Engine plans?

[Omnituens]

Are there any plans to improve the underlying tech of NC? I noticed that on widescreen setups geometry is incorrectly culled, resulting in polys disappearing and being able to see through them. I recently re-fired up NC (because, you know, neocrack) on my new multimonitor rig. To my surprise, it actually listed my res in the launcher. But that is a far as support went sadly. Entire buildings would stop being rendered, sometimes before they were off the centre screen. Ceilings and pillars pop in and out of existence. The UI sort of worked (it didn't distort) so that's something.

Some examples:

Shot 1
As you can see, the door at the far end of the core has just... gone. Along with walls and floor. To the left there is a culled surface though the main office doorway. Sign should read "Main office and Twilight Zone"

Shot 2
Similar position, but looking down. Ceiling has taken an holiday.

Shot 3
This time, the problem is on the side. There are also some missing polys on the ceiling too, but at least most of it came back from the weekend vacation.

Shot 4
Same problem as above, but on both left and right sides.

These problems happen with just 16:10 aspect ratio, it's just not as apparent. I haven't noticed it incorrectly render NPC/players yet, so that's good.

I'm not saying this omg important (I am very much looking forward to the imp/armour revisions) but would be nice to know if it was on the dev radar.

[Jack Slater]

Just wow! I'd like to play games with your setup...
But as you said: "To my surprise, it actually listed my res in the launcher."
I'm surprised enough that it is possible!

I got no technical knowledge but in my opinion your criticism is only appropriate when the NST made the unthinkable and made Neocron popular with a userfriendly version through steam that wouldn't get too many negative reviews.

PS: Sorry if I sounded to harsh. Noticed too late that you also think that this issue hasn't got huge priority. No offence!

[Omnituens]

This problem exists at 1920x1200 as well, it's just not as bad, but that is NOT an unusual res. Like I said, game balance and game play first, but I was just wondering if there WAS a plan to sort out graphical issues (not model/texture quality and effects, actual render issues)

Yes, it is sweet to game on this set up, when the game supports it. Surprisingly Lego Worlds has the best support for this res out of everything I tried. At least Neocron gave me the option - even newer game require ini hacks or command line switches to force this res. Neocron tries its best, damnit and should be proud.

[Bifrost]

This problem exists at 1920x1200 as well....

I also play at 1920x1200 (Fullscreen not window mode), and I've not see an issue with this resolution since patch '#175. Care to post up a few screenshots?

As for fixing the extreme widescreen resolution issues, I think Zoltan will need a couple of extra screens - feel free to donate them to the NST.

[Omnituens]

Hm, seems you are right, looks like the issues was fixed. My bad! I'll keep an eye out though.

As for donating my screens... you'll have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands. Happy to donate testing time though, if and when it is needed

[LiL T]

the problem i find with high resolutions is the font size does not reflect that and nor does the hud making everything really really hard to read even with good eyes...

When are we going to fix that?

0___0 ?

[Trivaldi]

We added the ability to customise fonts to a certain degree using fonts.ini a while back too. This includes size. It's not perfect but its better.

[LiL T]

yeah i already tried that but its just not good enough.

is there a problem or something?

[Trivaldi]

Unfortunately to enable true scaling and an improved font size situation, the entire user interface (RPOS, CityCom, GRs, GoGus/Cabs/Storage, Options windows, chat system, apartment interfaces and likely many more) would need to be torn out, rebuilt and reimplemented.

As you can imagine that is a massive undertaking. It's something we're aware of and would like to do but have other things higher up the to-do list such as ironing out damage/balance code headaches and getting balance on an even footing. It's one of the many funteresting issues we face dragging a game built in the 90's into the modern world!

[Omnituens]

It's one of the many funteresting issues we face dragging a game built in the 90's into the modern world!

Tell me about it, I have to do that every day! I wish I could help out with NC, sadly even if you were looking for people, I can't due to my contract. And I only one £12 on the Euromillions so I can't afford to quit :P