this reminded me - yeah, being able to modify fonts in some way that's not THAT wouldn't be bad.

Meh, modern games have a hundred times as many asset files as SS2.

IIRC Pathologic stores every model in every map as a separate bin file, with an offset from the origin.

SS2 having a few extra bins is a drop in the bucket compared to modern game shenanigans.

Another feature Request.

It would be nice if there was an easy way to make psi effects, alarms, etc persist through loading zones.

The way levels are handled by the game engine obviously makes that extremely problematic.

Being able to add new sounds via dml would also be fantastic. Currently there's no real way to do that and it's very limiting.

I'd also love a way to disable saving via squirrel, and perform saves using squirrel so we can make the SS2 equivalent of ink ribbons, but I'm a bit insane when it comes to difficulty and I understand that mashing the quicksave key is so entrenched that there's probably no point asking.

Same thing with enabling/disabling multiplayer respawns via squirrel.

Also, I think @RoSoDude would appreciate a way to draw on top of game ui elements using overlay handlers (or even replace them), since iirc that's caused annoying issues with RSD mod.

Sorry for asking for so much, we have a chance here to have the best possible version of SS2, and it's an opportunity I feel is important to capitalize on.

The only real downside of using model-based animation is that there's no mechanism for pre-caching all the models, so animations can be a bit stuttery the first time they play. Well, it's no worse than shader compilation stutter, and most gamers seem willing to put up with that.

Oh, and there's no native support for model animation sequences longer than 4 or 5 frames. You have to either chain together multiple objects with corpse links, or use a script to manually switch models.

And having massive amounts of .bin's in the one obj folder, can't make any promises on this front but there's ideas about solving both precaching and a better way to store mesh-chains.

I've currently used it on the grub to make a non-segmented animation for it, and so far it's the only way to really animate static meshes beyond joints, and in the blend it's a rigged object pre-export:
[grub_test_2.gif expired]
[grub_rig.jpg expired]

I think the elevator button is due to emission changes through the animation, which I'd also like to see more control over.

Why not just dynamically change the Self Illumination property to change the emission brightness?  Much easier than fighting with frame-based animation sequences.  And smoother, too.

The only real downside of using model-based animation is that there's no mechanism for pre-caching all the models, so animations can be a bit stuttery the first time they play. Well, it's no worse than shader compilation stutter, and most gamers seem willing to put up with that.

Oh, and there's no native support for model animation sequences longer than 4 or 5 frames. You have to either chain together multiple objects with corpse links, or use a script to manually switch models.

Using frame-based animation also allows precise control over easing, which joint-based animation does not.

Setting the JointPos has worked really good for me in this case, but yeah, tweq'ing has its limitations, would be nice to have some more fine control over the easing of those.

But frame-based animation does give you everything else such as full control over anything visual about the model, you could do any kind of mesh and material manipulation to the mesh in a 3d program and the game really wouldn't have to know how to handle anything about it.

This is getting out of hand. You know you can use the Joints system to create smooth animations with a single bin model.

Jointed elevator button from Secmod which is publicly available. It's not hard.

Yep!

I think the elevator button is due to emission changes through the animation, which I'd also like to see more control over.

This is getting out of hand. You know you can use the Joints system to create smooth animations with a single bin model.

Jointed elevator button from Secmod which is publicly available. It's not hard.

 eldrone

Post action in action. I've been trying to parse archetypes for the relevant information so it's completely compatible with anything, but it might have to go into args along with a new script, so far this part of the shotgun is a predefine/exception in the script itself.


edit: and yeah I know, muzzleflash got janked at some point.

Even if it looks a little bit off, that is extremely impressive to see in action. Awesome work!

Looks fantastic, nice work! The pump animation looked like it was double pumping as voodoo47 elaborated, but you've said you've fixed it already.

Can there be an extra visual indication of the selected firing mode on some of the firearms? Literally just a lever that moves up or down, a button that pops out, extra light or screen glowing on the weapon, nothing fancy or elaborate.

Apologies if SCP fixed this already, I haven't played SS2 in a very long time, can bio-weapons sound a bit more like they're "fleshy" and "loading worms from a beaker into something icky" when changing fire modes & reloading? 

currently, it almost looks like the shot is triggered by the first big pump action, and then a smaller double pump action follows that ejects  the empty shell and loads another one.

or is that just an optical illusion and the first pump action actually does not exist?

something feels off, I will have to check how real world shotguns do this. like way too many pump actions being performed.

I suggested this earlier, but having "sights glow slightly when in darker areas" would be a nice little improvement. A simple idle animation for some weapons would be fantastic as well: nothing fancy, even a HL1 level of quality idle would be a big step up. I assume the sliding bolt for the AR also properly works in Enhanced Edition now?

Out of curiosity, are Goggles' sleeves part of the weapon itself like older games, or could a modder change only the sleeves without also needing to muck around with the weapon model? Maybe someone utterly dedicated and/or crazy could make a mod where career choices actually change the players' sleeves, based on Gareth Hinds concept art for SS2?  Unless Nightdive are doing this already...

The only major problem would be the cryotube beginning & ending would also need to be real-time to properly match up, but if that could be done whilst leaving all the other major cutscenes (like the Von Braun promo) as videos, I think that'd be a good compromise. Seeing your choices in a first person RPG physically alter your character, even if it's just a minor cosmetic touch, would be amazing and a very noticeable graphical upgrade.

Have to mention I've wrangled the game to finally have the post action animation working on weapons, so shotgun pumps post shooting are in.

Essentially hijacking the viewport weapon display, full control of visuals. Engine just handles the gameplay stuff, and even that part can be custom.

Looking into opening up for more custom weapons, or really anything: weapons, tools, new psi-amp style tools. Things that would end up with the player holding something in the hands visibly.

For EE it basically just means animation improvements and weapon position options:(left/right/middle, one hand/two hands)

ZylonBane
Last official one, but there was the community update right?

voodoo47
This one is happening for sure!

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12488

so yeah, support for more audio file formats wouldn't be bad.

Hmm...

It would be super useful if there was some way to override only specific strings in a string file, instead of having to all-or-nothing replace the entire thing.

Noting this one down, there's a ton of things like this limiting mixing mods

the original AI mesh tools are pita to work with, or so I have heard.

Just to gather some information regarding modding:



What's the biggest wishes related to the deeper workings around limitations and features when it comes to modding, dmls, and squirrel functionality?

no, it's SCPb4 maps relit in the editor. and yes, I know this because I can see the SCP texture offsets on the screenshots.

Almost none of the props under the Decorative branch of the hierarchy are marked as immobile. They probably considered it too much of a pain in the ass at the time to sort through all the hundreds of props to individually determine which ones would and would not be movable in-game.

But regarding the crates specifically, in the vanilla maps some of those crates are actually movable, like the ones on rick3. So setting all of them to cast shadows would be bad.

Why are you asking about this anyway? I thought EE was going to use the vanilla maps, with SCP thrown in as the "improved" option.

Just due diligence surrounding any potential rendering improvements or rebakes, mainly because I want to avoid any conflicts or issues, such as most things mentioned already.

Testing the waters!

Yeah, way too many things speaking against baking the turret shadows.

were there any reason on why decorative boxes were left out of this too?