Flight Commander Release Approaches (September 29, 2004)

KrisV

KrisV

Administrator
Eddie Benowitz reports that Flight Commander, his space combat simulator in the style of Wing Commander, is close to release.

A new release of Flight Commander is coming soon. Among the new features implemented are force feedback joystick support, 3d surround sound, and improved graphics and speed.

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Screenshots, details on all the implemented new features, and a pre-release web site are up at flightcommander.solsector.net.
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Original update published on September 29, 2004
 
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Not to be a naysayer, but it seems like a fanmade version of WCP (admittedly, very good quality for a fan-made game, but still WCP)

What features will it have that WCP didn't? Capable of ships with super-high poly counts? Full special effects features on cards that weren't compatible with the Glide driver? Multiplayer?

Again, I don't mean to belittle, I'm just curious as to what's new with this over what we already have.
 
If only the update had included a link to a page where you could read more about the game's features.

Oh, wait.
 
New features which Prophecy doesn't have:
Force feedback joysticks, directsound3d support, mp3 music support, full screen mission briefings, higher resolution, multiple campaign support, and easy ways to create missions and mods. The purpose was to see if I could program from scratch something roughly like wing commander, not to compete directly with WCP. The source code is available to anyone who asks, overmortal, so if you'd like to contribute networking, high poly ships, or any other new features, I'd gladly merge them in. The point is, WC fans are in control of their own space combat engine now.
 
Thanks! Like I said, I wasn't trying to naysay, I was just curious. I'm pretty impressed with anyone who puts together anything of this magnitude; it's more than I could do. I'm wholly inept at programming, creating models, life, etc etc, so I'm still quite impressed.

It looks very good, too! Will it come with its own set of missions/plot/etc?

Perhaps what I should have focused on to begin with wasn't that it looked like something we already have, but that you did a good enough job that one could easily mistake the quality for the quality of professionally made WCP (from the screenshots, at least)
 
I've created about 7 simple missions, to demonstrate each of the main player ships and each of the enemy ships (and a few capship torpedo runs), but it's very simple. Since I'm a programmer, I'd rather focus on adding game features than creating missions. I'll consider releasing new campaign packs later on, especially any contributed missions. Thanks for your kind words; you can better judge after the release.
 
I think overmortal's raised a pretty valid point. Not that this won't be amazing, but it does seem like Prophecy redone... which is something we already have one of. (interface-wise anyway, I guess we'll have to wait until it's released to see how it plays) It may be a good idea to create a more original look, if only just to give the game a fresh feel. I threw together a quick idea to try and illustrate what I mean.

hudtest.jpg


Again, I'm not trying to be negative in any way, this will be pretty kick-ass no matter what... just offering an idea.
 
Personally, I find it nice and refreshing to see someone trying to simply redo Prophecy. It's a good starting point, and that's important - I'm far too tired of seeing "and it will be a thousand times better than WCP!!!!" projects that inevitably fail when their developers suddenly realise what a foolhardy task they set for themselves.

For fan projects, an incremental approach is much better - start by trying to recreate WCP, and then think about how to improve it. The fact that Flight Commander, which seems to be doing just that, has been going for something like two years or more and still hasn't reached WCP's level of sophistication should give you a very good idea of how a more ambitious project might go.
 
Very good point Quarto. It's always wiser to set more realistic goals and pace yourself... though I wasn't really implying making it better than prophecy, just 'different.' In any event, I'm excited for it.

Also eddieb, I remember I had downloaded the old version released of flight commander some time ago, has the gameplay changed much?
 
Yes, the gameplay is much different. The old version was admittedly quite slow, as I hadn't worked out some timing issues. Much has changed in a few years. I'll now take a few beta testers, so let me know and I'll send you a URL privately.
 
I wouldn't mind taking a look at the new version as well, eddieb. However, I'm not sure whether I'd be able to offer you too much feedback, because my time is rather limited these days.
 
It's nice. I like the Text-to-speech.
If it's in c++, I wouldn't mind doing a DirectX 9.0c version with vertex and pixel shaders and stuff like that.
It could take a while though, I'm working between 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week, for at least another 3 weeks. :(
 
Excellent job for a fan project....

i won't complain about the enemy trying to form on my wing, but i must say
the still screens do look way too smudged..

on the upper side i was very impressed with the midway model in its current state, and the gameplay felt familiar right away
 
Thanks. On the technical side, it's written in C++ using OpenGL. Looks like the newest OpenGL also supports both vertex and pixel shaders.

K1nG Gr4H4m said:
It's nice. I like the Text-to-speech.
If it's in c++, I wouldn't mind doing a DirectX 9.0c version with vertex and pixel shaders and stuff like that.
It could take a while though, I'm working between 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week, for at least another 3 weeks. :(
Click to expand...
 
looks sweet, cant wait to get home and try it out now! one thing though, its teh same room as in WCSO, any chance of it getting changed just a bit? ( such as making it look like the briefing room from WCP? if I had a program that could do it, I'd help out right away but alas I have no such program.) looks great though!
 
You can change shell.bmp, but the "start new game" and "load game" will be at the same position. There is a xml file (gameflow.xml) you can edit to change the positions. You can do that in notepad.

eddieb: Yes, I think OpenGL 1.5 or the 2.0 support the shaders, but I think you need to program 2 versions, 1 for ATI cards and 1 for NVidia cards. :( In the version we tried anyway (a beta more than a year ago). Maybe they fixed it, since it was an non-official fix.
 
hey so I downloaded it and tried running it but it doesnt work on my comp! it says something about text to speech not available then a bunch of text appears in the window but it closes a nanosecond later. is there a possible fix for this? Im runnin win98SE Pentiuml Processor 128 mb RAM Creative Sound Blaster 16 and Top Gun Thrustmaster Joystick (my pride and joy lol). thx for any help
 
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