[Realspace MODS] "STARS" - "XRSGE" - "REM" - various

[ziplock815]

Cool, that's interesting how you reworked everything. Did Ego make so big changes? I mean, the vanilla game doesn't need more deep changes in flight midel bc the game isn't onto realism (it's more a space tycoon type if the game, not sim) as long as we have your Rem mod
Anyway it's a shame you had to remove rebirth ships - that's a thing I don't like in X4 (just like No man sky) - lots of updates and every single update breaks all thecool mods.

Btw what's about XRSGE? Will you update it soon? Will it be save compatible to the older versions? Yes, there's a pile of questions here

[Realspace]

Yup, contrary to what can seem, REM required a lot of work, especially the class/race and the new integrated shields/turrets. Probably XRSGE for as big as it is will require less time. It could even be SAVE-compatible. The only true novelty is that resources are dynamically created. So if old vanilla saves work, mod's saves should too. STARS is ok already as it is, I did make some changes there too but not mandatory as in REM.
Next I will do an even more sim version for true hardcore physic (version B). Egosoft could never do such a change, a lot of players would critique it and it is probably not suited to the kind of game. But no studio as this allows such a level of modding and also, unlike X3, this game is based on true Newtonian physics. I could remove entirelly the fake friction, that makes no sense in space, as I did in version 1.0 of REM years ago. But AI would get crazy.
The difference is that now I know something more about ai scripts that I did not years ago, maybe I could find a way to make such physics be correctly used by the ai or find other tricks as I found with jump and supercruise. About which... the new unlimited travel mode could make supercruise obsolete. Test it..while in vanilla it makes few difference, in XRSGE it could work better than supercruise or together. No speed cap but realistic acceleration so that the high speed does not look "magic", still you can cross the big distances.

[Topkek67]

Next I will do an even more sim version for true hardcore physics.

Man imagine a sim version with each solar system inside a BIG sector and you could travel between planets like supercruise in elite dangerous. And only using the jump gates to reach other solar systems.

[Realspace]

X4 could accomplish this, already. Mean, I did it in XRSGE at several extents but with limits. Xrsge 7 had entire sistems. Latest has planetary systems (planet + moons) all inside the same sector and you can already travel from planet to planet freey . But simulated space can not go beyond a certain limit. Here comes the technicality...X4 could already do it: space in cluster is different from space in sector. Player could move in a huge space in cluster with no ai simulation but several events around the player only and "enter" the truly simulated space (sector), multiple smaller ones, where ai does its things. This was Rebirth and is X4 when using a superhighway. In XRSGE 6 you could travel million kms inside a cluster using superhighways...remember the uranus to neptune cross?
Problem is that the game has to revolve around this experience and X4 does not. Egosoft could already do it with this tech, just add procedural moons (not planets..rocky moons) to land to mine and X5 is ready

[Realspace]

I am thinking about a new idea for XRSGE based on the new features of 9.
First I need a confirm that the hardcoded central square for resources of 2400km is no more. Will make some test for this. If true, I want to use present XRSGE as base, adding dynamic seeds for resources in far regions (moons etc), removing shw, change the stations at start being only around the mainland (core planet) then letting every faction start a "race for resources", colonizing far regions of space. Increasing the missions for the player to find mining areas and building stations in newly found regions. Then when depleted, the dynamic goes on.
Seems a better exploration experience and having a meaning for gameplay.
What do you think?

[ziplock815]

Don't remove superhighways I beg you
Tha idea of resources far away makes sense - that's because I love very first versions of XRSGE - lagrange points, oort clouds and asteroid fields that are millions of kms - very immersive and realistic that these zones were full of resources, also ypo could get there using shws or accelerators so that didn't transform the game into some kind of Elite dangerous keeping some of Rebirth touch.

[Realspace]

About shw..I have other ideas to explore...using the travel high speed low acceleration of REM 9, creating some points in space where ships can go to receive instant accelerations or mixig new REM feature with supercruise (which does exactly that) but in a more structured way, like you can use the supercruise only if close to such special points/portals/whatever.
This would make even the simple travel a gamey experience, adding events around those moments. For AI too of course. Better than superhighways which cause lags even if less now..a 80.000km transit would consist of 3-4 acceleration points that the ships follow...and at each, some stations. More density for space.
I still have not tested REM 9 with current xrsge and its supercruise..I still don't know what happens after supercruise is stopped, I suspect that the very top travel speed that you normally never reach is instead reached and kept. This would work perfectly to get rid of superhighways..

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REM B, additional module for REM Overhaul is ready.
What it does?
REM B is the very hard-core version of REM Overhaul. It works as a module to be added to REM Overhaul to remove the speed cap and have ships move with real momentum and slow accelerations. As consequence, gun/turret's speeds and ranges are increased. No other value is changed except range/speed/lifetime.
It is installed as another mod. REM A is required for this module to work.
This module is experimental, how the AI will handle these changes is unpredictable, no support is given.
You can remove this module and go back to regular REM Overhaul (A) at any time.
This module covers all DLC, only partially the Timelines (up to when egosoft will fix its equipments in current Beta9)

Grab it here https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations ... ?tab=files

[Folker]

About shw..I have other ideas to explore...using the travel high speed low acceleration of REM 9, creating some points in space where ships can go to receive instant accelerations or mixig new REM feature with supercruise (which does exactly that) but in a more structured way, like you can use the supercruise only if close to such special points/portals/whatever.
This would make even the simple travel a gamey experience, adding events around those moments. For AI too of course. Better than superhighways which cause lags even if less now..a 80.000km transit would consist of 3-4 acceleration points that the ships follow...and at each, some stations. More density for space.
I still have not tested REM 9 with current xrsge and its supercruise..I still don't know what happens after supercruise is stopped, I suspect that the very top travel speed that you normally never reach is instead reached and kept. This would work perfectly to get rid of superhighways..

I’ve been thinking about an idea. Like Ziplock : I’m a big fan of SHW.
But I think a 50/50 compromise may be possible—let me explain:

What is an SHW? It’s a vector that lets you move from point A to point B.
The structure is an element, a set of meshes and textures.

So here’s my suggestion: if the SHW causes issues with long save times, lags, etc...
Create a zone (as you mentioned, one that allows for rapid acceleration) with the same height and width as the SHW’s structure, and place the structure within that zone.
And allow rapid acceleration in a specific direction (like on a highway)

This way, we get an “artificial shw,” or a sort of “shw,” with the texture, meshes, effects, etc., while gaining FPS.

We would all benefit from it

[Realspace]

Hi Folker! yes that is exactly the idea I was working on, I also tested using the gate models, even the same shw's model can be used, making a new macro and attaching a script to it.

Not only I want to get rid of shws because they cause lag, also because I want to make the space now covered by a shw to have more density. So f.i. I can create 4-5 "push"-points along the route and some stations/zones.
The only issue is that orientation of ship has to be considered before applying the push, this makes the script quite complicated. But current supercruise scripts work quite fine on AI ships.
That told, we got 2 good news:
1) devs confirmed that resources can finally be moved far from center in 9.00: viewtopic.php?p=5316066#p5316066
2) I tested supercruise with new REM (which has very high travel speed but with low acceleration) and they merge together perfectly.
Indeed supercruise in vanilla or old REM had to restart because speed goes back to top travel speed which is limited. With the new REM 9, where top travel speed is very high (80.000-120.000 m/s) but requires a lot lot lot of time to be reached with normal acceleration, supercruise acts as an accelerator. It pushes the ship at its maximum travel speed and the ship will continue to have that speed unless travel mode is off. This works perfectly.
I must work on a light check for when ships enter a special zone as a portal or such that acts as accelerator.

[ziplock815]

What Folker described looks like acceleration points in X3 Farnham's Legacy - thus XRSGE could be the direct sequel of X3FL
Sounds good to me.
Honestly, my dream was that X4 would be something more like Rebirth 2 with cool story where you could fly all ships, with more busy and dense sectors with stations that would feel like real space cities, but with some systems/places in systems that are abandoned/unexplored/infested with khaak/xenons (Maelstrom, Toride an so on). Speaking of space flight - I find the Rebirth approach the best too. Small ships don't have jumpdrives and travel drives, while cap ships have both. That makes space more vast even with rather small distances between the gates while keeping some space to explore, that's why I like highways - even while universe is compact, they make it feel bigger just bc you can't fly from one planet to another directly so you have to use the shw. The latest version of XRSGE was the best for me in that case (the one with all shws). But if you want to transform XRSGE into something between Farnham's legacy and Rebirth - that's good too We just need some explanation why Jonferco declined the highway project (maybe right after Farnham's legacy events, where acceleration points were discovered). Oh, I see - we indeed need some corporations and corp missions too - the universe would definitely feel more alive then.

[Realspace]

I must say that despite the potentials I won't embark into a version 10 of the mod. If we could arrange the map freely as in Rebirth I'd do it...but X4 is rigid in its hexagons. What I did sofar is the best we can have as space without the hexagon mini-sectors. I will only reduce some distances where possible. Tired of this map editing.
Today I've redone the supercruise which is working with REM. It is perfect...yes I could add a new jump feature that is different from portals etc. Ship accelerates, then starts supercruise, then starts a sublight push...only then effects, blur, fade-in...and a jump at high speed. Practically Elite Dangerous for crossing sectors, instead of gates. Not the classic X jump but a superspeed that turns into warp..
Another doable idea was making an hyperlight realm as in Babylon 5 where the ship has to find beacons to re-enter the normal space in different parts. You enter this hyper-space through the portals or the anomalies.

[ziplock815]

Problem is that the game needs some kind of jumpdrive anyway - the (modded) map is big and the game isn't elite-like space sim bc in X4 player needs to fly here and there most of the time to manage the empire, complete missions etc. So jumpdrive is mandatory - the alternatives are: teleportation that sucks, or small universe with ring-like highway that sucks even more And again I find Rebirth approach the best - only cap ships have jumpdrives, maybe some unique ships too (like Albion skunk and Experimental shuttle) and they are able to make jumps only to closest jumpgates, but have the ability to make in-sector jumps to jump beacons- this is lore friendly and logical. Well, we already have this kind of version in XRSGE, only with anomaly gates instead of jump beacons.

[Realspace]

Yes I will implement an in-sector jump, for player only (AI has other tricks...I push AI ships at insane speeds when the player does not see it )
But I want to do it more immersively than in previous xrsge. As told, the ship has to first reach a "critical speed", only after supercruise is active, then can make a sublight push that fades-out and becomes a jump. Much better..
Talking about this, imagine that using a similar mode when in proximity of a planet, one could teleport player ship to a map-invisible sector with landmass (planet), so as other games do. Problem is you need a landmass designed for every planet...impossible task

BTW I will add more portals...I must make it more evident to the players, that right now if you enter a portal you are teleported to another portal of the same faction, not to a random anomaly. Portals unlike anomalies allow focused jump (not the separated jump drive feature, simply by entering them). That makes sense, each faction found one anomaly and built a portal around to focus its space distortion to link to other anomalies in the space of the same faction. This is useful to reach very far quadrants of the galaxy...Argon especially having sectors far away.

Edit:
XRSGE will take some time. The more I investigate the changes in 9.00 the more I feel like testing new things.
First I am redoing all backgrounds. The googles zooming require true stars (not textures) i.e. sun flares...but I am redoing what the devs added, creating custom new star flares ..btw in so doing I think I found the cause of suns shining through planets. It is added to the flares as param...it's a feature...the reason for having them shine through intentionally I don't really understand. So I will make all custom suns that disappear behind planets.
Also doing many other things, regions of course and removing old meshes that seem to cause ctd.

[Realspace]

I've updated STARS to version 9.00 of the game.
Also added the same reshade we use in XRSGE.

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507

Donwload and install STARS 8.00-final (if you did not already) and then apply this file as a patch.
This patch is meant for player using game's version 9.00 but can work for previous versions too.
It will make all nebulae dimmer (all versions) and stars too in previous versions (in 9.00 stars are separated).
I've totally redone the newly introduced dynamic stars (true flares not textures) that remain high-res at high zoom.
In XRSGE I will add other special flares to this that work as big stars, in addition, more bright and diversified.
Enjoy

___________________________________________

I had missed this mod, this is 100% neeed by XRSGE:

ECR (Extended Communication Range) https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1698

[ziplock815]

Great, thanks for the update
That's giod news about suns, if they won't shine through planets in the new XRSGE that will be a good immersion boost.
Btw don't you have any plans to add even more nebulae? Maybe huge galaxy in the background/quazars and other space phenomena (like in freelancer or x-tended terran conflict. I remember a cool xenon sector with some kind of quazar with jets in the background)

[Realspace]

Aaaand.....nope, sunshine through is not fixed
Ziplock I've finished adding content to the game. Updating xrsge to 9.00 and I am done.
I'd gladly add things that change the gameplay, nebulae that have a meaning...but backdrops no more. What's the point? I think I've pushed all the buttons for this game's design.
We'd need landable moons to mine (not planets), a map that makes sense, maybe even (simplified) orbital movements, even gravity for the moons. And interiors, a ship and crew you can interact.
I think that for the player as pilot more than this is not possible, this is a quasi-rts game after all.
Latest REM, new Hyperdrive (next xrsge) and big space is the final line

Edit: updating XRSGE is taking more time than expected. I've to redo all backgrounds (btw in so doing I am indeed adding deep space visuals, @Ziplock ).
I also need to check all regions for their resources and consider the changes the devs are also making from beta 9 to 11 to balance the economy.
While I check every single sector I also take the time to compact it whenever is possible, removing some superhighways but having less space to cross, differentiating more between civilized sectors and less civilized. Main sectors have shw to reach orbiting moons, others not (but you can go there).
I try to remake them in order to keep the exploration aspect but at the same time not to require to cross long distances always (as in current XRSGE but with more of this).
I've redone the supercruise. It shines if used with REM installed. It activates once and keeps momentum. It has some conditions for activation: player has to cross the top booster speed while in travel. And when travel speed is high enough can also activate a sublight push (old sectorcruise) that pushes the ship beyond the high travel speed (with REM).
I will add also a hidden jump, means ship won't jump but accelerate to quasi light speed then screen will fade. Then will be pushed closer to destination. Similar to other games. All this makes these "tricks" more immersive and do not spoil the perception of speed.

[ziplock815]

Have I told you that you're my hero, Realspace?
Eagerly waiting for the release, I even promise not to complain if it'll require a new game. After 102020 times of starting a new game I got used to it anyway

[Realspace]

I am doing it save-compatible, i.e. I rename all changed superhighways (so the engine replaces them...mostly are removed anyway) and did not change any gate connection sofar. So continuing an old save is possible. But sectors are very changed internally (compacted), so many zones are moved. If one had many stations they could move...but cheat mod helps with that. Modularity of current XRSGE won't be possible with the new changes I do.
Yes now that I prepared the template I can add as many deep space visuals as I please, I made 17 sofar but can make more and the good thing is that they can be added later. But since I have to redo/check/test every single sector to work in v.9...
Game's Beta9 changed more than what catches the eye, internally some changes of structure are causing several errors to xrsge. A lot of meshes need to be re-imported and there are changes to the macros of custom stations, how god engine reads them. Also regions are very different and seem that custom regions are not seen by the map's placement of random resources.

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@Ziplock (and who ever wants to help), if you google free hd pictures of deep space elements (possibly clean, not pixelated and not full of noise) and send me the pictures I can add them in the future