[Nico]

ok, I just figured how stupidly easy it was to do them
with some sacrifices, it can even be done w/o the SCP, but the sacrifices are annoying, that's why I post it here for you to judge.
ok, how to make a localized nebula:
1) create the smallest mesh you can and pof it, assign the invisible texture to it.
2) pick a species to sacrify...
3) replace the engine glow pcx of this specie with a nebula poof of your choice
4) on your previously created pof, create an engine glow.
5) make various copies of that pof, giving them the names of all the asteroids pof of a given color.
6) create a dense ( or not, you can use large engine glows, after all, might even look better actually ) asteroid field in fred.
voila!

now, the flaws:
-I don't remember, so I assume it's not there:
there's no tbl entries for the asteroids used in the asteroid field, just one for the lone roid. so you can't assign the no collision transparent tag. you'll bump stupidly against space dust, and destroy clouds if you shoot in it
-glows don't show from every direction, so you'll need 9 glows per roid. IIRC, tho, Bob changed that for the SCP exe?
-well, you sacrify a species, it's annoying...
-you also sacrify a roid field type.
-the engine glows flicker.
-that's it!

Thoughts, anybody? ( and anybody who wana try? I must confess I didn't, it's all theory - but it most likely works, can't see why it wouldn't ).

[TopAce]

Why do you want to do it? Why isn't the 'non-localized' standard nebula good?

If you want to say nebula placing would have been easier, what would be a good thing.

[karajorma]

Doing it this way allows you to have a nebula you can enter and leave. I know that's astronomically impossible but then so are dense asteroid fields and I don't see anyone complaining about them either.

[TopAce]

Let's make one thing clear at the beginning: You are thinking about the nebula like dneb10, or the Full nebula?

[StratComm]

ok, how is this difficult to understand?  If you've played Freelancer, you've seen this a million times... Venom is asking for the ability to define a region in which you have nebular effects, while not making them cover the entire map.  I'd like to see this implimented, if only for some less-obvious campaign options.

[Goober5000]

If you make something a navbuoy, you won't crash into it or shoot it.

[LtNarol]

I asked for something along these lines a while back....didn't get much attention.  I still vote that we let modders define the shape of the nebula with a pof, and then create subsystems to define areas of separate poofs and density.  A new table can define the actual poofs in each subsystem area and the density.  The actual rendering would be the same as a regular nebula, just without the background.

Just one of many ways to implement this thing.

[KARMA]

mmm it may work..maybe..I'm just curious to see the result, btw the collision thing could be annoying, and even if you would be able to fly inside the cloud, I dare th inside effect could be little weird.
Probably when transparency levels will be implemented, it could work better a specific pof, with animated textures/glowmaps, with scp modifications for low density and the nebula effect applied when you are inside of the pof fading at extremities

[Bobboau]

I do beleve you can have a pof with now geometry, just open up PCS (don't open any pof) add a few glow points and save, I actualy havn't tested this, but it should work, if not then make a cob that is just a couple of lights glued together and use that, glow points can have a null vector (0,0,0) wich will define them as never fadeing when you look away from them.

[TopAce]

Originally posted by StratComm
ok, how is this difficult to understand?  If you've played Freelancer, you've seen this a million times...

I haven't played Freelancer, so I think it is fully understandable I don't know how do you mean this thing.

[Nico]

ooooooooooooooooook.
look in the sky. you see a cloud, most likely: voila! localized nebula is a cloud. clear enough?

for the rest: well, my way is simple to do, that's why I told about it. No need to make a pof for each cloud, the density can be set thanks to the poof pcx itself ( make it dark, it'll be very transparent, so even if many of them overlap, inside it it should look exactly like your normal nebula ), etc. would be your average generic space cloud.
If bob is right, the main pb, the collision one ( main pb coz it's a gameplay issue ), is gone ( goober, since there's no entry for the asteroids in the ships.tbl, a navbuoy entry won't work any better than a no collision tag ).
the rest would be just to "avoid" sacrifying table entries ( the flickering thing shouldn't not be too annoying ingame ).
But if you think my idea sucks, well, whatever

[KARMA]

btw with density I was meaning the fact that you can fly in w/o colliding
well, if the glow thing can work, and if it looks nice, well probably it should be added in the to do list of the coders, in order to have the engine automatically doing all the steps, w/o all the race/asteroid limitation

[Exarch]

The 'terrain' of the mission you're making has a large part in making it interesting. By terrain in space i mean such things as asteroids, minefields, sentry guns, installations etc, all the static stuff the player has to take into account while navigating around and planing his actions. It's one of the main things that distinguishes one mission from another, and so having another terrain option, ie. a nebula field just like we can have an asteroid field, would rock for giving missions more variety.

For instance, currently the only way to have a ship present but hiding is to put it behind a different object and use the stealth sexp to screen it from sensors and targeting, but if you had a nebula cloud in one area you could potentially have a whole fleet lurking there, or maybe nothing - the player would be unable to tell and thus kept on his guard every time there was a nebula. So two thumbs up for this idea, and I hope it can be implemented effectivly. Ideally so that ships inside the nebula cloud are screened from sensors beyond a certain distance just as if they were in the full nebula environment.

[Nuke]

bobbaou is correct, i used that technique to make weapons effects. it would be nice if you could add something to the game where you can place pof defined effects. you simply give fred a model name and it will place that pof om the fred grid. it doesnt interact with the game, you dont colide with it, just a visual thing.

[Nico]

Originally posted by KARMA
btw with density I was meaning the fact that you can fly in w/o colliding
well, if the glow thing can work, and if it looks nice, well probably it should be added in the to do list of the coders, in order to have the engine automatically doing all the steps, w/o all the race/asteroid limitation

woomeister told me that if you set the asteroid field to passive, you shouldn't collide with it. didn't try, tho.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Venom


woomeister told me that if you set the asteroid field to passive, you shouldn't collide with it. didn't try, tho.

No thats not correct.  Passive asteroid fields just mean that capital ships are not "targeted" by the field.  In FreeSpace 1 you'd often find that if a fighter went through the asteroid field there were no problems...but as soon as a cruiser or larger went through the asteroids were always heading towards the cruiser (or a good majority were).  Passive just makes the field be random no matter what vessel is passing through.  Unless you want the asteroids to be a problem for a large capital ship, you set it to passive.  Collisions still take place...they just rarely threaten a vesse like a Hecate or even a Fenris.

[deep_eyes]

OK WHen you choose to have nebula as your mission, where you select it, it covers the entire field/mission. why couldnt it be possible to conjure up a selection of buttons that allow you to localize a nebula in one spot rather then another?

i mean if theres a tag or SC entry that says COVER ENTIRE MISSION, wouldnt it be possible to build it to be localized? i mean, the ability to make a nebula isnt that hard, the hard part mayeb just trying to make the WHOLE MISSION ability, downsize it so it can be placed in one section of space.

i dunno if its clear enough but the best example would be like freelancers nebulas and space zones.

and btw who sez EVERY NEBULA in the universe is made up of light years of "nebula space"? a nebula could be only 100KM wide, a 1000, 10.....it all depends, ur thinking in the perspective of the now and known.

[TopAce]

Originally posted by IceFire

No thats not correct.  Passive asteroid fields just mean that capital ships are not "targeted" by the field.  In FreeSpace 1 you'd often find that if a fighter went through the asteroid field there were no problems...but as soon as a cruiser or larger went through the asteroids were always heading towards the cruiser (or a good majority were).  Passive just makes the field be random no matter what vessel is passing through.  Unless you want the asteroids to be a problem for a large capital ship, you set it to passive.  Collisions still take place...they just rarely threaten a vesse like a Hecate or even a Fenris.

My experience was while doing a mission for ITHOV is that even Passive fields target large ships(I used an Orion in that mission), and if I don't defend it(and why would I defend it, it's hostile ), then it is destroyed or severly damaged quite often

[karajorma]

Originally posted by deep_eyes
and btw who sez EVERY NEBULA in the universe is made up of light years of "nebula space"? a nebula could be only 100KM wide, a 1000, 10.....it all depends, ur thinking in the perspective of the now and known.

Astronomy and Astrophysics say.

That doesn't mean that I'm against having them. Just don't try making out for a second that it's possible in real life.

[KARMA]

well I'm not a scientist, but I think it isn't so impossible to have little clouds made by dust/little debris, maybe even gas(althought it should be at solid state if too far from a star or if not enough concentrated), with an apearance of something like a small localized nebula.
From what we know, there may be nebulaes at very low density(maybe at the edges of a "true" nebula), so low that you will not have a fog effect, with areas of higher density like clouds.
And anyway..it's science fiction and the effect could be cool in game, and may give some interesting opportunities(bespin? )