I'm making Fallout Van Buren and I have some questions

[hexer]

Hi, I've been busy making Van Buren in Fallout 2 engine ( http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/fallout-3-van-buren-spoilers.88296/ ) and I'm considering to use FOnline engine for it.


I have some questions:

- I have Win XP and FOnline tools work only on Vista or newer Windows. I don't have the means to get a better computer. Since I'm the main developer, this is a BIG issue. Can I run them somehow on Win XP?

- I can't read Russian and most of the documentation is written in Russian language. Is there any documentation or tutorials in English?

- Ambient lighting is nice but makes the art look washed out. Can I prevent this?

- The game runs slowly (but this could be because of my old laptop with Win XP)

- GUI sometimes behaves strangely - I press ESC and the game quits immediately, there's no prompt window. Can I prevent this?

- Options screen isn't implemented yet. Can I implement it myself?

[fonliner]

- I have Win XP and FOnline tools work only on Vista or newer Windows. I don't have the means to get a better computer. Since I'm the main developer, this is a BIG issue. Can I run them somehow on Win XP?

Works fine on XP, not sure why you can't work with it. I use sdk on XP and 7.

- I can't read Russian and most of the documentation is written in Russian language. Is there any documentation or tutorials in English?

Russian documentation is for FOnline: TLA but well, FOnline: 2238 is the same so... uhmm google translate? I'm not sure if this documentation is too old. There are any other documentation and tutorials except mapper tutorial (for TLA mapper but 2238 mapper is the same). You should ask other people, who know FOnline engine.

- The game runs slowly (but this could be because of my old laptop with Win XP)

Yes, you need to better hardware and use FOnline.exe instead of FOnlineGL (FOnlineGL was "work in progress" I think).

[fonliner]

Works fine on XP, not sure why you can't work with it. I use sdk on XP and 7.

Russian documentation is for FOnline: TLA but well, FOnline: 2238 is the same so... uhmm google translate? I'm not sure if this documentation is too old. There are any other documentation and tutorials except mapper tutorial (for TLA mapper but 2238 mapper is the same). You should ask other people, who know FOnline engine.

Yes, you need to better hardware and use FOnline.exe instead of FOnlineGL (FOnlineGL was "work in progress" I think).

tutorial http://fodev.net/forum/index.php/topic,29382.0.html

[hexer]

Works fine on XP, not sure why you can't work with it. I use sdk on XP and 7.

.NET version which is required by the tools won't install on Win XP only on Vista or newer. I'm not sure how you got it running unless it's an older SDK version.

tutorial http://fodev.net/forum/index.php/topic,29382.0.html

Thanks but that is not what I need at the moment. It's a tutorial for administrating an online server game.

[John Porno]

we had a problem with winxp compatibility which was due to lacking visual studio 2012 compatibility but an upgrade fixed it. Basicaly, people running winxp coulnt connect to the server. In any case, while I dont know any technicals details, I'd be surprised if fonline tools would not work under xp.

[JovankaB]

The game and tools work on XP for me. I don't remember if I had to do something special to make it work, but it's definitely possible.

I can't read Russian and most of the documentation is written in Russian language. Is there any documentation or tutorials in English?

Nothing like this really exists. You can ask questions on this forum, auto-translate Russian docs and learn by studying existing scripts and other files. Ease of learning is not exactly the best selling point of this engine.

The game runs slowly (but this could be because of my old laptop with Win XP)

There could be many reasons, on my old Windows XP it works reasonably well. Try changing "Fixed FPS" option to 100. If you have 100, try a small negative number, like -10.

Options screen isn't implemented yet. Can I implement it myself?

I might be wrong, because I never really looked into it, but I don't think the main menu of FOnline is scriptable. Maybe it's possible with some dll magick, I don't know.

What you can do for sure, is changing layout of the menu and implementing screens in game. So you could hide the options button in menu (because it doesn't work anyway) and implement options screen in the game. Or make external application like FOConfig.

[Wipe]

you could hide the options button in menu (because it doesn't work anyway) and implement options screen in the game

Hiding button doesn't sound quite right to me; better to create gui button element from scripts, with exactly same size at exactly same position with same graphic. Catch mouseclick, so it won't go back to engine, and display own screen. IIRC FOnline2 was doing that, in same manner 2238 "Online" button on character screen was added.

All position/size/picture data is already in interface .ini, so there's no need for creating server-specific properties, or even worse - hiding it all in scripts

[hexer]

Thanks to everybody for help! I managed to install .NET 4 and now the tools are working. I'm gonna try them out now.

[hexer]

Does anyone know of any good critter artists for Fallout? I'm looking for someone who can create new monsters.

[hexer]

Could this interface be created in FOnline engine?

[John Porno]

I dont see why not. The question is not if it's possible, but how much work it is.

[fonliner]

Similar interface from begin of 3D, check this video how it looks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJV7q5W-JdU

[hexer]

UPDATE #4

Current team lineup: Kamoho (writer), Vaarna_Aarne (writer), grotsnik (writer), Whisky (writer), Kane Vollstrecker (inventory art), hexer (everything else)

Big announcement for this (unplanned) update! We have been "advised" by Bethesda to stop modding our game in Fallout 2 engine. I know how this might sound but thanks to classic Fallout's awesome modding community our work can carry on. This means that Van Buren will be released as a FOnline game!

This will definitively postpone the project for maybe up to 6 months as I will have to learn how to use their tools and then convert everything already done to FOnline engine. I've already stated my issues with the FOnline engine here but now that I have no choice - I will try my best to resolve them. I'm taking this opportunity to call any knowledgeable FOnline modders to join us or pass on useful advice to me and my team.

On the good side, the new engine allows us to use higher resolution art, 3D monsters, environmental lighting, 16-bit colors instead of 256, more easily implement multiple vehicles and crafting, SPECIAL tweaking, etc.

Since the last update, more work has been done. Most critters for the game have been created, grotsnik and Whisky joined the writing team, Kane made lots of new inventory art, and I've been busy with Boulder Dome maps - lots of new art is being made in order for Dome to feel like a unique area. (This sort of treatment will apply to every location.)

[Lexx]

Why the hell would Bethesda "advise" you to stop modding in the Fallout 2 engine? That makes no fucking sense.

[hexer]

Why the hell would Bethesda "advise" you to stop modding in the Fallout 2 engine? That makes no fucking sense.

From the e-mail it was clear that it was a "friendly warning" before a cease and desist letter.
They have Fallout 1 and 2 rights as of 1st January and obviously the politics changed for the worse. I'm sure we're just a victim of Interplay vs. Bethesda war.

Lexx (and other developers), can you help me setup the base configuration for modding Van Buren? I was thinking of using FOnline 3D as a basis and I know you did a lot of work on it. Also, as a programmer (I work in Java today mainly, but am very experienced with C, C++ and PHP) I will probably need to edit source code to implement features from Van Buren. Or can I do it all without source code?