Some quick layout updates in the site and other changes.
Site Layout Updates:
Today the site banner received few tweaks from Mortecha, which ended with some pixelated issues that the old banner had. And it inspired me to adapt the network bar to the recent changes of the network, fixing some gray borders at some pictures of the recently added buttons there. And this is all our layout changes for now.
Our updated FAQ:
We also have a section here, which, unlike the rest of the site (include our spotlight events still pointing the cartographer's call), is usually updated called PPM FAQ. Yea, it is our frequently asked questions, which are really frequently asked or, most people want certainly to ask them. At least I'm tired of seeing questions about 'what the hell are voxel normals?' or 'how do I download OS BIG Editor (or any other program) from the SVN?' or... 'Hey, I'm just started to mod this game. What do I need to do?'. You'll find the answer of these questions and many others at PPM FAQ. It is a very useful section, a must read for everyone! If you wanna add questions there, simply reply to the article and we'll update it with the answers for your question. It covers everything from TS to RA3 and it can cover even more if somebody comes up with questions about older games as well.
New Hosted Mod: Dominance
We have a new hosted mod at PPM called Dominance set in the cold war, except that instead of becoming capitalist and get decomposed into several countries, the USSR continues the space race and, eventually, they move all their population to Mars, leaving Earth with the democratic countries. However, Mars is not Earth and lacks many resources, which inspired the russians from mars (under the name of Kautine Empire) to invade Earth.
Find more information about this mod at their new forums.
VXLSE III SVN, the Red Button and OSGIC
For those who check our SVN once in a while, might have noticed some heavy activity on the development of the Voxel Section Editor III. Most of the revisions there barely affected the program itself for the end user and the one that did affect, didn't made any positive change at all. However, you might find inumerous features being coded there, from 32 bits palettes, unlimited normals, models, transparency on models, multi-documents support, multi-voxels, multi-HVA, document loading voxel body, turret and barrel at once, among other things.
Those changes are part of two things. One is the modelize feature, which should allow you to export your voxel based models into polygonal models like the ones seen in the recent C&C games. Of course, it will have limits and do not expect it having textures and shaders. Perharps, in a later time, we can have them, but later means few years ahead. The second thing is OSGIC, our april 1st announcement, which is being coded in this process. Both VXLSE III and OSGIC will share a similar engine, although they'll have a different way to approach graphics creation. Of course, things like transparency and unlimited normals will be featured on OSGIC rather than on VXLSE III, which should be more focused on Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 voxels.
You can follow the development of VXLSE III HERE.
