Vince T's X-Wing HQ Blog

Our very own DTM has put together a fantastic video showcasing the phenomenal evolution of XWA since its release in 1999. The footage you see is 100% authentic, unedited ingame magic and one of the reasons, why we still keep at it after all this time.  Enjoy!  

Phew! That was a treat. Finally completed properly mapping all the tiny bits of the trench details from front to back. Now to put the same amout of work into the superstructure ... yay -_- Also remodeled some hangar bay details and finally got around to remodel the so far low-detail tractor beam projectors, which were placeholders, left over from Matt's never released ISD2. Meanwhile work on the actual textures continues and they're starting to look way less blank as I progress. But wait, there's more!  First go on the new VSD-2 OK, here we go! Let's start by taking the VSD1 wings, moving them a bit further inward to make the trench inbetween a bit wider. Next I took some more time to make some serious changes to the new closed wings. I've moved away from the ribbed look which they had on the VSD1 and made them look as being actual protrusions from the hull, adding some greeblies etc. Also changed the engine layout from 2/2 to 3/4. Now to rework the housing...

  I've decided to do some housecleaning and as such retire some older files, mainly old OPTs, which are of lesser quality or are dedicated to very speciffic BPC campaign scenarios(e.g. the Dhilani invasion lander). These OPTs will be eventually re-released as part of a larger BPC shipset package (if I ever manage to finish the damn thing). Here's a list of what files I've removed (or will) BX-80 Dragonfly (will be re-released at a later point) Dhilani Octopus Gunship Dhilani Stingray Shuttle Dhilani Invasion Lander If you haven't downloaded any of these yet and desperately still want to get your hands on them, drop me a PM over at the XWAU forums. Furthermore, in a recent forum thread it has become clear that the Ashgard Family Campaign, originally created by Abolisher and hosted by me over the past 10-sh years, is no longer compatible with the game in its current state. It contains OPTs that have long since been updated and apparently references to other OPT...

Jérémya Ansel (JérémyaFR) has spent the past year or so completely revising, revamping and revolutionizing our dear old OPTing tool OPTech. The program has been completely recoded, moving from Visual Basic to C#. Along with HD support, serious performance improvements and bugfixes it brings along a boatload of new features and functions that greatly facilitate and accelerate the provces of OPT creation.   You can check it out and discuss it over at the XWA Upgrade website!

Darksaber and the XWA Upgrade Project have released the newest versions of their Craft Packs. The XWA Upgrade Craft Pack (XWAUCP) contains all currently XWA Ugrade models released up to this point. The Ultimate Craft Pack (DSUCP) also includes OPTs from all over Star Wars, such as Clone Wars era ships and so on. Both packs feature DTM's Super Backdrop and also include all the recent hooks created by jérémyaFR. New in versions 1.6/2.6 are widescreen resolution options and now allow you to select the destination folder for installing. Furthermore support for the Humble Trove version of XWA has been added. You can find a full description in the release notes of each pack. If you're new to the game or simply want to get all the modding goodness in one neat litle(ahem) package, this is it! Go check them out!

Thought it was about time to get back busy! Today we have two new XWA Upgrade Releases, both being my first steps into working in HD. The first of the Space Colonies, while the last in line, is the first to be released in HD. Drastically scaled up from its rather puny original it features a detailed hangar complex, spacious enough to easily accommodate Lambda Shuttles flown by drunken pilots. ATR-6 Assault Transport HD   This is actually a re-release. This HD rendition of my original Assault Transport has been given a neat buff in detail. In addition a few weird looking textures have seen various improvements. You can download both OPTs from my XWA Upgrade section or from the XWAUP Homepage That's all. Now get out there and have fun!

ok, about all that ... It's been quiet about this project for quite a while. No new releases - neither here nor on the Main VXHQ site. Still I haven't been all lazy and inactive. I've been somewhat active building or recreating my ships for the Game Space Engineers, they are currently available in the Steam Workshop In the process of doing so I have stumbled over quite a few design flaws or logical issues related to individual ones. ALso I've been doing a lot of thinking with regards to the general TBP lore, going as far as to question the name "The Blue Phantom" alltogether. So right now, I'm putting all this down into written form, bit by bit. This general overhaul may have varying effects on certain elements of this universe, its ships, characters, locationis and even history itself. For example a ship may receive a different name, stats or background information. In some cases I might also rescale it, change its looks or redesign it allto...