how's this for some weapon effects?

[Bobboau]

I'm making this thread to show off effects as I make them, I was going to post this in one of my prox threads but I figured they wouldn't get as much attention and I've decided to quit trying to win converts for the time being and just use the program to make stuff myself, if you think anything I post would make a good addition, I keep the uncompressed source files (at least fore a week or two). and keep in mind the demonstrations are going to be higher quality than the in game ones.

first off a shivan beam glow.
http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/SbeamWA.avi

[edit]full effect pack updated 3-5-07 AAA beams[/edit]

[aldo_14]

Kind of hypnotic, like a lava lamp....

[Raven2001]

very niiice 

theres just one thing bugging me about the shivan beams atm... RED glows!!! 
I prefered the old white\blue glows... looked cooler imo, and showed that "refinement" in shivan beams (white= full light\power\energy =better tech)

But thats me

[Darklord42]

in the cut sceens and amis the you see shivan ships firing red glows.  Its probably better that way. Red is associated with evil  as with black red ships.

[Raven2001]

Well, I was just stating my personal preference. I can, however, understand the motives for preference of red glows on shivan ships

[natty_dread78]

 Yeah shivan ships are naturally red (citing FSwiki: "The Shivan's also have an inclination towards the colour red; almost all Shivan vessels exhibit a red color scheme").  So I guess the beams should be red also...
N_D

[Taristin]

Used to be green though. Would have been interesting to have green and black enemies.

[Mars]

Then they would have been labled a borg rip off.

[Taristin]

Is that better or worse than clichéd?

[Mars]

Technicalities

[Raven2001]

Christ, if i knew I wouldnt have said anything... rly wasnt trying to derail this topic 

[Mars]

Christ, if i knew I wouldnt have said anything... rly wasnt trying to derail this topic 

Seriously though, it is a good effect, I look forward to seeing it in game

[Raven2001]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Your 6 years late!! In fact is shouldve been me firing it for ya ;P

But thx anyways

[Pnakotus]

Now we just need 'less funky' Shivan beams so it doesn't look like we're under attack by candy stripers. 

[redsniper]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Your 6 years late!! In fact is shouldve been me firing it for ya ;P

But thx anyways

Er, I think he did it as a joke, since derailing threads is like a pastime here and yet you're still surprised when this one gets derailed.

That's what I got out of it anyway.

[Bobboau]

I think the blue glows were actualy a mistake on V's part, IIRC they use the tarrent thruster glows, and these are good place holders, and my guess is the shivans got there beams first

made some vasudan beams, I'm finding beams a bit trickier than bolts, so I'm actualy not that happy with these, but I think they'd probably look good in game (I retouched some of them a little, made them dimmer so the inner beam sections wouldn't get washed out, this may have been a bad idea)






I just figured out a new type of noise though, it might prove usefull in beams

[Mefustae]

I really like that last one. A little more golden and it'd be perfect.

[Bobboau]

well like I said, I dulled it a little due to the way they blend, I didn't want the little guy being invisable because it got washed out from all the others, in game it'd be a lot brighter cause it'd have all the other ones added to it.

and if you like that, heh, that new noise I figured out was actually EXTREMELY useful for linear images.
take a look at this terran beam set.








note to self

good perlin noise


$N[512,512]<RGB>{
@A=rand(1)
@B=rand(1)
@C=rand(1)
}<A|B|C>


@R=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+N.r(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))/(512/i)),var(i,1,i*2))
@G=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+N.g(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))/(512/i)),var(i,1,i*2))
@B=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+N.b(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))/(512/i)),var(i,1,i*2))



good turbulent noise


$N[512,512]<RGB>{
@A=rand(1)
@B=rand(1)
@C=rand(1)
}<A|B|C>

@R=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+((N.r(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))-0.5)*2)^(1/4)/(1024/i)),var(i,1,i*2))
@G=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+((N.g(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))-0.5)*2)^(1/4)/(1024/i)),var(i,1,i*2))
@B=sum(test(i<513),var(l,0,l+((N.b(x/i+x/(2*i),y/i+y/(2*i))-0.5)*2)^(1/4)/(1024/i)),var(i,1,i*2))



good thing to make stuff seamless along one axis


$N[512,512]<RGB>{
@RX=WN.r(x,y)*(1-abs(X))+WN.r(x+0.5,y)*abs(X)
@RY=WN.r(x,y)*(1-abs(Y))+WN.r(x,y+0.5)*abs(Y)

@GX=WN.g(x,y)*(1-abs(X))+WN.g(x+0.5,y)*abs(X)
@GY=WN.g(x,y)*(1-abs(Y))+WN.g(x,y+0.5)*abs(Y)

@BX=WN.b(x,y)*(1-abs(X))+WN.b(x+0.5,y)*abs(X)
@BY=WN.b(x,y)*(1-abs(Y))+WN.b(x,y+0.5)*abs(Y)
}<RX|GX|BX>

@R=N.r(x/2,y)
@G=N.g(x/2,y)
@B=N.b(x/2,y)



none of that will work with anything released, I added in temporary layers and summation the other day and a lot of the noise functions make heavy use of those

[Pnakotus]

Bob, these are awesome.  If only I knew how to slap them in...   

[Bobboau]

well if you rename them beam-green, beam-green2 and beam-green3 they'll probly showup in game, though not very well, these are intendet to be tiled, and beams don't do that by default.