RipStar DevLog #1
While we don’t have anything flashy to show you yet, media-wise, we have been plugging away behind the scenes. Currently, we have 1 (placeholder) player ship, 2 varieties of moving, shooting, AI enemy classes in the early stages, a functional turret class, as well as destructible asteroids.
The player ship has a functional tripartite energy system, working shields, rudimentary projectile-type weapons. Additionally, the player ship has basic forward, reverse (plus boosters); lateral and vertical thrust. UI includes a very rudimentary HUD for informational purposes.
PC and NPC classes can deal damage to each other through simple component-based damage and projectile systems; one NPC class can fly, patrol, and do simple seek and destroy actions, and we currently have three simple examples of operational AI behavior trees to build off of. That tripartite energy system we’ve cooked up has now been packed into a modular component that can be added to any ship as a drag and drop item. I’m currently working on packaging the PC flight model into a component-based system as well. Modest gains, but not bad for 6 weeks from a blank editor!
Welcome, Philos!
Offer a warm welcome to Philos, a friend of mine who works with code for a living, and offered to help with this project as a way to break into the Unreal engine, as well as give us a hand! We’re looking forward to his contributions, and hope you give him a warm welcome on Discord!
Multiplayer Setup Video Up
We’ve got an instructional video out for how to setup Tachyon with Tunngle so you can play again.
Rock Paper Heavy Laser
Just like to mention we got a shout out at Rock Paper Shotgun
during their 15 Best Space Games article, which featured Tachyon.
You can read it here:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/17/best-space-games/
Thanks RPS!
New Patches Available
Greetings Space Scallywags.
As we bring 2014 to a close, we were made aware that Novalogic got their lobby
back online. As such we’ve rererere-released a server IP patch so everyone can
play again.
Lobby Patch Link – Click Here
We also updated the No Environment Effects mod, which was in need of some fixing
for a while as well. Note that if you’re using Win XP, the default install location
used by this patch is now set for 64 bit Vista and later. You’ll need to pick the
location yourself when it gives you that option if you still run XP.
Example:
Win Vista/7/8 – C:\Program Files (x86)\NovaLogic\Tachyon
Win XP – C:\Program Files\NovaLogic\Tachyon
No Environment Effects – Click Here
Both of these are of course in the Downloads section here on the site.
As a smaller update, the bandwidth on the FringeSpace game server was probably
adequate before, but it has been increased 5x now. So there shouldn’t be a problem
on our end.
We hope to have some more good news for you after the new year.
FringeSpace – Year 7
September 26th 2006, when RazorsKiss and myself started FringeSpace we knew we were
starting something big and we’d be over our heads from the get go. While that’s
certainly been a consistent theme over the course of our project, it’s been a
ongoing learning experience.
In review:
In late 2012, we closed our forums, rebuilt the website totally, and moved our
forums to Hard-Light.
In a collaborative effort with some helpful people at the Xentax forums, we
managed to figure out the audio format used for the in-game music, and recompiled
them, to release a complete soundtrack for Tachyon the Fringe.
Over the last year Z64 has rebuilt the model extractor from scratch pretty much
and allowed us to get small to medium content out.
From there, we got all 11 of the Tachyon powerups / refills in FSO.
We squashed about 45 bugs while keeping up with the new SCP releases.
Our Tachyon Facebook group of fans has grown to over 300 strong.
Lastly, we have recently completed rigging of 18 primary ships so they are
all in game.
For the interested, these are:
-Gal Span-
Pegasus
Orion
Poseidon
Archangel
Phoenix
-Bora-
Battleaxe
Mace
Cutlass
Warhammer
Claymore
-Pirate-
Demon
Manta
Marauder
Nighthawk
-Merc-
Gar
Corvus
-Other-
Mako
Worker Drone
…and we have another 7 about halfway completed already. This doesn’t include test models, new
higher poly replacements, or structures we’ve imported already.
As this is a large enough set to meet our initial alpha goal, we will be transitioning from
working on models, to polishing the interface; namely the HUD and game menus. While a good deal
of ship handling was polished in the past by staff, we’ll also be taking a look at this again,
since features and models have changed. For example, we didn’t have gun convergence in 2006…
What we will need however, is some additional talent. Namely someone with some familiarity with
FRED, and we’ll be needing some help with LUA scripting. If one or both of these is something you
can work with, we’d like to hear from you!
There’s also an opening for a texture artist for a handful of new models, but this isn’t
an urgent need currently.
So there you have it. Even though we’re one of the smallest mod teams, we still keep pushing
on towards our release. We hope the following year will be more productive and look forward
to sharing more progress with y’all.
Thank you… friends and fans alike, for all your support.
~ JGZinv
Bora Fighters Complete!
Woot indeed.
Instead of just giving you pictures of the models, thought this time
we’d give you something to play with. Click and drag in the model boxes
to move them around, scroll wheel zooms, and there are menu buttons for
each model on the side.
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/Jojgh/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/tHVpZ/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/oBP4Q/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/QfFl0/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/GJJMu/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/Nmejy/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/LYTNp/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
[iframe_loader src=”http://p3d.in/e/yRQKE/spin” width=”100%” height=”500″]
These should all be in game tomorrow. They are each about 80% rigged currently.
Model Converter Complete!
Back in 2002 Delphy made a partial PAK extractor that showed it could be possible to get models out of Tachyon and ever since, fans of the ship designs and those with big imaginations have wanted to be able to see them out of the game. Finally, nearly 13 years later, that becomes reality.
Shadow Z spent several months completely redesigning a new PAK converter from the ground up, just now completing the project. Click on an image for a larger version.
All 1,165 files work. Once we’ve got them organized better we’ll have more to show.
Needless to say this will be a huge help to our mod in the future, and we’ll be looking for additional staff soon so we can start back again towards our goal of an alpha demo for folks to play.
TTF Soundtrack Release & Notes
Merry Christmas space folk!
Just in time to be your present, the FringeSpace Team is proud to
release The Unofficial Tachyon Soundtrack.
44 Tracks reassembled and edited for your enjoyment, and for an extra bonus
we went and made up a nice set of jewel case inserts so you can show it off.
It’s been in the works a few months now, but we hope you enjoy it.
Download Link – Tachyon Unofficial Soundtrack
In other news, Shadow Z is making good progress on the extractor now.
We’ve actually exported some models and are working on the UVs, Normals, and
Textures part of it. Should have some images to show very soon.
Happy holidays and a good new Earth standard year for those on SOL time.
A year in review…
Alright, so this has been due for quite some time.
Let’s get the sad news out of the way first:
Over the last year roughly we’ve had several folks come and go with the project:
RK has for all intents and purposes handed FS over to me (JGZ) as he is switching jobs and will be on the road full time. He still funds the site and some other things,
and started this project with me way back in 2006, so I am keeping him in the Staff list as co-founder.
Several of the team members from Hard-Light, have moved on to other interests or otherwise needed to pick up jobs and/or college so they’ve had to step away. I myself became employed full time back in April, working 14 hour shifts, so that has left next to no time to do much of anything. To his credit, a large portion of the work this year was done by Shadow Z (more on that in a moment).
Essentially we are down to really 2-3 “regulars,” and 2-3 people that are still “attached” but not actively doing any task for one reason or another. Due to this, we really need new blood and
I will be making several posts out on the net in the vein of Help Wanted ads. A post will also be made here shortly with more details on what we’re looking for. If nothing else, spread our
name and new website around, word of mouth (or social networking) gets around really quickly and may indirectly yield the help we would like to see.
Moving on… So what have we accomplished?
Well…
We figured out the SBF file format, so we can listen to all Tachyon’s audio.
As such, a Tach fan (docfoo) is putting together all the clips and reworking them into a proper
soundtrack we hope we can make available soon.
We combined all the Tachyon concept art we could find and made one big collection for your enjoyment.
All current fighter craft and weapons were created tables (settings) for by MetalMilitia.
Shadow Z spent a good amount of time on optimizing the Fenris Arena stations so they don’t eat
your FPS down to a crawl, and also fixing some geometry errors.
Rstar created several slick new models, a new Demon, a new Manta, and a regular Tachyon gate.
We 3D printed a 3.5 inch Demon, Manta, and Pegasus. (This was very cool ^_^ )
We fixed/replaced the website… (ok obvious I guess)
Later on in the year, we were able to get the source code for the old PAK model extractor that had been made by Delphy, as having a way to get non-screwy UV mapped models out of Tachyon would be a huge help with our own project in a multitude of ways. Shadow Z began working on this solely and did make some progress. I’ve also been hunting around for quite some time, trying to offer a bounty on someone who could correct the PAK extractor’s faults for us. Some have tried, no one stayed with it to really yield the needed results. We ARE still looking for someone for this task… please contact us if you have any experience with picking through raw data, C++ or Visual Basic, or a knowledge of texture mapping in relation to coding.
In other news:
Sort of a sister Freespace 2 mod to ours, Diaspora (Battlestar Galactica related), released a few weeks back. Diaspora actually began as Beyond the Red Line (BtRL) not much longer after we began FringeSpace. So we congratulate them on getting released. You can find their mod here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=175.0
Also of note is that Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame, has come out of retirement to propose a new space combat sim game. That being Star Citizen, which he’s trying to crowdsource the funding on. Being that one of the main features is modding for dedicated servers and a current generation game engine under the hood, I’m keeping a close eye on this project. If you’d like to see his trailers or get in on it, his site for the game is here: http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
Well that’s about it for now fellow scallywags of the Fringe. Stay gold…
Back from the Twilight Fog…
Ok so as the posts will show below, we’ve been offline without a working website
for nearly a year now. It’s been a long time in coming but I finally sat down and
plugged away and got our new blog/site up and running.
Most of the same stuff is here, you’ll find the majority of information in the menu
bar at the top of the page and you’ll also notice our forums were absorbed into
the main forums at Hard-Light Productions. Stop by and say hi…
There’s probably a few things still broken or otherwise not filled in, such as the
gallery, but we’ll work on that. Do let us know if something looks really messed up
though.
Quite a few things have changed with the mod since the last update, which we’ll
hopefully get to covering and filling you in on soon.
Thanks for sticking around and being patient!
~J
Forum Section Shut Down
This is just a notice that I’m taking the FringeSpace.org forum offline.
Due to the age of the forum software, which I don’t have access to change,
the board is being flooded with spam bots, posting everything from porn,
to pill ads, and giant posts of mindless text. I’ve been fighting it for well over a
month already, deleting and banning posts/accounts.
Frankly it’s taking up more time each day, and that time can be better
spent modding or any number of things.
So rest assured the posts are not gone, the board is just deactivated.
If there’s some information you need, or you need support for Tachyon,
please go to our other forum at Hard-Light:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=195.0
…or post to the Tachyon Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tachyon-The-Fringe/184709132945
…or you can reach me directly via Email:
#JGZinv#@gmail.com (remove the # symbols)
The board will be kept offline until I can reach Razor and a update can
be made, or someone needs something off it and I’ll reopen it for a short time.
Thank you.
Prayers Needed for Razor and Family
Razor and his troop could use some prayers.
Show the man some support. Have your church put them on their prayer list if you have one.
Info at the link:
Late April Note
Well a little bit of an update on things:
We’re moving along a little bit better now, Thaeris from the Stellar Assault
mod has been helping us convert models so that we can get a useable set
of regular ships. These will not be hi poly versions, but you should notice
an improvement in texture quality appearance over Tachyon.
Angelus has come back from a long trip and will start on model
upgrades again.
ShadowZ will be off for some time due to work.
The old Tachyon SBF archives were made playable thanks to the Xentax
modder forums. So that’s nice to have available for reference.
The Tachyon Facebook group has been seeing some activity, please stop
by or follow it so you can be aware of updates from plzdie and myself.
Tach Lobby Down
**** UPDATE **** **** UPDATE ****
Tach lobby is back up. No IP change surprisingly.
**** UPDATE **** **** UPDATE ****
The NovaLogic Tach lobby is offline. Evidently NL is changing things
around yet again. Here’s the announcement from their site.
“In preparation for upcoming releases of new products and services,
NovaLogic is restructuring various web servers so as to provide a more
cohesive environment. During the course of this restructuring, some
redundancy will be removed, and some favorite NovaWorld legacy
features will be revived. During this process we foresee no significant
service outages. The changes will be ongoing, and should enhance
organization and game-play. Please keep watching this Announcement
section for updates and information.”
Don’t know if that means Tach will be removed, since it could be seen
as redundant, or if they’ll keep it around. No idea, we’ll have to see.
In the meantime, you’ll get a white or blank screen when trying to get
to the lobby address. Kali still works for long distance LAN, but people
will have to agree to use it.
Note for March
Hey guys…
I know I don’t post much around here. Best I can say is sorry…
Time and energy is hard to come by.
As to a status report on things here’s where we sit.
At the moment, Shadow Z is occupied with school classes and that there in. He’s made some progress on powerups,
and some items, as well as optimizing / repairing the fenris bouy and station. Both had geometry “fat” and
errors that needed help.
We’re expecting Angelus to return from business matters within this month, he’s been globe hopping so he
can’t really model much. A lot of his work on objects was lost before he had to leave, so we’re hoping we can
remake those quickly.
RK is pretty much going to be away from the mod for an extended period.
He’d like to do something, but he’s working pretty much every hour of the day and night.
Bax is having a rough time with life currently as well. He could use
some encouragement if you have a minute to drop him a note.
Nutri has made known to me he’s working on new music for the menu screen.
Carl, I’ve still not heard anything from. You alive dude?
Slap, nope not heard from either…
Me – I’m trying to stay afloat myself. Been putting resumes out there trying to get work at some decent rate.
Fighting colds and other life problems. Last thing I worked on was the Gal Span Classic HUD, which I managed
to get a fair ways started. However while new HUD code was released, it has poor documentation and a lot
of features we particularly need for FS… aren’t there. So I’ve been sort of wait n’ seeing on that.
Been gathering links to threads and trying to stay on top of topics related to FSO in the meantime.
So yes, not a lot has been done as of late. Let’s be honest though,
we’re less than a skeleton crew trying to do what 15 full time people
would have trouble with under normal conditions. The last couple of years
I think most can agree have been exceptional circumstances.
Hopefully as we can find jobs, time, or new blood, I’ll have some progress to report back with.
Also I’d like to remind folks to pray for the people in Japan, Haiti, and other places around the world that
have been devastated recently. For those in the USA, we know that New Orleans still remains a damaged
city. How much longer then will the destruction on other countries be felt, at such a larger scale?
Oops!
Alert!
I messed up due to lack of sleep and mis wrote 2 digits in a single file out of 200
something files…. and TSB2 prior to 3 AM EST USA Jan 14th will not host games or
connect properly. This also applies to the No Environment Fixes.
The versions that are up now in the same spot are fixed.
Please redownload them. You can install over the top if you
have already applied TSB 2, but not if you have any other version.
New Service Bay Released
A new version of the Tachyon Service Bay has been released
in preparation for the upcoming LanWar event in 2 days.
Two maps have been added, as well as a great many ship
tweaks and adjustments.
It can be found here: Downloads Section
New “No Environment” mods have been made as well that are
compatible with TSB 2.
I would recommend performing a clean install, as many core
files have changed.
LanWar & Other News
Few different things to cover today.
First, January 14th through the 16th I’ll be present
at the Louisville, KY LanWar 48 gaming event and tournaments.
LanWar Site Come see me at the Alpha Hall
Row 6 Seat 12 (JGZinv).
Along with trying a little world of mouth promotion of FringeSpace,
I’ll be hosting a Tachyon server there for as long as possible.
We should be able to use Novalogic’s lobby, so if anyone out on
the net wants to drop in and play we can explode together. Voice
servers will depend on what people at LanWar have the most of, and
I won’t know that till I get there. IRC and the usual will still be up.
For the folks that don’t have Tachyon:
The game itself is still available as a downloadable version,
from Steam, GameTap, and Novalogic itself among others.
$7 on sale at Steam Store
In addition to the 2 multiplayer modes (up to 32 players per map)
in has a full two sided campaign.
The FringeSpace Service Bay mod pack will be used to host
and play with different ships. It is recommended to have for
existing players. New downloadable copies of Tachyon seem to have
been patched by Novalogic, but I can’t confirm this.
With that said, since Novalogic moved the lobby in 2010, I’ve yet to
properly update the Service Bay and optional packs. I’ll be making
an effort to upload new versions prior to the LanWar event that are
also a little better balanced.
If there’s questions or further interest let me know.
Second – I didn’t properly introduce them before, but Shadow Z
and Angelus from Hard-Light have been helping out with models since
October. I thank them both greatly for their assistance.
I’ll have some pictures below, but be aware that some of these are in
the process of being remade, as we had a hard drive crash that
wiped some of the models out.
Furthermore, with their experience we’ve identified some problems
with earlier models (ie. fenris tower, etc) that have to be repaired.
Updates to just about all models in terms of normal maps and
optimization still need to be done, I just haven’t had the time.
Did get around 98% of Fenris Arena rebuilt, just waiting on the
remaining powerups, sound, and megagates, then she’ll be finished.
Due to responses to our YouTube video, Nutri is working on new theme
music to replace the “eerie” clip we had before.
Thirdly, we have had a separate forum up at Hard-Light since August.
HLP FringeSpace
We’re not taking anything from here or moving, it’s just a matter of
getting more exposure to the HLP/FS2 community. It’s easier to get help
when the people are already registered there, instead of asking them to
come here. If there’s something majorly important, I’ll copy it to both
sites.
Fourth – in case no one was aware, Tachyon has a Facebook page:
Facebook Link
It’s not something I have control over, I believe it’s SM plzdie’s page.
Lastly, here’s some of the things Shadow Z and Angelus been working on.
Crystal
Mega Powerup
Shield Powerup
NavBuoy
Quad Turret WIP
Different Turret WIP
Comm Static
Just wanted to mention to folks following the site that we’re not dead.
We’ve had some new helpers come on board with the project that are making headway
with our models. We’ve been using another forum more closely related with Freespace 2
to try and drum up awareness about the project.
There’s been some issues along the way as well, not catastrophic issues, more like “oh
sheesh… again?” kind of things. I’ll get into those at another time.
With the exception of our new staff, things have been very slow in general as well.
Suffice to say that I’m planning on doing a proper news update once we’ve got a couple
more models to show. We should have a few objects and several powerups for your viewing
pleasure once we get to that point soon.
I’d also like to remind the Tachyon players that since Novalogic has been moving and
upgrading their servers, we have been using Kali to host games. Unlike normal person
to person play this doesn’t need a ton of annoying ports to clear and firewall rules, it just works.
Look into our Tach forum section for more details.
Few things of note…
Figured it was about time folks had something
new in the way of news….
Besides the usual issues of work, time, and difficulties
therein, we have had some changes around the place.
While SparK and 5XL (megaman) have left for various reasons,
we’d like to welcome Mike and Slap to the team. Mike
will be helping with some coding and Slap is working with
the tables files.
Forum member Timmon and IK Ghost have been providing us
with some neat concept art. The Demon warship is rather awesome:
Demon Hydras
There’s been a development at HLP where the HUD system has
been overhauled and per ship unique HUDs are now possible.
It’s still somewhat a work in progress, but we should be able to finally
recreate the Tachyon HUDs and expand in the future. This is a
feature we’ve been wanting/needing since we started.
Not a great deal of developments due to the economy and
folks finishing up school, but we’re still here.
Notes from the Meeting
Yesterday we had a staff meeting for those available and I’d like to
share some of what what discussed so you guys can know what’s
will be transpiring in the future here with FringeSpace.
First off I know I’ve said it 3 times now, but RK’s back and is working
on the Warhammer, which is partially complete. We’ll have some pictures
up once she’s a bit more welded together.
It wasn’t per se brought to a vote, but the opinions were unanimous in
deciding that FringeSpace will be a “clean” game in the sense of text,
imagery, and verbal communications in the game. In other words we don’t
feel it’s necessary or appropriate to use vulgarity in our voice acting.
We should be able to play the game with our kids and in the company of
others. Now there still will be “slaggers,” “cowards” and an over-the-top fenris announcer guy, so we’re not really changing much, except increasing the size of audience the game can be enjoyed by.
In the ships department, we’ve actually got enough vessels made that we can tackle the alpha now. However, the last group of fighters prior to alpha will be the Bora. So they will be in alpha, but it will be a pausing point once they are finished in order to focus on other needs before we continue with the remaining ships/objects.
Since we’ve got the additional ships, we will be actively looking to acquire
a dedicated texture artist to help us get them fully completed. If you
have skills in the areas of UV mapping or texturing ships, please let us know.
In addition, we also have need of a dedicated FRED or map/mission creator.
If you’ve not worked with FRED but might be interested, that’s ok. The basics can be learned in about 10 minutes time. There’s plenty of documentation and people that can be asked for advice.
Of course if you’re a modeler, coder, or anything else, we can also use your talents as well.
Furthermore, we’re not real certain on a time frame due to the workload, life, et cetera, but there will most likely be a website redesign in the future, as well as branching out into more social networks. We’re aware there’s several areas of the current site (gallery for ex’) that are in need of updating now and we’ll try to get that more up to par than we have in the past.
To give an idea of what we’ve got to-do before alpha:
12 model related items
14 issues with tables
15 programming related items
4 things to take care of with audio
7 missions related issues
13 misc items that need work
So in short, we’ve come a long way, but there’s still work yet to be done.
Oh and if you break it… you bought it ^_^
…and a little picker upper from Nutri:
A bit o’ news
Hey folks, got some stuff for ya.
First off I’d like to announce we have a new staff member SparK.
If you’ve not already seen the sidebar, he’s lending us a hand
with his skills in coding. Tis’ much appreciated.
RK should be making a return in February as I mentioned below.
He’s already checked in a few times and is excited to be working
on things again.
House Paladin or “HP” is undertaking a period of restructuring.
They’d like to request any current or former members check in
at their forum. Link
About the last week that SparK’s been with us, we’ve been
working on getting various features fixed or put in the system.
Thanks to a joint effort between Bax, SparK, myself, Nutritious
and several of the FS2 SCP staff, we have a nice looking main
menu. Looks new and familiar all at the same time. Videos
available here:
YouTube: Video Link
Direct (HQ): Video Link
Not a huge amount of stuff going on, but a just taste of what is
yet to come. Thanks for stopping by. ^_^
Happy New Year!
Hey guys, 2009 has been turned to space debris leaving 2010
in it’s wake, ready for a fresh start. Feels good eh?
Not a great deal to update you on, but a little news:
RK will be returning to active status with the mod around the first
of February. We’re excited to welcome him back aboard.
He’s already done some work on a new Warhammer model and
will be finishing it up.
We’ll likely be headhunting as well after his return, so if you have
interest in modding, please give us a shout. A staff meeting
will likely be called in February, so if you’d like to drop in to
take a listen, watch the boards for updates around the end of
January.
We’ve secured permission to use some of the base and
structure models from the collection of SolCommand.
He’s got a picture blog here:
http://solcommand.blogspot.com/
We’ll probably be using these structures primarily for
testing (turrets, landings, loadouts, etc) and giving the
alpha testers some more things on their maps.
Saves us some time having them already largely built.
I’m in the last stage of doing a tutorial update to include
debris for the ships we make. Plus I’m doing most of the
editing on the SolCommand models above so we can get
them in-game.
Carl’s doing some touch up on existing fighters and on
the SP Cruiser.
I don’t expect a great deal of news out of us till about
Feb when we start gearing up again. As I’ve said in my
earlier updates, ’08 ~ ’09 was a pretty hard year on the
team for jobs and families. By God’s grace we pulled
through the trials and tribulations, so we’re looking forward
to getting back on track and pushing the alpha out as soon
as we can.
In the meantime, I’d like to mention that a new
Mechwarrior mod has been released, based off the
Crysis engine. Tachyon fiction usually had a close
relationship with the Mechwarrior universe, so you
might check it out. http://www.mechlivinglegends.net
Some gameplay can bee seen in these videos:
Videos Link 1
Videos Link 2
Thanks for stopping in and we’ll have some
more news for you in a bit.
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