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malthaussen

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Posts posted by malthaussen

    Xenonauts 2 - Feedback & Priorities

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted

    @Chris:  "That sounds quite confusing to me."

    Me, too. For one thing, I don't understand why my monitor tells me the optimal resolution is 1920X1080, but every time I boot up it tells me so. That is far from a 4:3 ratio.

    Further experimentation is showing me that the game will only run at the same resolution at which the monitor is set. At lower resolutions, the "next turn" and overwatch buttons do not appear. Unfortunately, the highest resolution with the correct 4:3 ratio is 1280X960, which does not display these buttons ("next turn" can be made visible by using Esc). At other resolutions, all the information is displayed, but horizontal compression occurs. This is not so much a problem in the Xeno 2 demo as there are no soldier mug shots to be distorted (as yet); the compression of the soldiers, aliens, and terrain is not so noticeable. 

      -- Mal

    Xenonauts 2 - Feedback & Priorities

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    @ Chris  "What's the native resolution of your monitor?"

    It says 1920 X 1080, but when I run Xeno 1 at that resolution, it definitely distorts the gfx. The physical display area is 24" X 18" or so, which is a 4/3 ratio, and 1280X960 is the highest resolution at which I can run Xeno 1 without horizontal distortion. There is some kind of approximation going on, though, because the display is identical at 1280X800 to 1280X960, but if I try to use 1440X900, which has the same ratio as 1280X800, horizontal compression manifests.

    But Xeno 2 appears to only run for me at 1024X768 whatever I choose in the setup.  This is true even when I change the monitor's resolution via the Windows control panel. Which is, frankly, puzzling as hell, but presumably a hardware problem and not a software problem.

      -- Mal

    Xenonauts 2 - Feedback & Priorities

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    @Gis-jan: I appreciate the thought, but I've tried several different resolutions just now, and they all default back to 1024X768. And yes, my monitor is capable of 1920 X 1080. I also tried the windowed 800 X 600 mode, but that just shrinks the display field, all the elements remain the same size.

    Weirdly enough, I play Xeno 1 at 1280 X 800 just fine (well, the battlefield is a bit small); other resolutions distort the screen. I have a 3/4 aspect ratio.

    The red button is hidden at this display level. By using esc,. I can reveal the "end turn" button, but not the Overwatch button during turn execution.

      -- Mal

    Xenonauts 2 - Feedback & Priorities

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    @Chris: "Should be a red button in the bottom right of the screen, no? What screen resolution are you playing on?"

    1024 X 768. My eyes are not happy at finer ones.

    @Larry Burstyn: I have Xeno 1 and 2 both installed, and neither interferes with the other. I do have them installed on different partitions, though.

     

      -- Mal

    Xenonauts 2 - Feedback & Priorities

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted

    I have a fairly bush-league machine (only dual core, and a NVidia GForce X520 for gfx; 4 gigs RAM), and had no performance issues as far as I went. Which ended up not being very far, because when I get the message "Perform overwatch action or skip" there is no indication of how to skip. I also had to use the Task Manager to end the program after punching every key on the keyboard and not skipping overwatch.  A small Readme that gives a skeleton breakdown of how to conduct various actions would be nice. It is pleasant to see that the machine I have can run the program without any problems, although whether that will continue after several hours play is a question; IIRC Unity is pretty notorious for memory leaks. Xeno 1 is plagued with glitches, including delayed animations and out-of-synch sfx. So far, there has been none of that with the Unity engine, but as I say, I didn't get very far.

    I thought scrolling was a bit sensitive. This might be changeable in the setup, although there was no options menu, so damnifino. 

    It was generally quite hard to see the aliens due to their uncolored nature, which I expect will be remedied as and when.

      -- Mal

    Customizing Portraits Question

    in Modding Discussion

    Posted

    Well, to answer the first part of my question, no, the game will just generate blank mannequins with the appropriate armor.

    Which is kind of cool, if one doesn't care how the soldier equipping screen looks, he can provide whatever pictures he likes for faces. And as many as he likes.

      -- Mal

    Customizing Portraits Question

    in Modding Discussion

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    Supposing the portrait pool is expanded and a new portrait is used for a soldier. If that face does not have an armor file matching the face name, will the game crash, or use a default armor pic?  For example, suppose I create "nor25_portrait," will each of the associated armor types need a "nor_25" pic, or will the game use a default?

    Second question: is there a way to edit the soldiers so they have a certain portrait?

      -- Mal

    Feature Suggestion: Choose your portraits.

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    Well, my bachelor's degree is 30 years out of date. I can't see how this should involve an "entire redesign of the GUI." There is already a provision to change names by clicking the name, changing the portrait by clicking the portrait should be trivial, or somebody in design needs to be shot. But as it would doubtless involve modifying the core, does it fall within the purview of the community coders?

    Perhaps, however, my intent is unclear. I am suggesting choosing a portrait within the extant database, not modifying the database. The latter is a non-trivial exercise, and does interact with other game systems.

    @ViniJones: there's a thought.

    -- Mal

    Feature Suggestion: Choose your portraits.

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    TSIA. This little feature would take about five minutes to program (including time spent taking a phone call from Mom), would not affect balance or interact with any other part of the game (and thus has low potential for creating unintended consequences), and would probably be welcomed by a measurable subset of the customer base, especially those who want to use their own portraits in place of the ones provided. An expanded version would also allow for picking nationality and writing your own character bio, but that would probably take seven minutes, and you're busy people.

    I think that the (small) increase in player satisfaction outweighs the (trivial) cost in programmer resources. Thoughts?

    -- Mal

    Better name for the Foxtrot

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by malthaussen

    Soviet fighters have traditionally been given names that start with F by NATO (e.g., MiG-15 Fagot, MiG-17 Fresco...) Similarly, Soviet bombers had NATO code names beginning with "B" (e.g., Tu-16 Badger). However, MiG fighters have traditionally had odd numbers, so the last interceptor produced by the USSR was the MiG-31 Foxhound. It is actually a much better airplane than the game's MiG-32, and has an internal cannon. But it became operational after the game's timeline (1981). Still in service in Russia and Kazakhstan.

    -- Mal

    1) Is this still working in Windows XP? 2) Can character pix be changed in-game?

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    Been watching this for awhile now, and am looking forward to getting into it. First a couple of questions:

    I note in an earlier thread that the game was running under Windows XP despite it not being listed in the specs. Is this still true?

    In re soldier customization, is it possible to change the character portrait to another within the database, or if not is such a capability under consideration? Shouldn't be too hard to do, and since the names can be changed, the pix should be as well.

    -- Mal

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