TRNG Update Suggestion Thread

[DJ Full]

Originally Posted by AkyV

I bet if we had a general TRNG request thread then that would be sticky. Feel free to start a new thread, we are all curious for nice update ideas!

No wonder I couldn't find one if it didn't exist... Well. So, let's begin...

If it was possible to add the "Hide Objects" button, could it also be split into two buttons of "Hide Models" and "Hide Lights"? Because working on camera sequences and/or room lighting with 10000-100000 polygons in sight goes very slow and crashes the game too often. Thank You

[teme9]

I hope that Paolone won't get scared if this thread gets a huge number of wishes for TRNG.

I have been hoping for "couple" additions:

• General
• Enlarging the wad texture limit if possible, would be really nice!
• Increasing the memory(or enlarge the limit farther) of tom2pc to allow bigger wads and files to be output into tr4 file.
• LOD system. (WIP by Paolone I think )
• Distace based culling for objects - Removing objects at far distance specified by scripting to improve performance. (WIP by Paolone I think)
• Customizeable wind strenght.
• Customizeable water reflection color.
• Echoing sounds & other sound effects postwork.
• Static moveable lighting working same as moveable lighting on moveables.
  
  Objects and scripts
• Custom colors for AddEffect=Script.
• Joint meshes for enemies!! I think this might yield itself as a pretty much impossible job, but we can wish for it!
• Distance fog to show horizon through it. Just like the Ios TR's horizon works. The horizon is smoothly peeking though the level geometry.
• More physics based objects such as Rolling ball. Or more customizations for it allowing larger or smaller rolling balls.
• Able to choose horizon as "static" so that it won't follow Laras position. Basically horizon could be a vast mass of land that could sit under the geometry and create illusion that continues after geometry ends. (basically a super large 3d object that is the horizon - not moving at all even Lara moves)
  
  Editor improvements
• Better rendering capablitites to handle detailed rooms without lagging.
• Possibility to place objects with more precision: Able to put object anywhere else than center of square and rotate them on every axis.
• Able to lit every single static object in a room with a single button.
• Able to split ceiling squares into triangles like we can do it on floors.
• Able to lit every room with same settings and excluding rooms from these settings.
  

And many more. There are plenty of stuff I would wish like dx9 and later rendering capabilities but they're something that would require way way more work like rewriting the whole renderer. Of course these wishes that I listed here are not easy to do.

[TR-Freak]

• Customizeable Ponytail Gravity
• Customizeable Amount of Rain and Snow per value
• Disabling rotating of Pushable when pushed off the edge
• Activating explosion-shockwaves via moveable/trigger
• Customizeable colour of Flame Emitters
• cutseq.bin
• ring inventory
• Activating Echoes and Reverbs per room like in the PSX version
• Footprings like in the PSX version

[Caesum]

I love the ideas above!

Editor changes:

• Possibility to change triangular ceiling using CTRL(like floor).
• Possibility to divide square into four parts, resulting in thinner walls.
• Possibility to place objecs not only at center of square.
• Different camera movement system in viewport. Maybe something like in 3ds max? Or WASD+mouse?
• Possibility to see WHOLE level at once.
• Better performance(when rooms are small the editor goes crazy fast, when there's too many it's extremely slow) and fixed rendering. Dissapearing faces on Windows 8 are SOOO irritating!
• Upgrade of DOS interface to Windows UI alongside with DirectX support and better rendering?

Engine/script changes:

• Possibility to use colored fog when VolumetricFX is enabled.
• VolumetricFX Fog which uses RGB values instead of hardcoded colors.
• A SCRIPT condition "if Lara stands(or crouches, etc) on X square/XYZ coordinates". For now there is only such condition for a whole room.
• Movable lighting for statics which reacts both to dynamic and static lighting(sunbulb, lightbulb, drop). For now it only reacts to dynamic lighting and room Ambience.
• Several BRIDGE objects working on same square.
• Smooth sound fading. It's especially visible when using SOUND object which loops samples. When Lara is just at the edge of sound range it starts and stops abruptly instead of fading away smoothly.
• Minecart vehicle(AFAIK Paolone already considers that).
• Command to decide how enemies react to each weapon(like mummies when shot using shotgun/revolver).
• Command to decide if enemy is friendly or hostile to Lara/enemies. With a possibility to pick particular enemies.
• Object collision which actually uses mesh structure instead of boxes to make collisions. And maybe even with possibility to stand on them without heavy scripting.
• Level of Detail(LOD), both simple(which only simplifies meshes) and complex(which replaces meshes).
• DirectX 9+ rendering support? Shaders?
• Texture file with alpha channel(like in modern games) instead of magenta.

Other changes:

• Possibility to MOVE more than one mesh per object/slot in animation. Guess it has to do with both WadMerger and TR engine.

The last two from first two categories are not going to happen most likely, but I did put them anyway. xD

[Titak]

Originally Posted by teme9

I have been hoping for "couple" additions:

• General
• Enlarging the wad texture limit if possible, would be really nice!
• Increasing the memory(or enlarge the limit farther) of tom2pc to allow bigger wads and files to be output into tr4 file.
• LOD system. (WIP by Paolone I think )
• Distace based culling for objects - Removing objects at far distance specified by scripting to improve performance. (WIP by Paolone I think)
  
• Customizeable wind strenght.
• Customizeable water reflection color.
• Echoing sounds & other sound effects postwork.
• Static moveable lighting working same as moveable lighting on moveables.
  
  
  Objects and scripts
  
• Custom colors for AddEffect=Script.
• Joint meshes for enemies!! I think this might yield itself as a pretty much impossible job, but we can wish for it!
• Distance fog to show horizon through it. Just like the Ios TR's horizon works. The horizon is smoothly peeking though the level geometry.
  
• More physics based objects such as Rolling ball. Or more customizations for it allowing larger or smaller rolling balls.
• Able to choose horizon as "static" so that it won't follow Laras position. Basically horizon could be a vast mass of land that could sit under the geometry and create illusion that continues after geometry ends. (basically a super large 3d object that is the horizon - not moving at all even Lara moves)
  
  Editor improvements
• Better rendering capablitites to handle detailed rooms without lagging.
• Possibility to place objects with more precision: Able to put object anywhere else than center of square and rotate them on every axis.
• Able to lit every single static object in a room with a single button.
• Able to split ceiling squares into triangles like we can do it on floors.
• Able to lit every room with same settings and excluding rooms from these settings.
  

I can only agree with all of this, especially the ones in blue.

Originally Posted by Caesum

Engine changes:

• Possibility to use colored fog when VolumetricFX is enabled.
• VolumetricFX Fog which uses RGB values instead of hardcoded colors.
• A SCRIPT condition "if Lara stands(or crouches, etc) on X square/XYZ coordinates". For now there is only such condition for a whole room.
• Movable lighting for statics which reacts both to dynamic and static lighting(sunbulb, lightbulb, drop). For now it only reacts to dynamic lighting and room Ambience.
  
• Several BRIDGE objects working on same square.
• SOUND objects working for as long as Lara is in range of sound. For now sometimes when Lara changes room the sound dissappears.
• Minecart vehicle(AFAIK Paolone already considers that).
• Object collision which actually uses mesh structure instead of boxes to make collisions. And maybe even with possibility to stand on them without heavy scripting.
• Land of Distance(LOD), both simple(which only simplifies meshes) and complex(which replaces meshes).
• DirectX 9+ rendering support? Shaders?

And I'm also in favor of these, especially the ones in blue.

Btw, about this: "VolumetricFX Fog which uses RGB values instead of hardcoded colors."
It is possible with FLEP to customize those hardcoded colours.


Well, since Paolone is working on 1.2.2.8 with a vehicles plugin, I can only say that I'm looking forward to having a quadbike that works the way it works in TR3.
And with it, it will be nice to be able to "import" other vehicles from the classics as well.

Speaking of customizing:

• the ability to customize the colour of the flame-emitter3 lightning effects. Perhaps even be able to get an effect like that of the Spear of Destiny and the Iris in TRC. (with all the different colours)
• Add "drips" to the AddEffects. (So we can make Lara drip when going through a waterfall for example.)
• We've already seen that with the plugin feature we can create waterripples around objects that come in contact with the watersurface. How about being able to make a splash as well? (For both Lara and other objects) We can already do this for the rollingball, but it would be nice to also be able to do this for other objects, like the falling ceiling or some custom animating of some sort.

[A_De]

Joining to all described suggestions
Editor feature: I'd like to have a possibility to copy/paste any object, not only a light effect

[AkyV]

Some fancy things I tried to do with variables but I (more or less) failed (not really important things):

- choose/edit your profile
- auto-grab instead of CTRL (like in AOD)
- poison-spitting creatures
- "hand" icon for interactions (like in AOD)
- limited backpack (aggregated weight limit?)
- hair-cross for (manual) targeting
- control (eg. key input) when menus are open.

[FreakRaider]

How about we create a poll once many features are posted in here, and then we vote for them, so the one with the most votes is definitely going to be in the newer versions of NGLE.

[teme9]

Originally Posted by Caesum

I love the ideas above!

Editor changes:

• Possibility to change triangular ceiling using CTRL(like floor).
• Different camera movement system in viewport. Maybe something like in 3ds max? Or WASD+mouse?
• Possibility to see WHOLE level at once.
• Better performance(when rooms are small the editor goes crazy fast, when there's too many it's extremely slow) and fixed rendering. Dissapearing faces on Windows 8 are SOOO irritating!
• Upgrade of DOS interface to Windows UI alongside with DirectX support and better rendering?

Engine changes:

• Possibility to use colored fog when VolumetricFX is enabled.
• VolumetricFX Fog which uses RGB values instead of hardcoded colors.
• A SCRIPT condition "if Lara stands(or crouches, etc) on X square/XYZ coordinates". For now there is only such condition for a whole room.
• Movable lighting for statics which reacts both to dynamic and static lighting(sunbulb, lightbulb, drop). For now it only reacts to dynamic lighting and room Ambience.
• Several BRIDGE objects working on same square.
• SOUND objects working for as long as Lara is in range of sound. For now sometimes when Lara changes room the sound dissappears.
• Minecart vehicle(AFAIK Paolone already considers that).
• Object collision which actually uses mesh structure instead of boxes to make collisions. And maybe even with possibility to stand on them without heavy scripting.
• Land of Distance(LOD), both simple(which only simplifies meshes) and complex(which replaces meshes).
• DirectX 9+ rendering support? Shaders?

Other changes:

• Possibility to MOVE more than one mesh per object/slot. Guess it has to do with both WadMerger and TR engine.

The last two from first two categories are not going to happen most likely, but I did put them anyway. xD

You probably mean LOD as Level of Detail? It's basically a system where you can specify a less detailed object to be used in far distance. usually the LOD models are created by the artist. Making automated LOD model generation on fly is never easy and will not probably work on TRLE since the models used do not use UV mapping and does not follow that good topology rules due having low polygon amount. Usually generated LOD model require some sort of UV maps to make sure that the objects look good when the polygon amount gets lower. Best results for LOD objects can be achieved by creating them by hand and not by generation

Originally Posted by FreakRaider

How about we create a poll once many features are posted in here, and then we vote for them, so the one with the most votes is definitely going to be in the newer versions of NGLE.

I personally wouldn't want this. It is Paolones personal time we are talking about here. It wouldn't feel right to put him under such pressure. He already has done so much for TRLE community. This thread may serve as a "wishlist" for him though. If Paolone sees some features that he could implent and wants to do so then he can do it by all means.

[Caesum]

Originally Posted by teme9

You probably mean LOD as Level of Detail?

Yeah, this one. I think it was called Distant Land or something in Morrowind Graphics Extender and somehow I adapted that name. In Gothic there was a LOD which automatically made distant land simplified. It wasn't always nice, for example some pillars could end up looking like cones, but it worked absolutely fine in World of Warcraft, where LOD worked only in locations which were covered in fog, resulting in very distant view with little to no fps cost. Also I guess these covered in fog polygons had no texture loaded or a very small one.

Originally Posted by teme9

I personally wouldn't want this. It is Paolones personal time we are talking about here. It wouldn't feel right to put him under such pressure. He already has done so much for TRLE community. This thread may serve as a "wishlist" for him though. If Paolone sees some features that he could implent and wants to do so then he can do it by all means.

I agree, also what if a feature like "convert the engine to DirectX9" worked? This would be a huge amount of work and I don't think Paolone would like to spend his free time on such thing. Better let him pick those which he think would be easiest or most interesting to implement.