Wing Commander: Legacy of the Confederation

maniac, you have to understand that there are many people promising to make the over mega great mod, and then vanish never to be seen again.

do you know what 3d programs will be supported by eaw? 3dmax, lightwave, maya?
what about texture sizes, polygon counts and such?

and don't worry about sceptics, that will diminish once people get something more substantial to see;)
 
I'm not going anywhere. ;) (by the way, it's Manic, one A)
A lot about the game engine is presently unknown, but here's what little is known regarding models

We're presently using 3dsmax, as it is a format that can easily be converted to any standard... there is nothing known about what converter will be available, so we're trying to keep it where it can be brought to any engine relatively easily.

fighters: clocked in at up to 800 polies, we're shooting for 500 (as many fighters as will be in the air, we'll need a lower count to handle it)
Corvettes: Similar, up to 1000(There likely won't be many of these on the field, so we can afford some more detail. Likely 5-10 on the field at a time.) We're probably going to aim for the 1k mark, possibly higher. These will be more common than the larger craft, as escorts for carriers.
Frigates: These are much larger craft, the existing models that exist in this class push 1500 polies. (we're thinking Fralthis and Exeters here, for the first release)
Capital Ships: VERY few of these on the field, so we can afford to go nuts. Probably 2500 polies... (Carriers/heavy capships will likely fall into this field, along with destroyers and such. We intend to go by mass for cost estimates.)

Textures:
The max appears to be 512x512, dds format... not too sure on this, I'll have to ask Epytron. That's his field of expertise. ;)
Naturally, there will likely be a need for 256x256 as well, to support the lower end machines out here(There isn't likely to be a machine that can't handle 512, even my raedon 8500 can)

The Alamo engine's .alo format appears to be a derivitave of the Direct3d standard, with some extras thrown in (bones, aka hardpoints, and the like)
The models themselves are more complicated at times, with submodels for weaponry (when a Star Destroyer loses a turret, a chunk of the ship breaks off)... more research is needed before the true method can be confirmed... no one knows for sure, yet.
edit- we intend to make turrets non-targetable, it's kind of silly for a carrier to explode because it gets disabled. We'll probably isolate targetable systems to bridge, shields, and engines.

Quatro said:
I do believe I gave away the most important secret of successful fan project development - communication with the community.
Won't hear any argument from me, on that one.

@ Dryet... I'd completely forgotten about WCU ever existing. Must have died off when I was without a broadband connection (moved to texas for a time). I guess I wasn't the only one to come up with that particular concept, after all. :D
 
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