The star images themselves are not animated. I start off with the same static image for each star type, and then I apply animated rotation and scaling transforms to them in realtime. I spent some time tweaking the animation speeds last night, and this was the best outcome I came up with. That's not to say that it's perfect, though. I'll spend more time with it later.

EDIT: OK, yeah, after watching it for a while, I agree that the star animations are a bit too extreme. I'll work on toning them down. The first release was really just a proof-of-concept, and I wanted to make sure people would notice the effect .

Well, I definitely went a little animation-happy in the last version. So here it is, a . They may seem too subtle at first, but watch them for a couple minutes and I think you'll agree that it's a marked improvement.

Note: you'll need to apply this over the most most recent release (2007-09-04).

Valcoren, it looks like you patched an older version of the game with a newer version of the GUI client.

Oh crap, I just realized I edited your message instead of replying to it.

Hmm...increase the number of star types then? Have them so the difference in colour is so small that the human eye can't notice the difference. It would appear random without actually being so then. Alternatively you could make the 'extra' stars rotate in the opposite direction. This would mean more stars and models and whatnot to be processed though.

Anyways, first things first, is it in the realms of programmability?

...

I just downloaded the update. It's looking much better now. It almost looks like the Stars have heart beats...

All we need now is for the star in the system view to be animated...

Any news about "Splash screen " error?

@Zeleni: Nope, though if you try the latest version, you might get a slightly more useful error log that you could send back to me.

@Winzip: http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/ ... 7829#17829

Yes, 7z FTW.

Got an error when building an outpost 1

Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks)
at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args)
at System.Delegate.DynamicInvoke(Object[] args)
at Supremacy.Utility.AsyncHelper.AsyncInvokeCallback(Object state) in C:\Documents and Settings\mikest\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\Supremacy_2008\SupremacyCore\Utility\AsyncHelper.cs:line 25
at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.WaitCallback_Context(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback(Object state)

----------------------------------------

The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state.


Server stack trace:
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.ThrowIfDisposedOrNotOpen()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)

Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
at Supremacy.WCF.ISupremacyService.EndTurn(PlayerOrdersMessage orders)
at Supremacy.Client.ServiceClient.EndTurn(PlayerOrdersMessage orders) in C:\Documents and Settings\mikest\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\Supremacy_2008\SupremacyClient\ServiceClient.cs:line 85
at Supremacy.Client.HumanClient.DoFinishTurn() in C:\Documents and Settings\mikest\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\Supremacy_2008\SupremacyClient\HumanClient.cs:line 511

----------------------------------------

The animation worked well.

It seems the error was a one-off, Dubois - I can build outposts without any problems.

Still, Mike might know what the problem may be. One thing that I might ask you is whether you installed the latest version of the game over an existing copy? If you did, that might be the cause of the problem.

I did the same myself in the past, and that caused me problems. If you perform a clean install (Download it into a new folder or delete the existing files first) and you should be fine.

oh lol im sorry did a fresh install and it works now

Hehe don't worry about it. I've edited Mike's post so that there's a warning in there. Hopefully people bother to read it...

I just wanted to say this pre-release is AWESOME!!!

I used to play BOTF all the time and this is certainly a big step... and it plays perfectly on Vista 64 bit... 60 turns so far and not a problem or slowdown.... LOVE IT


EDIT: Spoke too soon lol

got to turn 63 and now it hangs on processing fleet movement for no apparently reason, takes about 2-3 minutes and processes the turn