Ambrosia Software Web Board: StarLance status report: sad news - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Well, I talked with Nathan Lamont about the problems with StarLance d.0.1, and he says the graphics are simply [url="http://"http://www.slugsoft.f2s.com/img/ask_slug/too_intense.jpeg"]too detailed[/url] for Ares to handle all at once. Currently, they are super huge and set to 2:1 zoom so you get maximum detail.

It is with great regret That I inform you the graphics will have to be set to 1:1, instead of 2:1. The sprites will be only 1/4 the size they are now.

If this problem persists after this change, I may consider porting StarLance to EVN instead.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Uhh, this sounds silly, but how much memory are you giving Ares?
CA had problems viewing M:Inv's graphics until he cranked the memory allocation.
I'm sure NL would have thought of it, but on the off chance he didn't, try setting it to 25600 kbytes.

If that doesn't work, try 51200 or more if you've got it.
If THAT doesn't work, NL is right (no surprise if that's true).

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

I use a 2:1 thingy for a few of the ships in SETR. I'd best be wary of using it too much.. still.. it'd be a shame to waste all the detail on that Alien corvette...

I don't remember specifically what I said to Slug, but I do know that he was running out of sprites somehow. I didn't mean to imply necessarily that it was the size of his sprites that was causing this problem.

I suspect some sort of run-away object creation/destruction. Somehow I am suspicious of the fighters created by the carriers, Slug. But that's just a hunch.

I was alarmed about the size of the sprites b/c of the memory they use up -- as Darkk pointed out -- and because I simply never imagined Ares using sprites that big. While there is a max size of sprites, I don't believe that you're exceding it because the sprites, after all, are shown. Still, I want to look into it.

I haven't had a chance yet to dig further.

[This message has been edited by Admiral Grammaticus (edited 07-08-2001).]

Hmm, I'll look into the carrier/fighter relationship, but I doubt it's the main cause of the problem, as I think I had it before I created the carrier/carrier fighters (just not nearly as bad).

Ah well, thanks for your time in advance, Mr. Lamont.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

to intense huh... that blows. Why do i have the feeling a *plugin* is going to surpass my system requirements, sigh.

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just take my post, and imagine everything is speeled right.

Hmmm. I've been experimenting with 2:1 graphics myself, particularly for fighters.

Anyway, the recommendation I'd make (assuming it doesn't turn out to be some unfixable problem) would be to use 2:1 for fighters and other small craft, and 1:1 for larger vessels, even 2:1 for the really, really big ones (you know, gateships size and such). What do you think?

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Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

SA, could you post your email address here? I'd like to reply to your email, but I can't because I deleted it .

I think in the revising of the UESG I'm going to use 2:1 only for Bombers and Cruisers. Everything else 1:1. I suppose after a certain point you'd want to use 1:2, but I'm not going to venture to say what point.

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"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchforkŅ"

I'd say that the point of 600*600 is where you should start doubling. No sprite should be bigger than 300*300, or your scenario will be F***ED!!!

Trust me on this one. Personal experience talking.

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

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nah. The T.I.S.N. TriLance (using the StarLance sprite on 1:2) is 2000 * 2000, and it works just fine

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Terran Imperial Stellar Navy?

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"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchforkŅ"

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back when there was a Terran Empire (before mankind got wiped)

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

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I can't think of any non-explatives that convey the shear shock of that. Our plug has a few 370*370*36 ships, and we had to break it into seperate files because we filled the resource forks. How big IS(ARE) the starlance file(s)?

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI