OK, time for my weekly (monthly) long post covering a lot of stuff...
I advise that you grab a soda and a bag of chips to maintain your strength while reading...
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any kind of misfortune or accident caused by anything I say..
No, I will not replace keyboards if you spill Soda or Snacks on it.
No I will not replace sleepy mouses (or Mice- plural)
And finally, I am not accountable for putting you into a coma or unresponsive state, including sleeping.
Let's begin...
The STUGs:
Actually the first designation of the StuG was "Assault Gun". Tank Hunter was never a satisfactory designation due to the lack of Traversing Turret. So the term Hunter could not apply in the true sense of the word. It was better as a 'Lay In Wait' weapon. Bit once a position was exposed, they became a liability and sitting duck. They were easily outflanked if not supported by at least PzIV Late Models. But there is no doubt that it was a very effective weapon.
gagarin:
Send me a better illustration of the modifications you mentioned. I'm very close to releasing the updates so perhaps these modifications while enhancing the Series won't take much more time.
It is interesting you have mentioned the Vickers 6 Ton and the Russian T26 copy. These tanks were found in huge numbers in several countries at the breakout of WW2.
The entire set of the Vickers Projects includes:
<!-- Vickers Tank Series II -->
<!-- Allies -->
<item>
<name>Polish_C7P_ARV</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Auto\Polish_C7P_ARV</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Polish_C7P_GunTractor</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Auto\Polish_C7P_GunTractor</path>
</item
<item>
<name>Chinese_MkE_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Chinese_MkE_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Chinese_T26_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Chinese_T26_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Polish_7TP_A</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Polish_7TP_A</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Polish_7TP_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Polish_7TP_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Polish_MkE_A</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Polish_MkE_A</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Polish_MkE_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\Polish_MkE_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>UK_MkE_A</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\UK_MkE_A</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>UK_MkE_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\allies\Tanks\UK_MkE_B</path>
</item>
<!-- Germans (FINLAND) -->
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_T</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Auto\Finnish_T26_T</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_MkE_A</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_MkE_A</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_MkE_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_MkE_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_T26_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_B2</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_T26_B2</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_C</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_T26_C</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_Cm</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_T26_Cm</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>Finnish_T26_E</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\Germans\Tanks\Finnish_T26_E</path>
</item>
<!-- USSR -->
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_T</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Auto\USSR_T26_T</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_TB</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Auto\USSR_T26_TB</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_A</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_A</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_B</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_B</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_Bm</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_Bm</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_C</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_C</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_S</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_S</path>
</item>
<item>
<name>USSR_T26_Sm</name>
<type>mesh</type>
<game_type>unit</game_type>
<path>units\Technics\USSR\Tanks\USSR_T26_Sm</path>
</item>
The Vickers Series was completed in April 2015, but no one seems interested in these invaluable old tanks. I put out the message last February and March that I would build any variant or suggested version, and no one even inquired. So this Series was shelved and never released. If interest now there, I will release the Series. And still build some extra versions by request.
You did find that most of the world's armies had these tanks in their liveries. They were the match for German PzI, Pz II and early PzIII. Not Vickers best tank ever, but the suspension system was revolutionary and opened the door for new designs favored by Germany, Italy, Japan and Hungary. Yes even the US and UK Designs were influenced. So this tank was part of the evolutionary family of modern battle tanks.
World Conflict and Animated Liquids:I really wish to apologize for the time needed for me to get things done. But several things had to be done to ensure that my model production continued to not suffer any more setbacks and the quality was preserved.
So I had no choice but to uninstall and re-load MAYA to make sure I was finally rid of that terrible .mel file Animated Liquid. I should have performed this task in the beginning. I made it clear to the gentlemen who wrote this application that it very nearly wiped me out and I was not happy about any of the series of setbacks I suffered. Needless to say, he is a marked man in MAYA circles.
So the animation problem has been finally resolved and everything is back to normal. Changing my animations and not using a section of the animation frames just pisses me off. There is simply no excuse to write a code module which comprises other parts of the software.
But because this issue was not limited to only MAYA, but also my own Exporters and XML software, I had to wipe and reinstall (recode) chucks of this software. My own software was smart enough to adapt to new definitions, but this was case that when I thought that was going to be a good thing, actually became a Nightmare. The software no longer adapts to anything unless I tell it to. Damn, lessoned learned the hard way.
So currently, I am reversing or actually restoring animation sequences on a volume of work dated after October 12th. The StuGs while not exhibiting this issue on Models A-F1, were actually infected afterall. But as random selection goes, out of 9 death sequences, only two were within the frames that were affected, and these animation sequences just are not called as often. I'm of the opinion that for those of you with those models, you have just missed this issue. We sometime take for granted that the models do their thing so we don't pay attention to what we think is going on.
That is not meant as a reflection of any of you guys, you just simply put too much trust in me and assume everything is working properly. Without your help, these kinds of issues might go undetected. All three of the BETA Testers missed it the first time around, and these guys have a trained eye (Supposedly) to look for stuff like this. Ok, sorry for my bluntness but I have a lot riding on delivering good work and I don't have time to screw around.
If I become ill again, then it is likely I'm done and the factory closes forever. So like I said, I do not have time to screw around. But for the moment, I feel ok and perhaps better than I have felt in two or three years... so I am taking advantage of it on all fronts. My job must come first of course because that is what allows me to enjoy my hobby of building models, and my professional work as a graphic artist must come second, because that is money coming in and every bit of my production must meet deadlines. Then comes family and blitzkrieg and anything else.... like eating pizza. There is nothing better than eating Pizza with the grandkids.
My Talents Exploited for Money... i.e. Pay Check
I did reveal recently I am currently under contract with a very large software/game house to resurrect a game from our not-so-distance past, (late 90s) a game older than Blitzkrieg that we have brought into the 21 Century... with new lighter code and open architecture. OA-Where have we seen that before? Hmmmmm.
Erratum...We're adding thousands of new players every month at STEAM. So it has been exciting and amazing. We just recently released a new DLC package as part of the modernization process.... but as things go in the gaming world, our BETA Team and process was not as effective as we had thought. We are having issues with some drivers and Graphic Heavyweights like NVidia, who is working on a set of new drivers for widescreen monitors. The patch is coming to correct this but we essentially had no choice but to treat everyone the same and pull back the operational code to preserve the player settings and prevent any more bad press over this issue. Multiplayer has been shut down for almost a month.
I was not part of the BETA Team selection or criteria process, nor did I want to be within that department. But because of where I sit in the pecking order, my voice will simply drown out most of the programmers and artists. We should have known better than to do what we did. I am old enough to be most of these very young artist's grandfather, and that automatically gives me credibility. So when I tell these young'ens we must not try to rush success.... they now finally understand what I meant.
The Word TEAM does not have the letter I in it... I did this, I did that and I did that other thing over there. <--- I hear this way too much. It's ok to talk about your projects but I hear guys making this statement when I should be WE, the team. Each of us were just a part of the overall project... Many minds and hands crossed the project during the build. So we did this... I did take a nap through part of it though.
Because I am part of the situation (Team player), I cannot excuse my own actions or lack of actions that lead this issue. There is a time when you must insist on certain things and just clamp down, and I failed to do that, since I was busy completing Omega artwork. The models had been long approved so we were down to the final artwork and some refinements if something needed an adjustment.
Revolutionary!!!
Let me talk a bit about what we did in the Motion Lab that might get the attention from any of you that work on infantry units.
Part of my first work lately was focused on building models and animation subsets for specific purposes. We had to create from scratch new people models that were be finalized with their attire, i.e. uniforms.
(I cannot say too much here because this area alone might actually expose the project... it is quite time specific.).
The end result was never in doubt that we would be creating Sprites with the associate Sprite Sheets for use in the game. But the way we did this was much different than ever had been done before. I along with a couple of other artists actually designed the Humans in 3D Rendering, then assigned the animations for walking, running, idle or standing, weapon use, dying, and decaying. After that programming was concluded, we could simply overlay the wardrobe to any of these models to create truly animated people. We used a time lapse camera to take all of the image files in about 3 ms for a complete human file, from eight perspectives. That is faster that an eye blink and over 500-800 image files were created for that human file, and end of that one model's production. Only the skin painting and defusing followed. The level of sharpness is unequalled. It is scalable during zooming or changes in Resolutions. But Like BK1, the game does not use Zoom or Tilt or Camera Rotation. The 3rd Generation of this game did add these things, but that release was perhaps the lessor preferred of the 5 Generations of the game. Generation II has always been the most played and sold world wide. And players are coming back to it in droves.
Our Past Lives...
So here is yet another game on much the same Historical track as Blitzkrieg. But in that case, it was the 2nd Title that gained the huge audiences. I worked on Generation I and II, and the differences in the game engine alone were an instant hit. We had not moved the ball very much in the sprite or other graphic areas because PCs had not moved very far from where we were. So here we are in a new Century, Millennia and even a year older.... and today's machines handle this game perfectly, without a bunch of translation or patches. So before we were even aware of what was going on, STEAM added it to their stable and we watched it take off. So new life for this baby.
The growth was so amazing the Game Developer approached many of us to reform a Motion Studio House which a Gentlemen in the UK has done. We call him the Bag Man since he has all of the money and the deepest pockets. I hope our early release disaster does not cause too much discomfort for him and he closes the shop. I was promoted to the Chief Editor because I am the old fart... and have a well established history of not hard charging without all of the facts. And boy did we miss the mark on this. And because of the way our contracts are based, we are now working on our time to resolve the issue. The BETA TEAM has been discharged without Compensation since they did not do their job... and a new BETA Team is in place for Testing beginning next weekend.
Acta Non VerbaOk, some of you have your thinking caps on right now and asking..... could this process work on Blitzkrieg? Yes it can and that is exactly why I will not sell the patent unless I retain the right of use in any manner I deem necessary. Most companies will not agree to that. They are at the opposite end of the spectrum wanting you to sign a No Compete Clause and I won't do that. So this one issue is a deal breaker 99% of the time.
But because this process saves time in the motion studios, someone will arrive at my position and soon. Think about it... would you rather spend your time hand drawing the Sprites or using this method by just adding period wardrobe? For this we can add Still Images of actual objects if we have at least 2 sides or profiles. I can add images of a real uniform and rifle for example as overlays into the editor.
I no longer require the human model since I have all of the bone and joint parameters. All I have to do is add the clothing, various components like weapons and belts, helmet and other objects and run the program. It builds everything I need and turns it into the sprites. All I have to work out now is how to batch name the files; 000.tga, 001.tga, 002.tga, 003.tga... etc... But I already created a standard CVS form so each sprite can be assigned its name without me having to type it in. It simply uses drag and drop.... thanks Microsoft.
So I'd say that this is a distinct possibility... that Blitzkrieg will see the new animation process in the future. It is a time management issue for me. Do not ask for the Editor or the software... you must understand that it is under License to a very BIG company and I do not wish to fight that fight if I should violate the terms.
Vita MeaI just wish I had developed the process when I was working on TW: ROME II... which also had some of its own BETA TEST Failures upon release. And yes the Specific Language that prevented my ability to use it as part of my personal history has now expired on Jan 1st.
Another is the American Civil War (ACW) by AGEOD and Slitherine. And Yes I did work on GTA IV which was what attracted my son into the Graphics area.
So in recent years I have worked for many of the biggest houses as an Independant Artist. Only the current House am I joined at the hip and one of the main players. The opportunity seemed right for me and I jumped at it.... but it was my own work previously on the same projects that opened the door. So one of those "
in the right place at the right time" situations.
So now I must tell you that as hard as i tired to keep my true identity a secret, well I failed. It is known to at least 4 people now who all receive my highest level of respect for their excellent detective work. I trust that you honor my desires. However, they easily confirmed that I am what I state I am.
They also may have read a lot about me since I have been involved in some pretty big battles in the Fire Service over they years. I don't talk about those much here, but each one of those battles had to be fought.
They also may have learned that I have never lost any of my battles or fights. I did lose an election once for a County Office, but a good friend of mine did win so we did ultimately win the day... with the removal of the old guard guy that was selectively attacking and punishing fire departments and Chief Officers. So that Mission was worth every ounce of blood it cost to win.
I have now retired from the Public Spotlight and have several proteges doing the important work. I remain behind the scenes providing the direction and guidance... as these people grow their own legs. I have always been a self described rebel. I choose my battles carefully and calculate the fall-out before I step into the ring. I have missed the mark several times but always to my side of the situation... I never gave up more ground that I set out to lose.
So if all of this seems stressful... it is... very stressful. I have given up sleep, meals and family time to earn my spot where I am in the big picture. But it takes a guy with a big heart and lots of dedication to go out and fight these battles... fight against the establishment and elected officials that always seem to want to gut what we as firefighters have fought hard to create. Because this work is so vital to our existence, someone has to do it, and there are only a handful of us nationwide. I have tried to expand the ranks for the future as many of my peers are also working diligently toward that goal.
You know you are effective when you walk into a room and all of the elected officials lower their head into the palm of their hand. They will never look at you in the eye, and they will never fight fair or by any set of gentlemen rules. So these battles are for keeps with the end game replacing these liars and monsters who are not pro-safety or pro-disaster prevention. I have withstood 9 attempts to disqualify my credentials in the last 12 years... and that tactic always fails. Even if that was successful, it would not be enough to shut me down, and would only increase the amount of fire in my belly that drives me.
I dedicated my life to this work in 1983 after I survived the house collapse that burned me seriously enough that I spent 14 months in a burn center. Upon my release I discovered that I had been fired the week after the event, and all of the men on that scene were also fired for disobeying orders or other infractions in the weeks and months that followed. My fight to win back my dignity and reputation and make the AHJ pay for my injuries did not last long... and the Fire Chief was exposed in the coverup in the report that did not discuss any injuries or the potential death of a firefighter.
My case is now required reading at the National Fire Academy for White-Hat Training... Chief Officers. It serves as a warning to not let your command down, ever... and always do everything possible to get your trapped men out of harm's way. There were no advocates during that time we could call upon to help us fight the battle to bring all of these men back that were unjustly fired. But as part of the award given to me by the court, was the court ordered rehiring with back pay for each of them.
There is just something that turns my stomach when I hear about this kind of crap. Just because a guy is now a Chief, does not give him the right to play God and cause his people to suffer. These guys are outed and removed from their positions by those of us that are now the
Advocacy. Some are charged with Criminal Acts if we can prove it. Others are simply encouraged to leave before we expose them publicly. Most do not wish to fight us in the public spotlight.... but this is only a small part of what we do... these are some of the people who are among our ranks, that are fakes.
Our biggest battles are against people who try to dismantle the first line of offensive action in our nation, the fire service. We don't only respond to fires, but every disaster and emergency. This grew new legs after 343 of our Brothers gave full measure on 2003 at Ground Zero. We are dedicated to not repeat that. So we are fighting two fights... the emergencies and the people behind gutting what we are, our so called leaders and friends.
So enough about my professional life and the crap I have gotten into. The main thing that each of you must understand is I am just a regular guy that wants to enjoy my life and family.
Motion Labs = Motion Pictures
All of the 3D work was done using Blender 3D Software and Python Code, which are both Free Ware and highly respected within the modeling world, hint, hint... As far as we know, no other Motion Lab has done this work in this manner; using 3D Models to create 2D Sprites or Artwork. Sprites in the past have been hand drawn, and we know it is very difficult to sometime show contrast and/or shadowing at a very small scale. This new process changes all of this. Because our Light source, the simulated Sunlight, was always from the Southwest, the lighting is consistent no matter what the angle of the camera or model you are viewing. OK, if you wish to satisfy your curiosity, we use the mid summer sunlight for our light source.... (FOR THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE) mostly because historically, this is when the most wars were fought, or the most active parts were fought. This is peak fighting season, north of the equator. South of the equator, everything is opposite, so winter is in June, July and August. The whole mindset is much different.... am I right... you guys in Brazil?
Another unique aspect of using Python Code for definitions and animations on 3D models, is Python does not care what software created the 3D model, as long as we have created the bone and joint definitions within the model. But even if we didn't, Python is capable of defining these points, joints. Think about our body and how it works. We bend or flex at joints, not along a solid bone.
From the head down, we need the neck, shoulders as a definition of both shoulders together, then shoulders again left and right each alone, elbows, and wrist and fingers for really refined work.
At these scales, the wrist and fingers are not typically defined and are part of the lower arm part. Before I continue with the joints below the navel, I must state that even on sprites, we may need the wrist joint if weapon use depends on this. So this has to be planned out and pretty involved.
Ok, adding the southern parts, the hip and waist are not the same components, but two distinct areas. The most obvious difference is you can twist your body in the waist region, while the hips are rigid and part of the largest bone groups on a human. So by adding the waist group, we have a way to twist the body which also has an effect on the clothing which will turn and morph along with the position of the twisting differential. You can think about this much like a turret that rotates, but in the waist, the top and bottom of the regions do not change... except for the alignment. Everything between the connecting regions can be morphed.
Still we add the each independant hip L & R , knees and ankles...
Once we have our Bones defined, we can begin to create our animations which can really be very lifelike. Now I can discuss a higher level of 3D Model Building that has become very successful.
We create the human form with the skeleton, i.e. the bones. Then we use a real human with wireless transmitters placed along joints and hard bones which translate the movement to the computer software to create the animations files.
The Animation Specialist sitting at the Computer choreographs the animations needed. He is looking at both the real human to the left of his monitor, and the 3D Human Model on the right, with his weapon and attire, to make sure all of the movement is correct and possible. I was the Animation Specialist mainly because the code writers and artists had a very limited budget to hire people within. So if this project finally goes well, a bonus may be deserved in the future... I did receive annual reward bonuses on the 2nd Generation of this game for three years after its release. That was always welcomed when you have young children.
Also because the budget was limited, we had to trim extras wherever we could. So instead of creating a full set of animations, we divided the graphic project into left hand right hand. Thus we created the right hand animations from the left hand animations, a so called mirror effect. So this reduced the equipment time. We needed to only build the front (South) and back (North) facing, then Northeast, East and Southeast. So out of 8 profiles, we only had to build 5.
This concept was incorporated into the original game so it remains within the same code performance. The East West Designations are based up on the model at full facing to the South. So East is on the Left, and animations are Left Handed. For people that are into Right-Handed Correctness... sorry , this is as good as it gets on these models.
Since I was the guy tracking expenses, I calculated it actually cost about $500 US to create the walking animation, $1000 or thereabouts to create the fighting animation, and around $200 to create the Idle animation. The costs are based on the amount of time devoted to each of those defined segments. For example, we ran two complete sets of walking and had to select specific frames from the batch. We took around 100 image shots with a high speed camera, all computer controlled. The animation sequence for each of the eight directions had to be limited to 8 to 10 frames each. So you must build the actual animated files from the 100 images and maintain timing, consistency and motion. Since we did not want the Human Model Person on the clock, or have the equipment "in use" which drives the cost up... three of us sat down and selected the frames from the two shoots. And this was only for one of the male Models in the game. We still had another Male pattern and a female Pattern. The males were based on body mass or their build, heavy muscular for example. The other was more lean and muscular... but some of the body features can be subjected to slight changes within the software by just scaling various parts, shoulders, upper arms and thighs most commonly. It took three days to finally edit together the walking animation. What was amazing to me is it became impossible to distinguish between the two different walking shoots -frames. The Male Model did not change a thing about his stride. Once the walking animation was finished, we reworked the speed and built the running animation completely from the walking animation. So that save perhaps $2000 or more just in studio Time and Equipment Rental. Typical Jogging motion was already there since it is normal for Humans to raise and lower their shoulders when walking. It was incredible what we discovered we could do.
I will tell you that we did not have to build any human models, it was our choice and a so-called requirement to do this. Human models in various 3D physical body designs already exist all over the world. But because this game and especially the company has no appetite to share a copyright with a 3rd Person, or a freeware-public domain Object, we had to build everything from the ground up. Modeling 3D Human objects within a game was not a new concept to me, I had already done a lot of that work for SID at Firaxis games on Civilization IV and Colonization IV. Yes that contractual 'involvement exclusionary clause' has ended on Jan 1st, 2016, which was date specific and not time specific. Sid prefers dates over timelines.
This work for Sid was at a time when Motion Labs were just becoming the new arena of game development. Sid really helped usher in that age. So when you hear the words... 'Motion Lab', you will now recall that the movie Avatar was completely created within an Motion Lab in the UK. The new Star Wars Movies are created in the Disney Animation Studios
at Disney 'Magic Kingdom' California (and with Pixar Animation Studios-Disney Florida) . We are at a place in time where we can create any kind of effect with a CGI and computer rendering, and it is an exciting time to be alive and see this.
SEASONS are among us Sire...
Because our war theaters were not limited to only North of the Equator, or during the summer, we had to talk this out a bit. In the end, the process would lead to a massive amount of confusion to the players if models themselves were seasonalize by a set of very well established sun positions, or actually the earth rotation and tilt on the axis. So we had no choice but to remain consistent on the lighting even though a pretty good scientist can look at the mid winter setting for the theater and say that could never happen that way. He is not talking about the battle dynamics but the position of the sun during the winter. But we do the very same thing in Blitzkrieg and I have yet to hear anyone say the sun is in the wrong place for the time of year. lol...
But imagine what the map might look like with different seasonal models in the same map. We might have the sun position in 5 different perspectives, which would look bizarre. Then a pretty good scientist could say it is at best 20% correct. And I wonder why I still have any hair left.
An Offer...
The first guy that sends me a PM with the correct name of this game, I will reward in some manner, but I cannot reveal this or the level of my involvement for two years under the contract terms. Because I don't want to flood and crash the PM Section of the PhP Board with an onslaught of messages, and yes we have crashed it before, the answers must be in by Monday at 00:00 Z, Greenwich , or UTC (Universal) whichever you recognize as your own, even though they are all the same time. Military guys will be sending me Z time, and no that does not mean Zurich; it is Zulu. Example: My time is Z-6 hours, or UTC-6 hours. This means it is 6 hours before midnight if Z or UTC is midnight now. Time is short. Some of you may actually be plugged into this old game already... but this edition can only be found at STEAM at the moment. You cannot find this original game on any store shelf, but it is available at GOG.com and Amazon.com and of course VALVE Corporation's
STEAM. That was cheap advertisement for one of my bosses.
But Please... let's keep the name of this game unspoken among us... I don't wish to lose my status over there. Zip thy lips and spekoth not of it name.
Counter Confluency Yes I am now a two-hater at STEAM, meaning two profiles in the same domain as part of my contract with the Game House. I cannot reveal either of my ID or profiles, but if you study use of language, you will figure it out... just don't call me out because that would be a serious infraction of the rules and mean an instant ban. I'm hardly high enough in the food chain to change anything about outcomes... I monitor and approve player created add-ons for the Workshop along with DLC I can tell you that the new generation Open Architecture Mod and Model work is growing exponentially daily. Sadly, we also have a very silent majority of members, just like here. It is not part of my job to be the Moderator or ADMIN, I refer stuff to someone else and they can get their hands dirty for a change.
Major Pain - he lives... kind of sorta. STEAM BLITZKRIEGI also still have my original MAJOR PAIN profile at STEAM, but I have taken a backseat to another expert on the game that has been playing for less than a year but has it all figured out.
It is funny that he does not cite his source as this forum and what the members have said before. If you know how to use our Search Bar, you can find what you are looking for pretty quick.... so I will give him credit for having that part figured out.
He does not recommend any of my tutorials or documents, which I can understand the thought process there. We all have a bit of a jealous bone, don't we? And yes he is a member here and likely will read what I have said about him. Cool Beans my Friend, carry on... you are doing fine, except that credit thing.
He does not suggest the use of my models... so he seems to be a strict vanilla guy. That is ok, to each his own. He is the obstacle that blocks my work from going to the workshop or DLC. I could easily change that but why bother... it is insignificant since most of the members there eventually end up here.
I just wish he was not so negative about me... I started the STEAM BK Community afterall... but since this forum and the STEAM Community have the same mission, they should not be competitive or combative toward each other... it is just about sharing the latest new stuff about BK1. Past that, nothing else matters in our world... right? Besides, the lines are blurred when I see the same members names in both camps.
The days of our youth...OK, going back to the other great old game:
As mentioned, STEAM is the only place the new software and game code can be found, with a general universal release planned sometime during 2017 with another NEW MOD/ADD-ON project and/or DLC. I will not be part of that one because my priority this time was model design work which we nailed down to an exact science now. That process is copyrighted by me, under my real name, but licensed to 'xyx Inc'... under exclusive use. That means I will not let anyone else use the same concept. I should get my patent approved by May or June 2016, this already passed the historical base search so I am clear to proceed. There is already interest by companies wishing to buy the patent for their own use, but I have rejected that notion for the moment. I will say that
scalable Sprites are just rare, and always have been hand drawn in years past. The new technique truly adds the natural lighting, shading and shadowing... which allow pixel resolution to be as natural as a photograph for zooming or scaling. And for those of you who truly read what I say and absorb what I am working on... it was about 18 months ago I discussed this exact concept on these pages. The Advantage of using Sprites over a 3D models is the amount of code required and how much more memory is utilized to render 3D objects. So I can render or show 100 sprites in place of one 3D model... it is just basic math and a science concept. Plus, even later releases of Co of Heros and Warcraft still use 2D Sprites.... (and some of my art).
I was very proud to be called back after all of these years to return and work on this project. My original boss along with his Game House has been long gone and he passed away just a few years ago. The team that has been assembled has only 3 veterans who were part of the original team of old. The new members did not need much help catching up to the concept because this old game was
one of the very first RTS game simulations ever. I hope that did not tip you off because it might cost me a my job there... as Project Editor, a very high honor for me.
Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, , Mea Máxima Culpa
Sorry my friends, I am splitting time between a lot of stuff right now. But as this project has neared completion and as we solve some of the issues from new CODE and DLC, my attention will be on Blitzkrieg again. This project dropped out of the sky 7 months ago and I simply could not turn it down.
Now if I can attract Sergei back to BK1 for a true sequel, we'll have a huge hit. I fear BKIII is not going to perform for NIVAL where it needs to be.
This is where I exit today's statement by simply saying...
What is Old is New Again...