Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Galemp on May 11, 2003, 11:44:30 pm

Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Galemp on May 11, 2003, 11:44:30 pm
Something I'd like to see included in FRED2_open and FS2_open is the ability to change the nebula maximum draw distance, much in the same way you can set the sensor range. Then you can get thinner or thicker nebulae.

On a related note, could we perhaps have glowmaps fade in and out as you approach or fly away from a ship? It's a bit awkward when you're flying towards a ship and all of a sudden the lights pop up from nowhere.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on May 12, 2003, 04:14:24 am
Now THAT'S a very good idea!
Bump! Double bump! Triple bump!
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 12, 2003, 08:28:49 am
It is a very good idea.

Any word from the Code-Wizards?
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: kasperl on May 12, 2003, 10:47:31 am
:yes: :yes:
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: CP5670 on May 12, 2003, 10:57:26 am
This is something I would really like to see. :yes: Would this include the range at which the nebula poof bitmaps are drawn as well or just the range at which ships become visible?
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 12, 2003, 11:47:42 am
A question that only the coders can answer.

But they seem to have gone to ground.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: StratComm on May 12, 2003, 03:08:54 pm
Quote
Originally posted by CP5670
This is something I would really like to see. :yes: Would this include the range at which the nebula poof bitmaps are drawn as well or just the range at which ships become visible?


I would think that rendering them farther away would require higher-res maps for the poofs, or you could get some strange pixalations.  The fade in effect on lights would be nice overall, as right now they snap on with the lowest LOD most of the time.  Even in normal space.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on May 13, 2003, 03:52:48 am
ULTRA-BUMP!!!
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Knight Templar on May 13, 2003, 10:01:59 am
"Hey Mikey! He likes it!"
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on May 14, 2003, 01:58:58 am
Of course I like it!.... Who in their right mind doesn't?
Title: Re: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Ulala on May 15, 2003, 12:28:33 pm
Quote
Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
On a related note, could we perhaps have glowmaps fade in and out as you approach or fly away from a ship? It's a bit awkward when you're flying towards a ship and all of a sudden the lights pop up from nowhere.


Sounds reasonable... although it's rather entertaining watching someone suddenly turn towards glowmaps and scream "It burns!" as their retinas melt.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on May 16, 2003, 03:41:36 am
MEGA-BUMP!!! :hopping:
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: J3Vr6 on May 16, 2003, 08:34:16 am
Christ, the thread hasn't even been inactive for an entire day and people are bumping.  I'm sure the right people have seen this, and bumping when its not even half way down the first page is annoying.

Anyway (yes, I'm in a bad mood :hopping: ), so this would allow you to start a mission at the edge of a nebula, where its not thick at all and hardly no loss in visibility, and then you can fly deeper into the nebula where it gets progressively deeper?  That would be great.

Also, is there a way to only have a nebula in a portion of the mission map (whatever you call that 60km box you fly in in a mission), so you could have a mission where your objectives require you to do things in and out of a nebula (mini-nebula?) without changing missions?
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 16, 2003, 10:08:22 am
Quote
Originally posted by J3Vr6
Anyway (yes, I'm in a bad mood :hopping: ), so this would allow you to start a mission at the edge of a nebula, where its not thick at all and hardly no loss in visibility, and then you can fly deeper into the nebula where it gets progressively deeper?  That would be great.


Now that would be cool.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Nico on May 16, 2003, 01:35:13 pm
no, that would just make for nebulas where you can see farther away.
actually, I think it's pretty simple: just add an alpha setting to it.
there's that for the fighter trails in the ships.tbl file, so I assume that must not be complicated.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on May 17, 2003, 03:53:10 am
Not comlicated!?.. Even better!:D
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: CptWhite on May 17, 2003, 04:06:19 am
there si 2 issues here, the draw distance (when ships fade in and out of view) and the draw range of the (outter most value and inner most value) of the nebula "clouds".

for example if you make the nebula coulds black (ie not existant) you still have a fog effect.

it would also be useful to control the number of nebula coulds and the number of types being increased as well...possibly allowing them to be animated would be excellent too.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Galemp on June 15, 2003, 10:41:44 pm
Bump... what I'm looking for is the ability to change the distance the 'fog effect' appears at.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Fry_Day on June 16, 2003, 02:35:57 am
Well, after peeking into the code, it seems that fog values are ship type-dependant. Except that, it seems pretty straightforward to change the values used - everything has near and far fog values, and the nebula clouds are based on two variables, which are the outer radius, behind which the cloud is transparent, and the inner radius. The nebula cloud grows less transparent until it reaches the inner radius, and from the inner radius, it grows less transparent until it reaches a "magic number" (I'm not kidding you, that's how it's written in the code)
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: TrashMan on June 16, 2003, 05:28:59 am
Less talk, more ation...
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: karajorma on June 16, 2003, 06:46:10 am
Quote
Originally posted by TrashMan
Less talk, more ation...


but what kind of ation? Punctuation? Detonation? Mastu... okay forget that one. :lol:
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: CptWhite on June 16, 2003, 06:47:16 am
well being ship type dependant is a bit of bummer really, would be be possible to code in an optional bit of code which could be referenced in a .fs2 file, without it the mission uses default settings etc..
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: KARMA on June 16, 2003, 10:57:15 am
Quote
Originally posted by karajorma


but what kind of ation? Punctuation? Detonation? Mastu... okay forget that one. :lol:

:lol: :lol:
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: StarGunner on June 16, 2003, 03:37:12 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB


Now that would be cool.


ULTRA BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats the best one I've ever herad! That would so rock you could be chaced into a Nebula and then back out all in the same mission! Then just for Eye candy have a ship go boom and whatch the nebula part it's infront of disperce all over from the shocwave! We could link that to FRED to mabe as a check box like the astro feaild?
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Galemp on July 08, 2003, 10:24:28 pm
Bumpers.

I'd really like to see this included.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: JC Denton on July 08, 2003, 10:34:28 pm
Something else I've noticed in nebula missions is when the capships are just barely visible through the fog, you can clearly see the models are at LOD 2 or 3.  So, if you're gonna do the thinning nebula stuffs, bump the range at which the models switch detail levels up a bit.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: karajorma on July 09, 2003, 02:07:36 am
Quote
Originally posted by JC Denton
Something else I've noticed in nebula missions is when the capships are just barely visible through the fog, you can clearly see the models are at LOD 2 or 3.  So, if you're gonna do the thinning nebula stuffs, bump the range at which the models switch detail levels up a bit.


Do it yourself. It's a simple .tbl change not an SCP thing. :p
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: JC Denton on July 09, 2003, 07:42:24 am
Not true from my viewpoint.  I've noticed that FS2 handles detail distances a bit differently from "normal" space when in full nebulas.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: StratComm on July 09, 2003, 08:44:11 pm
I have to concur; for a number of ships glowmaps are LOD0 only (no glow textures for the lower-res maps) so you can use them to judge when a ship is switching LOD in the nebula.  The Deimos sticks out in mind, it seems like those maps jump out awefully close.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: karajorma on July 10, 2003, 02:40:49 am
Well I'll state now that until someone looks in the source or performs some tests we can't be certain that the nebula handles any differently from normal space.

Detail distance:      (0, 800, 3500, 10000)

That means that the deimos will only swap to LOD0 when you're 800m away from it. You sure that the nebula is handled differently? Or is it just the case that you only notice the LODs changing in the nebula cause it's more obvious there?
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: StratComm on July 10, 2003, 05:28:26 pm
that is easily be the case.  For some reason I was thinking that most capships don't change LOD until at least 1200 meters, but whatever; that could be the case and I just never noticed it before.
Title: Nebula draw distance
Post by: Black Wolf on July 27, 2003, 12:47:59 pm
Sorry to bump an old thread like this but I was wondering, if this was to be implemented, would it be able to jump straight from zero nebula to full nebula? Or would that require a sort of asteroid field style box in FRED?