Quote (Typh|oOo|n)

hiho,
its again me.
as almost every millions expert know, i love to watch records. also i like to make screenshots of some difficult fighting-situations.
the only thing i hate when i am watching records, is the situation, when i need to scoll over the battlefield like a freak, just because the screensize is too small to sorround the whole army.
also making screenshoots sucks fataly if you have to make one image out of 6 screenshots(if you know what i mean).
one booring day, i decided to download the imperia mod in order to try out the new soldiertypes. all in all this mod wasnt my case at all, because there was no way to break camp(it was the biggest campergame i've ever seen ).
but one function had impressed me: "the zoom in/out function"
right after i saw this, i tryed to watch my replays of csx-1.35 with this mod, but it did not work :(
so here is my question for this topic:
is there a possibility to make a mod with this "zooming-function", where i can replay my 1.35-records?
ps: i know that there is a function in 1.35 to make a multiscreenshot of the map in the editor. this does not help me at all, because i would need this for the records also.

Well, where to start...

I know exactly what you mean, and I can tell you, its not just the million players, but even I who prefer epic long pt wars with + 15 000 soldiers would love to be able to do this. But aswell for making a nice map preview (map edit) this function could be invaluable, playing seawars... and ofcourseduring regular gameplay...also running your game on a 21 "" and max resolution is better then having an 16 or 18"" and running in a smaller resolution ( 640 - 800 ;-), but its still not the same as a zoom mode can achieve.

Now about the zoom mode itself. I'm not sure that the original dmcr.exe can handle such mode. As you mention Imperia has indeed this zoom function ( L Mode). But the imperia team is not using the default dmcr.exe, but either they updated it or used the one from American Conquest. This upgraded version of dmcr.exe in American Conquest has this function included. But in order for it to work, the game needs the graphics of the building and units in the game files in a ' smaller-zoomed out' version. To implement this in game, it requires quite a lot of work, cause you need these smaller ' images' of all units, sprites and buildings.

This also brings me to a situation im currently try to decide about. The dmcr.exe is great,but the AC engine has more functions , so using the ac engine for a cossacks mod would bring more functionality, but it would also be a more work then merely making a mod for the original engine. Gexozoid ( creator of mods for AC, ...) suggested i should use the AC engine.

I have given this subject a lot of thought already because the choice you make regarding what engine to use, is decisive for defining the structure or frame you work in and its inherent limitations.

It also has consequences, one being, do you feel it necessary if a mod comes out that it should be played online on the gamespy server? Should it be the same engine, should it have the same gamestyle as the version we all are so used to playing, or is the cossacks 1.35 community open to changes? You think some might change to the GSC server solely to play a mod, or would that be a step to far....and many more questions come up in my mind....

Thanks a lot for your suggestion feedback Typhoon, its really appreciated to get an idea what the larger community that is still playing cossacks thinks about this.

There wont be any cossacks sequels as far as Im aware, so its all up to us....

Regards

Angel

Edit: what nations you tried to watch from your autorecord(135) in imperia? or more specs on what happened? though i never tried it, and its quite possible it cant be done, due to changes, its still worth a test or two ;-)

i will try to sum up the things i have understood in your reply:

1)

Really, was that all you understood from my reply? I'll have to do better my best to explain things then

Yes!!Go buy yourself a large LCD Monitor. As I believe the maximum screen resolution (pixel dimension) at the moment is 2560x1600 WQXGA .

I hope you won the lottery or something, because that's expensive stuff m8. And I hope your videocard supports a resolution like that . But it would surely increase your battle view overview.

Seriously now, I tried a few things out tonight,about importing autorecords from 1.35 to imperia to see in L mode. So far I'v only been succesfull in importing m3d maps and autosave's from 1.35 into imperia. So far no luck with regular .sav's or .rec files. Im sure it has to do with certain files inside imperia that might need switching from btw to imp because the original autorecord was played on 1.35 and not with imperia data...I have to do more tests

Regards

Angel

well, i have just years of experience in c++, but i did never saw visual c++(thats where you programm your mods, right?). so i dont really have an idea if my thoughts can be realised in visual c++ also. sorry

Added (19/April/2009, 0:46 Am)
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Well , I think that the gamefiles also would require tweaking, cause the game options might not pick up larger resolutions which were not around when the game was made. So i'll have a look into that aswell

I' think that one could use the imperia engine and modify it so with the original cossacks data and then see if it works. A year ago, I decompiled imperia once so to see how it works, and managed in getting it to work from scratch, so i think i can set it up with the original cossacks data in order to show autorecords made by that version, but i can't guarantee that it will work.

Actually, that would be one great mod, though it wouldnt be played, it could be seen as a handy tool for looking at autorecords, making movies about your favourite battle, ...

But as I said, it would be a lot of work, and I would require assistance for it.

Very well, a summer project it is then...

Well how long it will take to get in shape...., to tell you the truth I'm an epic noob at these things, I never studied for it, so if i can find these things out,... I'm sure you will do fine.

But before we embark on this adventure, i might have a look at how this has been implemented into American Conquest to gather extra information.
I will also ask those nice people that are making mods for American Conquest, if what we are going to do is uberhaupt possible...

I wish you also all the best in your upcoming study & exams period, glad those days over past for me

Angel

I think so

Not really, i just know where their forum is...