Sword of Moonlight > Devs
EXIT: Some website turbulence is imminent...
Holey Moley:
PATCH
Critical fix for more SOM_MAP problems born of the the new layer system.
Patch: http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.2.10.zip
This fixes Copy/Paste on the maps menu, and a big problem with saving your MAP file. Sorry.
I introduced a problem a little while back into the layer system that was meant to be a diagnostic for myself. I really think this is the end of it. For me (debug mode) it would alert me to the problem when saving, but I just never saved after I set it up I guess. I probably thought I would (in time) but I didn't expect the alert to trigger.
I may have been using it in public (release) mode for a time. Or it's just my luck.
I'd like to think this is the end of it, but I only just discovered the Copy/Paste problem last minute.
I'm working on a new release for any day now. But I wanted to get this fix into this release. This morning I worked somewhat doggedly to get the stuff I'm working on right now finished so that this patch cannot present any surprises later, since it has a new MSM blending feature built into it, but it still requires files to work with it that will come later. Maybe I should've enabled the automatic file generating system, but it didn't occur to me to.
P.S. I discovered just earlier that SOM_MAP's = button that does elevation assignment seems not to work for multiple selections. I can't believe I've noticed this before. It really makes me think something is broken. But it's something I have to figure out before a new release.
The new release will just be tacked onto this topic/thread. I think the "website" problems it speaks to are bound to start any day now.
Holey Moley:
PATCH UPGRADE
Patch: http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.2.10.zip
I've reuploaded the patch from earlier today with a fix for the = button under multi-select. The problem had to do with work from earlier to let it work with any elevation. The multi-select version took a different path I hadn't thought to consider.
I also enabled the SoftMSM feature for this patch via MapComp to let it be tried out. Maybe that's a bad idea. But what the heck. It won't work automatically for all tiles, since some tiles that should be soft have hard edges.
Today or tomorrow there should be an update/release with some new MSM files, at least for SOM's exterior set. And tools for spotfixing files. There will be a slight language pack element. Now I mainly just need to make the command-line SoftMSM tool a little more user-friendly.
SOM_MAP has a new box for changing the elevation ticker's increment. This came from King's Field II using 0.125 instead of 0.1. There's also an extension to set the project's increment. Currently this increment is just used when holding down the Shift key with the ticker. The large step size of 0.5 is not changed, since for KFII it just means 4 steps instead of 5.
Holey Moley:
:blow:New Release (1.2.2.12) Announcement:blow:
The deed is done :king:
--- Quote from: http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/archives/www-swordofmoonlight-net/2019/03/some-website-turbulence-is-imminent/ ---Update: There’s a new release centered around a new feature called SoftMSM that blends lighting where cells touch in-game.
--- End quote ---
Use SVN Update to get the new MSM files that have (all) been modified. It took a real long time to upload them through the SVN system. I don't know why Subversion can't do burst processing of small files on checking in.
Language packages are slightly modified...
English: http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/text/English/Neutral.zip
Japanese: http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/text/日本語/最新.zip
These can be (manually) updated in the updater app (SOM.exe) but there isn't yet an automatic update detection process for the language packs. They add the Tools menu to PrtsEdit and a minor enhancement to SOM_MAP's elevation facility (it lets you change the unit for using with Shift, which is 0.1 by default. KF2 uses 0.125 because of how the PlayStation worked. You can use it to work with any increment, but it's kind of a burden to have to use Shift.)
There is background information here (http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/bbs2/index.php?topic=297.0) and here (http://www.swordofmoonlight.net/bbs2/index.php?topic=289.msg2716#msg2716).
[organic cells blended into one large organic map model]
This is a pretty sexy update. It's something I've been planning to do since working on layers last year. It doesn't have anything to do with layers (other than it integrates with them) but the layer work was the impetus to dig into the MapComp tool. I exhausted myself on layers, but planned to return to MapComp to work on this.
After I completed a major project a little while ago I've been doing small things. This idea captured my imagination a week ago. I thought it would go faster than this, but it turned out there are a lot of details involved.
I haven't made an effort to scrutinize every MSM file. I just mass converted them with the new SoftMSM tool (that you shouldn't have to use) and a few of the exterior set MSM files needed to be forced to blend their edges since they looked like hard edge polygons. PrtsEdit has a new Tools menu that provides easy access to this for when you want to just force a particular MSM to blend indiscriminately. It helps for organic models, but if model edges are a mix of hard and soft polygons then you must remodel them to achieve what you want.
This won't always be the case (forever) but there isn't (currently) a guided system for choosing which vertices to blend or not. Worst case scenario you somehow have to make a hard (flat) polygon be ever so slightly soft (somehow) because you want it to blend but you also want it to appear to be flat, or don't have enough geometry to get the effect you want. Usually models are either organic or not. Another possibility is you have an edge that you really want to be hard (flat) but it's connected to a soft polygon. Unfortunately there isn't a fix for this. Just move the feature away from an edge (note: edges belonging to the same cell aren't blended.)
EDITED: If you're in the business of making custom MSM files know that MapComp will automatically modify the files with the same process as the TOOL/SoftMSM.exe (mode 0) so that you don't have do that. If you need to force a tile to be soft (mode 1) then PrtsEdit is available from inside SOM_MAP. It can also force a tile to be hard (mode 2) but that is more like disabling the blending feature for that tile and its neighbors.
The SoftMSM tool also removes duplicate vertices that x2msm generates, and it "normalizes" your surface normals, because they need to be so for the blend feature to efficiently compare their angles. Normally normals are normalized (that's probably why they're called normals or the process is called normalization one) but for whatever reason some or many of SOM's stock MSM files had normals that were far from normalized. Normalization changes their appearance. This is also described in the background links.
Holey Moley:
minor feature patch
Patch: http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.2.12.zip
I had an idea to fix the lines in ItemEdit by using the ID3DXLine facility from D3DX.
It's a really minor thing for now, since you only see it on the screen that sets up the relationship of the item to the ground, but it will be a good technique for whenever SOM_MAP gets upgraded to use Direct3D9.
The short explanation is the do_aa function doesn't look good enough on lines. I don't know why precisely that is. But the ID3DXLine facility will draw lines as polygons, but only if the width is more than 1 or the antialiasing mode is used. Fortunately the antialiasing mode looks best.
It was unnecessary to disable the do_aa extension. This is only done if it's used. I'm not posting a screenshot because it's really nothing to look at. What's important is that it looks acceptable, and also it's nice that it matches the rest of the image.
EDITED: Okay, here is a screenshot, I just happened upon. It has dithering enabled, which is not technically related to the effects involved. That's why if you look closely the lines look like they are stippled.
Holey Moley:
Below is a letter I received 7 days ago regarding the website's future hosting situation and promptly forgot about. It seems the plans to disrupt things has been indefinitely (date unknown) put on hold for now.
--- Quote from: WebFaction: A note to put your mind at rest ---Dear WebFaction customer,
We just wanted to get in touch with an update and some reassurances about your
WebFaction services, following the recent announcement that the brand was
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plenty of notice of any future changes to ensure your business can carry on as
usual. For example, one thing we are currently considering is re-evaluating the
migrations that were planned for this summer. We'll let you know as soon as we
can the outcome of that evaluation.
Secondly, we wanted to let you know that, as you read this, we're researching
options for the future of WebFaction. We're looking into products, feature sets
and support set ups to ensure you have everything you need to thrive online
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We really value you as a customer and we look forward to supporting your
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If you have any more questions, feel free to raise a support ticket in the
control panel at https://my.webfaction.com/open-support-ticket or reply to this
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Regards,
The WebFaction Team
--- End quote ---
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