Cinemaware's Wings Remastered coming to Amiga NG platforms

[Daytona675x]

@Fransexy

it would be much more ambitious if he will be writing a unity port ;-) :-P

That's true. It would also be much more impossible

@Yasu

Which is why he will be writing a whole new 3D engine from scratch.

Luckily I can reuse some code from Wings Battlefield (not too much but for example the dynamic LOD system).

If you tried the current build during the show you could see that the menus, intro, story-telling etc. have already been fully ported. You could also check out the current state of the bombing missions (almost done) and the dogfights (work in progress, polygon-cockpit and -pilot / shooting / controls / basic enemies already working).

[Daytona675x]

Hi friends,

now it's your turn
The demo-versions are online and preorders are being accepted.
A bigger press release is in the works but I was told to already spread the news nevertheless.

Info to the demos:

don't expect anything bug-free or even final! The code is neither optimized nor complete nor anything yet. And there are placeholders too (for example the explosions of Wings Battlefield).
Of course: I paused working on it for now and will only continue if / when there are enough pre-orders, otherwise the project will be canceled.
So the demos are a snap-shot of the current state of development.
It's about one thing: to show you that it's on a good way and to give you the opportunity to check out if and how it works on your system. It is to be expected that performance and quality will both be higher in the final version (for example regarding performance: the demo doesnt use texture-compression, the models aren't optimized yet, etc.; and for example regarding quality: no volumetric shadows yet, placeholders, missing parts, etc.).

But now to the links:

Preorder here:
http://retro.cinemaware.com/product/wings-remastered-amiga-edition/

MorphOS
http://www.goldencode.de/download.php?file=WingsDemo_MorphOS.lha

AROS x86:
http://www.goldencode.de/download.php?file=WingsDemo_AROS.zip

AmigaOS4 Warp3D
http://www.goldencode.de/download.php?file=WingsDemo_AOS4_Warp3D.lha

AmigaOS4 RadeonHD Compositing (for Radeon-cards without Warp3D support)
http://www.goldencode.de/download.php?file=WingsDemo_AOS4_Compositing.lha


And here are some screenshots of the AmigaOS4 Compositing version:
Photo 0
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7
Photo 8
Photo 9
Photo 10
Photo 11
Photo 12
Photo 13
Photo 14
Photo 15

Have fun,
Daniel

p.s.: some known driver related issues on the different systems:
MorphOS: on some systems (Powerbook, MOS 3.9, Radeon 9700 is it I guess) the lighting is broken (all much too dark) and the fog-color is wrong (some byte-order issue)
Warp3D: depending on GPU and resolution some polygons may still vanish here and there
Compositing on SouthernIsland / R200: better don't try it...

[Daytona675x]

@duga
Yes, it should, a 440ep is one of the two test machines here

[Daytona675x]

@klx300r
Thanks And even more thanks considering you did it despite of the bad CDN exchange rate...
100 plus some preorders were placed already, things seem to be on a good track.
Cinemaware officials should soon post some more information on this whole topic, they already did in the german a1k forum, so the others should follow soon.

[Daytona675x]

@TheMagicM
Great
What you mentioned are no bugs, those are things that simply have not been taken care of during the dev-time until now. It's a teaser, no more no less. It's simply what I could come up with in about for weeks.

Info to the demos:
don't expect anything bug-free or even final! The code is neither  optimized nor complete nor anything yet. And there are placeholders too  (for example the explosions of Wings Battlefield).
Of course: I paused working on it for now and will only continue if /  when there are enough pre-orders, otherwise the project will be  canceled.
So the demos are a snap-shot of the current state of development.

[Daytona675x]

@agami
@Djole
Different game, different target platform, different topic please.
Regarding releasing this game for "classics" (if you consider an A1200 PPC Mediator Radeon setup to be a "classic", that is): well, even in the pre-pre-alpha demo at least the dogfights are at about the same, errm, "speed" as they were in the "original" Wings on an unextended A500 as soon as more than two enemies were around

@TheMagicM

well if thats the case, you did a bad ass job! Whats the magic number that you need to hit in order to release the game ?

Thanks
We need 300 (pre)orders ( = all boxes that are going to be produced) to fully cover all the costs (we were at about 100 yesterday). However, we just decided to take the risk and do it / continue even if only 150 are preordered, hoping that the rest is going to sell later...
Cinemaware announced that information on a1k.org already, I hope the other forums will follow soon.

[Daytona675x]

@utri007

Any change to download only version?

Regarding download versions, let me quickly translate Cinemaware's statement at a1k.org on this topic:

"The development depends on the sales of the boxed version. Therefore there won't be a download version for now. However there will probably be a download option for all buyers of the box because some people seem to prefer to have that option. .... If the 300 boxes have been sold and if we still noticed a "high" demand .... then we might reconsider that decision."


@TheMagicM

WOW...I didnt think you'd tell me the magic number of orders needed.

Why not? It's no secret.

Well, add 1 to that count.

Thanks! :banana:

76 missions / 0 kills? You're the friendliest fighter out there

I'm afraid those numbers will become less peaceful if / when I continue with the project...

[Daytona675x]

@Varthall
Thanks for posting! For whatever reason the CinemawareRetro account here is not functional yet, postings not possible.

@AmigaNG
@amoskodare
Thanks guys

@all
Thanks to all who preordered so far!
The minimum amount of 150 preorders has been reached by now which means: I'm working on the port again

However, 300 are the amount we really need to fully cover all costs, including my development costs. Since this here is a complete rewrite and no "simple" port like for example Tower57 will be, those sum up.
The 300-calculation was meant to cover about three months of full time work on this title (plus production costs plus some other Cinemaware outlays, and taxes of course).
As you may guess with 150 preorders things look different. I am not able to work full time on this title for now. Consequently it is unlikely that the Feb. 2016 release date can be achieved.
I'll do as much as I can, but I'll have to take care first that my warchest stays filled to a certain level.

Because forum work eats up my time too I decided to keep a small development diary (not much there yet) instead of answering question X over there and talk about progress Y somewhere else.
That way you can always check out the current progress. I'll also answer (technical, gameplay related) questions there when I see some on any forum.
Just follow the link in my signature.

I'll also update the demo version from time to time, of course.

Cheers,
Daniel

[Daytona675x]

@all german readers
I just kept my  promise and made the game's development diary bilingual, you can switch to german by clicking on  the coresponding icon located at the top-right of the page.

[Daytona675x]

@Acill
Thanks :-) That's no problem. Just send me a PM with the necessary info, I'll take care that it gets to the right people.

[Daytona675x]

To those who don't follow the development diary too often:
it's model-conversion and -optimization time :p
I just put some new screenshots online, more to come for each new model. First I'm going to finish up the conversion tool though. Today I'll add an automatic optimize-model-for-iso-view command

[Daytona675x]

I just added a pretty detailed photo-session illustrating the model conversion process.
For more information also check out the diary's entries since yesterday :razz:

Cheers,
Daniel

[Daytona675x]

@Acill
I wish it was different, but no: plenty of units remaining (124 to be exact) so there's no reason not to order another one

[Daytona675x]

@TheMagicM

Are you going to change the bullets to something more realistic?

Which ones do you mean?
If you're talking about the strafing bullets in the demo version: those were placeholders, in the original those look different and will be changed accordingly.
Generally speaking: I'm not going to do significant changes to the game. With one exception maybe: the explosions sometimes have weird colors and way too much sparks etc. that make it look pretty ugly IMHO.
But in general I don't mess with the artwork other than to technically adjust it to match my needs.

[Daytona675x]

Hi all,

fresh stuff in the dev-diary: progress and madness with the level-conversion

Have fun,
Daniel