Fallout 2 mod FO2 Engine Tweaks (Sfall)

[Timeslip]

I've lost count of the number of feature requests people have made to which I've thought, 'that would be easy if I had fallout's source code', (tell me about being one of them, obviously, ) and I seem to be unemployed over the summer, so I've decided to jump on the lets-write-a-fallout-clone bandwagon for a bit. Here's how it's coming so far:

Character creation
In game
The mapper

Hopefully, (although realistically very very unlikely,) I'll have something playable by the time I run out of summer.

 

[Prosper]

Suppressed.

I keep thinking about making a fallout clone myself. But what is it that makes you feel you cannot have atleast a playable demo of some sort after the entirety of this summer has passed?

 

[Timeslip]

I keep thinking about making a fallout clone myself. But what is it that makes you feel you cannot have atleast a playable demo of some sort after the entirety of this summer has passed?

My attention span.

I'll probably have got board in started on something else within a week or two. Also reimplementing the scripting engine in a way that doesn't require me to manually go through and tweak every single script in fallout is going to be a real pita.

 

[Prosper]

I keep thinking about making a fallout clone myself. But what is it that makes you feel you cannot have atleast a playable demo of some sort after the entirety of this summer has passed?

My attention span.

I'll probably have got board in started on something else within a week or two. Also reimplementing the scripting engine in a way that doesn't require me to manually go through and tweak every single script in fallout is going to be a real pita.

i have an attention span problem too, but you are a qualified programmer so that just means you find another project. whereas i just getup and start pacing around.

i see the necessity in being able to load all their graphical things such as tiles and sprites.

what language are you doing this in?

 

[Buxbaum666]

Timeslip, you are some kind of a god.

Just sayin'. Keep up your great work.

 

[Dude101]

Timeslip, you are some kind of a god.

Seconded. Awesome, I hope you get something playable out.

 

[Oracle]

wow Timeslip your tweaks have been very usefull and I have no doubt that you are very talentfull. However creating a fallout clone all by youself isn't that somewhat impossible (even for you)?

anyways best of luck hope you get far!!

 

[Prosper]

Timeslip, you are some kind of a god.

Seconded. Awesome, I hope you get something playable out.

wow i didnt realize he had the entire character creation screen done.
i was just about to go through that...

woot!

 

[Morticia]

I've lost count of the number of feature requests people have made to which I've thought, 'that would be easy if I had fallout's source code', (tell me about being one of them, obviously,)

After 10 years, no source code. That explains a lot even though I ain't a programmer or would know what to do with source code in the first place. I know that having it would open the door for all you programmers and code people to work with it though.

Prolly a new mapper would be soon coming. Where can we push Bethesda (or whoever owns it) to release the source code for Fallout?

 

[lisac2k]

...so I've decided to jump on the lets-write-a-fallout-clone bandwagon for a bit.

This would be the most anticipated step forward for all of the modders out there, plus it would prolong the life of the (today already rather) outdated game (engine). You deserve all support you can get for daring to do such a noble thing.

Thank you.

Where can we push Bethesda (or whoever owns it) to release the source code for Fallout?

Sisyphean task.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

I would ask you marry me, but I already asked Contiunium, so maybe Dude will ask you instead

To be honest, I know this is a massive undertaking, but if anyone can do it I'm sure its you. Any help you need just ask and I'm sure the modding community here will do what we can to help you (we owe you one for making sfall).

 

[Dude101]

I would ask you marry me, but I already asked Contiunium, so maybe Dude will ask you instead

Yes, marry me and have my mutated babies.

 

[TheHologram]

Very nice work.

Kinda off topic: If I had the amount of time you have this summer I'd probably be writing some tools for Fallout 3. (It might not suck and may be fixable like Oblivion was) Of course we dont know what they are actually going to release but can make guesses about what will and will not be there. BethSoft is still using Gamebryo which has not changed its file format too dramatically. I lost track of the Oblivion modding arena but there was talk of using your engine to dynamically load models at runtime as well as animations and textures for those models as well. I expect this it to come up again with F3 assuming its not disowned like BOS.

 

[Kanhef]

It looks like you're using the same images and other files. You should be able to write a technical specification or API describing what the engine does with each kind of file. That will make sure it behaves like the original engine, while letting you rewrite the internals. It will also be much easier for someone else to pick up if you get tired of it. If the master plan is all in your head, it won't survive without you.

 

[Oracle]

Kinda off topic: If I had the amount of time you have this summer I'd probably be writing some tools for Fallout 3. (It might not suck and may be fixable like Oblivion was)

whoa what? you rather see FO3 tools instead of FO1 and FO2?

also Oblivion fixed? how?

 

[Continuum]

Kinda off topic: If I had the amount of time you have this summer I'd probably be writing some tools for Fallout 3. (It might not suck and may be fixable like Oblivion was) Of course we dont know what they are actually going to release but can make guesses about what will and will not be there.

Writing tools for the game that isn't released? Even if utilize the same engine (and similar "solutions", since Bethesda's devs are lazy as hell), Wow!

Also, there are things that can't be fixed (heavily hardcoded). So, maybe he should start to writing his own Fallout 3 instead...

And:

Bugs can be fixed but shitty design is forever.

 

[Kanhef]

Put another way,
Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.

 

[Timeslip]

1.30 is up. I finally got around to fixing movies in DX9 mode, and I tightened up the compatibility mode check to stop it winging at people who tried to run fallout as administor on vista. Finally, it occured to me that the set_stat_max/min functions would effect npc's as well, which doesn't matter much if you raise the limits but causes problems if you lower them. I added the slightly more specific set_pc_stat_max/min and set_npc_stat_max/min functions to replace them. (set_stat_max still exists and works, and has an identical effect to calling set_pc_stat_max and set_npc_stat_max at the same time.)

 

[Ulrask]

Hello !

Thank you for your work on the patch. I am experiencing a little problem though (both with the version included in the megamod or that latest version you just released, it's not a regression)

When I try to run Fallout 2 vanilla or with your patch w/ default config, it's working all well, with your patch providing the scroll wheel and everything. But when I just change the mode from 0 to 4 or 5 (to get DX9) I get the error message "failure initializing input devices".

I'm running vista SP1 x64, freshly installed with nothing of importance installed (ext2fs, latest nvidia drivers, daemon tools, winrar, obviously Fallout 2 and that's about it. it seldom come fresher than that)

May it be a 64 bits issue ?

Anyway everything else is working and it's an enjoyable experience enough you're providing here timeslip.

 

[Timeslip]

I get the error message "failure initializing input devices".

You get that error if the fallout window isn't focused when fallout tries to create the input interfaces. You can fix it by setting the BackgroundKeyboard and BackgroundMouse settings to 1, but if you're running in a window turning on BackgroundMouse will prevent fallout from capturing the mouse cursor. (i.e. you'll be able to move it outside the window.)

Using a dx9 mode shouldn't cause it. It could be something to do with the nvidia drivers, especially if they try to display a HUD on top of fallout or pop up a bubble in the taskbar or something.