SS:2845 ATR Comments

Posted by: Mhaddy at 11:25 AM 

Since the release of the Starsiege:2845 ATR movie, aside from the phlethora of praise for the dev team, the community has come back with several questions on the ATR, including TGE -> TSE conversion, level design, and HERC / infantry animation. To help spread the word, here are a few common questions:

Is it going to be a long and tedious process to convert the game from TGE to TSE?
Chemeleon: Its actually a pretty straightforward port. Majority of the code changes are in the renderer area, so code should move over relatively straightforward. Dts's dont need changed, and dif's just need reconverted from .map to .dif with a new converter. Then setup material settings for all the textures used. So I'd guestimate probably a week or two for the basic port once we're ready if it goes as expected.

Anything regarding infantry speed or animations...
Mhaddy/Trajan: It's just an ATR, the game isn't polished, and nothing is finalized. The above is still being worked on.

What about the contrails on the wingtips of the Wraith? Will they be map-specific?
Mhaddy/nazbot: There was talk about having contrails being map specific (relating to whether or not there is an atmosphere on the planet, moisture in the air, etc.), and while it will not be fixed for the ATR, it may be implemented for the final. Though it has not been given priority.

One thing I noticed was that there were no shots of the Goad. Is it not finished yet, or are you being secret surprise-planning bastards?
Trajan: The Goad is finished. We had to send both the Eman and the Goad back to modeling to make some changes last week to support the type of compartmentalized damage we want to implement, because the first thing we tried sucked. All the vids of the Eman shown were taken some time back before it was sent back to the woodshed. We never bothered putting the Goad in until we had tested things with the Eman.

How easily can I implement a chainguns that blows soap bubbles instead of shells?
Mhaddy/Sonofman: Very easily. With the auto-download feature that is present in the TGE/TSE, once you get your modifications in place, the client will simply download the needed art and run it. By executing the scripts that you have written from the mission file to substitute such art, you can literally make map/mods.

Oh, and a pair of high res. shots of the opening 'big building' in the ATR can be found in our Torque Engine gallery.

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