Star wars battlefront 2 is an amazing game, but lets face it, as the more modern first (and third) person shooters came out (like battlefield 4 and just cause 2) Star Wars battlefront 2 just doesn't look as intense or as modern as they do.


I understand that battlefront two is an older game but as I'm working toward the end of my maps, I want to make it feel as modern as possible.
I've done the simple things to make the game feel a little bit more modern, like move the third person camera to the right (as seen in games like dead space and just cause 2) but I want to do my best to make battlefront as fun as possible and maybe not even feel like battlefront anymore but a whole new game !

Here are my ideas
When responding to this post use the number that match my ideas to tell me weather they are possible or impossible. If they are possible they'll me how to do them. If they are impose please try to tell me why.
feel free to add some of your own ideas if you know how to add them to the game yourself! But at least try to answer some of mine first please
Thanks in advance !

1.
Screen shakes when gun is fired - as seen in the map "kashyyyk kachirho 1.0" when the sniper rifle is fired ! (Link to the map : http://starwarsbattlefront.filefront.co ... rho;106449)

you know it is already done, so it's possible. Look at the geonosian blunderbuss for reference.

2.
changing or taking away the red flashes when a unit is hurt (could it be a "fx" or "tga" file)

wanted to disable it, too. but never found something like that in the assets.

3.
When near death, a loss of color happens (everything starts to go black and white)

you can change HUD bitmap colors depending on the level of health, but i don't think you can do that for the whole screen.

4.
Health regains slowly with out a healing ring effect works for HUMAN PLAYERS ONLY.

health regains for players should go through lua scripting (the fakeconsole can it, so you should do it in the scripts, too). the effect can be removed. just look in the FAQ how to disable the guardian/war hero effect. it goes the same way. But it'd remove the effect for all kind of health regains. (items, droids, and the constant human regain)

8.
Zooming for first person actually "zooms" rather then shows a GUI (the blue on-screen targeting image)

i don't know what you mean

9.
Quick motion blur (when the mouse is moved quickly all odfs would leave a (very small) bit of a blur trail)

i just know the running blur. see 26

12.
Changing the on screen GUIs (health bar, aiming circle)

FAQ -> How to fully customize the HUD.

13.
Making health into a number.

you can get the health number to change the colour. maybe you can print this number, too. (see 12.)

15.
Better shadow quality , maybe even dual light shadowing.

more detailed shadow volumes. Not sure if there is a limit, but most models just use the jettrooper sv. you can duplicate the high res volume, remove the textures and than use the polygon reduce function to lower the polygons but have the same shape. (just play around with the settings)

19.
A better and more modern running and walking animation.

FAQ -> How to munge a new animation set

20.
In first person the two handed rifle weapon is turned so its "out" a little more. this would also make the units hands be seen a little more visable

not sure what you mean but first person animation works. FAQ -> Implementing Custom First Person Animations

23.
In first person when running with a two handed rifle you can see it "wag" or "sway" back and forth while holding it so you would see it from the side (like most modern shooter games)

I don't know the pose you mean, but it's the same as 20. Just notice you cannot make a different animation for walking and runnig. these are the same but slower/faster played.

25.
When running with a pistol in first person the pistol becomes held in an upward position (like in battlefield 4)

see 23. or 20.

26.
Can I change the Jedis blur effect when he runs (is that a "fx" file or maybe a "tga" file ?)

BlurEffect = "x.x"

16. No problem, there are even stock ones that you can use if you want.

17. Better? Easily done. More? As far as I know you can't modify the scope of what's in the standard set of soldier animations (see SoldierAnimation.sanm), you can only replace them with custom ones.

18. This is never going to happen I'm afraid. You'll need a whole new engine if you want to implement ragdoll physics. Closest we have to that in the ZeroEngine is tentacles which are just a string of bones.

21. I am relatively inexperienced when compared to some of the others here so I may be wrong, but I believe you can only set an ambient sound for a character (meaning it plays all the time, e.g. Vader's breathing sound).

22. The ambient sound itself is possible, though I'm not sure how you'd limit it to first-person, aside from possibly limiting the range of the sound to be very short with a sharp fall-off.

24. There's the CockpitTension property in vehicle odfs. I think that only changes how "zoomed out" the cockpit mesh gets when you speed up, though I haven't done enough work in first-person to say for sure.

A lot of these are possible if you are willing to put in the work to make things look great. Some of them are very impossible. Honestly, with EA and DICE at the helm of the new Battlefront game I think you will see most of this stuff Holiday Season 2015 anyway.

I actually plan to make Online-Compatible remastered sides. Similar to battlefront evolved, but keeping the original look of the units.

Just gonna say this. Motion blur in games is evil and needs to be destroyed permanently.

Marth8880 wrote:Just gonna say this. Motion blur in games is evil and needs to be destroyed permanently.

Seriously yes. There's no reason for it at all. If I'm going to play your game I want to see what's going on.

Hahaha ok ok fine
No motion blur

Thanks for the help anakin and jedimoose32. ill check out all the stuff you recommended.
I guess this post is solved but I won't label it as solved just in case anyone has some stuff they want add. So ... Yeah ... Feel free to add stuff

Oh one more thing to add to the list : first person for Jedi

Nope. Nope. Nope. You guys are wrong about motion blur, because you've played games where it's unnecessary. Just like the over-the-shoulder view, it's a tool that's good for certain things and bad for others (for what it's worth, both are unnecessary in a game like Battlefront). Motion blur is used really effectively in games that have to communicate the idea of speed while working within a restricted scale (open-world games, like GTA, rely heavily on motion blur and other tricks to make you think you're going fast). It's superfluous when it gets in the way of vision, but that's not what it should be used for.

Whether you're talking about Battlefront or anything, it's always worth considering why a tool is used, and not simply whether it's popular.

E.g.

Health regen. Why was this popularized? (C.f. Halo) It was popularized because it works extremely well in checkpoint-type games - it allows for the pacing to be better, because you never write yourself into a corner (if the player runs out of health pickups). It's not really necessary in multiplayer settings, because they're quick and isolated by design.

Over-the-shoulder. Why was this popularized? (C.f. RE4) It was popularized because it sells the intermediate between third- and first-person. It gives you a third-person experience while still tightening in the camera and allowing for a sense of closeness with the player character. It's not really necessary in Battlefield-type games, because those are about situational awareness and positioning, and it actively works against that (v.s third- or first-person - it doesn't give you the FOV of third-person and it doesn't give you the removal of clutter of first-person).

First person for jedis..is that even possible for character with melee weapons such as the lightsaber

btw, I wonder why we are talking about this in the Modding Forum instead of Swbf2 General

You're not wrong. -Staff

Probably because the original question could be considered a modding/technical topic, and the conversation digressed from there.

thelegend wrote: btw, I wonder why we are talking about this in the Modding Forum instead of Swbf2 General

I needed to know HOW to make the changes I stated in my first post, that's why I posted it in the modding tab ! you can move it back if you want "staff" but I don't mind.

off topic: back on topic :
I solved 1
just put

KickStrength = "2.6"

or any other number under the "property" line of any weapon odf to make the screen kinda shake as you shoot

now only if we can solve running shake

Lorul1 wrote:KickStrength = "2.6"

or any other number under the "property" line of any weapon odf to make the screen kinda shake as you shoot

Just a note, that's a really big kick for anything other than a shotgun.

My DC-15A in TCW uses KickStrength = "1.0" and it's got the highest value. A little screenshake is good, but too much is disorienting and annoying.

ok

Another super quick note, it applies the kick per bullet. So if you have a weapon shooting a salvo of two bolts simultaneously then it gets twice the kick. My B2 droids in TCW have quad blasters, so I have to give them a kick of 1/4 the actual desired amount.

dose anyone know how to increase the camera blend time for when you zoom (press the "Z" key) in third person
and dose anyone also know how to change the zoom for first person so that it actually zooms (like the third person)

(I realized anakin was confused about this earlier so I'm just stating it in a clearer way)
(step

Lorul1 wrote:dose anyone know how to increase the camera blend time for when you zoom (press the "Z" key) in third person
and dose anyone also know how to change the zoom for first person so that it actually zooms (like the third person)

(I realized anakin was confused about this earlier so I'm just stating it in a clearer way)
(step

not 100% sure but i think you mean something like this:
http://www.gametoast.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=27291

About fp jedi. In a way it works, but it would look bad. You know the vibro hit?? in BFX or in my RC mod. You can make a fp animation set to an lightsaber attack. It will be available in First person and 3rd person of cause. But there will be a limit of animations you can play (actualy you need to over write on fp animation per saber animation). So if you don't have any other weapons it will may look good, too. But otherwise you'll have just one animation for the saber attack and it will look the same every time. combos won't be possible.

One tipp: before you start make a concept about the animations you want to chagen. look how much fp animations there are and make sure you don't use them for other weapons, too.
Example:
bazooka: can be used if there is no rocket launcher or something like that. Make sure you don't have such a weapon. if you have such a weapon you can fix the fp view by using the pistol animation.
rifle: no good idea. the most weapons have this animation.
grenade: if you don't have a grenade, or dropable 2nd weapons, ok you can take it.
tool: that's everything with one had holded. So if you change it the pistols will change, but the fusion cutter as well. Don't use it if you fixed the bazooka fp by using the pistol animation.

These are all fp animations we have. There is only one more. the sbdroid rifle animation. so if you make an unit to use the sbd animation (that you can change to what ever you like) you can make the unit have an different fp rifle animation then the others.

Anakin wrote:These are all fp animations we have. There is only one more. the sbdroid rifle animation. so if you make an unit to use the sbd animation (that you can change to what ever you like) you can make the unit have an different fp rifle animation then the others.

To avoid any confusion, the SBD doesn't have its own first person animations. It only looks different because the SBD first person model has one arm, the right arm, and it is rotated. Walker droids on the other hand, do have their own first person animations.

Maveritchell wrote:Nope. Nope. Nope. You guys are wrong about motion blur, because you've played games where it's unnecessary. Just like the over-the-shoulder view, it's a tool that's good for certain things and bad for others (for what it's worth, both are unnecessary in a game like Battlefront). Motion blur is used really effectively in games that have to communicate the idea of speed while working within a restricted scale (open-world games, like GTA, rely heavily on motion blur and other tricks to make you think you're going fast). It's superfluous when it gets in the way of vision, but that's not what it should be used for.

Whether you're talking about Battlefront or anything, it's always worth considering why a tool is used, and not simply whether it's popular.

Actually, yeah, from a design point of view, you're absolutely correct and I agree with it almost entirely - though our opinions that it should never be used *can't* be "wrong" since they're opinions. With that said, I'll go ahead and correct myself and say that motion blur should almost never be used in first-person (and sometimes third-person) shooter games but is acceptable in games in which you should feel as if you're going relatively quick ( ) like GTA or even Mirror's Edge.

thelegend wrote:First person for jedis..is that even possible for character with melee weapons such as the lightsaber

Yes, if if recall correctly, there is a odf property called ForceMode that takes an integer parameter and accepts 3 values that I know of.

0 = Allow toggle between 1st and 3rd person views, default value.
1 = Force 3rd person, no idea if this is in the com jedi odf or if it's default for melee combo units.
2 = Force 1st person, and it does work on Jedi, but it doesn't look the best.

Again, if i recall correctly, they hold their saber hilt with the same first person anims as the fusion cutter (could be changed probably) but you still see the 3rd person blade flying around. So my suggestion would be to entirely hide the first person models if you were going to do this, but I don't think forcing first person is a good idea most of the time in SWBF2, especially with how undetailed the view is.




Number 14: They do that already to some extent, and some more than others. I don't know the code that controls it, but I'm sure I've seen it in the odf.