BREAKING NEWS: Standoff Episode 4 Released (September 27, 2007)

Bandit LOAF · 09-26-2007, 16:00

The subject says is all - the next installment of the Cadillac of fan projects is here! Episode 4 of Wing Commander: Standoff, the famous total conversion for Secret Ops, has been released! Here's the official word - the download link is located below!:

Quote:

Well, things were looking real nervous there for a while, but we made it - Episode 4 is out at last.

Episode 4 is definitely the biggest, most challenging - and by far the most troublesome - episode we've done so far. Hopefully you'll enjoy it. This release also adds scoreboard functionality to two more simulator missions - that's missions 9 and 10 - for the remaining six missions, stay tuned for Episode 5.

As always, we've released the current episode in two versions. If you've already got Episodes 1-3, you'll want to download the Episode 4 package, which takes up 82 MB. And if you've missed out on any of the previous episodes, you should download the Episodes 1-4 package. Naturally, the latter package is just a tad bigger, weighing in at 270 MB.

Download it HERE (81 mb)!

For Standoff neophytes, the pack containing all four episodes together is available here (264 mb). The expanded online scoreboard system will also be activated later today - don't fret, though: although scores made this morning will not be displayed for several hours, they will be recorded.

--
Original update published on September 27, 2007

Asdrubal · 09-27-2007, 03:56

im so eager to play it, downloaded the ep4 file once, and got a corrupted file error from windows.. dling it again, hope it works this time.

AD · 09-27-2007, 06:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asdrubal

im so eager to play it, downloaded the ep4 file once, and got a corrupted file error from windows.. dling it again, hope it works this time.

If you downloaded it the first time it went up, you will need to redowload. After it was first posted pete ended up having to re-upload the file to the CIC. So as long as the download completes if you redownload it it should work.

09-27-2007, 09:05

WOW!!! Absolutely amazing work!!! Thank you very much! The new starfield background looks especially nice. Perhaps one day we will be able to play standard WC5 and SO with this visual enhancement... just a suggestion.

Tigerhawk · 09-27-2007, 13:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guest

WOW!!! Absolutely amazing work!!! Thank you very much! The new starfield background looks especially nice. Perhaps one day we will be able to play standard WC5 and SO with this visual enhancement... just a suggestion.

As an old radio personality here in Iowa by the name of Jim Zabel once said:

"I love it, I love it, I love it!"

Been through two missions so far. Scratch three flattops! On the Hero difficulty, no less! Couldn't get a torp shot off with the Sabre, so I took a Rapier and shot everything else up. Loooooooooooove killing those "superior" Drakhai pilots. Damn, that's satisfying!

This is already, IMO, the best installment so far. Outstanding guys, you have definitely already outdone yourselves. Can't wait to play on...once the second job and school stuff is out of the way first!

Dundradal · 09-27-2007, 15:14

Don't forget to try out the losing path as well. It is equally satisfying.

LeHah · 09-27-2007, 17:58

Well, there goes my weekend...

Rylex · 09-28-2007, 04:41

Hey everybody,

the new cockpits especially the Arrow looks great.
OpenGL doesn't seem to work for me. Is there a known bug?
The mouse hangs a lot and I really can't play the game because the delay is perhaps one fps per second?

... I got a Geforce 6600 GT and an Athlon 64 3200+ ... I already disabled FSAA and so on...
DirectX works OK but only in 16bit

... I installed the latest WHQL Nvidia driver. All other games work so I don't know why Standoff doesnt work.

If anyone knows help please tell me via PM oder email me.

Thanks,

Rylex

Eder · 09-28-2007, 08:10

Hmm, what is your Image Quality set to? (in nVidia drivers, control panel if you have the new drivers)

If you have it on "High Performance", try switching to "Performance" or "Quality" instead. It works on my FX 5200, and with "High Performance" the game runs like you described so that might be the same problem for you.

Rylex · 09-30-2007, 23:32

Hi Eder,

I think I selected "Quality" on this PC. (I'm now sitting on another PC and not at home)... I never use "performance"... I always try to get as much quality as possible. I even disabled most of the drivers optimizations on filtering techniques.

Like I said: OpenGL doesn't work. (much too slow)
Direct3D doesn't work with 32bit...

Greetings from Germany

Rylex

Eder · 10-01-2007, 13:54

Ah, I think that might be your problem - try some different settings on the filtering, there is something in the nVidia drivers that makes the game go unplayable. I only use the four "preset" options (performance, quality, etc) so I don't know which individual setting does this, I'm afraid

jaeger · 10-01-2007, 16:28

This was well worth the wait!

Rylex · 10-03-2007, 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eder

Ah, I think that might be your problem - try some different settings on the filtering, there is something in the nVidia drivers that makes the game go unplayable. I only use the four "preset" options (performance, quality, etc) so I don't know which individual setting does this, I'm afraid

I've installed the new nvidia drivers from September with WHQL and the game now works OK in OpenGL (not upscaled) 1024x768 ... it doesn't however work with Direct3D in 1024x768 and 32bit. It only works with 16bit under Direct3D.
But I now use OpenGL so it's ok...

Eder · 10-03-2007, 07:59

Yeah, at some point nVidia drivers became incompatible with our 32bit D3D mode, exactly like the ATI drivers have always been. No worries, though, openGL looks much prettier.

Rylex · 10-03-2007, 23:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eder

No worries, though, openGL looks much prettier.

Hehe... I have to disagree here. I noticed that the textures do not look that detailed under OpenGL. Sure the star background looks great and I always prefered OpenGL when compared to Direct3D.
Just open the technical Database in Standoff with OpenGL and look at the details of the ship textures. When looking at ships like the Concordia (you can see superb sharp textures there under Direct3D and you see the flight decks and so on) ... you really see that OpenGL textures are sort of soft and not detailled. Rapier is another excellent example. Wraith as well...

However it does not seem to be a driver problem. I'm sure more or less experienced with PCs and tried every driver settings this weekend to improve the OpenGL texture quality. So far I had no success...

Again my system specs:

Athlon 64 3200+
2 GB RAM Infineon
MSI n-force 3 Ultra Mainboard
AGP Geforce 6600 GT 128 MB
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Surround Soundcard
Adaptec Ultra 160 SCSI controller + 2x Fujitsu 10.000 RPM drives
Maxtor 80 GP S-ATA harddisk
Windows XP (latest service packs)

OK if you need more details on the system specs then please contact me via email. I have a gmx email-adress and the adress is just Rylex using gmx (de)...

Don't understand me wrong. Standoff Episode 4 is an EXCELLENT game. I enjoyed playing every mission and it sure is the greatest Secret Ops Add-on so far. Sure Unknown Enemy was great stuff too (I helped on UE development

) but Standoff's graphics are much better due to the longer development time and the better knowledge about the WC Prophecy/Secret Ops graphics engine. However I really missed some cutscenes on Wing Commander Standoff like the videos I did for Unknown Enemy (like the long intro where the Scimitar shot down the Devil Ray)... boy that sure were the days, where life was still fun.

The talking scenes in Standoff are really fine but some CG rendered combat scenes are missing I think...

Wedge009 · 10-03-2007, 23:31

I'm not sure about texture quality, Rylex, but for me, the clarity from playing at native resolution (1600x1200) far outweighs any apparent benefit in texture quality for DirectX (current maximum: 1024x768).

Pedro · 10-04-2007, 02:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rylex

Just open the technical Database in Standoff with OpenGL and look at the details of the ship textures. When looking at ships like the Concordia (you can see superb sharp textures there under Direct3D and you see the flight decks and so on) ... you really see that OpenGL textures are sort of soft and not detailled. Rapier is another excellent example. Wraith as well...

Welcome to the wonderful world of mip-mapping.... it's designed to... well yes, smooth the textures, which is supposed to be a good thing. To prevent the various texels of the image fighting over control of any given pixel, various resolution variants of each texture are produced when it is loaded, the texture used at any given point depends on the distance from the viewer.
Anisotropic Filtering improves the quality of this technique by blending mipmaps together rather than jumping to and from.
Next version I'll include an option to just use old fashioned linear filtering just for you.

Rylex · 10-04-2007, 02:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro

Welcome to the wonderful world of mip-mapping.... it's designed to... well yes, smooth the textures, which is supposed to be a good thing. To prevent the various texels of the image fighting over control of any given pixel, various resolution variants of each texture are produced when it is loaded, the texture used at any given point depends on the distance from the viewer.
Anisotropic Filtering improves the quality of this technique by blending mipmaps together rather than jumping to and from.
Next version I'll include an option to just use old fashioned linear filtering just for you.

Hi Alex,

yeah mip-mapping I heard that before

. You don't need to include an old fashioned linear filtering just for me. I'll play with my configuration today again. I guess it's ok then.

Do you force Mip-mapping in applications that do not support it? There's a driver setting for nvidia drivers. I think you can select bilinear and trilinear. It is disabled for me at the moment... but I would use trilinear when I enable it.

By the way... is there a special ending sequence planned for Standoff's last chapter? I mean a CG rendered cutscene like we did in UE. I mean a space fighting scene without humans? If you would answer that with "yes" and still are sort of interested then you know how to contact me

Alex "Rylex"

09-27-2007, 15:14	#6
Dundradal Rampant since 1994 Join Date: Jan 2000 Location: Installation 00 Posts: 3,593	Don't forget to try out the losing path as well. It is equally satisfying. __________________ "To you, we are deeply grateful, and release what little hold we might, as Durandal, have had on your soul. Go." - Final Terminal Message Marathon Infinity

09-27-2007, 17:58	#7
LeHah 212th Special Ops, "The Old Man's Eyes And Ears" Join Date: May 2000 Location: Blackmane System Posts: 7,158	Well, there goes my weekend... __________________ Gleaming shell of an outworn lie; fable of Right divine -- You gained your crowns by heritage, but Blood was the price of mine. The throne that I won by blood and sweat, by Crom, I will not sell For promise of valleys filled with gold, or threat of the Halls of Hell!

09-28-2007, 04:41	#8
Rylex Cadet Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Germany - Bavaria Posts: 41	Standoff Episode 4 Hey everybody, the new cockpits especially the Arrow looks great. OpenGL doesn't seem to work for me. Is there a known bug? The mouse hangs a lot and I really can't play the game because the delay is perhaps one fps per second? ... I got a Geforce 6600 GT and an Athlon 64 3200+ ... I already disabled FSAA and so on... DirectX works OK but only in 16bit ... I installed the latest WHQL Nvidia driver. All other games work so I don't know why Standoff doesnt work. If anyone knows help please tell me via PM oder email me. Thanks, Rylex __________________ "Even in death, there can be victory!" (10th Codex)

09-28-2007, 08:10	#9
Eder Mr. Standoff Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Posts: 3,217	Hmm, what is your Image Quality set to? (in nVidia drivers, control panel if you have the new drivers) If you have it on "High Performance", try switching to "Performance" or "Quality" instead. It works on my FX 5200, and with "High Performance" the game runs like you described so that might be the same problem for you. __________________ Hi, I'm Ed. You may remember me from such great fan projects as 'Standoff' and 'Unknown Enemy'...

09-30-2007, 23:32	#10
Rylex Cadet Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Germany - Bavaria Posts: 41	Hi Eder, I think I selected "Quality" on this PC. (I'm now sitting on another PC and not at home)... I never use "performance"... I always try to get as much quality as possible. I even disabled most of the drivers optimizations on filtering techniques. Like I said: OpenGL doesn't work. (much too slow) Direct3D doesn't work with 32bit... Greetings from Germany Rylex __________________ "Even in death, there can be victory!" (10th Codex)

09-27-2007, 03:56	#2
Asdrubal Cadet Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4	im so eager to play it, downloaded the ep4 file once, and got a corrupted file error from windows.. dling it again, hope it works this time.

09-27-2007, 09:05	#4
Guest Guest Posts: n/a	WOW!!! Absolutely amazing work!!! Thank you very much! The new starfield background looks especially nice. Perhaps one day we will be able to play standard WC5 and SO with this visual enhancement... just a suggestion.

10-01-2007, 13:54	#11
Eder Mr. Standoff Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Posts: 3,217	Ah, I think that might be your problem - try some different settings on the filtering, there is something in the nVidia drivers that makes the game go unplayable. I only use the four "preset" options (performance, quality, etc) so I don't know which individual setting does this, I'm afraid __________________ Hi, I'm Ed. You may remember me from such great fan projects as 'Standoff' and 'Unknown Enemy'...

10-01-2007, 16:28	#12
jaeger 1st Lieutenant Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: California Posts: 187	This was well worth the wait!

10-03-2007, 07:59	#14
Eder Mr. Standoff Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Posts: 3,217	Yeah, at some point nVidia drivers became incompatible with our 32bit D3D mode, exactly like the ATI drivers have always been. No worries, though, openGL looks much prettier. __________________ Hi, I'm Ed. You may remember me from such great fan projects as 'Standoff' and 'Unknown Enemy'...

10-03-2007, 23:31	#16
Wedge009 Rogue Leader Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 8,331	I'm not sure about texture quality, Rylex, but for me, the clarity from playing at native resolution (1600x1200) far outweighs any apparent benefit in texture quality for DirectX (current maximum: 1024x768). __________________ wedge009.net

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