[IceFire]

Ok guys....in my next campaign project (Paradigm Shift) I'd really like to go to all 3D planets.  Now there's a few things that I think the source code may be able to help us out with on that.

Check this picture from E&B

Now...the stuff I see there that I think is important is this:

1) Glowing atmosphere in the sun lit side.
2) See through rings (ie. translucent texture abilities).
3) Moving cloud layer.

I by no means expect a 3 year old engine to look as good as that...but I do think we may be able to bring some of those effects into FreeSpace 2.  Is that possible?

[an0n]

I don't think the E&B planets are entirely 3D. I know for a fact that they run off of a mesh but I think it's some kind of illusion in the engine, but they still spin and ****.

[vyper]

3D planets are already possible, and the moving clouds could be achieved by means of animated textures (which someone was talking about somewhere in here).

Just thot I'd clarify that

[an0n]

You could also have another sphere skimming across the planet with green transparency in between clouds.

[IceFire]

Ok...but the coulds shouldn't be 100% opaque.

[Galemp]

So how about alpha channels? If you can get a transparent layer as a seperate subobject you can get it to rotate.

[IceFire]

Yeah....something like that would be sweet.  What would we need to do that?

[aldo_14]

Probably just use the same setup as for thruster flames - make them semi-transparent, with black being fully transparent... actually UV mapping something like that (presumably onto a very slow rotating sphere) could be awkward.

you can sort of achieve translucency by just not Uv mapping stuff (i..e plain colours only...not ideal, obviously).  Another thing could be having a ring object that, as well as being partly transparent, also has a sort of 'poof' or altered space debrid to simulate the particles within.

Glowing atmosphere.... would probably be easy... , the existing code (with reduce ambient) sort of does that by darkening unlit parts.

[LtNarol]

i think we should use actual models for planets so they actually rotate (although rather slowly)....on a related note, i would like to see a way to make modeled nebulas that can be zoned into areas of different densities so that one can fly into and out of a nebula...this can be done by using poofs that are less transparent in the outer areas.  the same kind of thing can be done for cloud layers, although slightly altered so that they are separate from planets and rotate on their own.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

The solution here really would be to use 3d models that are mapped onto the environment map (i.e. projected onto the background, as you can do in games like Unreal Tournament)

This stops the player from reaching them, but makes them look 3D and do all the other cool stuff we want. On the other hand, now that I think about it you could have them as physical objects in the world, but they'd have to be too huge to fit in the game arena well and then the player could theoretically reach them.

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by ##UnknownPlayer##
The solution here really would be to use 3d models that are mapped onto the environment map (i.e. projected onto the background, as you can do in games like Unreal Tournament)

This stops the player from reaching them, but makes them look 3D and do all the other cool stuff we want. On the other hand, now that I think about it you could have them as physical objects in the world, but they'd have to be too huge to fit in the game arena well and then the player could theoretically reach them.

this would also take far too much code editing...lets keep things a bit more.....err.....close to home.  Geomodding would also be pretty darned cool, but the amount of work would be crazy, what you're wanting would not go over well with the rendering engine.  Besides, reachable planets would be nice, especially if that isolated nebula thing can be done because then you can fly through clouds

[IceFire]

If the planet is a million meters away....flying to it would be fairly rare.  We've had 3D Planets in FS before....Ace's Cardinal Spear campaign had them....I just want to make them a little more like planets and a little less like spheres with a texture on them.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

If we could make a nice 'flying in orbit' effect with the planets, that'd be awesome.

[Kamikaze]

Originally posted by LtNarol
i think we should use actual models for planets so they actually rotate (although rather slowly)

I'm pretty sure that medium size planets (reffering to earth and above) wouldn't rotate fast enough for one to see in a game....... (or am I just talking bull****?)

[Nico]

you're right.
as a reply to LtNarol:
for localized nebulas, forget about it: it requires more than just a few tweaks. you would need to bind the poofs to some sort of gizmo ( a cubic one ala asteroid field wouldn't do it obviously, neither would any primitive shaped gizmo ). then you'd need random but coherent thickness layers...
you need a new engine, in fact.

[Darkmage]

you're right... you need a new engine... you need the VEGASTRIKE engine http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net I'm developing a huge wing commander mod using this engine... it's capable of everything freespace is and more. the artwork is about the only thing which doesn't look professional but I'm sure you guys could change that...

[Nico]

mmh... some effects look cool indeed ( muchos asteroids ) but the nebula looks more like a big blob. Check Iwar2 for a volumetric nebula.

[Darkmage]

actually... the nebulas would not take TOO much... when we did nebula's in vegastrike,,, we used an nvidia fog effect inside of a 3d model file.it works very well... you can fly into and out of the fog.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

and then throw in my idea for gravity simulation (if that would be at all possible), and we have an easy way to do what we are doing in the combat federation.  We can do ground assaults.   It's a ***** to fred, but it's happening.  instead of zoning negula density, what are the chances of overall nebula density?  a slider like the "number of stars", or even entering an integer. it would effect the entire nebula, and then the nebula would have to actually be overlaid on a "standard background."  so the switch wouldn't toggle between standard and full nebula, but would actually work in conjunction with one another.  Maybe setting a separate control for distance from object to begin nebula, and distance to end nebula, this would cover clouds.  and if both are left as a zero, the nebula is standard full nebula at the density of your choosing.  once again i'm not a programmer, nor do i pretend to be one.  so i don't know how dificult something like this would be.

Icefire when you figure out how this is all going to come together let me know.  Ground assault plays about 25% of the role in my mod, and i would like it to be as good as possible.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Darkmage
actually... the nebulas would not take TOO much... when we did nebula's in vegastrike,,, we used an nvidia fog effect inside of a 3d model file.it works very well... you can fly into and out of the fog.

should be a good idea to make the model insible then, so you see only the fog in it