Comments - Azrapse

Yes!
We don't monitor this page too much.
For newest updates, status, and streaming session, join our discord server. Discord.gg

> and people moved on 3 years ago.
And that is totally fine.

We are doing this project mostly for ourselves and fans of the original game.
The game was released 28 years ago, so it's not like a a couple of years up or down is going to do much difference. :)

TIE Fighter Total Conversion is a very different project, that uses the original, ready-made, XWA engine, and readily available community-made ships, along with custom-made missions to deliver a reimagination of the TIE Fighter campaign.

We are doing a very different thing here:
- We are creating the engine from the ground up with Unity.
- We are aiming at having exactly the same missions and AI logic, and mechanics as the original, so we are putting years upon years of research and reverse-engineering on getting everything faithful to the original, even replicating timing bugs and math glitches to have ships hyper in at the exact times, at the exact speeds, and all that stuff.
- We are creating all assets ourselves, not reusing 20-year old community-made models created for an aging game engine. That allows us to reach much higher fidelity, but it also takes much more talent and time.
- We are much smaller team, working on our free time. Some of us have had much reduced free time when having to take second jobs during these corona years, for example.
- We are adding many more features that weren't present in the original, or recovering features that were removed in later editions, like flight group pilot assignment (that disappeared after X-wing 94), or hardpoint configuration, that never was part of the X-wing series.

It this vaporware?
Until it is released, sure! :D
But it is real, it is working, and you can see it on the weekly streams or if you were one of the testers and got the build.

The only reason we are not having an Open Alpha is fear to legal consequences due to Disney/LFL latest movements against certain fan-made Star Wars projects.
We have put a lot of time and effort on this project and we are not willing it to go to hell because we release a preview version of it and it gets us a C&D letter from Disney.
So, instead, we will release it when it's complete and there is nothing they can do to stop it from spreading in the internet.
"Fait accompli" is our strategy here, and the only reason you still don't have a download link.

I am not sure what game you are trying to play here with this passive-aggressive attitude... but it's not going to work. :)

Whoever wants to see daily progress on the game, contribute feedback and assets to the project, watch the live streams we have every week with the latest build, and even take part on the alpha testing process (when we need more testers), can just join the discord server and do it.

Nobody is paying us to work on this, so we are in no hurry to release anything to the public.

We have had many updates, but we have been posting them to our Facebook group and in Discord.
For example, the X-wing got a new HD cockpit, the Death Star surface missions are implemented, the AI got totally revamped to be more like the original in order to keep mission balance, ...

Unfortunately no-ETA. We want to complete support for X-Wing (1993, 1994, 1998) before even thinking about releasing anything, so that in the case we are shutdown by Disney on release, at least the released build is complete, playable, even if you need to download it from somewhere else.

We have a Discord server and a Facebook group.
Discord.gg
Facebook.com

That was non-signed-in me.

Aw. I know it sucks to be waiting for so long for this. We would have released "something" already last year if no for the huge Aperion debacle that threatens the existence of all Star Wars mods out there. :(

Heh! Starcitizen started 4 years before we did, and got $4.2 millions in funding more than us.
Also, they don't need to fear releasing a demo then Disney shutting them down before they get to finish the whole thing.
You can see the videos of the game being already pretty functional. Why you think we haven't released anything yet?

I have the impression that the Guest is mistaking X-wing with the more arcadey Rogue Squadron, where laser shots had a higher firerate.

There is a slider in the audio settings to control the volume of your own engine.

What do you understand by vector based acceleration?

Docs.google.com

Yes.

Gameplay-wise, we have support for all missions in the game, except for the Death Star missions, that will require extra tech. Also, all player made missions should be fully supported.

There are still some bugs with AI, since it's a very complex system and we are still ironing out the very fine details that the original devs put on this.
We are a bit more behind in graphical terms. We are still creating models for the ships and buildings so that we can release with 100% fully original models. But also, we need 3D models created for concourse rooms that so far are very temporary.
Finally, there is still much to do with regards to the pilot file, because we want to make it future proof and allow for custom campaigns and custom ships.
Also, modding will be an important feature, and we need to put several things in place to support it properly.

We will most likely create it in the same way original X-wing did: procedurally. The game will spawn buildings and towers wherever the player flies.

Regarding the contents of the trench, you could control the amount of obstacles you found in the trench by altering the visual quality, in the original game. Perhaps we add a slider somewhere to replicate this feature/cheat.

On the mission itself, we are remaking X-wing, not A New Hope. The missions will be identical in content and goals as in X-wing, because XWVM will use the mission files as they are in the X-wing installation foler.
Perhaps with more visual flair, but not the huge departure from it as seen in the XWAUP video you linked (no ships going well into the 200 MGLT speed, Y-wings, deflector towers, Millennium Falcon, hyperspace, etc).

If someone wants to make a modded version of it at a later point, they can.

Docs.google.com

Not finished.
It's been in progress since early 2015. We work on it on our spare time.
Only people able to play it are those in the dev or test teams. (We are not currently recruiting any more testers)
I hate when devs say "It'll be done when it's done" but we can't really make any more precise estimation.

Thanks. Please read my answers above and below this comment.

Thanks for your interest. We accept no monetary contributions of any kind.
However, we can often use talent and skills for creating assets and writing the code.
If you have any of these skills and time to help us create the game, please contact me in private.

Thanks. We don't accept monetary donations of any kind, though.

Actually, I am not sure if I understood your question. I was talking about the CMD. But perhaps you were talking about the Aiming Mode, that was only present in the original X-wing game.
Or perhaps you were talking about the HUD, that is the reticule in the mid of the screen you aim with.

If you are talking about the HUD, we currently have a mixed mode. You can see the blue lines that indicate the directions from where the lasers come from (as in X-wing) even on imperial craft. If you hide the cockpit 3D geometry, you get something closer to TIE Fighter's and later HUD, with the laser, turret, warhead, and tractor threat indicators on top of the HUD.
Ultimately, we could, in the future, allow the player to select their preference with this too.

There are people that will want the original X-wing CMD, while other people will want the CMD that was used from TIE Fighter and on. By the time XvT and XWA were released, both rebel and imperial craft used the same TIE Fighter-like CMD.
We cannot satisfy everyone if we force one style of CMD on each particular craft, so instead, it's totally a player preference. You choose the CMD style in the Flight Settings panel.
So people that want to have a classic CMD when flying rebel ships can do so, while peopel that prefer the XvT/XWA CMD can also have it.
There is even a hybrid mode that is a mix of both.

You can use the Aiming Mode in the CMD to get a target lead indicator of sorts.
In Aiming Mode, your target appears as a little ship on the monitor. If you place that ship at the center of the monitor, that is the equivalent of you being aiming at the target lead. So whenever you fire your lasers while your target is centered in the CMD, you will hit.
You can see this in action in the "Rescue the Sullustan Leader" video.
This is a QoL change we made into XWVM that wasn't like that in the original, to introduce a target lead indicator that fits better in-universe and is less intrusive for VR.

We work on this on our spare time without any funds. It is obviously going to take longer than a team of 50 devs with 100 millions budget.

Thanks but we accept no kind of monetary contributions to avoid legal problems.

Already done.

Is it marked as a Warband mod anywhere?

The game devs didn't have capability for higher res stuff without altering their exe.

We aren't altering the exe either, we are building a new exe that uses the original game resources where they are fitting.
We can display the flat-shaded (93 edition), gouraud-shaded (94 and 98 edition) and textured ship models (98 edition), for example. But we are also building new modern models with lots of detail if you want to have a modernized look. The cockpits are also rebuilt in 3D to allow for TrackIR and VR.

Cutscenes, texts, sound effects... are all read from the original resources.
Music will be also, but we have also synthesized the scores with professional instrument tables to get a better sounding soundtrack.

We have some contacts with the FotG team and might share some models where they are appropriate.

However we aren't interested on making a total conversion but a engine-rebuild "mod". We want the player to have to own the original game, we want to use the music, mission files, text strings, and even models from the original game without having to including them in our download, to avoid "legal" problems or not respecting the mission balance (that is precisely adjusted in some missions).
Missions and campaigns created for X-wing 25 years ago should be 100% compatible with XWVM without having to perform any conversion.

Also, interactive 3D cockpits are a goal of this project (especially for the TrackIR and VR modes) and unless I am wrong here, I don't think the FS engine allows for that?

Hi. This is Azrapse, from the XWVM mod. You offered to help us some weeks ago. Are you still interested on doing so?
Do you have any samples of your works with modelling and texturing?