• 11Feb 07

  Operation Flashpoint Graphics Comparison

  I've long been a fan of Operation Flashpoint, ever since I got the game some time in 2002 (a long time ago, to be sure). And just this past month I've been playing the game almost non-stop. I was just thinking to myself the other day that the game engine really has aged pretty well in terms of looks. The game (with the Resistance expansion) really doesn't look that bad as it is, and you can get it to look even better. I decided to do a comparison.
  
  -On the left is Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis v1.00, no mods or tweaks, with all settings up full. This is how the game looked when it was first released in 2001.
  
  -On the right is Operation Flashpoint: Resistance v1.96, with Kegetys DXDLL graphics tweak and Hi-res skies, also by Kegetys.
  
  
  
  DXDLL adds post processing effects and reflections, among other things. And it makes an astonishing difference to the quality of the graphics, as you can see. Hi-res skies is also an important addition. It not only adds beautiful new sky textures, but also updates the rain and weather effects.
  
  The Finnish Defence Forces mod for the game makes an excellent complement to these tweaks. Among other things, FDF Mod replaces very nearly every sound in the game with better and/or more realistic sounds. Almost all vehicle and weapon sounds, even some of the weather and environmental sound effects are replaced.
  
  Besides adding hundreds of units and vehicles, many missions and an entire campaign (all based on the Finnish Defence Forces, of course), it also makes config changes to improve the game engine, adding combat divers (previously, entering the water resulted in drowning, a la Vice City), ejector seats, high altitude sky diving, controllable parachutes, and working smoke grenades that actually block the AI's view. (In the original game, AI can actually see through smoke screens, due to an apparent shortcoming in the game engine, the FDF Mod team obviously found a way around it.) FDF Mod is full of pleasant surprises.
  
  And this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many other projects out there that improve the game that I haven't even tried yet, replacing the special effects, the models and the textures. ECP, FFUR and others.
  
  • Posted Feb 11, 2007 7:38 pm PT
  • Category: Computers
  • 2 Comments
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• 26Nov 06

  All racing games need an in-built MP3 player function.

  As I'm sure we all know, it's easy for the music already in a game to become repetitive if you play it a lot, even if you like it. (which many people don't)
  
  Sure, you can just turn the in-game music off, play a playlist in the background with a music app, and play the game, but I think that's a bit shonky, and here's why.
  
  First, when playing music externally you often have to ALT-TAB to adjust the volume or other options all the time, as some MP3s are too quiet, while others are too loud. Doing so is not only inconvienient, but also causes problems with some games. NFS Porsche Unleashed, which I've been playing recently, really spazzes out when you task-switch out of it. As soon as you return to the game there's major control lag, which makes it impossible to drive.
  
  Second, if you just leave music going, it plays when it shouldn't, such as during loading screens or in the menu. It'd be so much more effective if there was an in-game MP3 player, that plays music at the right times, just music of your own choice, rather than the game soundtrack.
  
  EA Game's EA Traxx, for example. If it was possible to put custom music into that system, it could be called "Custom Traxx" (don't blame me for the "Traxx", that's EA for you) and play your music at the appropriate times. Not only that, in NFS Most Wanted you could specify where each song in the soundtrack played, by default the slower paced hip-hop tracks were all set to "Menu" and the rest of the music was set to "Racing". (You could also choose "All" so a song would play in both scenarios)
  
  If the game had a custom music function, you could do the same thing with your own music. It'd mean the difference between setting "The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter" to be Menu music and "Rammstein - Du Riechst So Gut" to be Racing music.
  
  Anyway, I'm sure I just wasted ten minutes of my life because the people who are most likely to read this probably already know why this'd be a good idea, I just felt like ranting about it.
  
  But the question I was leading up to is this, why the hell don't developers just put a custom music function in? It couldn't be that hard and it'd definitely be a selling point for the game. We have a right to decent music while racing!
  
  • Posted Nov 26, 2006 12:39 am PT
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