major graphic changes in AH Ever?

[Fowler]

Could Hitechcreations put in a major graphics improvement without making a complete new game?

is that a possiblilty?

just curious i have no grips about the graphics but down the road i may want some eyecandy with the changing times..

[phaetn]

While it's a huge task, at some point there will likely be a graphics engine overhaul for AH.  Who's to say when it will be?  

Online games are, almost by definition, products that evolve.  Developers count on ongoing subscriptions rather that one-time boxed sales, so there has to be constant development in order to keep player interest piqued.

At some point in the future, that might well mean an all new graphics engine (AH 2.0?).   As it is now, AH has (relatively recently) begun supporting the DirectX8 API, so there are quite a few tricks in that bag that  could be exploited long before the current engine is exhausted.   Also note that some of the artwork from the original release (cockpits and skin textures) is gradually getting updated to be more detailed.

Cheers,
phaetn

[Innominate]

We already know improved lighting is on the way...

[Wlfgng]

have faith.. if HTC were intent on sitting on their laurels we'd still be playing 2d Warbirds.

[lord dolf vader]

anyone remeber in 96/7 when there were arenas upon arenas of aw full of people 24/7.  
6 years later and 10 times the computers out there and 1/5th 1/10th the people playing the derivatives of aw , (wb and ah).

dont know if that is exactly commin far.

I no longer play and 95% of the people I played with in the beta and first year or two also dont.

[gatso]

Increase texture sizes to 512x512 = Instant better looking game.

Add an option for those with low spec systems to use the current 256x256 = No performance hit.

You could even phase them in gradually. Most obvious one would be the terrain tiles as thats what most of us spend the most time looking at.

Do textures get compressed in vid memory? Just scribbling it down on a bit of paper, each aircraft for EXTERNAL textures only is about 0.5mb uncompressed 512x512, those with 32mb cards may be pushing it in a big furball for vid ram. Would this be an issue?

Gatso

[Rude]

Originally posted by lord dolf vader
anyone remeber in 96/7 when there were arenas upon arenas of aw full of people 24/7.  
6 years later and 10 times the computers out there and 1/5th 1/10th the people playing the derivatives of aw , (wb and ah).

dont know if that is exactly commin far.

I no longer play and 95% of the people I played with in the beta and first year or two also dont.

That statement is errroneous.

Please explain further what you're trying to say.

[Wlfgng]

I agree.. it'd be awesome to create tiles that were 1024 instead of the 512 limitation we have now..
I start with the larger file and am so dissapointed when I have to compress them downwards.

but then there's the issue of players with older machines.

[udet]

what do you mean by 2d warbirds???? The only versions of Warbirds I played were 3d.

[Innominate]

Originally posted by gatso
Increase texture sizes to 512x512 = Instant better looking game.

Add an option for those with low spec systems to use the current 256x256 = No performance hit.

Right now, the texture resolution isn't such a problem as the older models have mediocre textures and models.  Looking at the new P-51D gives a good idea of the difference that can be made just by using better textures.

512x512 textures are a good idea, and would make a great option.  (I hope they're working with 512 textures or bigger, and shrinking them to 256)  but just redoing the 256 textures can make a huge difference with absolutly no performance hit.

[popeye]

"If they indeed were sitting on thier laurels WB's never would have been created and we'd be playing AirWarrior ala 1993"

Gawd that was fun!

[Pei]

I believe HiTech has stated that the next update in the graphics engine will come when even lo-spec machines are running GeForce2 standard cards. I think he speculated that this might be at some point next year.

[Wlfgng]

udet.. WarBirds was 2d a loong time before 3d was available.

a lot of names here remember it I'm sure

[Sabre]

From my interview (posted at "The Wargamer") with HiTech at the Con this year...

SABRE: Fair enough.  Let’s wrap this up with just a few general questions.  The graphics engine Aces High uses right now works pretty well.  It provides pretty good frame rates for people with more modest computers.  When do you see that there’ll be a need for a major upgrade to the graphics engine?

HITECH: That would be in about a year’s time frame when we’ll need to start on that.  The cool stuff you can do with the new video cards out there hasn’t really been a big deal…until they came out with pixel shaders.  Pixel shaders were introduced in DirectXÔ 8.1, but hardly any hardware out there supported them.  So it really wasn’t worth implementing in the game.  As we approach about a year from now, TNT-2’s will pretty much be out of date and we’ll be into all GForce2 stuff.  I can push some vertex processing up onto the [video] boards and be assured it’s not going to kill peoples’ machines, and start adding in the neat-looking effects, the pixel shaders and that type of stuff.

[Innominate]

heh,
A geforce 2 MX will run ~$40, why would anyone still use anything less?