The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I felt like this needed its own, brand new topic because otherwise it would have gotten buried in a 14 page thread of a lot of confusing nonsense about the HD version's 3DO menu.

But anyways, the official MegaMod's unofficial 0.8.0 Beta is here!
With releases for Windows and macOS. Tested in Windows 10 and macOS Sierra.

https://github.com/Serosis/UQM-MegaMod/releases

Takes what I find to be the best of HD, Remix, Extended and rolls it up into my optional cheat system.
Nearly everything is optional and can be turned on and off in the new, more readable options menu.

In time I am sure I'll be able to make the HD version of 0.8.0 but it won't be any time soon.

So please enjoy this new version of UQM!

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that this mod is based off of the latest SVN snapshot of the official UQM code.
So this is the most up-to-date released mod at the moment.

Thanks - I'm getting this to try out right now!

So awesome!  Thank-you so much!


Also thank-you so much for giving the HD mod an attempt.  Just being able give that work a future on the new code base I feel is really important, and It's great someone can give it a shot.  I just wish there were more of you :)

[EDIT]
Just so you know on the mac version at least in 0.8.0, if precursor remix music is used, the text in the slideshow cutscene doesn't display.  The slides do though.  I havn't tried it to see if was any different in windows

Thank you. Going at it now.

Chances are it will do the same in the Windows version as well.

Does the intro slides have text at all without the Remix addons?

Also remember this is a beta so any concerns you have definitely voice it. Either here or open up a ticket on Github.
As an aside I did absolutely zero testing on Linux. I can't even get vanilla to build in Ubuntu so I don't know how that will fare.

HD mod is a beast. Something that could either take me a solid week of hair-pulling or a year of casual pecking.
The problem lies in how 0.8.0 has changed, copy and pasting the code will simply not do it in this case.

Though it would be interesting to see if I could go about it in reverse and update the HD code to 0.8.0.
But I'm guessing that would be just as difficult.

It really needs a team with assigned roles to get it done within a reasonable amount of time, correctly.

Yes the text displays if music is set to 3do or standard.  It's just the remix music for some reason. 

As for a time table, I'm sure everyone will agree, there is no rush.  Don't burn yourself out, If it takes years then it takes years.  I'm sure either way, hair will be pulled, cause that's just the nature of these things..

Just tested it and I get subtitles in Windows and macOS.

See: https://i.imgur.com/mr1lRRG.jpg

Did you check to see if you had all the remix packs installed and you restarted the game after you enabled them in the options?

EDIT:

And for good measure I tested it in High Sierra: https://i.imgur.com/CJGoBcy.jpg
Everything works great.

I've restarted multiple times just in case.  It's probably very likely i have some package I shouldn't have or am missing one.  Here is  a screenshot of the packages I'm using.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/00cpmvnlmuz757n/Screen%20Shot%202017-11-23%20at%2010.20.53%20PM.png?raw=1)

Yeah, that's pretty much what I put in there. Do me a favor and check to see if you have subtitles disabled
If that's not it redownload the remix packs. Number 4 is the one with the Intro subtitles so possibly isolate that from everything else to see if it's conflicting.

Ah,  Thank-you!  apparently the remix 4 package I had was a different size (somehow it was larger???).  Must have been some odd version I had download a while ago.  Not sure where.

How odd.

Anyways, I've started pecking at the HD mod. Starting with all of the options. I'll only be committing compilable changes so it should be interesting to see how it goes.
It shouldn't need to be said but the HD branch of 0.8.0 will be in massive flux and in no way will it be playable any time soon.

Holly!  I saw your github page.  Pecking indeed.. That's a lot of lines of code you did in one day.  That's amazing.

I get a bit obsessed when it's going well.

As I've said, I'll only commit code that can compile successfully. So far it's been going real good.
My biggest nightmare will be the comm screen stuff, I think.

I thought it would have been the graphics functions but that went surprisingly well.
There might be some problems at the end of it because some of the HD features are already implemented into the 0.8.0 code but in a different way, like forcing the aspect ratio.
No idea how nice that will play with what I'm doing.

That's the problem with two different people working on the same problem.  You get two different answers.  It's a total shame HD wasn't integrated with the master while the project was going on (and when UQM Masters was also getting more development time).   I mean I get that UQM probably sees the project mission as different, but still, a little more flexibility would help with the vibrancy and longevity of the project and any project that spins off it.  But it is what it is.

They were/are trying to get UQM to be as stable and bug-free as possible before they started adding non-vanilla things to the code.
On top of that the devs wanted the code to be non-hacky, which the HD code has a lot of that nonsense.

Especially now that I have to look at it closely I can see why it was never merged in.

I see. Out of curiosity, are you forced to continue with the hacky ways when reimplimenting the code?  Or are there spots where you were able to do it a bit better?   Or does the implementing on the 0.8.0 branch force you to rewrite the code in a different manner anyway?

I have to reintroduce the hacky code before I can make it better.

There may be ways to make it better in spots but I won't know if it works until it's all complete.
For now I just want it to compile and go into the game at its original resolution. As long as that's working I have
more of a chance to make the HD portion work.

EDIT:

I'm only halfway through and I'm getting incredible results

(https://i.imgur.com/WtqUGXzb.png) (https://i.imgur.com/WtqUGXz.png)

Sad part about it right now is that I may have broken textured planets in HD from my previous 0.8.0 mod. They stay the same small size.

That's really progressing a lot further then I thought you would in a week.  I saw the size of that original diff :)

I've been addicted to it. I guess you'd have to be to manually patch over a megabyte of data.

Though I may not be able to complete it without help. I broke saving somewhere along the line and haven't been able to get it back.
Game will simply not save.

EDIT:

In unrelated news I've figured out how to make the Syreen Song crew dots larger so they can be seen easier in 2x and 4x.

Dang,  I guess that would mean a lot backtracking to find where it broke.


That is awesome news!

Really all that's left now is to update the comm screen and ship code to the HD version.

I have a host of issues that I'm sure can be resolved:

Textured planets aren't the correct size in HD without added hacky code that slows the game down. No idea why.
The large animated suns have an issue where they have one large frame, causing undesired visual effect.
Menus do not resize/display properly when changing resolution.

Though good news is I've fixed the saving and loading. Though 0.8.0-HD is only compatible with itself and classic saves.
The original UQM-HD mod saves will not load.

The original HD mod handles save names way differently than 0.8.0 does and on top of that a weird header string addition for checking
save validity.

EDIT:

Sort of fixed the main menu resize issue. Still a bit wonky though.

Setup menu fully fixed now. Switches even better than the original HD mod did.

Awesome!   I'm really looking forward to trying it    :D

I just made myself a build of the old HD branch.  Great job on the Syreen dots!

Thanks. Just applied a bit of the old << RESOLUTION_FACTOR.

I've been trying to figure out how to take it and make them into circles but math is not my strong suit.

In response to the old thread (http://forum.uqm.stack.nl/index.php?topic=6649.msg76199#msg76199)...

Adding an SoI for the Syreen and Chmmr seems like something that would mess up the Death March. Furthermore, if you're adding one for those two races, why not one for Earth too? On the other hand, having a SoI gives the impression that you could encounter their ships in space, which would mean you need new dialogue for them, which is a ton of effort; and if there's a SoI but no ships, it would seem weird.

Personally, I think there's a good reason for these three planets to not have a sphere of influence. Apart from the space station, they have no significant presence in space, and they don't have that many ships either. Rather than going out on patrols, expeditions, mining trips, and what have you, they're basically keeping to their home planet; their influence extends only as far as the space station.

The Humans and the Syreen even have to do without the ressources of their planet below the space station.
Their whole presence in game is the space station, and the few ships.... (interestingly, Syreen ships have been stowed away, but Human ships not. And why not simply build new ships for the Syreen at your station instead of having to find them? - Yeah, game-wise it'll be a test if you can keep out of the Ur-Quan's fangs (fast enough in HyperSpace), and even test whether you are strong enough to actually fight their ships).
The Chmmr do have a full planet with its ressources behind them (ocne they emerged from their chrysallis).

so, Human and Syreen SOI are wrong, IMHO, but the Chmmr would have a SOI. They just keep radio silence to avoid being detected by the Ur-Quans before everything is in place.
Thus their SOI would not f up the Death March. The Kohr-Ah know about the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm being trapped on Procyon, and therefore have no reason to go for them during their first run. Once the "free" races have been destroyed, the Kohr-Ar would likely go on a second killing spree and crack the slave shields and kill the ones who are trapped.

Didn't think of that... Has this been tested?

I may remove that bit if it does affect the gameplay.

EDIT:

At this moment I firmly believe that the new SOI will not affect the Death March, but I'm still testing.
I have to find a way to trigger the Death March that doesn't involve me setting Time Dilation to super speed and sitting in Hyperspace for an hour.

EDIT:

Fixed textured planets in IP not being the correct size relative to the resolution.
Pretty soon I believe I'll have a shippable "product".

Awesome!  Can't wait.  It's funny how often getting to the point where thing's start to run is just the beginning. :)

Boy that RESSCALE function is boss.  ;D

Also hacked in a way to make the Syreen Song crew dots more circular, there was already a function for it in reserve for the fuel circles.
I *might* also want to do it for the orbit dots in HD but that's if it can be done without it looking too ugly.

So the only real problem I am left with is the twitching animated suns. I'll see about posting a gif or webm of that.

UPDATE:

And here you go:

https://gfycat.com/ObeseHarmoniousAndalusianhorse

Or for a large GIF:

(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ObeseHarmoniousAndalusianhorse-max-14mb.gif)

Neat a pulsar! :)

Just a thought, is the flash in the star one frame of a scaled original texture showing through in the animation?

I don't think there is anything you can do a bout this, but you know how in the commander hays comm they use the static effect for the weak broadcast, but then later when the ilwrath jam the signal they don't reuse the effect. Seems like a missed opportunity...

Once again, I overlooked a few lines causing this Sun tripping issue.

So literally the only things that need to be done is to update the ship.c and comm.c files for every race to HD.
That and maybe tweak a few things here and there.

(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ImaginativeImpressionableHound-max-14mb.gif)

Since all the code is merged into one now,  I guess you won't have to worry about multiple HD and Classic releases anymore :)

Pretty much, yeah.

And I'm going to be repackaging the Windows installer to work with all the content that will be made.
When the time comes I'll have to get permission from Soul Reaver to link to his content directly from the installer.

That's a great idea! Would certainly ease the barrier for entry.

Hopefully with as much content I have to include it doesn't turn into a huge mess.
To make things easier to talk about I usually am on the Star Control: Origins Discord.

They allow me to talk shop about UQM in the general chat area.
And I go into length about modding SC:O in the NDA sections if you happen to be a founder.

Oh wow, I had no idea there was a discord server.   

Yeah, there are a fair few addons to get the game to something to what you and I would consider optimal.   At least with only one version of the game you wont have to keep separate lists anymore, which will ease things..

Yeah. The Discord, I feel, is where all the action happens.

Draginol/Frogboy/Brad A.K.A. the CEO of Stardock is active there and the SC:O forums the most.
Though he seems to make exceptions where it most definitely matters.

UQM has the IRC channel which I've most definitely used from time to time to get some big help from the
UQM dev team but it's not exactly a happening place to discuss all things Star Control.

On-Topic:
I've actually started to consolidate the content I have into the main packages.
Gone are the days of the "sero-setup", "sero-menu", and the separate nebulae packages.
This is a complete repackage and update of the HD mod done by me and I want the best representation of
the Star Control I grew up with.

If the HD devs never touch their code again I want mine to be the definitive source of HD for every new UQM release.
UQM-Mods have come a long way, from a couple of cheats to avoid the Death March to a fully blown alternative version of UQM.

I can not foresee a future where I will not be working on the code.
I mean, if Origins is as moddable as Brad says it is then I'll be working on the UQM: Origins mod for sure. No doubt.
And if Ghosts of the Precursors ever sees the light of day and is moddable in any way I'll work on the UQM mod for that as well.

A couple hours later

Hmmm. That was a huge tangent, maybe a bit ambitious. But I stick by it.

Well seeing as how the UQM-HD never really did get a polished, official release before, and it's code completely separated from the main UQM branch,  I think that's a very worthy goal.

And if one of them ever comes back, i'm sure they would much rather work with you on the newer codebase that can be integrated with whatever UQM decides to do in the future.

As for cleaning up all the mods, I think that's a great idea as well.  It's a little confusing as it is now, and I'm sure you wouldn't want playthroughs without everything installed anyway.

Right now I'm trying to tighten up the UI so everything lines up.
You would not believe the amount of half-assery.

EDIT:

It's extremely subtle, you'd have to zoom in on most of it to even tell the difference except for the Map Keys.

Before                                     After
(https://i.imgur.com/HjZVOiQb.png) (https://i.imgur.com/HjZVOiQ.png) (https://i.imgur.com/zU7XA1kb.png) (https://i.imgur.com/zU7XA1k.png)

The gist of it is that I'm redoing the borders and the size of the boxes on the right side of the screen to more faithfully match the original UI scheme.

EDIT:

So far I've had a lot more success tweaking the UI for 2x (640x480) than I have with 4x (1280x960).
For whatever reason the main UI, the borders around the screen, their width is scaled in or around 3x instead of 4x.
Which explains why it's so tall and thin in 4x as opposed to a proper 4x scale.

Check it out:

Original Scaled 4x                   1280x960 HD
(https://i.imgur.com/3xxZBUyb.png) (https://i.imgur.com/3xxZBUy.png) (https://i.imgur.com/gpmiPq3b.png) (https://i.imgur.com/gpmiPq3.png)

UPDATE:

4x before and after:

(https://i.imgur.com/fq0G0cZb.png) (https://i.imgur.com/fq0G0cZ.png) (https://i.imgur.com/wGi75Rib.png) (https://i.imgur.com/wGi75Ri.png)

Totally curious how your changes with the background stars look.  Absolutely agree that they were sparse and tiny in HD as oppose how the backgrounds look in the origional.

How did you hear about those?  ;D

I've kept the Star Control discord up to speed, kind of hard to do that on a forum without seeming too hyper.

I'll post a couple of short clips:

640x480 (https://gfycat.com/PoliteKindheartedBuck)

1280x960 (https://gfycat.com/PertinentIdealisticFlyingfox)

Screenshots:

640x480 (https://imgur.com/a/mY6FH)

1280x960 (https://imgur.com/a/kS6ty)

Like I said before, I want to make this version the defacto. More features and more coalesced than the previous attempt.
Right now I seem to be working on only the content and implementation of it.
Really putting off updating the rest of the code to HD.
I'll see about getting to the ship code first. That'll be the biggest pain so I'll get that one over with.

EDIT:

Oh, I forgot you watch the Github commits.

If anybody has any ideas on what needs to be added in as far as what shouldn't be lacking in HD go ahead and shout the idea.

Religiously :)

The whole process really fascinates me. I went the other route in the IT feild with networking. But I still like looking at code.

I just posted this over on the Discord but I'll mirror it here.

I completed an animated Falayalaralfali for HD.

Here's a video clip. (https://gfycat.com/IcyElasticAiredaleterrier)

And here is one frame of the raw art compared to the original graphics.

(https://i.imgur.com/RGvlxgI.png) (https://i.imgur.com/TsDX2Ie.png)

EDIT:

Forgot to say my piece.

What spurred this on was Metamorphosis' code to animate the in-bound Quasi Portals (The natural portal and the and the spawner portal) and the Arilou home world.

The code he has placed the animated quasi hole behind the planet graphic as separate things but it wasn't quite working properly and would cause the game to
crash if you entered the Arilou homeworld from certain sides (no idea why).

So I cut out the code that placed the animated quasi hole and shoved it where the planet graphic code is, replacing it.
Then I created the above graphic on 32 frames of animated quasi hole.

Problem solved.

WOW.
At this pace you'll be done by mid next-year. (rooting for you!)

Also: will your megamod support finished translations?  (selecting the translation package to be used?)

I need to pick up the German translation again, and check it for my kids. The current distribution does NOT work properly, and many texts are not translated (I know I did translate them back when, but in the distribution they are not).
Also, it is an old distribution. We finished in pre-0.7 times. I think since then the handling of .txt filea has slightly changed.
I wanted to use my kids as playtesters, but if I do not have the time to keep up with whatever they encounter, it's not much use....

I could take a look but I can't promise anything.

I know English, but only just. I don't exactly know how the translations work.

IIRC, the translations work by having the string lookup-from-file be redirected from the basic resource file to the translation file. The strings need to be listed in the same order, and may need to have the same labels (in English)

Also, Serosis, 'only just' may refer to your ease of communicating, but not the quality.

Exactly, I'll be honest, I had no idea English was not your first language!  ;D

BTW those quasi portals are looking fantastic!

It is my first and only. It was joke, but then I couldn't understand what Death 999 meant.

Ahh, sorry, we both took you too seriously.

Where? I hadn't said anything recently in this thread when you said that.

He is referring to this line, on the top of the page, second line.

Oh, I thought he meant before that…:facepalm:

Anyways.

Here is a lovely screenshot that shows it still builds on OS X:
(https://i.imgur.com/7b6tDRJb.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/7b6tDRJ.jpg)

Perfect!!   That so perfectly matches the new 0.8.0 uqm menu.

I really want it to be animated but that's proving just a bit difficult.

At the moment I implemented a new random main menu music picker that start just before the opening splash screen.
So the effect should be that the music fades in with the splash.
Here are the test videos:
Saibuster: https://streamable.com/ekbcu
Rush AX: https://streamable.com/6d5t0
Mark Vera: https://streamable.com/hkwpx

Finished up the legwork with the alien comm screens.
Killed some compiler warnings only to reverse them so it could build in OS X.

Been an interesting week because I've mainly worked on content alone.

Fixed Quasispace so that its animated bits are dark green/black like the original and the new Falaralalfali animated quasi hole: https://streamable.com/mglwf
Recreated the original Arilou comm screen thanks to DCzanik: https://streamable.com/mj3j7

There might be something I'm forgetting but that's the major stuff.

I've been trying to nail down the content so that I can finish up on the Windows installer. I don't know how well it's going to handle all the different content options.

EDIT:

Oh, right now I'm working on the possibility of using the alternate Kohr-Ah ship from Project 6014 as the default Kohr-Ah ship for this mod. Though it needs to be color corrected and darkened.
Without spoiling anything about why there is an alternate Kohr-Ah ship in P6014 I'll simply show it to you with what I've done so far:

(https://i.imgur.com/QjCjDYJ.png)

Wow so much awesomeness!  What's this about DCzanik helping you with the original arilou com screen?  You got a hold of him?

Yeah I got a hold of him and he gave me special access to his work.
Well, a small chunk of it anyways. But with what he gave me access to I was able to reconstruct the Arilou comm screen and create the wonderful main menu graphics you saw in the OS X screenshot.

Hopefully that's all I need. I don't foresee any further content problems which is why I started hacking away at the comm screen code.

That make's me so happy to hear he is still around, and you have his blessing.

Not really a blessing per se, just, "hey, here's some of the files I used."

UPDATE:

Just wanted to let you guys know that for all practical purposes 0.8.0-HD MegaMod is completed.
I'm running a fine toothed comb through it to see if I can find any missing RESOLUTION_FACTORS and whatnot.

Also I've fully integrated HD Remix. That whole animated Arilou homeworld and animated portal spawner hole were the
last bits I didn't get in to the 0.7.0-HD MegaMod.

I'll probably fully release this some time after X-Mas. Just to make sure I got everything. Though it could be before X-Mas.
Really depends on how willing I am to sit there with the .diff files and read off all the changes.

Awesome!!  I missed this because edits don't push the topic up.  Looking forward to trying it.  That was so much faster then I would have thought it would be to get to this point.

Toying around with separating all the different options into different config files.

Already done it with the cheats. No idea how it would be helpful except for those wanting to change settings via file.
It's unfortunate that there is no particular order in which the settings are saved within a file, just random nonsense.
No alphabetization or declaration order. Like the settings are thrown against the wall and that's how they're saved.

EDIT:

I'll just do it for the cheats. I'll save something like this for the next version.

Oooo!  Was he willing to help you with the porting some of those P6014 ships over as an add on?

That's something I'll implement at a later time.

As it is I wanted to recreate the original as much as possible with features that existed within the other major mods.

That and I still have no idea on how to make them optional. The ship logic is hardcoded into the game and you simply can't plop
files in.  Hopefully it will work that way one day, but not right now.

I thought I'd give building the current master of 0.8.0-HD on my new linux box a try. Especially since you are hitting the end.   It was going all right up until I was attempting to compile arilouc.c.  It's almost like I'm missing some header...

This is with GCC7.2.0.  Should I try a different compiler?

Here is the make output

https://pastebin.com/1FseHveF

Eek. I'll have a look at the comm files.

Also I have to facepalm whoever did the Syreen Ship Vault for HD.

It's simply a recolored Stargate, you know, from the film/show of the same name:
(https://i.imgur.com/XXj3LhC.png)

Couldn't even bother to remove the inner ring of constellations.

Now I'm going to have to find a suitable replacement because that is just fricken ridiculous.

I think it was explained as the Ur-Quan not liking to waste resources? And perhaps the Syreen didn't have a chance to save a blueprint for their ships, meaning their only choice was to recover them directly.

Created a new vault loosely based on the original.

(https://i.imgur.com/66yeham.png)

I don't know why the HD team had to resort to cheap pop culture references.
I also replaced the device icon for the Moonbase because it was literally littered with pop sci-fi objects.

I simply took the Moonbase you see on the surface of the Moon from the original game and made it the device
icon for HD. Fits perfectly.

What were the HD bits you replaced referring to?

* All pop culture references I can find made by the HD team themselves are removed. All of the original SC2 pop culture stuff is retained.

* Arilou comm screen is now based on the original

* Mineral orbs are based on the original colors

* The Kohr-Ah ship now uses alternate, edited graphics from Project 6014

* The blue grid at the top right in the ship graphics is more faithfully based on the original as well as cleaned up a bit.

* Mineral Values and Starmap keys have been edited and in one case recreated

* Syreen vault replaced with more faithful graphics

* Arilou homeworld replaced with more faithful graphics

* Moonbase device icon replaced with something that isn't a smattering of sci-fi objects

* Background stars in HQSpace are actual star points in HD

* Quasispace "stuff" recolored to match the original

* UI modified in the code to make HD match the original as much as possible without new content

That's off the top of my head.

EDIT:

I am now resizing the mineral balls to be a proper 4x scale.

UPDATE:

Recoloured the lander to be grey and made it rotate on its center of mass like in the original.
https://streamable.com/roec0

Happy new year!

Looks like you have been quite busy.  Congrats on moving to Gamma. :)

Thanks. Getting everything ready for the big release of the final MegaMod.

I'll have to have the mods update the first post of this thread so that there's not three different threads dedicated to the MegaMod.

I say it's important enough to have three treads! :D

I didn't realize you couldn't edit old posts...

After a certain amount of time has passed you can't edit. Which is fair.

I'd say combine the threads but that would be confusing as hell.

lock these old threads and have one new one once you've published....

Also, happy and healthy 2018 to everyone!

Yeah, that's why I moved Peeru over to SCDB. Couldn't go and fix things in the early chapters.

Now I probably could, actually.

It probably would be confusing. But since Krulle mentioned publishing, when are you going to do that, Serosis? And happy new year, everyone.

you've missed the announcement already: http://forum.uqm.stack.nl/index.php?topic=7055.0

(and also best wishes to you too!)