Originally posted by CP5670
How about detail-mapping capabilities? This system is used by a few graphics engines (Unreal and Serious Sam) to make textures look very sharp and detailed close-up by applying a bump-map only when the player is really close to the texture. Very cool effect, and it would be great to see it in a space sim.
More engine-oriented, but definetly - that effect was so awesome the first time I saw it, and every time thereafter... amazing.
Originally posted by wEvil
Its a radical idea -
but some kind of vertex-animation tool? Bone based or straight frame-by-frame manipulation.
I.E
Some way of making the sathanas beam pods move in close together like they did in the last FS2 cutscene?
Look to the user-made units in Total Annihilation for a guide to this kind of stuff - I'll never forget the first time I saw a Raptor (mech) walking across the map, swaying slightly from side to side. Or the model animations for the factories opening up, or those super-defense towers deploying to fire (Annihilator, Doomsday Machine). The model animation flexibility in TA was simply awesome.
Also, definetly enhance the whole docking thing. I like that swappable-turrets idea (fits in with the ship customizability idea in the main FsF thread), as well as being able to simply have multiple objects docked together at once.