Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Nuke on September 17, 2002, 08:59:44 pm

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: Nuke on September 17, 2002, 08:59:44 pm

is there a programmer out there that is looking into what can be done with the shield rendering system. i was bored the other night, so i used the metaball tool to create a quickie shield mesh for the lucifer, making use of that import data button in an older version of pcs. the rendering was kinda screwie, so i started working on a lower poly mesh for lucy, hopefully this one will render better.

with the high poly mesh, not every shot will create an energy distortion on the mesh, some go right through it. beams and fighters go through as well. i think it would be cool if some additional special effects were added, such as energy waves along the beam's slice. another feature would be a shild icon with more than 4 sections, maybe a pair of top downs (ventral/dorsal views) with hexagonal shield sections so you can see where the weak spots are.

flying you fighter through the shileds should have some consequenses. to start they could cause emp effects and a turbulant entrance (similar to afterburners or engine wash). you could fly throgh a weak section and take minimal damage, take severe damage from a fully powered section, and none from a depleted section. another idea is to make your fighters shields stop working while you are within the capship's shield mesh (making you a sitting duck for turrets).

the shild mesh could also be used for other special effects, such as mapping out an energy field in a subspace portal. done simply by layering electrical arc textures over the mesh. any other ideas?

Title: nice
Post by: athropy on September 18, 2002, 01:12:58 am

I dont know how difficult it is to do, but I can easily picture the way a beam breaks the shield down like shards of glass.

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: ##UnknownPlayer## on September 18, 2002, 05:09:34 am

Well, while we're in the realms of just wishful thinking for now - the way fighters would fly through shields is that they would hit the shield and suffer a speed drop and their own shields would be depleted a little from flying through. But, they'd have to nose dive the shield almost vertically, otherwise they'd just skitter along the surface of it.

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: vyper on September 18, 2002, 05:15:23 am

Oi! You! Nooo!

Since when did fs2 have force shields? I thought fighters would just pass through anyway?

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: KARMA on September 18, 2002, 05:30:00 am

we discussed about this sometime ago but i don't know if someone gave a look at the code
this was the thread :
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,9812.0.html

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: Bobboau on September 18, 2002, 01:07:05 pm

I've made some improvements to my shield hit code, but I started messing with some other stuff, and I havn't tested the current build (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/FS3.zip) wich might very well be broken, but there it is if you want to look at it

Title: who is doing what with shields?
Post by: Nuke on September 19, 2002, 09:14:48 pm

with my shielded lucy, i found a cool tactic. you can escape a missile or fighter's guns by flying into the shields while a fighter is on your tail. one thing that needs to be done is make different weapons have different shield impact effects. large weapons cause big disturbances in the shields, while little fighter weapons leave little shield fluctuations. instead of the current one size fits all effect.