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    demer928

    @demer928

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    Best posts made by demer928

    • WIP - Guam Theatre

      Hello all you fighting orphan’s of the Pacific……

      1.Tile’s are 100% done on my part,Ted and Carlo have different idea’s 😉 Tiles are becoming irrelevent
      2. Elevation’s are 100% done Due to the new POC working on Tinian, elevations are now a new WIP 😉
      3. Objective’s are 90% done
      4. IA.cam and associated file’s 100% done
      5. DF file’s and doctrine’s 70%New WIP
      6. Art is 95.5% done
      7. There will only be one cam pain in my a**, that is Redflag……that’s it,don’t asked,as other’s are not doable IMO 2%done No Campain this time just 7 TE’s

      Some pics……

      Change Log:……ROTFLMAO…No Clue…a lot has changed,guess one would need to read my post’s these last four years.

      In any event it has been a long four years in development with Guam and I thank the many who have contributed\supported us in this WIP\POC Theater…Hat’s Off to them!!!
      I believe we have pushed Falcon forward and hope to continue that in the coming year 😉 Remember as a 3rd party developer “We don’t know what we don’t know, but we CAN find out what we don’t know” There is MUCH more to come…;)

      Here is the link to the Dev copy:

      https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9EBo1PFk5NUSXJ1T0lkNTRDdlE/view?usp=sharing

      HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017!!!
      EXTREMELY Tired demer……

      posted in Kurile
      demer928
      demer928
    • Theater developmental notes - The Tile's

      There seem’s to be some continued confusion about how terrain tile’s work in Falcon.Though I have posted many time’s my understanding,through testing, observation and researching the CODE for 10+ year’s, we still seem to miss important thing’s.
      So in this thread I wish to employ the KISS method in hope we ALL finally understand.
      I know in past post’s here and @ PMC\FF\OF\Frug’s…etc. Fora I have been a bit facicious\abserbic on the subject.Sorry!!!BUT my feeling is,if you can’t understand the tool’s,concept’s,file structure…etc. in Falcon.Then you should not be modifying it 😉

      In closing,PLEASE CODER’s,MODDER’s and USER’s FEEL FREE to add\correct where needed.This will further my philosphy of “We don’t know what we don’t know,BUT we can find out” in Falcon!!!
      Here Go’s nothing:

      1ST…A tile is an image/picture(Texture) that the GFX engine “draws” over a wireframe (the Terrain) No different at this point than a Google Earth tile used by map maker’s other than it is in a compressed format (.DDS) for Falcon.It in itself doe’s not contain any data other then pixel(picture element) count and pallette (color) After this Falcon has nothing more to do with it then put it on a list to be rendered by the GFX engine.

      2nd…When we take these picture’s in Falcon and apply them to a certain XY coordinate on our MAP.She has a way for us to “Group” them together(16 images per group max,4096 total ATM).These are called “SET’s” and that DATA is saved in the texture.bin file.Basicly “Set’s” allow us to apply a “Terrain TYPE” to every texture in that “Group\Set”.This is essential for large area’s,say Mountain’s\Water,that we want to exclude\allow GU movement over.

      3rd…Now we have our “Set’s” defined in the texture.bin.Let’s say we made the “Set Type” Water and it has an Airbase tile in it???Problem…exploding AC when you spawn on that tile.We can now define an “AREA” on said tile.So now we edit that tile in texture.bin and make an “AREA” of “Plain’s” on it, then wa’la,no more BoomBoom when you spawn 😉 Get It???

      4th…So we should understand now,I hope, that a “Set Type” define’s the “Terrain Type\AREA” for every tile in that “SET”,but we can edit any tile in that set and define a new “AREA” on it…kewl!!Here is where the confusion set’s in.“Hell,demer I did what you said,but they still won’t move” (direct quote from an old PM) I’ll get back to that in a minute.

      5th…Now we have our “Tile” in a “SET” with a defined “AREA” on it.We would like the GU’s to move over it.How do we tell them that they can??? We define a “PATH” on the tile in texture.bin!!!Now “PATH’s” on a “Tile” have nothing to do with “Objective Link’s” at this point!!!Bear with me a minute and I’ll get back to it.
      So we need to “PATH” this tile.HOW???Well you can draw just one ROAD pixel on it, then the cODE read’s the entire tile as “Pathed” and as long as the “Touching” tile is “Pathed” then they go on their merry way.IF you want to “FORCE” them to the road image,then you have to draw the entire path,as best you can,on the tile(Remember this Data is NOT stored in the .dds image,just in the texture.bin)

      6th…Now we have a tile,in a set (insert your set TYPE here) with a defined area of plain’s and a “Road Path” defined on it, but there is a “River” path that intersect’s the road…HMMM??? Your GU’s stop and then go chasing off along the river until they find a point to cross or in worse case, not.We now need to define a “Bridge Path” over the “Road Path” so they can cross…Get IT???They don’t NEED a Bridge Objective\Feature there.They DON’T CARE,they just need a “Bridge PATH” to get over this…that is all.

      7th…Getting back to “Hell,demer I did what you said,but they still won’t move” There is other DATA that Falcon use’s to determine where,how and when a GU can\cannot move over the Terrain.For this diatribe I am only concerned about the Terrain.There is another file at this point where DATA is stored and shared in Falcon that effect’s the GU’s movement over the entire “TERRAIN”.(NOT talking about “LINK’s” here,they are SEPERATE from TERRAIN!!!..Get IT???) It is often ignored or not understood by us.That is your .thr file.This file is the intersection of your terrain and your campain’\theater and contain’s Data that Falcon use’s,as in his case,he had no clue(Trying to make them drive up a mountain…;) )

      _EDIT1:A little bit from “Baldeagles” Pathmaker manual circa ~2001,some of the naming convention’s have changed though (Thank’s Fred,saved me alot of headache’s over the year’s…:rtfm:LOL)

      "Paths

      • Paths are used in Falcon 4 to draw roads and rivers on the Ground Radar display. There are 4 Path Types available: River, Road, Bridge and Railway. The <theater>.thr’s Road along with Cover Type and Relief information are used to calculate the Cost to travel various routes from their current position to the Objective. When the units encounter a Bridge Path segment, a request is transmitted for the status of the bridge object over the river. The River Path delineates areas in the tile where the ground units cannot go without a means to cross the river. Although Railway type is checked in Falcon 4, I am not sure how ground units will use this type of path.

      Areas

      • Areas are used in Falcon 4 to determine the cost for ground units to follow a path through the Area type defined in a tile. There are 10 Area Types available: Water, Swamp, Plains, Brush, Thin Forest, Thick Forest, Rocky, Urban, Runway and Station. The defined Areas with Cover Type are used to calculate the Cost to travel various routes from their current position to the Objective. When there are high cost areas between the ground unit and its objective, the unit will try to take a lower cost route. Thus, high-cost areas in the tile might block the route through an area they should not travel, such as ocean, lakes, rocky areas or thick forest. The use of Runway and Station types is unknown. Station type sounds like a railway station area. Runway type may be for airbases, but it is not used in the original tile’s areas. From this discussion you can see how important it is to lay down good areas. Look at the original Korea tiles to get an idea of how the F4 developers defined paths. Be aware that not all of the F4 people did a good job. I have found many errors with the way paths and areas were defined."</theater>_

      EDIT2: for you Ted…. <theater>.thr file…is built, in the various tool’s,i.e TerrainView,PathMaker,TerrainEditor from the Theater.L2 and Texture.bin file’s.Without getting into extreme detail,suffice it to say, there are “byte’s and bits” contained in the file for each tile in your theater….(WHEW!!! think about that math for a minute…LOL).
      The three most important for your campain’s\theaters to run correctly are: Terrain\Cover\Set Type and Path Data from the Texture.bin.And Elevation Data from the Theater.L2.
      ANYTIME you change ANY data in those two file’s you MUST rebuild your <theater>.thr file against the new data.Get it???</theater></theater>

      _EDIT3: This is how the CODE see’s “PATHS\AREAS”

      @*****:

      Here you go……

      // Return the type of ground under the specified point on the ground.
       int GetGroundType( float x, float y ) {
      // Grab the texture ID at location x,y 	int texID = Terrain.GetTexID( x, y ); 	 	
      // Check all segment features for inclusion 	int pathCount = 0; 	int i = 0; 	int type = -1; 	TexPath *path; 	Edge segment; 	TexArea *area; 	 	GET_NEXT_PATH; 	while ((type == -1) && path) { 		pathCount++;  		float r = path->width * 0.5f;  		
      // Skip this one if we're not inside its bounding box 		if (path->x2 < path->x1) { 			if ((path->x2 > x+r) || (path->x1 < x-r)) { 				GET_NEXT_PATH; 				continue; 			} 		} else { 			if ((path->x1 > x+r) || (path->x2 < x-r)) { 				GET_NEXT_PATH; 				continue; 			} 		} 		if (path->y2 < path->y1) { 			if ((path->y2 > y+r) || (path->y1 < y-r)) { 				GET_NEXT_PATH; 				continue; 			} 		} else { 			if ((path->y1 > y+r) || (path->y2 < y-r)) { 				GET_NEXT_PATH; 				continue; 			} 		}  		
      // Now check the line segment itself 		segment.SetupWithPoints( path->x1, path->y1, path->x2, path->y2 ); 		segment.Normalize(); 		d = (float)fabs( segment.DistanceFrom( x, y ) ); 		if (d < r) { 			type = path->type; 		} 		GET_NEXT_PATH; 	}  	
      // Check all area features(Type's) for inclusion 	uint32 areas = 0; 	i = 0; 	area = TheTerrTextures.GetArea( texID, 0, i++ ); 	while ((type == -1) && area) { 		float dx = x - area->x; 		float dy = y - area->y; 		float d = dx*dx + dy*dy;  		if (d < (area->radius * area->radius)) { 			type = area->type; 		} 		area = TheTerrTextures.GetArea( texID, 0, i++ ); 		areas++; 	}  	
      // Get the basic terrain type of this tile 	if (type == -1) { 		type = TheTerrTextures.GetTerrainType( texID ); 	} 	return type; }
      

      Thank’s from a fellow Welshman ;)_

      I really hope’s this help’s,sorry if I missed some point’s\question’s
      No EGO demer

      posted in Theater Development
      demer928
      demer928

    Latest posts made by demer928

    • RE: Anybody have a world map with current areas highlighted that are rendered in BMS 4.35

      @Morg_105TFS ,

      I was being facetious….lighthearted so to speak 😉
      If you missed the Serious point so sorry.
      We have many Falcon theaters (converted to BMS 4.##) in a “Vault” that only a few have access to. I will get a list and try to update your MAP.
      Also I will try to include the ORIGINAL AUTHOR’s name, if known, so we can give credit where credits are due. That may be hard to do with the PMS theaters as many of us contributed to that work…sigh…and one claimed them as his own. Anyway that is the past and we have a lot more to SEE and do in the future with BMS theater making!!!
      🆒

      demer

      posted in Theater Discussion
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: Anybody have a world map with current areas highlighted that are rendered in BMS 4.35

      Sooo……WIP…for the last 2 DECADES!!!

      I call it Falcon World Theater:

      https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YWpEnqblIRd7u7JsI7RHSVqexOVZ6X-S/view?usp=sharing

      It is best flown in the SR-71……:rofl:
      It was stolen from me 10 years ago by a snake in the grass and put up for sale on E-Bay for 100 Dogecoin…but, alas the campaigns did not work…:(
      It was also stated by some members of the community that they in fact had authored certain SEGMENTS of the Theater…prob’ly did and I stole 'em…sue me ya baby snakes…LOL!!!

      SERIOUSLY though…OP has a good thought and may open another door to the new future of BMS theaters 😉

      If one was to wonder if it is doable now?..Absolutely IF you want to spend the next # years of your life hand tiling +9 million miles of Coast Tiles……:o

      Cheers :smash:
      demer

      posted in Theater Discussion
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: Theater developmental notes - Available Tool's

      @Jackal:

      Thanks for your advise.

      Hopefully someone will elaborate a new guide about and release after…

      With best regards.

      Yes.

      demer

      posted in Theater Discussion
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: Theater developmental notes - Available Tool's

      Ummm……Move along, Nothing to see here!!! Sorry for the inconvenience :neutral:

      Cheers’
      demer

      posted in Theater Discussion
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: 4.35.0+4.35.1 NO 3D world…...................

      Hey Peep’s,
      I can also confirm that the https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/…0-838f7be8d9f6……MLCU (MidLifeCrysisUpdate) WORK’s!!!
      For those of us that are older, stubborn, stupid or just plain paranoid of Winblows10…!!
      Now back down my “Rabbit Hole” to further exploit the advantages of DX11 and the new DB…TeHee!!!

      This community still rocks:headb::headb:
      Thanks,
      demer

      posted in Technical Support (BMS Only)
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: 4.35.0+4.35.1 NO 3D world…...................

      Yeah on the Winblows7’, vid card is Nvid GT740 specs sez support up to DX12….

      posted in Technical Support (BMS Only)
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: 4.35.0+4.35.1 NO 3D world…...................

      System Information
      –----------------
      Time of this report: 4/1/2021, 10:38:36
      Machine name: PC-PC
      Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
      Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
      System Manufacturer: LENOVO
      System Model: 7220RY8
      BIOS: Lenovo ThinkCentre BIOS Ver 5CKT77.0
      Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
      Memory: 8192MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 8030MB RAM
      Page File: 1234MB used, 7193MB available
      Windows Dir: C:\Windows
      DirectX Version: DirectX 11
      DX Setup Parameters: Not found
      User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
      System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
      DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
      DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode


      DxDiag Notes

      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
      Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
      Input Tab: No problems found.

      posted in Technical Support (BMS Only)
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: 4.35.0+4.35.1 NO 3D world…...................

      KTO……

      posted in Technical Support (BMS Only)
      demer928
      demer928
    • 4.35.0+4.35.1 NO 3D world…...................

      Seen this B4 but have forgotten……sigh

      Falcon BMS.exe caused an EXCEPTION_BREAKPOINT in:
      00000000044ABB95 Falcon BMS.exe, TextureHandle::SetupAsRenderTarget()+1573 byte(s), d:\wip\bms\svn\code-4.35\graphics\texture\texturehandle.cpp, line 828+9 byte(s)
      Exception handler called in UnhandledExceptionHandler.
      BreakpointBytes at CS:RIP: CC E9 E5 FB FF FF 44 0F B6 7D 6F E9 DB FB FF FF

      Someone please remind me…:(

      TIA,
      demer

      posted in Technical Support (BMS Only)
      demer928
      demer928
    • RE: DEM data

      @I-Hawk:

      Well, every projection in a flight sim is a fake unless you make your earth curved and your sim 100% LAT/LONG friendly. But, Boy we are NOT going to go there 😛
      TM projection is probably pretty accurate for a “flat theater” like Falcon’s. For sure more accurate than default Falcon projection (Which BTW the idea of it isn’t so much different AFAIK but the result is less accurate).

      If you are interested in new stuff, I’m here…

      Yeah, lets NOT go there……yet 😉
      I like the TM thought, and have for sometime now. GUAM is loosely based on it and the .map is easily manipulated to it.
      As far as projection, the AB’s in GUAM were only off a few degrees (~10) according to Nikos who did the Stations and ILS file for the THEATER.
      Easily fixed at that time as I was into REBUILD THEATERS TO BMS 4.1 FOR DEEJAY mode……LOL!!! Cannot even remember how many…though I know for a fact I did not do Libya due to the Smans lawsuit, which I eventually won.

      And Yeah I am interested in new stuff, just PM me with your thoughts, intent etc…… and lets GO from there……
      Anything that increases “Joe Pilots” immersion, suspension of disbelief and enjoyment in sim/game, I AM ALL FOR IT!!!

      Serious,
      Dave

      posted in Theater Development
      demer928
      demer928