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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: CptWhite on September 29, 2001, 06:54:00 pm

Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: CptWhite on September 29, 2001, 06:54:00 pm
Create a sun that is 128x128 size colour it all black and name is "remove_ambient.pcx"

create a tbl entry for the sun in stars.tbl like so :


$Sun:      reduce_ambient
$Sunglow:   reduce_ambient
$SunRGBI:   -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0

now create the background as usual and where-ever you place your sun also add the reduce_ambient sun at the same co-ordinates.

now play the mission - note the ambient lighting is now removed (ie you only get light specifically from the sun you placed)  i think it adds a lot of atmosphere.

here are some pictures :


 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/quiz1.jpg)

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/quiz2.jpg)

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/quiz3.jpg)

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/quiz4.jpg)


hope people find this useful.  i am conducting further research into this at a later date to find out more about what can be achieved.  credit to icefire for finding this out.

o btw the high res texture fix DOES WORK. here are some picture to prove it :

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/highres1.jpg)

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/highres4.jpg)

 (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon/Screens_Misc/Screens_Cptwhite/highres5.jpg)



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Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: untouchable on September 29, 2001, 07:00:00 pm
Nifty
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Jabu on September 29, 2001, 07:04:00 pm
  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif) @ Z'ha'dum and especially the nebula. Yay for the Eagle nebula too.

Nice lighting trick too.

[This message has been edited by Jabu (edited 09-29-2001).]
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: DragonClaw on September 29, 2001, 07:07:00 pm
O...M...G!!!!!

 (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)!!!!

That nebula is AWWEEEESSSSOOOMEEE!

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Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Londo Molari on September 29, 2001, 07:08:00 pm
HOLY**** THAT LOOKS NICE!!!!!

lighting looks amazing! it IS a big breakthru... but as for the high res backgrounds...look amazing! what kinda fps are you getting there tho?
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Kitsune on September 29, 2001, 07:18:00 pm
*Blinks in shock*
Alright, THAT kicks *** !
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: IceFire on September 29, 2001, 08:13:00 pm
Thanks for the mention CptWhite  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)

Definately very cool.  I tested some settings that make it look like StarLancer's ambient blues and greens and it definately works out quite nicely.  Of course, there are other colors to test as well.

In any case, it adds some atmosphere to things.

The only disadvantage is that you go totally blind when you look at the sun.  So don't look at the sun (because your using 2 suns)  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Sandwich on September 29, 2001, 09:05:00 pm
 (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)

AWESOME!!!

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Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Setekh on September 30, 2001, 02:58:00 am
Holy crap... that is amazing. This was one of my major gripes with the FS2 engine - no shadows. You've silenced me, that's for sure...  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Shrike on September 30, 2001, 03:02:00 am
 
Quote
Originally posted by Setekh:
Holy crap... that is amazing. This was one of my major gripes with the FS2 engine - no shadows. You've silenced me, that's for sure...   (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/eek.gif)

*coughs*  You do realise we're using this in MT as well?  Trust me, having played with it on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  It's a fair bit harder to judge distances, which is realistic, I suppose.... but a bit annoying.   (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/wink.gif)

Anyhow, about the backgrounds, while they are nice, could you make 256x256 versions for those of us, who for some reason get crummy large bg images?  (Like me, my big planets just sucked for some reason)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Setekh on September 30, 2001, 03:06:00 am
 
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike:
*coughs*  You do realise we're using this in MT as well?  Trust me, having played with it on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  It's a fair bit harder to judge distances, which is realistic, I suppose.... but a bit annoying.    (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/wink.gif)

Anyhow, about the backgrounds, while they are nice, could you make 256x256 versions for those of us, who for some reason get crummy large bg images?  (Like me, my big planets just sucked for some reason)

 (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/tongue.gif) No, I didn't know that  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/wink.gif) Besides, I didn't say anything about fun. I can make a bright background to put the entire thing on if I want. It looks cool, at the very least - that's what I was pointing out  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Raven2001 on September 30, 2001, 03:48:00 am
Man! You just found out what I was still trying to do!  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/wink.gif)

Thx a lot! I'll use your knowledge in caught in the middle  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif) That's a big break trough!

Icefire: could you tell us how did you do that lightning similar to starlancer? PLease!!!
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Nico on September 30, 2001, 04:58:00 am
hey! I knew that for long too! I was just said not to talk about it for I don't remeber what reason. But the effect can be improved  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: CptWhite on September 30, 2001, 05:11:00 am
MT secret weapon eh? uncovered !

These pictures were a test - im going to improve on the effect now.

To whoever it was who mentioned low res background art.  Dont worry.  High Res work comes as an "upgrade" pack -  ie all work is 256x256 if you download the standard version.  I would like to ask a few questions that you might want to check :

have you enabled the keys in the registry correctly  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif) obvious i know

what card have you got - can it hanle high res textures

YOUR SETUP IN freespace 2 - is hardware acceleration on FULL -  it needs to be

do you have the high res background installed correctly in /effects  or in /maps

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Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: IceFire on September 30, 2001, 08:53:00 am
 
Quote
Icefire: could you tell us how did you do that lightning similar to starlancer? PLease!!!

Sure....no problem.  After I figured out howto remove the background and passed that along to CptWhite to play with (we'd been looking for ways to do that for a while) it was the next logical step.

Make a new sun called 'BackBlue.pcx'.  Now...there are four numbers under all stars.  The Red, Green, Blue and Intensity.

For a dark blue background, try this.

RGBI: 0.0 0.0 0.4 -1.0

Now, place the BackBlue.pcx at the same co-ordinates as the sun already in the mission (or make one and then place it at the same co-ordinates).  The -1.0 for intensity will display the blue light on the opposite side of the regular sun so that the color fills the "dark side" of the ship.

Thats howto do it.  Mind you, StarLancer's got some fancy metalic shine stuff (specular highlighting) and FS2 doesn't have that...the rest of it looks pretty damn snazzy  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Anduril on September 30, 2001, 03:34:00 pm
  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/biggrin.gif) Yes!
Amazing! There's so much you can do with this! This has also been a big gripe for me, and having true shadow effects will be AWESOME. The blue-tint background sounds awesome, and those high-res backgrounds are stunning too. Great job White and Icefire!



[This message has been edited by Anduril (edited 09-30-2001).]
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Grey Wolf on September 30, 2001, 06:22:00 pm
Too bad you can't have ST-style lights mounted on the ships...
Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: aldo_14 on October 01, 2001, 02:18:00 pm
What about the $ND value - what effect has that?

BTW, I have a set of ships that would look f-in braw with that lighting.  (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)

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Title: How to remove ambient lighting :
Post by: Setekh on October 02, 2001, 03:04:00 am
Given the right settings, you could make some pretty nice renders with that.