Sushi

Today, we are proud to present to you the demonstrational package of our mod. Since it has been taking time for us to finesse the gameplay elements for full release, we wanted to get something out there to our loyal fans. The demo version features prototype systems where you can check out all the ships that will be available in the final build. Also, you can fight in basic NPC battles. Another reason for a demo release was the opportunity to test our multiple enhancements to the Freelancer graphics engine on a multitude of different systems. Please note that some of our more recent achievements (shadows, distortion mapping, etc..) did not make the final cut. However, rest assured that we will be updating the demo with fixes and improvements. Also, we plan on expanding the demo later on - stay tuned for more details! But now, have fun flying around and shooting stuff in our demo! Download links below: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow/downloads/freeworlds-tides-of-war-demo http://www.the-starport.net/freelancer/download/singlefile.php?cid=7&lid=2672 https://www.rapidshare.com/files/2676992275/freeworlds_tow_demo.exe?bin=1 http://www.thepiratebay.se/torrent/7167769 (recommended) For those having issues with the demo, please go here: http://freeworldstidesofwar.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=1362 From the Freeworlds: Tides of War development team, we thank you for your continued support of this mod.

Over the past two weeks, ChewieBacca, one of our testers decided to make a teaser trailer for our followers. This is just but a very small, short, glimpse of what you can expect to see when you play FW:ToW this Spring! Official Freeworlds: Tides of War Teaser Trailer - Mod DB Stay tuned for more updates over the next few weeks! And please, if you haven't already, and you want to support our mod, don't forget to vote for us at the MODDB Mod of the Year Awards!!

Thought you guys might want to check this out! Freelancer gets a whole new graphic engine: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow/news/deferred-rendering-dynamic-lighting-soft-particles http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/11/10662/fw_softparticles.jpg

Over the last few months, I've been working a lot on the graphics engine of Freelancer. Inspired by Timeslip's work. I wrote a Direct3D8 to Direct3D9 wrapper for Freelancer to be able to directly access the graphics pipeline.The ultimate goal is to somewhat modernize Freelancer's graphics engine. I'm not sure about the features I will be able to add further on, but let me show you the first enhancements that I already implemented. Before getting to the eye candy, let me quickly talk about mouse lag. I guess almost everybody is familiar with the mouse lag problem that occurs in some games. In almost every case, the laggy/delayed input is to blame on VSync. If you turn VSync off, it solves a lot of the mouse lag problems for many games, including Freelancer. I did some research on the topic and found this article on a private blog by "Vorlath". Basically, to fix mouse lag in the DirectX pipeline, you have to make sure that after any present call, the screen has really received the frame you just rendered. This is easily done in Direct3D9 as stated in the article and it was one of the first things I implemented. Thank god, no more VSync-related mouse lag in Freelancer! Lets get to the eye candy. One of the top wanted post-processing effects in older games is bloom. As of now, I added a relatively cheap and subtle bloom effect, but in the future I want to do a proper HDR lighting implementation. Another post-process effect is Color Correction, which to me seems to be very underrated. You can completely change the feel of the game by including a nice color correction effect. The implementation I chose was very simple, yet powerful, based on this article. The vast benefit of this method is the what-you-see-is-what-you-get effect. We simply take an ingame screenshot, load that screenshot in Photoshop and do some color correction with the Curves or Levels tool. We then apply the same color correction to a special texture that will be used by the game. Very easy to do, yet very powerful. Here is a comparison, with color correction added in the second screenshot: http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/11/10662/thumb_620x2000/colorcorr_0.jpg http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/11/10662/thumb_620x2000/colorcorr_1.jpg The color correction effect is implemented per-system. Its a very good tool to give systems their very own feeling, making the ingame experience as varied as possible. For example, we could give rebel and imperial systems their very unique color correction, so you quickly know in which territory you are.Finally a little video to show the effects in motion: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow/videos/bloom-color-correction-shader

Ya, it comes down to preference, in the end. Overall, though, it's much better than what we originally had.

Over the past few days, Demi, our resident computer guru, has been hard at work making a brand new developer website for the Freeworlds: Tides of War Developer team to use. As a team, we decided to create these boards because we needed more space plus wanted more features for development than our current forums had. Using the webspace provided by Qi, Demi made a wonderful layout. With this new site, you will be able to get the latest news, development blogs, images, 3D representations of the vessels and ask questions on the development forums. As for the layout of the site, below are the two prototypes Demi worked on: http://demios.org.uk/MiscUpload/rev1_img1.png http://demios.org.uk/MiscUpload/rev1_img2.png As you can see from the layouts, the Freeworlds: Tides of War Development team has accounts on facebook,youtube, twitter, and google buzz. We welcome everyone interested in this mod's development to follow us there as we are regularly updating the sites. Another special feature that I wanted to mention is the ability to see all of our models in 3D. While we're still in the process of converting all of our ships for viewers to see, I wanted to show you what you can expect 3D Models click me. Demi is still in the process of refining the viewer to optimize the performance, however, for now, I think it's an excellent proof-of-concept that I cannot wait to see running on the site. Lastly, we welcome everyone to join us on our forums where you can ask the developers any questions, comment or give suggestions. We welcome all feedback from our followers. To view the sites main page, go here: Freeworlds: Tides of War Development Site To join our forums go here: Freeworlds: Tides of War Development Forums

We wanted to know how good our Star Wars models are when compared to the best models out there, ones from the Star Wars movies. So, our FW:ToW testing team (Slyder, Cropto, Orac, Avenger, Shadow and Chewie) have taken it upon themselves to use all ingame video recordings to reproduce some of the most epic scenes from Star Wars. Much to our surprise, we found the quality of our ingame models were almost as good as the movies. I don't have a finished video to show you yet, as we still are in the process of filming, however we are excited to show you a sneak peak of what is to come. The following image montage are all ingame screenshots that have not been digitally edited or enhanced. Episode IV Intro Tantive IV is being chased by Darth Vader's ISD http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen169.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen179.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen176.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen177.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen183.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen184.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen180.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen182.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen181.jpg Episode VI Vader's Lamda undocking from his ISD http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen186.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen192.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen187.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen189.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen196.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen190.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen197.jpg http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad29/Cropto/Freeworlds20/screen198.jpg Images courtesy of Cropto

To vote for our mod at the moddb awards please follow this link http://www.moddb.com/events/2009-mod-of-the-year-awards/top100 under the best upcoming mods under Freelancer!

The Freeworlds: Tides of War mod team has been busy over the past few weeks fixing bugs, building an economy and, of late, creating more of the mission systems for players to enjoy (ie. Battle of Yavin). Below, you'll find the latest video of this new mission system Deety has designed called, "Battle of Bilbringi." Essentially, this mission will feature a gigantic ongoing battle between the New Republic and the Empire full of huge capital ships, hundreds of laser beams and a whole lot of fun! Battle of Bilbringi In other news, Qi, our resident Economy Guru, has completed the first alpha prototype of our economy and it contains over 1000+ trade runs. He strove to make this economy as canonical as he could to further the immersion factor of the mod and we all really think you will love what he's done. In addition to this, Qi is working on a web interface that will allow players to view the changes in commodity prices based on what is being traded on the server. However, I will release more information about that when the graphical interface is near completion. Lastly, I wanted to show you all the new Pirate factions Deety has created based on what systems you're in. Below is an image on how the territories will be seperated: http://i49.tinypic.com/2cnte7b.jpg Thanks again everyone for following this mod. We've really appreciated the ongoing support and compliments. And please, if you haven't already, please take the time and give us a vote for the mod of the year awards over at http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow Happy holidays, Sushi

The Freeworlds: Tides of War development team has been busy over the past few weeks bringing the mod to life. Deety and Myself have completed putting in all the code for all the mod's small craft including the shuttles, transports and freighters of the mod. Deety has also been busy working on creating new missions for the mod, similar to the scale and nature we previously mentioned in this news piece: Battle of Yavin. We'll be releasing more details about missions as Deety completes more of the project. As for systems, Lilfire has joined the team to help fill in the large empty space we have. By tediously placing numerous ships, bases, shipyards and container fields, we hope to breathe some life into our massive systems. Below are some images of what Lilfire has been doing with the assistance of Deety: http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3659/screen6m.png http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1277/screen1cs.png http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8796/screen2s.png Fondor Shipyards: We also have head some significant development with Fondor Shipyards. The model was originally built by Overfiend and has been textured by Super D. Here are some images of the large base: http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5120/fodor2.png http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/3423/fodor1.png http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4530/fondormodule1.png http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3482/fondormodule2.png Furthermore, Qi has almost completed the groundwork of our economy. Unfortunately, there's not much to show you regarding this, but you'll have to believe me when I say that it's going to be epic W0dk4 has also been busy with FW:ToW by creating many new FL Hooks for us. Some of the creations include: Having mass of cargo/missiles affect how the vessel will handle (More mass = sluggish) Preventing players from moving while in cruise (that means that players will have to point themselves in the right direction before they engage their cruise engines) Speeding up turning rate when you throttle down. Some of you that remember XvT/XWA know that when turning your optimal speed to turn was 33%. Creating a missile view mode Creating a key that causes the ships wings to fold prior to engaging cruise:B-Wing, X-Wing And last but not least, this is the latest FW:ToW Development video so show you the amazing new bases that we're going to have populate our systems. The movie also includes some footage of the huge fleets Lilfire has been working on. I hope you enjoy it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiqjoBpqVIs As always, any comments, questions or suggestions are welcome! ----- Sushi

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9955/fwlogotrans.png Now that summer has come, the FW:ToW Development team is back at full steam. We've been busy adding in vessels into the mod, making sure that attention to detail remains our top priority. With 108 ships, and custom hitboxes to be made in Milkshape 3D for each one, it's a huge task. To model/texture, hitbox, hardpoint and code a single ship into game takes upwards of 30 hours. However, slowly but surely, we're working on way through them all. I'm also pleased to announce that we're in the process of working on our capital ship prototype. Hopefully, by the end of the month, we'll have a team of testers from the FW USA and FW France communities test the prototype for further modification. Concurrently, Oma and Deety have been burning the mid-night oil making the FW:ToW systems a spectacular sight to behold. They have just completed the system layouts of all 22 systems. Deety is now busy placing the Non-Player Characters within these systems to bring them to life. I hope to capture a video of these systems, with Oma's explanation of how he designed them, in the next FW:ToW Development video. Now, without further adieu, this is a development video of just a few of the notable ships we have into game. I would have included more of the New Republic Capitals, such as the Quasar Fire, MC40a and MC80 but Arvis Taljik, creator of the Tides of War: Old Republic mod (an example of his work found here Sith Destroyer, has graciously agreed to redo their textures. So, as soon as he's finished with them, I'll be sure to show you all his brilliant work! I also wanted to give a appreciative shout out to Overfiend, who has been working many hours to make sure the FW:ToW hitboxes are perfect. He's already done over half of the FW:ToW 108 vessels. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfQzd-gDa0 Anyways, I hope you enjoy the newest video in the FW:ToW series. As always, any questions or comments are greatly appreciated, as well as your continuing support! And, as a bonus treat, I wanted to show you all the MC-90 we have in game. The model/texture was created by EvilleJedi and the FW:ToW Dev team thanks him so much for his generous contribution of his work to our mod. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/mjr6988/mc90-1.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/mjr6988/mc90-2.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/mjr6988/mc90-1-1.jpg Sushi

Here are some new videos for you fellas: Our New 130k Polygon ISD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfV-9kIC5RM Some new asteroid FX:

The FW:ToW team has been busy working on importing the final of the First Strike Cockpits, XWA Upgrade Project Cockpits and others into game. Sovereign, our lead importer and SW whiz, has put them into our ships with style! In the video you well see the cockpits match what you see on the exterior as well as on the interior. This took an incredible amount of dedication and time, and the FW:ToW team thank him for his continuing efforts. As well, we also have some new model/texture debuts, ETA-2 and V-Wing, done by Bouma and Omega, respectively. As you will see within the video, we're trying to make the cockpit mode a viable option for those of you that enjoyed the X-Wing Vs. TIE-Fighter and X-Wing Alliance series of games. In addition to this our team has finally decided on a combat prototype to use for our mod. We've done away with engine kill completely and it feels incredible. Why485, as well as myself, have been working on FX for the mod. Deety and myself have been working on adapting the combat prototype to other ships into the game. I also wanted to take this time to say thank you to the FW:ToW Combat Prototype Testers for their incredible feedback which allowed us to refine our ideas into what we have now. Also in this video, you will see some of the new NPC AI development that has been done primarily by Deety and Why485. They have done a fabulous job on giving the non-player characters (NPCs) some serious brains! I hope you enjoy the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBjBIi5oDRU ----------------------------- To follow the progress of this mod, please visit the follow sites: http://www.freeworlds-tow.net http://www.moddb.com/mods/fwtow/

Oh, I don't mind having interest in this mod stay here at all. We're pretty much one big happy SW mod family, anyways But, I'll try to keep my posts a bit shorter for next time.

Well fellas, I don't even know where to begin because so much has happened since I last posted, so I guess I'll update you on the current mod progress. As of now, we only have one system left to complete, then the alpha version of FW:ToW is finished, in terms of systems. Oma and Qi have worked tirelessly on making the best systems possible for you guys. I even had Oma fix up my old ones I made when I first started this mod back in August. What he has done with them will surely take your breath away. The attention to detail is outstanding. I'd like to also give credit to Orac65, who has been trying his hand at making a system and is showing a lot of promise through his work. Hmmm...what else. Well, we have a new shiplist now. I think that's important to tell you folks. Sov had been doing such a fantastic job finding and importing models for us, that it allowed us to really diversify the shiplist for each faction; I'll let him post more about that since it is his creation. What this means is that there is more hardpointing/hitbox making and coding for us to do in terms of ships, but I honestly think it's going to be worth it in the end. Fortunately, we had most of our ship coding done before 94/104 ships. So, the new 15+ ships or so shouldn't take up too much time. Sov has also been busy making his idea of a combat prototype; more about that later in this post. Dok and Mirkha have been busy making great .sur files for us. Mirkha has finished redoing the entire Aldebaran Modular Station (AMS) hitboxes which are absolutely incredible. Super d has also been a great addition to the team by helping redo glowmaps for us. Solostaran has been an fabulous texturist for us. His skill/attention to minute details are what makes his textures so wonderful. He will often whip up textures for us within a day of us asking for them, which is a HUGE help. He's currently working on making the AMS textures just right. Here are some pictures of his work in progress: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g195/BlueShift_photos/1-7.png http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g195/BlueShift_photos/1-9.png Why485 has been busy finalizing his combat prototype - more about that later in this post. As well, he's made us some new FX which are utterly stunning. Here are some pictures of those: http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5290/fweffects02ii6.jpg http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2227/fweffects03na3.jpg Deety has been implementing NPCs into the alpha systems for us. What he has done to the AI is shocking, to be frank. They're so mean and vicious now, we're probably going to have to tone them down because they pwn so HARD. He also has been hard at work bringing his energy drain system - similar to XvT and XWA - to life in his combat prototype. Now, as I mentioned above, Sov, Why485 and Deety have been busy working on the FW:ToW combat prototypes. What happened is that the developers could not decide on what we wanted for this mod. There were so many ideas, thoughts and beliefs on the way that fighter/bomber combat should be done that it came down to me asking these three developers to bring their thoughts to the mod. I then recruited 6 players, 4 from FW and 2 from FW-France, to test these completed prototypes. These players are: Oma, Kampher, Wedge, Desdina, Pixy and Kelron Trion. What I looked for in testers was fighter/bomber experience, community experience, ability to work well and discuss points with others and objectivity. Based on the testers vote, we will be using their collective choice as the foundation of this mod's combat. As you can probably infer, this is no small task and I hope the testers the best of luck in this critical endeavor. In the end, though, I hope to be using the best ideas of each combat prototype in the final product. There will be no "winner" or "loser" in this combat prototype decision, only what's the absolute best for this mod! Just so you all can get a rough idea of each prototype, here's a brief synopsis of each: Why485 has even been so kind to make a combat prototype gameplay movie. I hope you all enjoy this! Note, this may/may not be what combat is actually like in FW:ToW come release. Please click the High Quality button. http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4020/snapshot20090309093823.jpg http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8430/snapshot20090309094115.jpg http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3651/snapshot20090309094027.jpg http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6596/snapshot20090309094008.jpg http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5562/snapshot20090309094252.jpg http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1606/snapshot20090309094149.jpg http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9404/snapshot20090309094126.jpg