a new mod : TA3D ...

[zuzuf]

I added a 'ta3d' mod in our mods directory.

what is that mod ?? isn't it the game itself ?? this "mod" is our remake of TA resources. For now it only contains Evolva models and our home made metal patches and tower models.

We are not talking about improving TA gameplay, units, ... only the way it looks. This mod will be a remake of TA resources using the new features of TA3D Engine. Think of it as a TA in HD. It'll be TA with more details ... and should be a stand alone mod under a free licence ...

the goal here is to have a good looking totally free (as in freedom) RTS

I created a small script that compare the list of files to create with the files on disk and output the remaining files to a TODO file, so you can easily keep track of what still has to be done

So you've guessed it : we'll need motivated modders wanting to improve textures, GUI textures, unit models, make 3D model replacement for all the map features, ... yes it's a HUGE amount of work, so :
Ready, Steady, Advertise !!!

[Balthazar]

Well, in that case GIVE US a NEW VIDEO and a NEW RELEASE

[zuzuf]

you'll have a test release soon , but the video I don't know I'll have to make it with another video editor

[Balthazar]

Hey, Zuzuf, how is it going with TA3D mod?

And what about video?

[zuzuf]

I haven't tried to edit the video on another software, I may try this week end.

Currently I've made 36/81 textures from armbldg.gaf ... so there is still lots of work to do. That's only a proof of concept, I won't recreate all the textures, I don't have time for that, we need modders willing to help with that.

[Balthazar]

Yes, you don`t have to do all by yourself.

All we need is just ability to play Scirmish (even on single map with basic set of units) without need to download additional resources.

[zuzuf]

It already requires lots of work to recreate all the necessary resources :
textures, units, weapons, features, 3D models...

[Balthazar]

Well, then why just don`t take them from TA resources?

We are not making the game for profit, so it should be fine.

[Doors]

[quote="Balthazar"]Well, then why just don`t take them from TA resources?

We are not making the game for profit, so it should be fine.[/quote]

This is why I included resource files from the demos in my distribution. The demo files are publicly available, I just installed them and grabbed the resultant stuff from with in. I also grabbed a maps pack from a mirror of the cavedog ftp site and they have never had any problem with redistributing this stuff freely on the net.

I also host the demo files on my site so anyone who wants to play the demo of the original can and then reuse the resource files to compare TA3D to TA and decide if they like it. My Mingw Package just saves a few steps in this process.

I know that it may take two or three years before an adequate set of new resources for TA3D done from scratch are available so I wanted to fill the gap with publicly available stuff in the mean time.

Reuse of demo materials from a decade old game that is no longer made, sold or supported for a non profit project seemed like a safe bet.

My hope was to make a core pack that could be used for demonstration to gather attention and hopefully inspire some of the people who played it. My kind of contribution since I am not a C/C++ programmer or artist. I work more in pascal, basic (Both NON visual) and assembly at the hardware level often in embedded systems, or data recovery with reconstruction if necessary. Not a lot of call for these in TA3D but I like the game so I try to help where I can.

[Balthazar]

Doors, thanks a lot! That`s it!

Zuzuf - really, why don`t use demo resources? All we need is sounds, fonts, GUI sprites and (what else?). We can extract it from the demo files and create working TA3D mod

[Doors]

[quote="Balthazar"]Doors, thanks a lot! That`s it!

Zuzuf - really, why don`t use demo resources? All we need is sounds, fonts, GUI sprites and (what else?). We can extract it from the demo files and create working TA3D mod :D[/quote]

I believe that redoing the files instead of using them in their distributed state would void the protection afforded by the public availability from the game demos.

Besides just leaving them alone would make it easier to remove them once they are no longer needed and avoid any confusion as to cavedog materials as opposed to TA3D materials.

[zuzuf]

the goal is to create HD materials, so we can't use TA resources, we need to recreate new ones. Also creating free (as in freedom) resources may not seem important to you but this will allow distributing TA3D in Linux distros for example.

Maybe you know that TASpring guys are a bit afraid that TA resources owner may tell them to stop distributing TA copyrighted resources ... I don't want this to happen with TA3D.

in the mean time, we can make a separate package with TA resources (only what is required to play TA3D) and add it in the download page but we shouldn't merge it with our TA3D resource package.

[Doors]

[quote="zuzuf"]the goal is to create HD materials, so we can't use TA resources, we need to recreate new ones. Also creating free (as in freedom) resources may not seem important to you but this will allow distributing TA3D in Linux distros for example.

Agreed, My goal is just to bridge the divide until those are ready.


Maybe you know that TASpring guys are a bit afraid that TA resources owner may tell them to stop distributing TA copyrighted resources ... I don't want this to happen with TA3D.

AGREED!


in the mean time, we can make a separate package with TA resources (only what is required to play TA3D) and add it in the download page :) but we shouldn't merge it with our TA3D resource package.[/quote]

Just tell or show me what you want in the package and I can add it to my pages for TA3D no problem. I can also remove it from my Mingw package and just include a note on where to grab them if you would like.
Just tell me what you want.

[zuzuf]

the required files in the resources archives are listed in our TODO file in the svn repository (in trunk/mods/ta3d/).