Author Topic: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?  (Read 59190 times)

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Offline Nergal

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
I think the method Dragon mentioned for fade-in/fade-out of ships has been doable ever since alpha maps and change-ship-class SEXPs have been usable.  Unfortunately I think E is also correct in that we will not get a visual very similar to what's seen in the show - I really don't know how we could pull off the "shimmering" effect.  Below is a link to a video of a Shadow battlecrab doing the fade-in/fade-out method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEPRKweXCCM&feature=channel_video_title


That's really cool. A vast improvement! *thumbs-up*

 

Offline Slasher

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Been playing with the weapon visuals again.  The pulse/laser combo turrets on the Omega seem to get mentioned a lot.  Here's the current, TBP 3.4 version, albeit with the corrected Omega firepoints:



I tried to make it more bolt-like and less blob-like, though if I go to far in that direction the pulse looks like it has no depth when viewed from an oncoming/outgoing vector:





Going to start paying attention to Narn and Centauri capship weapons soon.


 

Offline starbug

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
That looks amazing Slasher, that looks so much better! :) :)
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if there is any consistancy with the Shivans, it's their lack of consistancy - -Norbert-

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Definitely better.
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Offline Slasher

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Before now I never realized TBP used the same graphic for all 5 Narn capship pulse weapons.  The same applies to the Centauri, excepting their Ion Cannon.  I decided I'd try to add a little more variety, but this obviously slows the upgrade process down.  The changes to the Narn weapons are fairly subtle so below is an example screenshot of the old (current) effect, followed by screens of the new ones.  Screencaps of B5 episodes reveal very little in the way of detail for Narn weapons so I took some artistic liberties, hence the squiggly pulses for the lighter Narn anti-fighter guns. 

Old effect:

New effects (Narn heavy plasma cannon and anti-fighter pulse):





Also worked some more on the Omega's guns:





Unfortunately the gamma of the screenshots make it look a little different than in-game, but when you see it in motion it has a cool tracer-ish effect.  When the Omega is firing all the phalanx turrets it looks kind of like WW2 style AAA fire.

 

Offline wesp5

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
I like the new effects on the whole, but not the wiggly Narn effect. It doesn't make sense from a scientific point of view and wasn't in the show either! Already the old Narn fighter projectiles looks strange to me on that account. Also I think it's okay for similar kind of turrets on capital ships of one race to always use the same projectiles. Then you would know what you are dealing with! Last not least, please remember to add the version numer of the next Zathras patch somewhere in the mod window ;)!
« Last Edit: July 15, 2011, 07:37:57 am by wesp5 »

 

Offline starbug

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Awesome awesome awesome, the Narn wiggle effect, hmmm not sure any chance of a video of these weapons being fired, the wiggle effect will prob look better in real time, rather than looking at a screen cap. Also i just wanna see those omega turrets let rip! ;)
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if there is any consistancy with the Shivans, it's their lack of consistancy - -Norbert-

 

Offline Slasher

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Old Centauri effect:

Unlike with the Narns, I got some good screencaps of the Primus' main guns firing:



I did unique muzzle flashes for the big and small pulses, plus fixed the Primus' firing points so the blasts don't come out of thin air...er, vacuum!




Interestingly, several TBP ships seem to have this off-center firing point problem.  I've noticed it with the EA Hyperion/Midwinter and the CR Vorchan so far, and there are probably others.  It was easy enough to overlook before, but when you add in muzzle flashes it's glaringly obvious the blasts are coming out several meters away from the tip of the turret barrels.  It can take a while to correct, but necessary if effects are going to be upgraded.

Oh!  And the Narn effect in the previous post is tentative (like all the new effects, really).  I've never done this before so I'm learning as I go.

 

Offline wesp5

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Oh!  And the Narn effect in the previous post is tentative (like all the new effects, really).  I've never done this before so I'm learning as I go.

Just make the new effects as close as to what is shown in the show. Everything else, regardless how cool ;), just shouldn't be considered...

 

Offline Slasher

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
I've definitely been perusing B5 episodes for source material, but in places where there's no (or poor) info I'm kinda left to my own devices.  We don't know what the Midwinter's turrets look like firing, for example, so it's a game of fill-in-the-blanks.

 

Offline wesp5

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
We don't know what the Midwinter's turrets look like firing, for example, so it's a game of fill-in-the-blanks.

In that case I would use examples from the most similar known ship, because technology is transfered from one ship class to the other with only few big changes, which sometimes I would even blame on different clueless CGI teams and not actual intent. I really loved about the B5 universe that there was a logic behind most of the technical stuff, like that each race had it's own typical particles and beams and they only mixed them up when buying from one another, e.g. the Narn and EA beams looking the same or the Drakh and EA Shadow cruiser beams.

 

Offline starbug

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
For the Midwinters weapons i rewatched severed dreams and managed to get some shots of the midwinters weapons., every weapon pulse in the shots comes from the midwinter(clarkstown), hope these help.

Edit, i think these are the 4 forward main guns firing, as thats were they seem to be coming from. other than that i would guess that the rest of the weapons would be similiar to the Hyperion, except with beam turrets. I'd say the main ship to take a bit of artistic license on would be the nova, as i don't think that ship has ever been seen firing its weapons, apart from the beam error(or those could have been weapons bought from the narn) on the In the beginning film.

[attachment deleted by ninja]
« Last Edit: July 16, 2011, 05:16:09 am by starbug »
http://www.youtube.com/user/AnubisX1

if there is any consistancy with the Shivans, it's their lack of consistancy - -Norbert-

 

Offline Vidmaster

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
this is really really neat...
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Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
So, I'm not familiar with TBP at all (mod or the show).. but since I've been working with Slasher a bit on another project, I figured I'd take a look around. Just to satisfy my curiosity, does anyone have a link to the kind of 'gradual cloaking' effect that is in the show? I can't seem to comprehend what you are talking about with that.

Also, some of these effects are really stellar. Nice work.  :yes:
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Offline Angelus

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Iz's like this and this from 2:50.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2011, 08:18:23 pm by Angelus »

 

Offline starbug

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
The gradual cloaking effect in the show is the Shadows way of coming in and out of hyperspace. All the other races form the normal Jump point cone effect, were as the Shadows "phase" into Hyperspace producing a similiar effect to star treks cloaking, but Angelus clips show it better than i can explain

also check this clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIpg-N_Pp-g

its shows the shadow fleet de-phase cloaking out of hyperspace.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2011, 05:15:14 am by starbug »
http://www.youtube.com/user/AnubisX1

if there is any consistancy with the Shivans, it's their lack of consistancy - -Norbert-

 

Offline Dragon

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
IMHO, Centauri effect is too red, I think that it should be orange-red (as seen on screencap).

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
 :nervous:

So why can't that be done with change-ship-class to one with an animated cloaking texture.. (as I've demonstrated over in FS Modding) followed by a ship-vanish or warp with no effect?
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Offline Slasher

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
I tried experimenting with that a little bit last month; details are at the end of the first page of this thread.  Here's the link to the video again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEPRKweXCCM&feature=channel_video_title 

It would probably be a little better if I'd used play-sound-from-file to add the Shadow scream during the fade-in/out. 


 

Offline ChaserR

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Re: If TBP could have new effects, what would you want to see?
Those weapon effects looks amazing.
The shadow fade-in/fade-out looks better than it currently does in TBP, it is bit fast and it lacks the shimmering wich probebly is dificult to manage with the game engine.
Keep up the good work, looking forward to get these in the game.