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General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: SectorNine50 on March 01, 2011, 11:35:49 PM

Title: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 01, 2011, 11:35:49 PM
Anyone know how to replace the hit sprites in-game, or if you even can?  I'm interested in perhaps making a smaller (or higher resolution if possible) hit sprite.  In pictures and films the current ones seem a bit large an unrealistic to me, might just be that they are a tad blocky.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: VAMPIRE 2? on March 01, 2011, 11:36:58 PM
Anyone know how to replace the hit sprites in-game, or if you even can?  I'm interested in perhaps making a smaller (or higher resolution if possible) hit sprite.  In pictures and films the current ones seem a bit large an unrealistic to me, might just be that they are a tad blocky.

AGREED  ARRR!   :aok
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Krusty on March 01, 2011, 11:42:45 PM
You cannot.

Some brilliant map maker figured out a way to play around with hit sprites and the like but they can only be built into a custom terrain, and HTC won't accept terrains with all those extra graphics files weighing it down (it increases map size significantly so it would seem).


So, short answer "No.... for the most part".
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 01, 2011, 11:57:21 PM
Hmm, okay I'll make this into a wish then!  Thanks Krusty

Actually, better yet; Skuzzy, would you move this thread to the wish list perhaps?
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: JOACH1M on March 04, 2011, 12:00:04 PM
Great balls of fire
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Krusty on March 04, 2011, 01:42:56 PM
Only when you zoom in for screenshots is it "ugly"... When you're shooting at somebody it looks just about like the real thing.

See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqAmy34DTo

Check out about the 50 second mark. There's a FW190 getting repeatedly hit (or several Fw190s getting hit and the film spliced together?) Looks about the same as you might notice from your cockpit while killing a fighter in-game.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 04, 2011, 03:04:37 PM
My deduction is that flashes that large in the film are due to what I think is called lens flare, or perhaps over exposure... (everything else in the image seems rather dark) but I could be wrong, I'm no photo pro. :P

Although, it seems to me that when you get close they scale far too large either way.

(http://www.hitechcreations.com/images/ahss/full/p51-vs-fw190.jpg)

That's from the front page (not sure who titled it p51-vs-fw190.jpg, as that is clearly a P-47...), one of those sprites seems to take up a good quarter of the right wing (I realize there are multiple hits there, but I have no pictures of my own of a single ping right now, searching through film).

I feel that if it were the human eye, like I think we are trying to simulate in this game, the flashes would be very small, about the size of the bullet if maybe a tad bigger.  But that's my personal opinion and preference, I think it would give a much better idea of how many hits we are getting.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Silent6 on March 04, 2011, 06:31:42 PM
I agree. They do seem to be a bit big perhaps they can be made a bit smaller or something but after all its just a game too.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Crash Orange on March 04, 2011, 06:37:32 PM
I agree. They do seem to be a bit big perhaps they can be made a bit smaller or something but after all its just a game too.

It's another limitation of the technology. The human eye sees, and the world provides, a much greater range of light and dark than your monitor can show. The hit sprites can't be as bright as real ones (which I would guess are due to tracers and incendiary rounds smashing and their contents all going up at once, as well as explosions from HE shells) so in order to be as visible as they would be in real life they have to be bigger.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 04, 2011, 09:12:41 PM
It's another limitation of the technology. The human eye sees, and the world provides, a much greater range of light and dark than your monitor can show. The hit sprites can't be as bright as real ones (which I would guess are due to tracers and incendiary rounds smashing and their contents all going up at once, as well as explosions from HE shells) so in order to be as visible as they would be in real life they have to be bigger.

Hmm... Good point...  Hopefully someday monitors will be able to make pixels darker and lighter.

It would still be nice if their resolution were a bit higher though.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Krusty on March 04, 2011, 09:17:17 PM
I wonder if there might be a way to "fix" the size of the sprite on the screen.... So that at range you still see it, but as you zoom in it stays the same size while the other objects/planes get larger....

So that when you zoom in for details it's smaller, more petite.... but when you fire on a target from 800 out you still see hit sprites.

If you get what I mean?
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 04, 2011, 10:58:24 PM
Yeah that could work, that way you get the "brightness" effect, but you still have a decent resolution.  There really shouldn't be a reason to scale...
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: W7LPNRICK on March 05, 2011, 01:07:09 AM
I think we're lucky to have accurate hit sprites at all in the game, that always seem correctly placed to me.  :salute
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 05, 2011, 03:29:18 AM
I think we're lucky to have accurate hit sprites at all in the game, that always seem correctly placed to me.  :salute

Absolutely, but why not improve?
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: crazierthanu on March 05, 2011, 08:45:21 AM
Wasn't there some business about an upgraded damage model a while ago? I may be mistaken as I have been away for a while.

Its possible if its ever upgraded that new hit sprites will come with it. 
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: W7LPNRICK on March 05, 2011, 02:18:19 PM
Wasn't there some business about an upgraded damage model a while ago? I may be mistaken as I have been away for a while.

Its possible if its ever upgraded that new hit sprites will come with it. 

If I remember right they did an upgrade damage model, or experimented with it...? Mainly it changed the read-out when pressing Ctrl-D by making it simpler.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: lunatic1 on March 05, 2011, 03:34:15 PM
personnally i think the hit sprites are just fine the way they are......besides and you can count on this just as soon as they make them smaller,somebody's gonna start hollering that they are too small,and hard to see,and can't tell if they are getting hits.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 05, 2011, 04:39:02 PM
No no, not smaller.  They will stay the same size no matter how far away from someone you are.  This means you will always see them the same.

This will work better, in my opinion, because it will still emulate brightness of the flash, but at the same time will retain quality in pictures and videos.  Right now, the hit sprites look rather silly when in still-frame... :(
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: GNucks on March 05, 2011, 04:51:35 PM
No no, not smaller.  They will stay the same size no matter how far away from someone you are.  This means you will always see them the same.

This will work better, in my opinion, because it will still emulate brightness of the flash, but at the same time will retain quality in pictures and videos.  Right now, the hit sprites look rather silly when in still-frame... :(

Like say a sprite is only 10 pixels in diameter no matter what range you are from it? Kinda' like the icons on the clipboard map don't change in size when you zoom in and out.
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SouthLanda on March 05, 2011, 06:04:42 PM
I think the sprites are like this because when AH came out, it was really pushing the graphics engine / graphics card hardware for the time and it was a compromise of performance.

With my current PC runnning 1900x1600 at 4X AA with 16X AAF at 40-60 FPS, there is probly scope to have more accurate machine gun hit sprites.

What I would request to see, is that my hits dance all over the area I hit at 1/60th of a second duration. That would be more like the guncan footage I have seen to an extent.

Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: Silent6 on March 05, 2011, 06:26:09 PM
eh i think there is so much more they can do with this game.. The sprites dont bother me really...... was just saying really if there was a way to make them smaller or something but really no big deal
Title: Re: Hit Sprites
Post by: SectorNine50 on March 06, 2011, 01:19:54 AM
eh i think there is so much more they can do with this game.. The sprites dont bother me really...... was just saying really if there was a way to make them smaller or something but really no big deal

I agree, I will say though, it is the little things that can make or break a game visually now days.