With this as a certainly accomplished mod, my thought is that perhaps IC will include it in an expansion at some point in time. The mod certainly has "Hollywood" style written all over it! Very very good! But i think, the devs cant allow the modding community to outdo them, it is after all, their game. It makes me hopeful that some of the things you are doing will be incorporated into the main game, and perhaps they will ask you to do some of the work? As an employee? With inside tools and of course the job, this could be applied as you said, in increments. Certain animations for certain Craft or modules, perhaps small at first, moveable dishes on repair bays, or open-swinging hangar bay doors, or aero-stabilizer fins for the fighter/bomber craft. Then perhaps the Capitals and Frigates with turrets or moveable sections, as your B5 model, or something less ambitious, perhaps like projecting or retracting gun emplacements, or shield arrays that are physical, instead of the force-field effects we have now. Certainly not on all of them, but certainly some.
The concern for animations that might not be seen due to zoom-out effect might be addressed as something that only activates at a certain zoom-in level? This i dont know, but thought it might alleviate the animations processing in the models when they are zoomed out. But activated when zoomed in? I dont know if this is possible, but am thinking of how it may be accomplished.
like:
If Zoom = X3 or
X2 or
X1 Then
Do
Animation
Goto End
Or
If Zoom not = X3 or
X2 or
X1 Then
Goto End
End
This of course may not be workable in the files or tools and may require hardcoding, at this point i am guessing, but looking for something that may work. You certainly know much more than me, hope i havent offended by my noobish suggestions.
You certainly have accomplished a very very very cool thing!
I hope it makes it into the game. Good luck,
-Teal
just some ideas from a newbie, hope i havent offended by not knowing what i am talking about. I just get ideas, some of them work, alot dont, but it is a learning curve for me. Thanks for listening.