New Build (2011-06-11) - Getting Close

[Ultraken]

At long last, it's starting to feel like a Release Candidate...

While it doesn't have a particularly high profile in the list, the big thing this time is long-term stability for MP games. Long-running games tended to accumulate some serious problems, and at long last I figured out why. I also nailed down a recently-introduced problem joining games after a host migration.

Also, give the new Seismic Wave a try. Besides looking like an actual wave and having a more even effect profile, it shakes units around a lot without spinning them wildly like it did before. In particular, Walkers and Gun Towers no longer get flipped underground. It's also completely tunable via ODF parameters.


Downloads:

Testing Executable and Symbols
Game Assets (no changes since 2011-05-19)


What's new:

* Got per-polygon collision working properly
- This works for both object collision and bullet impacts

* Added support for buildings with per-polygon collision and floor geometry
- Use a classLabel of "i76building2"
- This enables I76/BZ2-style bridges for IA maps
- Unlike BZ2, though, AI doesn't know how to path across them

* Revised SeismicWave
- Restored the vigorous shake effect, which had been too weak to notice
- Apply damping and leveling so objects don't flip around wildly
- Replaced hard-wired constants with ODF parameters
. waveRadius: size of the wave in meters (default 50m)
. waveHeight: height of the wave in meters (default 6m)
. rampUpTime: time to ramp up to full strength (default 5s)
. rampDownTime: time to ramp down to zero strength (default 2s)
. sweepOmega: how hard to sweep object rotation (default 50)
. sweepVeloc: how hard to sweep object velocity (default 50)
. shakeOmega: how hard to shake object rotation (default 50)
. shakeVeloc: how hard to shake object velocity (default 100)
. walkerScale: effect scale for Walkers (default 0.5)
. towerScale: effect scale for Gun Towers (default 0.5)
. dampOmega: how much to damp object rotation (default 5)
. levelOmega: how much to level object orientation (default 10)
. buildingScale: damage scale for buildings (default 1)
- Gave it a distinct "wave" profile with crest and trough
- Adjusted its falloff curve to have a wider, flatter peak and narrower fringe
- Starts half a wave radius ahead to avoid shaking or damaging its firer
- Doesn't move floor-owning objects (such as bridges)

* Fixed players not getting credit when SprayBomb bullets kill something
- It now transfers player ownership to the created bullets

* Fixed AI crash after loading terrain with no mission
- LoadDefaultMission wasn't setting up the pathing system

* Fixed an occasional crash in DoNetEscapeFrame when there was no AI mission yet

* Improved stability of long-running MP game sessions
- Fixed identifiers from "colliding" after many players have come and gone
- Fixed ordnance not sending ownerhip properly for the 8th player and beyond
- Fixed joining players not getting powerups in long DM games

* Fixed players being unable to join after a host migration
- This was a bug introduced in a recent build

* Fixed unit voice messages not playing at volume level 1

* Fixed a crash in Soviet mission 1 when loading an AIP file
- The AIP load process was trashing memory in some cases
- This may fix some other mystery crashes in single-player

[TheJamsh]

WHAT! Per-poly collisions in BZ1 and not BZ2? DUUUUUDE.

Is that vehicles as well? I'm not really sure how BZ1's geometry works but do they have collision__hc meshes on buildings and game-generated collisions for vehicles and movers?

(Anytime you wanna send Nathan the code for that )

[Josiah]

WHAT! Per-poly collisions in BZ1 and not BZ2? DUUUUUDE.

Is that vehicles as well? I'm not really sure how BZ1's geometry works but do they have collision__hc meshes on buildings and game-generated collisions for vehicles and movers?

(Anytime you wanna send Nathan the code for that )

...
* Added support for buildings with per-polygon collision and floor geometry
...

[Zax]

WHAT! Per-poly collisions in BZ1 and not BZ2? DUUUUUDE.

Is that vehicles as well? I'm not really sure how BZ1's geometry works but do they have collision__hc meshes on buildings and game-generated collisions for vehicles and movers?

(Anytime you wanna send Nathan the code for that )

No, bz1 does not have a physics engine.

Bz1 uses collision panes, which are a pane (ha) in the ass and I'll leave it at that.

[Ultraken]

BZ2 doesn't really have a physics engine either.

BZ1 per-polygon collision is considerably less sophisticated than the BZ2 equivalent, with collision geometry in world space (making the object immovable and collision tests somewhat inaccurate) and no spatial query to reduce the number of polygon intersection tests.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

BZ1 per-polygon collision is considerably less sophisticated than the BZ2 equivalent, with collision geometry in world space (making the object immovable and collision tests somewhat inaccurate) and no spatial query to reduce the number of polygon intersection tests.

I know very little of the collision code. I have always wondered how weapons that appear 'non-point' such as the fully charged mag (purple ball) transverse the 3D space, since it appears to have considerable volume. Is the collision entity a box or square plane/square?

[General BlackDragon]

It's the same size as a minigun bullet.

it only LOOKS big.

thats why some mags look like they "barely" miss. Because they do.

[Zax]

BZ1 per-polygon collision is considerably less sophisticated than the BZ2 equivalent, with collision geometry in world space (making the object immovable and collision tests somewhat inaccurate) and no spatial query to reduce the number of polygon intersection tests.

I know very little of the collision code. I have always wondered how weapons that appear 'non-point' such as the fully charged mag (purple ball) transverse the 3D space, since it appears to have considerable volume. Is the collision entity a box or square plane/square?

Bounding box is what detects hits. Collision planes detect (hopefully) building/other ship interaction. At least in 1.4.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

It's the same size as a minigun bullet.

it only LOOKS big.

thats why some mags look like they "barely" miss. Because they do.

To me, it's been the opposite. It seems the purple mag should MISS, but many times it hits.

[Ultraken]

Actually, you're both right. The projectile takes its radius into account when colliding with a sphere (accurate) or box (approximate) but not geometry or terrain.