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[Stainless]

So the last year has been shit

My business was destroyed by covid
Deaths in the family
Health issues

It has just been crap

Microsoft flight simulator came out, and though it's a crap game, it's a lovely flight sim.

So I really had to look hard at myself and my work, and I decided the existing work I have done is pretty well useless
On my own I will never make it good enough to challenge any other flight sim, yes my game design is much, much better than anything else out there, but if it looks shit, it's not going to get supported.

So I made the hard decision to move to UE4 and ran some tests

I am spectacularly unimpressed.

Not only does UE4 handle fbx meshes in an amazingly bad way, which means I will have to do a lot of work just to get meshes into the game, but the lighting is crap

Just look at this



Took me three hours to get that into UE4 and it looks crap.

Okay I can adjust the materials and it looks like the HIM I chose has bugs (Spitfire IX c) but, gaps in the shadows!!!  Really ??

I am pretty pissed off at the moment.

I need to win the lottery

 

[Mission_bug]

Great to have you back with us, sorry to know you had such a bad year though.

To be honest, many have had a really shit time all through this and it is not over yet, just have to hope we are heading for better times.

Not sure if your shadow issue is a UE4 problem or the model, usually each part is given its own shadow in Il-2 so it is possible the model is
at fault, however, we are more used to seeing shadows missing, that looks seven more spooky.


Do not lose heart, many of us do this thing to keep ourselves sane/insane depending on your outlook, while making your sim might be frustrating
you have shown the rest of us mere mortals just what can be achieved with dedication, dust off and keep going, call it covid therapy if you like.


Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[SAS~Poltava]

Sad to hear that, especially with your really amazing talents. You have worked wonders on your own, but I guess there is a limit.

Hope you can use your talents, your powers and your time in ways, beneficial to us all.

[Chaoic16]

Sir, it is truly great to have you back.  I am not the only one who were concerned about you when you wasn't here for a while.

Do not give up, there are many of us who go through a living hell due to cov-19 too. There is one thing that you have never lost;  Your experiences, passions, knowledge, and anything that makes you being you.  It can not be stolen nor lose. 

If I ever had a lot of money, I would love to invest into your new combat sim.

However, as others have stated, do not give up.  You can start small again and try different various game engine.  Unity and Unreal Engine have evolved a lot.  Even though there are issues with it, you can eventually make it work out.  Plus, Unity and Unreal are not the only engines out there.

Even though if you decide to use an existing sim / game engine instead of building a new one for now, it will be worth of your time, in my opinion.  That way you can show the world what you are aiming for.  If you eventually to get it working out well, you could start selling the small sim for a low price, in order, to build the financial for a bigger project. 

Just thinking of ideas aloud.

P.S. One more thing, If you need or want any help with the GUI designs for menu and screens, I am more than happy to help you with it.  Here is an example of my new menu / GUI mod for SF2:

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/95923-eagle114ths-new-sf2-menu-project-wip/

[Pursuivant]

Good that you're back.

Here's hoping that you get better soon: physically, emotionally, and financially.

I think there are more treasures buried in the rubble than you realize.

Algorithms for lighting, astronomy, etc. which are based on actual physics are never bad and can always be refined.

Your GUI coding and "sandbox" tools are masterful and can easily be bolted onto any sim.

Additionally, at some point graphics rendering is going to get "good enough" that most users won't particularly notice or care about fine improvements. To my inexpert eye, the EU4 video looks pretty good.

Yes, the lighting and shadow look harsh and there are some mesh and shadow problems with the Spitfire, but tell me that it's supposed to be North Africa 1941 and I'd be more likely to complain about the lack of desert camo on the Spitfire!

There's always going to be some wasted work if you're porting existing work over to a new program and there will always be a learning curve. If UE truly does do FBX meshes badly, then maybe there's an a tool you can make/sell to do the job right.

[DarkBlueBoy]

Sorry to hear about how shit your year has been

I can't offer much other than appreciation for your immense talent and plenty of cheerleading. Maybe knowing there's a lot of support round here may offer some comfort.

Here's hoping for a better 12 months for you mate!

[Chaoic16]

There's always going to be some wasted work if you're porting existing work over to a new program and there will always be a learning curve. If UE truly does do FBX meshes badly, then maybe there's an a tool you can make/sell to do the job right.

THIS!  That is a great idea and I agree with you!  Stainless could make the programs for both Unity and UE that will be able to work with FBX and other items needed to develop the simulations / games.  With that, he could use it to further develop the ongoing simulation too.

[Stainless]

I have started to look at that.

I am working on a change to the modtool that should do part of the job.

I was thinking that I could do a plugin for UE4 that would allow modders to publish their work for UE4 and maybe get some money from their hard work.

[Pursuivant]

You might also explore Patreon, Kickstarter, and similar crowdfunding sites, especially if you plan on making tools which make it easier for non-programmers to import stuff in UE4 and similar programs. You've got a great talent for making "machine tools" which allow artists and technicians to make their own tools.

[Chaoic16]

Yes and you could make the tools that helps people creating  / importing / exporting materials for the simulations / games.  Here are an example of what you could create:

- The flight model tools
- Real-time effect (Afterburner, vapor trail, etc...) tools
- Cockpits tools
- HUD tools
- Etc

[Stainless]

For those of you technically minded, I will explain the problem.

When the mod tool exports a HIM as a fbx I preserve the structure. So CF_D0 is connected to ENGINE_D0 , TAIL_D0, etc.

So you have all the vertices exactly the same as they are in the MSH file, and a matrix that is the position the mesh should be drawn at.

When UE4 imports this, it multiplies the vertices by the matrix and stores the result. So to display ARONEL_D0 in it's correct location you add it at 0,0,0

The problem is when you want to animate it, it will animate about 0,0,0 , which makes animating anything impossible

So I am thinking of adding an engine plugin which imports the HIM directly while the msh files are converted to FBX byu the mod tool

Then you can add animations using standard UE4 blueprints (no coding , just add items and connect them up)

All the materials can be edited as well. UE4 supports physically based rendering so it is easy to modify the materials and make them look decent

[Chaoic16]

Sounds a great  idea!  We look forward to see it.