Main Menu Background Change

[Glacious]

Hey All,

Just wondering what other peoples views where on changing the main menu background on Renegade X on a more permanent basis as I know for me the very first instance when you load into a game and you find the main menu is abit choppy (FPS wise) I am assuming due to the water under the hover craft it makes me think if it's like this here god knows what the game will actually be like (All be it fine for me ) and also find it abit boring myself.

Handepsilon made these different main menu backgrounds:

http://renegade-x.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=75252

with scrolling cameras on and I think would be good to get a few of them alternating into the main game for some variation and not to menu makes the main menu in my case feel alot smoother without water in it.

Below are most of the backgrounds I think would suit it well and maybe we could get a few views on what ones people like and go from there , also bare in mind all these below have animated flying cameras on so move in different ways

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[RoundShades]

They all look good. I always did like them more. Don't know where the new ones came from, but they also contribute.

[Henk]

I like them, does the game pick 1 shot at random, or does it show all of these shots?

Is this a big improvement on the framerate?

Oh maybe we can have a video on the main menu?

[Glacious]

Once your loaded into the main menu the games spends I think around 5-10 seconds scrolling from side to side on an image and then moves onto the next one so it's like a continuous changing background which is what I like

[Henk]

Oh it's images? thought it was being rendered realtime. Images means we all get to see high graphics settings

[RoundShades]

Once your loaded into the main menu the games spends I think around 5-10 seconds scrolling from side to side on an image and then moves onto the next one so it's like a continuous changing background which is what I like

Correct, it is basically a map, with some poses done to the skeletal meshes of a few inserted character models, and a panning camera for each of them, and it goes from camera to camera every 10 seconds or so.

It is pretty efficient on graphics. Though, main menu should force higher graphics for it's render, than the settings say, because my machine makes everything look funky on main menu when graphics down.

To be fair, my Mammoth Tank on my main menu has been black-textured this whole patch, I wouldn't mind swapping it for the new one.

[Canucck]

3d backgrounds in main menu are poison

[Glacious]

Whatever does not cripple FPS on main menu I am happy for

[Handepsilon]

when you load into a game and you find the main menu is abit choppy (FPS wise) I am assuming due to the water under the hovercraft

No, I'm more assuming to the fact that the official main menu set the camera a bit too wide that it renders a whole lot of mesh. I dunno if my own bird-eye shots are that heavy though, but then every scene lasts for roughly 8 seconds. The official scene on the other hand, keeps the view on loads of meshes with quite some details. Of course, this here is just an assumption, I could be wrong

It kinda cripples the FPS when you first transition to from indoor to outdoor if you're running computers like me. After that first time though, the game will get used to later transitions and goes smooth on the rest of the scenes, as smooth as it can get

Oh maybe we can have a video on the main menu?

Yep, instead of 3D, we can also use a converted-to-BIK movie depicting several scenes

I'm kinda into some fading in and out set of sequences that takes a few portion of the screen instead of wholly. Not sure about the loading screen and the latency of the BIK movie texture but in theory that'll be much more FPS friendly than what we have now and what I made.

The problem would be getting that Bink movie converter and anyone who would want to record out. Server owners, you got some nice Demos, why don't you try some video editing and let's see what we can have? Mappers can also contribute in making some machinimas through matinee. Or all of them can be done by dev themselves, provided that they have the time and motivation (I'm leaning to no, best if they concentrate on gameplay more rather than eyecandy like this). All up to you for collabing and all

Oh it's images? thought it was being rendered realtime.

It is rendered realtime. I got this idea from how UT3 main menu is made, except everything is postprocessed into a total blur there, probably to make us more focused on the main menu. But if you turn off post processing, the scene's a well made hi-tech corridor

Though, main menu should force higher graphics for it's render, than the settings say

The background's costing as much as when you're playing the game, save for the gameplay scripting that might be hogging your CPU. I suggest you think this through first. Not that I can do anything about it.... or maybe I can, but I'd rather not

To make it a bit more efficient and so that the other scenes don't show up, the skeletal meshes that are not relevant to the current scene are hidden away (if you wanna know, GDI and Nod's base are on exact same location, but when one shows up, the other is hidden. Game tricks ). But I still believe it's not a good idea to show up in high quality regardless of spec. Lagging in main menu is a disastrous image for the game.

PS : Some of those scenes need updating. Those sidearms set are no longer relevant to the game.

[Xtractor]

I love 3,5,11,14

[RoundShades]

Though, main menu should force higher graphics for it's render, than the settings say

The background's costing as much as when you're playing the game, save for the gameplay scripting that might be hogging your CPU. I suggest you think this through first. Not that I can do anything about it.... or maybe I can, but I'd rather not

The scenes are less intensive than in-game, unlike the hovercraft. They look like total crud in ultra-low settings, and doesn't stop the game from rendering the main-menu in medium, worse than the in-game at ultra-low.

Basically, make "lowest" medium. It doesn't make the main menu requirement, higher than loading into a game.

[Canucck]

Not screwing around with my settings sounds like a much better idea