It's not perfect, but a whole lot better then what it used to be. Billboarding. It will properly align meshes according to their billboard values. To see a nice example of this, open up a skybox, zoom out, and watch the sun as you change the "Sun" light on the nature tab. Bone coordinate systems. At every bone, there is now a small coordinate system that will allow you to determine in what way the bone is pointing. The colors for the axis are the same as 3dsmax's (x=red, y=green, z=blue). Optional ground plane. What good are shadows if you can't see them? The ground plane is fixed at z=0, so it's not as useful for space ships. Be sure to change the background color, otherwise you won't see it. Better DirectX initialization code. If it didn't run before, maybe it will now. So, grab a copy, and let me know what you think.

Actually, can I make one last remark, since I don't know where else to put it I think I may have fixed it. Download the fix (some shaders) and unpack it in the FoC directory. http://alpha1.dyndns.info/eaw/downloads/SSD-fix.zip I'm not sure if this will prevent you from playing online since this may be considered a mod by the game. Right now I just want to know if it works or not. It does for me, but that's just me

Just wondering, does it look something like this? http://alpha1.dyns.net/eaw/screens/ssd-white.png If not, could you post a screenshot?

Yes, but since it doesn't find FoC's path automatically yet (it will in the next release), you should specify it manually on the command-line. I.e., run the game like: AloViewer.exe "C:\Games\Star Wars Empire at War Forces of Corruption" "C:\Games\Star Wars Empire at War" Of course, supply the correct paths. This will override the automatically found paths with those two paths.

Version 1.1 of the String Editor fixes three bugs: When exporting after saving, the editor wouldn't export string values. When saving after starting a new file, it would overwrite the previously opened file. In the export dialog, the names of the languages were cut off. Thanks to Phoenix Rising for discovering the first one. Get it from one of the mirrors: http://alpha1.dyns.net/eaw/ http://alpha1.dyndns.info/eaw/ http://mikedev.everythingeaw.com/

It's probably not a memory issue, more like a processor issue. By adding that many planets the AI has to check a LOAD of options and alternatives in order to determine where to send its forces. I haven't really added planets myself, but from what I've heard and what I know, this is the problem. The solution? Besides from reducing the amount of planets, it might be worth a shot to reduce the number of connections between planets, so the AI's options don't exponentially increase. Or maybe the AI algorithms can be modified in the LUAs. These are just educated guesses on my part, however. Someone with experience in adding planets should speak about this.

It was on their homepage, it's been pushed into their archives by now http://www.petroglyphgames.com/news/index.php?id=62&year=2006

True. That's a negative. If you create a MEG file with the altered files (like, all files from your mod) and call it, for instance, MyMod.meg, you can add it to the end of the list in MegaFiles.xml and it'll work fine. Granted, the stuff like MODPATH won't work with it, so that's a reason not to do it, but technically speaking it works. And you really don't have to add ALL XMLs, even the ones you didn't change, to the MEG file. True, don't touch the .MEGs. Although you said in another post that the FoC demo works with files outside the MEG files. Do you actually have experience with this? I remember testing this, and the game would only accept my changes if I put them in a MEG file (either modify Config.meg, or create my own MEG). And some slight nitpicking here: MEG files are not 'compressed', nor 'encrypted'. They're simply archives. In fact, the MEG files are slightly bigger than the sum of the files they contain.

Noted, going on the list Of course, this would only work for the end-bones.

*pops head around the door* did someone say my name? If so, what do you think I could or expect me to do about this? I've never had the game suddenly crash on me. Not while playing the unmodded version. And if it happens with a mod, then that's simply the mod's fault for having a bad value somewhere. I've also never had problems with the protection. Seriously, what could I do here?

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll build in the ALO History, Titlebar name and Background color selection in the next version As for the white texture... I haven't got a clue. Anyway, I think I know enough of the .alo and .ala format to do a major rewrite of the Alo Viewer, for better (more EaW-like, and more compatible) rendering, so maybe the white texture problem will be solved then. I plan to make it quite an upgrade And those features will be in it PS: How did this conversation turn off-topic?

Sounds like a good idea. For suggestions I would slightly reduce the number of proton torpedo launchers. 10 seems just a tad overkill (don't forget, those things ignore shields). Also, don't forget about ion cannons, concussion missiles and (anti-fighter) laser cannons. The fighter bay and shield generator counts look fine. For reference, a level 5 space station has 4 Turbo-Lasers, 3 Lasers cannons, 3 Ions cannons, 3 Concussion missiles and 3 Protons torpedos So for the Golan's I would say... Lvl 1: 6 TBL, 5 LC, 5 IC, 5 CCM, 5 PRT Lvl 2: 7 TBL, 6 LC, 6 IC, 6 CCM, 6 PRT Lvl 3: 8 TBL, 7 LC, 7 IC, 7 CCM, 7 PRT This keeps the ratios about equal and still makes the weakest Golan more powerful than the most powerful space station. As to the mobility question, I would make them stationary if possible. If you treat them like units it's gonna wreak havoc when the game tries to get them on the map for defense (like all units spawn around the space station, so the Golans would as well) Also, to be honest, I'm not sure if the engine can support them. If they're stationary, you might have to adjust all the maps (or maybe just some; those that support Golans) to give them a location on the map. But I definitely like the idea

To the both of you: I need more information. Saying "hey, it doesn't work" isn't that helpful. Please describe exactly what you're trying to do and how exactly it isn't working. @1upD: Can't you drag and drop to the executable, or to the render window? In the case of the render window: do you see the "drag here" icon? @D803: Is this with a standard model, or a custom model? Could you send a screenshot or the .alo file (you can mail it)? And is the texture white, or does it have the Petroglyph logo on it? Details, people, details.

At special request I've added Drag & Drop support to the Alo Viewer, increasing the version to 0.6. You can now drop .alo and .ala files on the executable or the render window. I've also added the "hidden" and "collision mesh" fields to the mesh information in the model details dialog. Get it here: http://alpha1.dyns.net/eaw/ http://alpha1.dyndns.info/eaw/ http://mike.ultimate-eaw.com/

Yes. It means you need to read error messages carefully before asking us. Twice, if necessary. You have and . If that still doesn't ring a bell, count the letters You may now hit yourself on the head.

Well, there's more to it than just the alo and ala files, of course. In fact, I don't know if the ones that work in EaW will simply work in FoC. You might need to things to the XMLs for FoC. But that's manageble and not the point of this topic. This is about using the models and animations from FoC for EaW. Which is not possible unless you use my converter. How you use the models and animations in EaW to create usable units is a different matter and boils down to good ol' fashioned XML modding.

The object files (.alo) from FoC work fine in EaW. The animation files (.ala) don't because EaW can't read them. For FoC Petroglyph created a different animation format. EaW doesn't understand this format, so crashes when trying to read them. My converter understands both the FoC and EaW format. So it can read an animation that's in the FoC format and write the same animation in the EaW format, meaning that you can then use that animation in EaW.

Scripting? You can convert all animations with the converter with a couple of clicks. Please, check something out before you make comments or assume how it works

No. To use the animations, yes

So my converter actually works? wow j/k, I always have the utmost faith in my products *cough* *cough*

I just played the tedious demo again to get a closer look at stealth (oh the stuff I do for you guys ). It would seem the game engine, when stealth is activated, shows all meshes named "stealth" (after stripping any _LODx suffixes) and hides all other meshes. I guess this is somewhat similar to "Power to shields", which shows all "shield" meshes

Looks like there are three of them: ui_tyber_scan_lines.tga UI_scanlines2.tga W_TE_Rock_f_02_b.tga How do I know this? Open the Vengeance in my Alo Viewer, go to Model > Details, and go to the Parameter list for the Effect in the "stealth" mesh. It contains these three texture parameters. Oh, and in case that doesn't work quite right: you might need FoC's shader as well.

Animations from the FoC demo can now be converted to EaW's format with my FoC to EaW Animation Convertor.