MechVM feature wishes?

[Skyfaller]

Make a christmas feature wish for MechVM. Choose the one you prefer, but I cannot guarantee success, all I promise is to take a look. And feel free to post your own wishes. I will prioritize work according to the wishes. I may not be able to reply next week.

This is what the options are about:

• Start working on the sim: The goal of this subproject is to recreate a mech sim.
• Complete MechLab: If you wish for this, please state whether you would like to see write support for MW2 MEK files or for the sim only.
• Improve shell replacement: After installing a DOS version through MechVM, hit the "Play Game" button in MechVM's toolbar to see what I mean.
• Improve file add/replace for PRJ files: This would be a most important step towards modding NetMech. It would allow Kell's mechs to be added, and just maybe the Galuzza Mineshaft mission could be ported to NetMech.
• Improve DOS installation by integrating DosBox and CD imaging: DosBox and MechVM are both under GPL, so I could include DosBox with MechVM. It might ease installing the DOS versions of MW2 under Vista, in particular.

[Col.Kell]

Yeah, yeah... you knew Kell would come by sooner or later...

My biggest wish for MechVM would be to not only "unpack" the PRJ, put to also be able to put it back together again for "on-the-fly" rebuilding and modding. And also, you wouldn't have to worry about "over-inserting" bytes in the PRJ, that way you could add all kinds of polygons to wherever.

It would allow Kell's mechs to be added

I could easily make a downloadable Inner-Sphere mech pack or Mercs or GBL pack if repacking could work.

and just maybe the Galuzza Mineshaft mission could be ported to NetMech.

Is that what I saw in the Mercs Poly file? It was a long, semi-sloped rectangle with what looked like a doorway to both sides. I thought that was a left-behind poly from GBL.

[Skyfaller]

Yeah, yeah... you knew Kell would come by sooner or later...

Hey Kell, the slightest thought of you visiting this remote section of the forum hadn't begun to speculate on crossing my mind ...

I could easily make a downloadable Inner-Sphere mech pack or Mercs or GBL pack if repacking could work.

Just make sure it doesn't violate copyright ... NetMech also does not know inner sphere weapons, so we would have to outfit them with clan weapons ...

and just maybe the Galuzza Mineshaft mission could be ported to NetMech.

Is that what I saw in the Mercs Poly file? It was a long, semi-sloped rectangle with what looked like a doorway to both sides. I thought that was a left-behind poly from GBL.

Watch the video and you'll know what to look for ... it's worth it, not only for the music. The thread also has a list of WTB files for the environment. Another question would be whether it could be unlocked easily in Mercs ...

[Col.Kell]

Could it be that the original programmers used some sort of file compressor or zipper to compact all of the PRJ contents together? That would seem way too hard to manualy "construct" a whole directory as a single file. That Don guy who built Mercnet missions said the .MWM files could be compressed/unpacked. Could something similar be done to the PRJ with a zipper or compressor?

Watch the video and you'll know what to look for ...

Cool, thanks. I'll have to schedule to watch that video so I will know what to rebuild.

[Skyfaller]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch you on IRC lately, though that may be in part because I'm in the European time zone. Contact MMPD on this, he has discovered that the NET.PRJ already contains most of the files needed for the Mineshaft mission. The knowledge from here might also help fixing the level, because there are many cases where a mech simply falls through the roof. A better choice of collision detecion algorithms may help. Alternatively, if you run into too heavy problems, can you come up with a MWM file that allows playing the Mineshaft mission in Mercs? MMPD has wanted to play that map for a long time.

[Col.Kell]

Sure thing, Sky. I will apoint myself to rebuild the Galuzza mineshaft mission.
I plan to rebuild it by first watching that video, then compiling it into a MWM file with MW2:31cc compatible geometry and BWDs, and then I can launch the mission alone on Mercnet to test to make sure it is assembled correctly. And then if it checks out, I will disect the MWM into all of it's BWD files, then I will see if I can't get it to work for Netmech. And I will have to ask Don about the collision modes of objects to avoid that roof problem.

I am flexable, if you would like to chat on IRC, my timezone is (GMT -06:00)Central Time U.S., and Canada. If you would like to PM me a time to discuss things, select a time that would be good for you. I am not an early-bird, sometimes I may be on at lunch or from 10pm to midnight. Your call.

[Col.Kell]

I apologize Sky, but I cannot watch this video.
At a dial-up download speed of 2.5KiB/sec, loading that +90MiB is out of the question.
If someone could do me the favor of sending screenshots or a highly-condensed video of the map, that woud be great. I could get to working on the map right away.

[Sir MMPD Radick]

(Suggests Kell go to the library and bring a thumb drive)

[Col.Kell]

(Suggests Kell go to the library and bring a thumb drive)

Forgot to say; have you ever been to a library of an illiterate county? It's awful. They had to make budget-cuts thanks to the ignorant hicks and now they switched back to dial-up.