(From FFED3DAJ_Versions.txt)
Build history for FFED3DAJ
==========================
What's New in Version v1.10a (See full changelog)
2014-10-18 - Version 1.10a:
+ Corrected that game didn't load the Hammer space-station body when using modelPreLoad=99.
2014-10-17 - Version 1.10:
+ Object rendition code reworked to distance-sort draw all objects, not just planetary/orbital bodies when within a sky. This greatly improves z-order and planets generally draw in front of each other in the correct order.
Transparent areas on models, such as the cockpit on the replacement Falcon model will now correctly show any other ships and objects that are behind it. Depth sorting can be disabled by setting sortByDistance=0 in the config file.
+ Z-Depth issues fixed where planets converge at the same position. Thanks to DreamZzz for contacting me to let me know about a model variable that could be tested to perform z-buffer clears. This is applied for asteroid, planet and planetary ring objects during the sorted render phase.
+ Choice of Accurate or Artistic drawing of the planets when within an atmosphere. Setting DrawPlanetsInSkyLate=0 draws planets outside of the atmosphere and they will be obsured/coloured by it. (default)
Setting DrawPlanetsInSkyLate=1 will draws planets inside the atmosphere so that they are always visible in the sky, but appear behind any clouds.
+ Default value for DrawSunsInSkyLate has changed to 0, so that clouds can mask the sun.
+ FFE code now exposes a pointer to the parent object of the orbital paths, these can now be drawn at the same point as the parent, and whilst they can still overlap the parent - closer objects will be drawn in front using depth sort.
+ Fixed the extra rotation applied to asteroids and brown dwarfs when the view was moved left/right.
+ Brown Dwarf planets no longer have invisible areas when in close proximity to them.
+ Brown Dwarf is now drawn behind clouds in a planet's sky as per other orbitals/planetary bodies.
+ New option to draw the original FFE nebula textures in space rather than FFED3D's skybox. Set drawOriginalNebula=1
in ffed3daj.cfg to enable (default) or drawOriginalNebula=0 to disable.
+ New option to draw the FFED3D nebula skybox or suppress it. Set drawFFED3DNebula=1 in ffed3daj.cfg to draw it or drawFFED3DNebula=0 to disable it (default).
+ JJFFE fix: Intro uses the active Space background colour rather than resetting to light blue each time.
If drawing the FFED3D nebula skybox then its images (skybox0 to 5) must be transparent for this to take effect, otherwise it should be disabled. The original textures in FFED3D v1.12b++ had a solid background.
+ Remapped the nova images used by the sector star map to use tex553 and tex554. This separates them from those used on the original FFF nova background drawn in space and during the intro sequence.
+ Suppressed loading of external models 315, 316 and 444 which interfered with the original nebula/stars background.
+ Suppressed drawing of the original Imperial engine pods which were appearing over the replacement model for the Imperial Trader.
+ Fixed vertex colour bleed between land/sea terrain for planet #128.
+ Intro fix: Turner's Quest and Police ship don't reappear once destroyed by the Thargoid warship.
+ The Defence satellite now uses unique image tex555 for its solar panels instead of tex452.
+ The 'Game Over' headstone now uses tex556 instead of tex422 (used by ships engine pods & fuel scoops).
+ Planetary rings are now slightly transparent. This can be adjusted with the setting PlanetRingsAlpha.
+ Rivers, lakes and pools are now textured. (experimental, doesn't use a water shader yet)
+ Optional FFE fix to activate multiple textures on primitive Adder, Cobra Mk1 and Constrictor models. There was a command to select a variable texture but this wasn't actually used when the model was drawn. Enabled by default, but it can be disabled by setting "fixMultiTexturesOnShips=0" in ffed3daj.cfg.
+ Terrain draws correctly in Battle Computer mode and doesn't have splits and triangles missing.
+ Keyboard binds now include keys for triggering menu options 1 to 4.
+ New patch to prevent accidental firing of lasers when using the cabin screens, e.g. sector map, planetary view.
In [PATCHES] section of ffed3daj.cfg, set BlockLaserFireFromCabin=1 to enable (default) or set =0 to disable the patch and restore original FFE behaviour.
+ Tidy up of render/sampler state code. Texture clamping is now always used and removes visible seams/edges from the Combat Computer grid, nebula on system charts and large sun image on information screens.
+ Combat Computer grid is now drawn last of all so that it doesn't clip/obscure engine flares, lights etc.
+ Removed the underlying FFE assembly code which drew the Cabin background when using the Combat Computer view.
+ New configuration setting "extendedDetailDistances" which extends the draw distances for object details. Set =1 by default to enable, set this option to 0 to disable if frame rates suffer on less powerful computers as it can introduce many additional objects to large space ports and city areas.
+ New configuration setting "linkTargetSpritesToLabels" which is enabled by default and links the display of navigation target markers to the display of descriptive labels within the game view. The markers appear for objects that are beyond visual range. Objects that do not have descriptions, e.g. asteroids will just display their marker.
The planetary view is unaffected by this and will continue to show markers for bases, stations and planets.
set to 1 to enable, set to 0 to disable.
+ Primitive 'Ball' objects are now drawn with shading, for example Lifter cargo, Pilot heads, Mantis spaceship.
+ Spheres use pre-calculated values to generate vertices.
+ Issue of disappearing button icons in Stock market screen is now fixed.
+ The double asteroid, model #116 is now drawn as 2 separate asteroidal bodies. This is still 'work in progress' as the position & rotation are incorrect, and the target marker should be centred between the 2 asteroids.
+ Added information message when aborting start up due to another FFED3DAJ process being active.
+ Added error message when invalid config file is specified on command line.
Additional enhancements for planet terrain re-texturing:
+ New terrain areas "shoreToLand", "RockyPlain" and "HighSlope". Corrected support for "highPlain" area.
+ New terrain options to sphere-map the texture on flat land areas (plains/dry ocean regions) rather than using the default FFE mappings. This consistently orients and scales the texture across large areas. Each mapped terrain area also has a setting to control how the texture is scaled.
Please see the readme file for more information on terrain re-texturing.
+ "Living" planets can now use an enhanced atmosphere shader.
The shader is derived from Alex Peterson's "Simple Flexibile Atmosphere Shader" which can be found on his blog at
http://petrocket.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/simple-flexibile-atmosphere-shaders.html
Full credit and thanks to him for sharing his work with the internet community.
+ Gas giants and irregular planets have a new atmosphere glow surrounding them.
The new atmosphere effects are enabled or disabled by the .cfg setting "useEnhancedAtmosphereShaders"
+ Atmosphere colour images and settings are exposed via the texture configuration file.
+ Cloud texture mapping corrected so that it doesn't skip at midnight and does a full rotation per day.
+ Animated the cloud texture so that it moves for planets displayed in the planetary view.
+ Alpha blending corrected on cloud layers so that they don't discolour the sky. (Additive blending)
+ Cloud layers appear beneath the ship when ascending from the planet, they don't just disappear.
+ Reworked the reading of configuration files so that they are all processed before the game window displays.
This has resolved the issue where the game would silently fail to start up.
+ Extra external cloud textures configurable via textures.cfg
+ Planet surface 'fog' settings added via textures.cfg which can colour the planet terrain to imitate the effect of atmosphere fog when flying higher into and beyond the atmosphere.
+ Planet surface 'glow' settings to adjust colour added via textures.cfg, primarily to increase red tint on the Brown Dwarf planets when the player gets closer to the surface.
+ Space dust is visible again at high speeds and away from space stations. It is also correctly coloured grey rather than white. There is a new setting in the .cfg file to adjust its scale from 0 to 100%.
The default is starDustScale=100 for full size. Setting the value to 0 will prevent star dust from being drawn and is independent of the FFE game setting (within 'Other') which turns off other game details such as clouds.
+ Textures folder can be defined in the [DIR] section of the configuration file.
+ Resolved the occasional crashes that occurred when shutting down the game.
+ Fixed the blank area on textured planets/asteroids. The sphere-mapping code didn't test for out-of-bounds values being passed into the acos() functions, the values had been caused by rounding errors.
+ Added a "borderless" window mode that can be used as an alternative to the "exclusive" fullscreen mode. This new mode will draw a full-screen window on the primary monitor without borders/title, and permits applications on other monitors to be viewed/clicked upon. Borderless mode is enabled by setting "enableBorderless=1" in the configuration file and fullscreen=0. The user can toggle between it and windowed mode as before. With this option enabled the game can be started in this mode by setting "defaultBorderless=1". This will be the new default mode as it automatically runs full-screen without the user having to edit anything.
+ When using special CTRL key functionality, the key presses won't be passed through to FFE now. So for example, CTRL+F12 to toggle between full-screen/windowed mode won't activate an escape pod!
+ Experimental texture load settings have been added to the .cfg file to permit the loading of game textures directly onto the graphics card rather than into system memory. Users on 32bit Windows who have large amounts of graphics memory available may benefit by being able shift textures to the graphics card. Currently there is no analysis of what can be loaded, the user will need to experiment themselves to find what works.
NB. Switching between fullscreen and windowed mode will take slightly longer when caching directly on the graphics card as they have to be released and reloaded in order to switch resolution/mode.
+ Fixed occasional start-up crash when JJFFE read the configuration file to get the FPS limit value.
+ At a certain rotational point and distance, small planetoids such as Io would spike areas of their surface out towards the camera. There was an undocumented fix in the FFED3D code base between r58 and r60 which actually fixed this and so it has been added back in. It is skipped for asteroids though as it prevents large portions of their surfaces from being drawn.
+ Fixed a situation that displayed a combined external and primitive model for the Eagle Mk 2 or Mk 3.
This would happen when drawing external .x models, and model 24/25 is not present but model 23 is. Model 23 would be drawn as it is a common model part but it would display .x Long Range Eagle model with vector landing gear.
If model 23 is being drawn as a sub-object and the parent model 24/25 has not been loaded or is missing it will be forced to draw as the primitive model instead.
+ Added CTRL+F3 key combination to reload game and ship patches to aid developers making alterations.
+ Added CTRL+F7 key combination to reload game textures to aid developers making alterations.
+ Added additional ship patches to restore the rear view so that it isn't blocked by the ship model.
+ When using grey-scaled shoreline textures on green living planets, it can use vertex blending to create a beach effect. This is enabled by the ffed3daj.cfg configuration setting useVertexBlendingForBeaches=1.
Setting it to 0 will cause a solid green shoreline texture as in v1.09 and earlier. Has no effect when using pre-coloured textures.
+ Initial splash screen will redraw the text and not remain blank after user switches screen mode or after the DirectX display device has had to be reset.
+ Bug Fix: Sub-Objects are lit once again by the lights of their parent object (broken in v1.08+)
+ Static interplanetary shuttles are now above ground and won't display their base name as the ship label.
+ The replacement docking bay entrance now uses a unique model for the cylindrical space station which has a slanted front opening, model 470. Other stations use the squared version, model 227 which is scaled as required to fit the other stations. Both models have been updated to remove the second 'lift' room which should not have been present behind the rear bay doors. The updated models, skin and tris.ini files are included in the patch.
+ Added animation timings for the docking bay replacement model so that the doors open and shut correctly.
+ Supressed the loading of replacement models for the docking bay lift and two complex areas which are parents to variations of other shapes and models. Models 234, 236 and 237 will not be loaded now.
+ Added unique texture for internal docking bay doors, tex557. This is only used along with the replacement docking bay models 227/470 to blend transitions.
+ Added unique textures for the docking bay lift model 236. These are used with the replacement docking bay, model 227/470 to blend transitions between rooms. The new textures are tex558 to tex564.
+ Police Vipers in the intro sequence now start in front of the space station in scene 11. They don't fly through the front walls as they give chase!
+ Z-Order tweaks to TV/Posters so that text overlaps in the correct order.
+ Clock faces now appear on all sides of the original FFE church tower, but the hands still spin too fast.
+ Corrected alignment of Boa decal stripes.
+ Crew icon now appears on the cockpit panel when using a single person ship but have retained crew either by changing ships in Buffet or from using the patch to keep excess crew.
+ Updated splash screens for FFED3DAJ mod and removed outdated website links.
+ Additional start-up "tips" & tweaked positions. (Thanks for those provided by Steve of FrontierAstro)
+ fixed FFE's missing alignment for surface temperature in planet information text.
+ The cargo inventory icon is hidden when the ship is empty.
+ Improved z-order of TV screens/posters so that they don't disappear when launching from the docking bay.
+ Choice between 2 models to use for the space-station docking bay final room and for that of underground stations.
Two new settings define which to use: "spacestationDockingBay" and "undergroundDockingBay". These can be set to either 233 or 471. If Model 233 is used for the underground room then the animation is set to display a blank frame outside the windows so that the rotating stars aren't visible. Models 233 and 471 are included within the patch package to ensure that they are as expected.
+ Added image tex427 to the core files pack as it is used by adverts and was missing from some installations.
+ Added images tex529 and tex530 to the core files pack to correct how they are displayed.
tex529 is the Recycle image, this version is darker than in some installations.
tex530 is the Frontier logo, forced red in this version to display on the game-over headstone.
+ Suppressed the drawing of Space Dust when still within a planet's atmosphere.
+ Main shader files now reside in the \Shaders sub-directory.
+ The blue explosion stars in the intro sequences rotate.
2014-03-23 - Version 1.09:
+ Large sun graphics (tex38 & tex39) are now drawn in the system information screens.
+ FFE Music tweak: Repeat battle music for the duration of combat and also starts it after loading a saved game where engaged in a battle situation.
+ New setting in custom music configuration file to either immediately cease battle music at the end of combat or to play until the end of the current track.
+ Settings added in both ffed3daj.cfg (GAME_SETTINGS) and the custom music .cfg file to enable/disable the FFE music tweak that repeats combat/docking music depending upon players preference.
2014-03-06 - Version 1.08a:
Correction to the planet shader file for ATI cards which caused planets and large asteroids to render black.
2014-03-04 - Version 1.08:
+ When within an atmosphere, distant suns, moons and planets are now depth-sorted and drawn to ensure that they
don't appear to be in front of the planet surface. They are drawn within the sky to make them visible but are
masked by clouds. Hiding the sun behind clouds might not be to everyone's taste, so by default suns are drawn late
as in previous builds. This can be controlled now by the setting "DrawSunsInSkyLate" and assigning the value of 0
will cause accurate rather than artistic rendering, and means that a sun in the sky can be eclipsed by planets.
+ Extended the textures configuration files to include the planets/asteroids that use a single skin texture.
Individual terrain textures can now be defined for these planets in the same way as for living planets.
The textures.cfg is now enabled by default in the ffed3daj.cfg file.
+ Exposed the colour calculation in the textures config file so that individual terrains/skins can be tweaked, as
well as a final 'lighten' value for the shader to apply. Option to use noise shader or not per terrain type.
+ Ship lights are now sized appropriately.
+ FFE Videos can now be replaced with a folder containing Image alternatives. PNG files will automatically use
their transparency as will DDS. TGA/BMP have no transparency.
+ FFE Bug fix: "Pay berthing charge by midnight or suffer the consequences." message will now display at the start
of a day when player has insufficient funds. Previously it incorrectly displayed the "Pay landing charge" message.
+ Correction to log file write; .X model load routine changes active directory so log has to be opened with full
path and filename each time.
+ Application will prevent multiple instances from running at the same time.
+ New patch in config file to force tidally-locked planets to rotate. It is disabled by default, set the value
ForcePlanetRotation=1 to enable it. Once enabled, it will apply to all habitable planets & larger gas giants, as
well as rocky planets and asterodial bodies that directly orbit a sun.
+ Corrected FFED3D's colouring of gas giants. The index into the colour table would exceed the number of colours
for the bottom half and all planets would render with a red/black striped lower half.
+ Corrected FFED3D's colouring of coastal terrain and water tiles where the land/sea would bleed into the adjacent
area. There are now clean borders between land and sea. Some terrain tiles next to the sea also shared the texture
used for highPlains. These will now be remapped to use the beach texture.
+ Original/Replacement cabin textures are now loaded on demand from FFE to reduce memory usage using drawCabin=2.
Users can still precache all images however with drawCabin=3.
+ All Thargoid ships will now use Cabin5.
+ Fixed saving of PNG full-screen shots where objects had alpha-levels in their textures.
+ Added options to configure path to save screen shots within, a scale % that can reduce their size as well as the
format to save them in: 0=BMP, 1=JPG, 2=TGA, 3=PNG. JPG is now the default format.
+ FPS info screen (F) includes the model number of current targets as this is helpful for texturing planets.
+ System planetary/trade/politics information views no longer display elements of the Sector grid view.
+ Upgraded BASS "MP3-Free" DLL used to play samples/music to its current version 2.4.10.
FFE Videos fixes:
+ Independent systems erroneously included Alliance 'Welcome' videos g9 & g10.
+ Non-Alliance systems no longer have a chance of deciding to displaying a standard Alliance 'Welcome' video!
+ Religious Dictatorship and Martial Law systems now display their unique 'Welcome' messages (r1-4, m1-4).
+ Low tech Independent system welcome messages now include video fr1.avi which was in the wrong table.
+ Added distinct Alliance scenario for docking with damaged ship, hull condition <75% (g9 & g10).
+ Added distinct Alliance scenario that player is unwelcome as a criminal (g11).
Rewrite of FFED3D's support for custom music.
+ Custom music folder can be specified in ffed3daj.cfg
+ Settings to configure custom music can be specified within the custom_music.cfg found within that folder.
This enables music mod writers to configure and deploy their mod within a unique folder. The user then only
has to change the ffed3daj.cfg to point to appropriate folder.
+ Docking and Combat event musics are now played in both the canon JJFFE and Anistropic builds. (FFED3D bug)
+ Extended the set of folders to support promotion/medal events separately for Federation and Imperial navies.
+ Extended the set of folders to support separate station, landing pad, underground and Thargoid soundtracks.
+ Available song names are cached at start up, not each time a track begins.
+ Added support for playlists (.PLS) so that mp3/audio files can be located on other physical drives.
+ Option for station/space playlists to select random tracks or play sequentially.
+ Implemented media key support: Play/Stop will enable or disable FFE's music option and start/stop music playing.
Forward/Previous will navigate the active playlist when sequential play is enabled for it, otherwise another
song will be selected at random.
FFE Music track tweaks:
+ Disabling 'Blue Danube' in the song options will now only prevent it from being randomly selected during the
game. It will be played during docking according to whether the 'Docking Music' option is enabled or not.
If one or more mp3 tracks or a PLS are present in the custom music folder \docking then these tracks will be
randomly chosen from.
+ Disabling 'Ride of the Valkyries' in the song options will also only prevent that song from being randomly
selected during the game. It will be played during combat according to whether the 'Music during Combat' option
is enabled or not. If one or more mp3 tracks or a PLS are present in the custom music folder \combat these
tracks will be randomly chosen from.
+ Disabling 'Halls of the Mountain King' and 'The Great Gates of Kiev' will remove them from the random music
choices but they will still be played for promotions and medal awards if Music is enabled, and if no custom
music has been defined instead.
+ Disabling the Intro music will also remove it from the continuous music choice, but it will play for the intro
if music is enabled.
+ Docking music is triggered again by the 'Clearance already granted' message if it's not already playing.
+ Docking music will repeat during continuous music, whilst the player is still flying under autopilot to the
station/port that has granted docking clearance or when entering station bays/lifts. Docking music will also
restart after loading a saved game which meets these criteria.
2013-12-31 - Version 1.07:
+ Distant suns and planets are now drawn from very a small size and scale smoothly as you approach/zoom in to them.
This solves the 'pop up' issue and their replacement point-sprite is only drawn once they reach a distance where
a dot needs to be drawn, so that they don't entirely disappear from screen/planetary map.
+ Reintroduced the unique engine flares of Imperial Courier and Traders that were used in Frontier but had not been
ported to FFE correctly. (They exist in the data but the imperial engine pod didn't reference them!)
FFE purists can disable this enhancement via the config file, by setting frontierImperialEngines=0 if they wish!
+ Centering the Sector view now resets the hyperspace range, and updates the system data screens and target
system's planetary view to show the current system. (This was broken in all versions of FFE)
+ Removed the black lines that appeared above the video during playback, and above or to the side of the rotating
ship in the equipment views or shipyard.
+ Sector map stars, distant objects and light sprites scale correctly.
+ Dual coloured lights on space station and base towers display properly.
+ New shipdata patch to correct the rear view of the Thargon warhip which was part-obscured by the lower hull.
+ Config file options to export shipdata values for FFE/Aniso.
+ Cones were still being drawn when there was a replacement model for the imperial courier engine.
+ Target icons were offset as shouldn't have been affected by main game font size setting.
+ Bug fix: The CheatMode FFE hack to suppress generation of radioactives wasn't incrementing available cargo space!
+ New config options to define custom textures for inhabitable planet terrains and for individual suns.
Set useCustomTextures=1 to enable, along with the filename holding the texture configuration.
+ New Command line option to specify an alternative config file to use: -config filename.cfg
+ Added support for the alternate Frontier BBS face videos created by Commander Frantic.
set AlternativeFrontierVideos=1 to use, Only the first frame is drawn and then left on screen.
It is best to set transparentCommVideos=0 when using them, but I have left this switchable in-case anyone wants
to improve them in the future with solid black areas. (Top-left pixel defines the transparency colour)
- Removed RedBase, GreenBase and BlueBase .cfg settings. They only related to JJFFE and serve no purpose now.
2012-11-22 - Version 1.06:
+ Fixed the crash in Aniso 0.9c mod when attacking a peaceful AI ship. This had been corrected in Aniso's final
"rolling update" build of 0.9c but not in the released source code. The issue was in FUNC_ShipHit, JUMP_NoMusic
needed to 'pop eax' after the 'call FUNC_001903_SoundStopSong' statement.
+ Fixed video playback so that they don't leave their final frame on the screen, and so that a subsequent video
doesn't begin by displaying the final frame belonging to the previous video.
+ Fix to prevent a mouse click during video playback from triggering multiple GUI button actions.
+ Correction to global Ship and Object shaders to preserve alpha values from the skin. This reinstates the
transparent cockpit of the Falcon.
+ Corrected the message that's displayed when jettisoning items from the cargo bay, was drawing in green text.
+ New FFE/Aniso hacks added, originally from CheatMode FFE v1.29 by Stone-D (Laga Mahesa):
+ Prevent military drives from generating Radioactives from fuel.
Setting the value of milDrivesCreateRadioactives to 0.
+ Remove requirement for military drives on classified missions.
Setting the value of classifiedMissionsReqMilDrives to 0.
2013-10-28 - Version 1.05:
+ Changed Link options for build to indicate that the FFED3DAJ executables supports large memory addresses.
This now enables the loading of textures and models beyond the normal 2GB limit on 64bit Windows systems.
+ Option to Pre-load all models supported. Requires an 64bit OS with >2GB memory with everything enabled or for
multiple-skins to be disabled: modelPreLoad=99.
+ Option to capture the mouse in fullscreen mode so that it can't escape to another monitor. Enabled by default
with setting fsCaptureMouse=1.
+ Correction to window size, height was short by 2 pixels.
+ Possible fix for GUI buttons not being drawn. This issue could be reproduced when switching from the Combat
Computer view straight to the System menu or to the Stockmarket screen via the Services menu.
+ Fixed the seam that was visible in the galaxy skybox.
+ Added support for line circles. The Battle Target Control search recticle will now flash within the laser
sight area when it has been activated and is searching for a target.
+ Adverts now draw complete with their backgrounds and logos onto the TV screens. The background colour can
be blended/hidden via a new .cfg setting "advertsBackgroundAlpha" where 0 = full transparency and no backgrounds
are drawn, just the text/logos over a plain screen, upto 255 which draws a solid colour/textured background.
Where the advert has textured backgrounds, these are visible (>0) or hidden (0) as they do not support blending.
+ polygon doors and yellow dashes are now hidden when drawing the replacement Docking bay model.
+ Docking bay number will be suppressed if 'notDrawText=1' is defined in the tris.ini setting of model 233.
+ Orginal Polygon windows will not be drawn now when a replacement Church model is being used.
+ Fallback allowing the use of a bitmap console panel and icons for users who can't see the model version.
Set bitmapConsole=1 to enable. This will reset to the original click locations and use the original textures.
Note that in current packages, the Status light images, textures\212.png thru 217.png are present but have been
renamed with a trailing underscore, and that orange (transparent) images are in their place. These images would
need to be manually reverted by the user to appear once again.
+ Exposed the game settings in the .cfg file, except for the map details. These can optionally override the
defaults and/or settings loaded from saved games. Map settings aren't supported as they weren't taking effect
on the start of a new game. I can't see why anyone would actually want to switch these items off anyway, so I've
decided that ultimately it wasn't worth spending a lot of time trying to support them.
+ Large asteroids now appear in the game and aren't invisible! Their detail can also be increased by adjusting the
new setting asteroid_max_divide_deep. 0=no increase, up to 3.
The following changes apply to the drawing of the primitive models which FFE originally used:
+ Added support for drawing filled circles. Engines now appear on Falcon, Tiger, Boa and Lynx ships.
+ Spinning double-ring antenna displays on top of the sawblade and destroyed thargon ship.
+ Sidewinder and Python landing gear is drawn if replacement models are enabled, but no model exists for this
ship and the primitive polygon version is being displayed.
+ Bio-domes tweaked to remove 'Z-fighting' between fields and green base. (some occurs 8000->10000m altitute)
+ Corrected colour/texturing of cones. Eagle MK3 side pods now correct with cyan circle at front. Lifter should
always have had textured engines.
+ Corrected sizes of Ball objects used on primitive models for pilots heads, distant front wheels, lifter cargo
and at the power station.
+ Many(!) individual tweaks to the positions of primitive squares, triangles and polygons...
This fixes the display/flickering of ship engines, Id's, landing gear bays, and the shark teeth and stripe
decals. Also squares, lines and texts on the various space stations. (squares suppressed on the Lave type
spacestations as they proved too glitchy to display reliably)
2013-10-01 - Version 1.04:
+ DirectX code now fully supports switching between Windowed mode and Fullscreen, Fullscreen can be restored
after being minimized, and after switching modes or restoring the game colours are now correct and stars/dots
are not lost from the maps.
Note that when switching modes or restoring from minimized, only those parts of the screen which are being
drawn each frame will be redisplayed. Some areas such as the text in the Equipment page will be lost.
This is to be expected and happens when the DirectX display device has had to be reset, clearing the screen.
Just switch to another view or page to restore a complete screen.
2013-09-18 - Version 1.03:
+ Hyperspace range circle displays on the System star map.
+ Correction to FFED3D DrawRealSphere routine which was drawing small spheres with a hole left at their top
(e.g. spheres on lifter cargo at default start) or in the case of atmospheres, the sphere could be seen to
interact with other shapes. (e.g. when zooming in on Merlin in the planetary view, at a certain point it
would inherit parts of Aster's panetary rings or draw spikes out of the screen). This might be why
atmospheres weren't activated in the FFED3D v1.12b++ and source code. The underlying problem was an incorrect
calculation of how many verticies it needed to reserve in the vertex buffer when locking it.
+ More colour corrections. System star map grid is correctly drawn with green lines, Purple/orange on adverts.
+ Added option in cfg file to use a darker green for living planet surface colours, enabled by default as the
original bright day-glo green has proved to be somewhat unpopular!
+ Specific fix for displaying cargo Jettison and Parcel/Passenger delivery headings in a green text.
+ Fixed Planetary map was not immediately displaying a White Dwarf when it's the focused object.
+ Fixed shutdown hang when using the "Quit" menu option.
+ Added a NIC mod code fix into the Anisotropic mod to allow travel to Pleione. This fix is enabled in the .cfg
file in the [PATCHES_ANISO] section, "PleioneTravelHack=1".
Because it was described as being a 'a total hack' I've implemented it this way so that it can be disabled
with value 0 in case it creates other problems!
+ Removed 'Insert CDROM' message from the new Anisotropic build where videos are missing.
+ Added support for the original cabin bitmaps, specify DrawCabin=2 in the config file and they should be
present in the game .exe folder. Alternative/higher resolution images in png,dds or tga format can be placed
in the Textures folder and will be loaded in preference. DrawCabin=1 or missing cabins will use tex96.
+ Communication videos can optionally be drawn with transparent background as in FFE.
+ Separate settings for disabling atmosphere and water shaders, were all under usePlanetShaders setting before.
+ Fixed the brief display of the cabin prior to the initial splash screen.
+ Game can now be switched between Windowed and Fullscreen modes using CTRL+F12, and it will resume from a
minimized state. (There are issues remaining with panel textures etc, see the read me file for more detail)
+ Option to automatically pause the game when minimized. This will also pause the intro to save CPU, so note
that when resuming to a paused intro screen, click in the screen to bring up the start view, and then click
the x1 game speed button to begin game time - the button will already be lit by default but the game will
still be paused. This option, pauseGameOnMinimize, is enabled by default.
+ Vent texture isn't randomly draw over the background of the save/load screens.
+ Input area is blanked out before entry of a new commander or file name.
+ Replacement Space station model is drawn during the entire intro. It is mapping the missing intro models
453, 463 and 464 to the game models 74 and 238, re-orienting and scaling as required.
+ For completeness, added support for the [TIMER] section and "maxfps" setting into the .cfg file as the JJFFE
code still uses it. High frame rates may aid attacking pirates, so I'm exposing this setting as a safeguard.
+ Missiles expose skin/color numbers 0 to 7 to identify their type.
+ Proximity mines draw correctly when fired. This was an FFE bug causing only half of a real mine to be
drawn, model 5's commands set Local[0] to -1 but model 4 (the actual mine) checks for non-zero to indicate
that it is a mine mounted on a missile rack. Objects 4 and 5 can also be distinguished with individual .X
models now if someone wishes to create them!
+ Fixed blanking out of an area at the bottom of Inventory/Communication views.
- Removed panel.X from the patch package as installing over an initial FFED3D v1.12b++ caused a mismatch with
its textures. Users should use the JSGME mod switcher and activate "SteveT - Cockpit mod for FFED3D (Base)"
instead if they wish to use the high-poly version. (this is the one with rounded console lights).
2013-08-16 - Version 1.02:
+ This build is primarily to replace the faulty Anisotropic code and data with an earlier version sourced from
the r17 FFED3D source. It now matches the Anisotropic 0.9c assembly code and C routines. Testing indicates
that this has corrected the reported issues; such as the player's ship changing upon day change, cargo
corruption during combat and encountering AI ships that have huge amounts of fuel etc.
The default Ship data is also as it should be, but shipdata_aniso.txt can still be used to modify it.
+ Correction: Discrepancy with blue sky when close to some rocky planets but no sky near dying world #132.
+ New .cfg option to set the minimum size of space dust, to make it more visible.
+ updated panel.X with the correct high-poly version
2013-08-11 - Version 1.01:
+ New options to enable Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing to smooth model & line edges. (Enabled by default)
enableMSAA=1 in [DISPLAY] section of ffed3daj.cfg switches it on, set the value to 0 to disable.
maxMSAASamples setting with value 16 will select best quality if your hardware supports it. This maximum
can be decreased to force a lower quality setting to be used if it helps frame rate or if your video card
has insufficient memory. By default it is set to 4. If you see black skins on objects, decrease the value.
You may also experience an occassional animation jitter when using MSAA if frame rates fall too low.
+ Enabled support for global model shaders. This was disabled in the first release because it gave
everything a dark and metalic appearance, so individual models required their own shader effect.fx file.
There is now a ships.fx, asteroids.fx and models.fx within the Models folder to provide a generic shader
for ships, asteroids and everything else. Individual model shaders will be used where they are available
to permit customisation.
+ Added multiple skins support for objects. Each can have up to 10 different skins and in the case of Police
Vipers, they have their own dedicated skin. Implementation is via new shader variables, see the readme for
more detailed information. Use the 'Buffet' utility to tweak the colour/name of your ship if you want it to
use a particular skin!
+ Improved the atmosphere shader so that the sky and clouds obscure the stars during the daytime and then
fade to reveal them at night, with just a faint cloud layer visible in the night sky.
+ Reworked part of the rendering code so that when inside an atmosphere, the sky is now drawn before the sun,
which in turn is drawn before the planet - so the sun can now be seen in the sky of a living planet.
+ In case your PC is unable to load the high-resolution cloud textures, or to save memory, there is a new
setting in .cfg file- hiresCloudTextures=1. Set this to 0 to use lower resolution images.
+ The current sun colour was being applied when drawing your ship in the Equipment view and when viewing other
ships in the ship yard. They are now correctly lit with a white light as per original FFE.
+ The "1st Encounter" Quest ship now displays throughout the intro sequence.
+ Chasing Quest ship at end of intro sequence is swapped to be the expected police Viper when using models.
+ Extended the option to hide text on loaded models so that it can apply to bases and stations too.
+ Anisotropic version now reads shipdata_aniso.txt to load the ship configuration values.
+ Correction: re-enabled specular lighting so that objects will reflect light. This was accidentally left
disabled in the 2013-04-02 release.
+ Correction: Replaced lua.dll because it required Visual C++ 2005 runtimes to be installed. No idea why the
original authors switched to a hand-built version, but it's now using the official lua 5.1 dlls.
+ Added patches to allow the number of credits to be altered for each start point. Feedback was that the
Anisotropic mod is particularly harsh - so if you want to cheat and play as a millionaire, now you can!
+ Ships now display their radar dishes and antenna. Added temporary model 197 for the Naval ECM antenna which
is just a copy of 196 with a different texture. The new Panther Clipper and Lynx engine models are now
used as well.
To make sure that problematic equipment submodels can be hidden, the tris.ini file now supports these
additionalconfiguration settings against individual ship models:
notdrawsubmodel_194, notdrawsubmodel_195, notdrawsubmodel_196, notdrawsubmodel_197, notdrawsubmodel_198,
notdrawsubmodel_198, notdrawsubmodel_199 and notdrawsubmodel_213. Set the value =1 to hide that submodel.
For example, notdrawsubmodel_213=1 would hide gun turrets.
+ Additional fixes for characters in names, e.g. du Prйs's Wreck at Lawacan, Kцhl's Hole at Zeiocan etc.
+ The final line of each of the initial journal stories can now be scrolled up into view and read.
+ Console warning lights now illuminate when under attack, undercarriage is lowered or auto-pilot is active.
+ Updated the "Hints" messages in the start-up script to be in-keeping with the game.
+ The Eagle Mk2 and Mk3 now use their separate models correctly and won't draw the long range variant over
the top as well! Models 24 & 25 in FFE inherited the base Eagle from model 23. The change supresses drawing
of model 23 but retains missiles, ECM and thruster pines. (Primitive models of the ships render as before)
+ Model 271 (spaceport) and model 302 (hangers) can now have their name labels hidden by specifying
notdrawtext=1 under the [MODEL] section of their tris.ini file. This can be used to finally hide the "Old
Blackelk" text on the replacement spaceport model.
+ Cargo containers on Lifters (model 153) now has a color/skin value passed to it so that it can change its
appearance using a shader effect.fx file. (Example provided of programmatic color changing of default skin)
+ Fix for Nic mod "NoMassMissiles=1" hack: ship doesn't gain 1t cargo space when launching a missile now!
+ New option in .cfg file "modelPreLoad". This defines whether to pre-load models during start-up sequence.
0=no pre-loading, 1=intro models, 2=intro & default-start position models.
+ Application is now responsive during start-up. It can be moved/closed, and doesn't show "not responding"
in the title bar. Resources are loaded by separate worker-threads.
+ Proximity mines don't display the missile object as well now.
+ Added texture1-5 tga/png for models which shaders can use for bump maps etc
+ Sub-models will also hide text as well now if specified in tris.ini, e.g. Aggy's wind turbines.
+ Mouse pointer doesn't jump to top left corner now when right-clicking in full-screen mode.
+ Shutting down will now wait for the model manager thread to terminate first!
+ Only supported Textures present in the range above tex600 will be loaded to safeguard memory.
+ New checks for out-of-memory when trying to load a model and its textures. Stale objects will be dropped
immediately and a re-load of the model attempted.
+ Found and fixed a memory leak when passing colors over to the planet shader. (dates back to r8 of the
original ffed3d source)
+ Rewritten model cache management thread. This will now limit the number of models loaded into memory to
avoid running out of resources. Settings are available in FFED3DAJ.cfg to customise the number of models
that can be cached and also the frequency that the manager checks to load or release them.
2013-04-11 - 1st Public Release:
+ Colour fixes to planetary rings, much closer to original FFE now.
+ Fixed the missing TV screens in docking bays.
+ Battle computer scanner image around ship is now working.
+ Prevented Cabin background from being drawn in Battle Computer mode if it is enabled.
+ Ensured that Skip sub-models/text settings does not apply when using original primitive models.
+ Relaxed clipping of distant objects in Planetary map so that bases/stations aren't hidden by planets
and can always be seen/selected.
+ System map nebula images are now transparent.
+ Changed default configuration setting of smart_optimizer from 3 to 2 as it doubles framerate at the
expense of a little planet detail.
+ The Drive letters in directory listing can be now be configured in the [DIR] section of the .cfg file,
giving the choice of game drive only, or any combination of valid drives on the PC - one drive is always
displayed as the game expects and reserves space for it.
+ Correction: Drawing primitive models only would switch off planet shader.
+ Correction: Reinstated distance to target text when using replacement target icons.
2013-04-02:
+ Corrected rendition of rivers and lakes. Planetary rings no longer bright white but still need work.
+ Added support for fullscreen color depth defined in .cfg file.
+ Reworked custom targetting icons as had used a non-standard font.
2013-03-28:
+ Fixed system map not immediately displaying a Sun when it's the focused object.
+ Correction to skipping/replacement of sub-models where the main object has not been replaced.
This could cause the landing gear on ships to vanish and tiny radar dishes at bases and on space stations.
Where the main object hasn’t been replaced with an external object, primitive sub-models will be drawn.
2013-03-27:
+ Anisotropic mod build added!
Now includes an alternative build of FFED3DAJ which incorporates the Anisotropic modification!
Fixes/enhancements will apply to both versions unless stated otherwise.
+ Updated with final JJFFE 2.8a7 fixes:
+ System timer paused during videos to prevent mission timer issue.
+ Asteroids run out over time - refixed for typo in 2.8a6
+ Renamed the configuration file to FFED3DAJ.cfg due to all of the extensions to it.
+ Fixed the display of the target direction arrows.
+ Customisable navigaion and combat target indicators in cfg file.
+ Character replacements for planet names and description texts. (Thanks to Potsmoke for his char set list)
+ Added RMG's fix for file deletion locking up at the 'Y/N' propmpt.
(At this time it won't delete the file if the game folder name has any spaces in it)
+ More colour and lighting fixes, intro resets to correct ambient lighting too.
+ Corrected position & scaling of video clips.
+ Config file can force skip of text on ship/base models or use the value from each model's tris.ini file.
+ You can now travel to & get system data from Zeioqu, Greandqu & Andlaar without crashing the game.
+ New bindable key to set the target engine speed to 0, rather than having to down hold the decelerate.
The key can be configured in the BINDS section by altering "engine_set_stop" and it is set to Backspace
as default. (Based upon the enhancement in GLFFE Nic mod)
+ Pressing Control and * on the Numberpad will create a .png screenshot
+ Updated Fullscreen support so that it also switches screen resolution. "Aspect fix" is currently unsupported
in this mode as it causes problems with mouse control.
Standard FFE build only:
+ Added the functionality of the Nic GLFFE mod, controlled by the [PATCHES] sections at the end of
the configuration file. Some are common to both versions, some only apply to the standard FFE game
as are already included in the Anisotropic mod. No Aniso-only patches at this time.
BetaLyraeFix - Fix crash when jumping to Beta Lyrae
ProcessPriority - Process Priority (0->Idle, 1->Normal, 2->High)
CanHaveExcessCrew - Allows you to launch with more crew than needed
NoMassMissiles - Missiles no longer take up cargo space
DoubleFastMissiles - Doubles the thrust of missiles
NoTurretMovementWhilePaused - Stops the turret from moving while paused
CorrectShipWorth - When selling your ship, equipment value will be included
in the sale price
+ Ship configurations can also be customised with shipsdata.txt as with Nic mod.
The files shipdata_orig.txt and shipdata_aniso.txt list all the default parameters of standard FFE
and FFE with Aniso mod. You can configure the ships as you wish in shipdata.txt using these files
as a template.
When loading is enabled (PatchShipData=1) then by default this will fix the following issues:
+ Griffin no longer shoots itself with its turrets
+ Panther Clipper has Hull Mass and Space Available swapped around
+ Added my own patch to permit the planet type of Earth to be defined, as not everyone was happy to
see that it was a dying planet in 3250!
2013-03-10:
+ Fixed flashing atmosphere colour when leaving planets and being lit by engine flare/battle light
+ Fixed atmospheres on intro planets & ship no longer flies through edge of the red planet.
+ Added definition of game font and for startup tips in the [VIDEO] section of the FFED3DAJ.cfg file.
+ Option to disable dynamic lighting of the control panel area doPanelLighting=0 in [VIDEO] section.
+ Option to "go retro"/improve performance by using original models. Set usePrimitiveModels=1 in the
[VIDEO] section.
+ Sun type of system now colours the planets & objects accordingly
- new bug: The last sun colour before dying/restarting will also tint subsequent intro sequences...
(resolved in 2013-03-27 build)
2013-03-04:
+ Added John Jordan's thrusters fix. This prevents thrust flipping over to the wrong direction when set
speed is much greater than actual speed. This was a common problem when attempting to taking off and
using accelerated time and would result in crashing into the ground soon after!
+ Turrets cannot be rotated when the game is paused. (Nic/Aniso mods)
+ Pressing CTRL+ALT+Q will now exit the game.
2013-03-03:
+ Fixed missing hyperspace jump clouds and static.
+ corrected position of laser 'flash' which sometimes appeared on planet surface not at tip of gun.
+ Fixed fullscreen & window definition issues, added application icons & title.
+ Added keyboard binds to permit customisation of keys. See the end of this file for more info.
2013-02-14:
+ Fixed to local colours and rendering of 2 rings
+ Fixed missing textures on objects, skin can now be .png or .tga
2013-02-10:
+ Fixed holes in planet surface. (external camera can be zoomed/rotated underground though due to terrain)
+ Texture/smoothing fixes to living planet main surfaces
+ New texture for Brown Dwarf planets
+ Fixed missing suns in planetary map
+ Stardust easier to see
+ Support for individual model shaders: Loads an effect.fx from within the model sub-directory.
Model 31 has an example shader included.
+ Options to switch off planet and individual model shaders as well as atmosphere to gain performance.
+ Option to remove background cabin which causes clipping issues in the planetary map view and
makes the battle view unusable.
Additions to the [VIDEO] section of the FFED3DAJ.cfg (with recommended values)
drawatmosphere=1
usemodelshaders=1
useplanetshaders=1
drawcabin=0