Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Bobboau on August 31, 2003, 08:58:58 pm
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who likes this (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/fs2_open_e.zip)
play a mission, the change should be more than aparent
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Ohhhhh.. major cool jetskis! :)
Now, if only they could follow a 'spline' ;)
Either way, I think they are a (another) great improvement :)
:yes: Flipside :D
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Nice! Can I post a screenshot? Can I? Can I?
This didn't affect the background rendering did it? Because a planet in the mission I played got sliced in half at one point. I hadn't played the mission many times though, so it could easily have been like that before.
Otherwise, very cool!
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Ooooh trailblazing...
(Too bad it doesn't allow D3D 5, my comp doesn't handle this build on D3D 8 too well even at 860x640 16bit. Stupid virtual memory, I was having no problems in the last build.)
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there are still a few bugs but there mostly in the form of sexp parseing and are unrelated to anything I've done, and have been fixed but CVS has been down so I havn't gotten them yet
there is virtualy nothing diferent in this version as compared to the last so I don't know why it would be any diferent
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The good:
Engine clipping is gone!!! I can't see the engines through the sides of my ships anymore!
The bad: The trails are still super long on capships even if they aren't moving. If argv[-1]'s engine glows scaling gets put in with this though, then they'll be fine. Also, the halo glow around the engine itself tends to spill over my ships. Not too much of a problem but it can look funny. I've noticed too that a lot of the V models don't have their engine glows at (0,0,-1) normals, so they can look, well, odd. I've also seen models with engines out the sides (the Meson Torp in Inferno) that this is bound to screw up, but glowpoint implimentation could easily override that problem. I'd still be all for a glow specification in tables or the POF itself, but that's beside the point.
The good: it really makes things look fast! Will this work in conjunction with the animated textures code? If so then we just might have a real winner! It really does look cool.
(http://www.geocities.com/cek_83/happytrails.txt)
(http://www.geocities.com/cek_83/shivanfunnytrails.txt)
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currently it does not work with animated textures, maybe I'll come up with something later, but animated thruster textures are going to be slightly tricky to implement properly as I'd have to take the ship's thrust and max speed into acount
looking at it a bit, I think I'm gona set it to always point bacwards, later I might implement something that has it point up a bit when you pull up, down when you dive ect...
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Extremely good looking and excellent concept. Like the shine stuff, I think the current effect is a little overdone (not quite as much as the shine) and it needs to be toned down a bit. I also noticed that the PCX doesn't quite work properly because there are some black areas on the glow itself...but these are minor minor things that can be worked out in the fullness of time. The effect itself is impressive.
I did however notice longer loading times on the mission and between CB's and mission briefings. Not sure why...ingame performance was the same as before...even during big fights. Although not surprising...it is a Radeon 9700 Pro :)
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I'm stuck with an Intel 82810E Graphics Controller... I don't even know what kind of card to upgrade to. I don't know jack about nVidia or ATI and how they mix and match everything... HELP ME CHOOSE!
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get an ATI RADEON 9800 pro 128 (or 256), and you too can be as 1337 as m3
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Nice, Bob. :D
LLivingLarge: The best gfx cards out right now are the nVidia GeForce4 Ti and ATI Radeon series. But the first thing you need to know is whether or not you have an AGP slot. If you don't have an AGP slot, nearly all of the new vid cards won't work in your computer.
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My card can't go past 24bit, how can i be sure it'll work?
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I'm about to check if I have AGP or PCI.
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My dad's computer which is older than mine has an AGP slot... Why doesn't mine? Their both Dell Dimensions!!!!
Okay, what are the most recent PCI compatible videocards?
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Better yet... Can I install an AGP slot?
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Ok, enough is enough :mad2:. Use
(http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/images/edit.gif)
Otherwise, posting after yourself constitutes spamming.
Anyway to answer your question, you cannot install an AGP slot without changing your motherboard. And they haven't made PCI graphics cards new in a while, so good luck finding one.
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Originally posted by Bobboau
who likes this (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/fs2_open_e.zip)
play a mission, the change should be more than aparent
PhReAk needs to put this into his Inferno build.:D
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let's talk more about the secondary thruster glow, mkey...
just updated it, the thing were they point in a direction concurent with the direction they are going is in, I'm useing there rotational velocity as the basis for this, there are two reasons
1) the rotvel that I'd get from the deeper level pre physics stuff isn't going to be prety, you'd see the flares jerking around constantly, and that wouldn't look as good as the smooth transitions it has now
2) I don't know were the pre physics (the ships rotational thrust pre se) rotvel is
the big problem with doing it this way is that when a ship gets wacked and is forced to turn in a way it's AI has no desire to go the secondary thrusters will still point that way as if to say, "I meant to do that!"
I'm thinking a per ship table based factoring for the relitive position and scale factor of the secondary thruster glows would be the best way to go and while I'm at it I could alow table based loading of thruster graphics as well (both these and the origonal)
on a totaly random note; I beleve system of a down's Innervission is by far the coolest song to have playing in the background of the last mission, particularly if you have it timed so that the super nova hits you just as the realy quite part at the end hits the realy loud part. I did that earlier today as my sister was waching me and our faces were a combanation of :eek2: and :lol:
and I'm not putting this into CVS untill after the next relese, it is just too riscky to put something in such an alpha state as this into one of our most stable builds (not withstanding the whole sexp rand parseing error, wich should be sorted out soon)
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very cool, but would be nice to have the "enforced direction applied only through a tag ( like, say, in modelview, you can give tags toi subobjects, etc ), coz I can see many cool things being done if those points toward their given normals.
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very nice looking!
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Bob, you are my hero. I mean it. This looks n times better than the standard FS2 crap.:nod: :yes:
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'Trailblazing' is a great idea for fighters......but capships? They're not going fast enough! Those Terran ships look like they're charging forward at about 100m/s!!
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Originally posted by LLivingLarge
Better yet... Can I install an AGP slot?
AGP slots are attached to the main board just lile PCI slots and can not be installed.
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:eek: **** me Bob, those are beautiful :nod:
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Originally posted by Killfrenzy
'Trailblazing' is a great idea for fighters......but capships? They're not going fast enough! Those Terran ships look like they're charging forward at about 100m/s!!
When in fact they are sitting completely still.
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that IS cool
I would want to have it per ship or per mission (mabey a flag in the mission with sexp controled on off (like beams) becuase I wouldn'y want to use it in normal missions, mabey subspae like missions (not FS2 mind, me MOD)
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Originally posted by LLivingLarge
My dad's computer which is older than mine has an AGP slot... Why doesn't mine? Their both Dell Dimensions!!!!
Okay, what are the most recent PCI compatible videocards?
Most computers to come out in the last 4-5 years have had an AGP slot of varrying speeds. The latest generation of motherboards supports bandwidth speeds of upto 8X. This actually doesn't make much of a difference performance side yet but eventually it probably will.
The reason why you machine may not have an AGP slot is because many systems built recently forgo the slot in the first place opting for a cheaper solution by integrating all of the necessary AGP components into the motherboard itself. So your Intel graphics card is probably an AGP card but you have no AGP port to show for it.
The end run of this is that you usually get what you pay for. Some Dell systems have the AGP ports and they tend to be the more expensive models. Others forgo that cost to them and remove the port altogether.
So other than performing radical surgery on a Dell system, which is near impossible unless you have access to replacement Dell parts, there isn't much you can do to upgrade the system. PCI based video cards are hard to find and do not have nearly the kind of performance that the AGP ones possess.
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updated, made some general improvements, and fixed the thrusters in the nebula, you should see that thrusters are foged on a per thruster basis not per ship as it was before, wich makes them much better looking than they were before
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and the idea behind this is that it's more of an ion wake or something than a lens flare, thus it is on capships as well as fighters
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Shouldn't it curve if the ship changes direction?
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why is it when i try this the screen goes up-side-down?????? i have no mods installed.
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Skaarj, wtf, that is an extreemly weird bug, I have no idea, did this just show up or has this been in earlier builds
can you give a screen shot.
goob, it should. does it not?
granted it doesn't exactly curve so much as it points, and it is based on the ships rotvel not wich way it's trying to go
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wots your e-mail and i will send u a screenshot i don't know how to post screenies here.
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Originally posted by Bobboau
goob, it should. does it not?
It didn't in the first build; I tried to download again and the link was broken.
And try curving it the way the afterburner trails from FS1 are curved. That'd be cool. :)
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look in my profile
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thats me sent u a screenshot.
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heh, that's upside down...
what API are you useing (DX or OGL)?
I'm guessing OGL as there is no shine mapping
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yeah its OGL, but it does it on both OGL and DX
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Excellent improvement Bobboau. One thing I didn't like that was changed was I can't see the trails from infront of a vessel. So the thrusters point away from me and I can't see them.
This used to be so with the previous version and it looked very good. You could actually see a corona around the engines even thought you were infront of the vessel. Very B5ish actually...this effect is gone, I'd like it back.
Now I see one other visual error that I'll take a picture of....but DANG is this good looking! They are a bit too big on some vessels and just right on others so I guess a table implementation will fix that.
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I think I'm gana make a third glow for the looking down the front of the thruster effect, as what this is is basicly the beam rendering code and it doesn't look that good when looked at from sharp angles, so I need a glow at the base of the effect to cover up the sharp angle that the poly is being drawen at, like beams have a glow at there base, I have a graphic that should fit in well
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updateed, there are new/updated effects in the zip
and it looks like I finaly reached the end of the BWO's ftp space, I had to remove some old things before it would let me upload, don't wory it was all stuf I put up there for other people to DL, nothing site criti... (checks site)... nothing site critical :)
thrusters should now have a much better looking back glow as well as the ion wake
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Excellent update!
Yes nothing at the website seems to have gone wrong :)
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Much better... the trails are so much more modest now too. I'm getting a noticable drop in framerate on one mission, but that might have to do with the 15 caps and 6+ fighter wings running around.
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Gee, no really? :D
:yes: Awesome work Bobboau. It's beautiful.
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"cries coz his PC decided FS2 wouldn't work fine anymore"
bah, at least I have all the pretty pics...
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Wow Bobboau, you never cease to amaze. :nod:
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Originally posted by StratComm
(http://www.geocities.com/cek_83/happytrails.txt)
I think that looks fantastic
I'll have to update and see what it looks like moving
Does it require any additional files?
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The SCP staff was created to work wonders... (I hope Inquisitor set me up)
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Okay, now it's official. Freespace SCP has got better graphics than Freelancer.
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Badass Bob. You rule man!:yes: :nod:
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Now... do you take damage if you fly too deep into the big ships trails? Or is it just wash?
Either way, it's pretty cool. :yes:
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zip has been updated, you can now specify the textures that will be applyed to the three diferent glow types via a table entry betweem the scor and the (old nebula) trails section
$Thruster Bitmap 1: normal normal
$Thruster Bitmap 1a: normal afterburner
$Thruster Bitmap 2: beam normal
$Thruster Bitmap 2a: beam afterburner
$Thruster Bitmap 3: thrid glow normal
$Thruster Bitmap 3a: thrid glow afterburner
thrid glow is sort of like the normal glow but it is always on, ie it doesn fade when they point away from you.
these are all optional, they will get set to what they are normaly if you don't enter them.
I will work on disableing them all together if desired, and setting factors for each type
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has anyone tryed it...?
:doubt:
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Originally posted by Stunaep
Okay, now it's official. Freespace SCP has got better graphics than Freelancer.
Almost. Just need Freelancer or Iwar2 nebulae. ;)
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was theres volumatric or something?
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yup, in both cases.
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Incredibly awesome Bob, but I notice that the screenies don't have specular highlighting.
Are the Specular Highlighting/Engine Glows/other stuff into one exe?
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I also noticed that the lighting effects doesnt "fade" like they use to, like when u turn the ship towards the light in the tech room, every "face" of the ship luminates as if it went on, then off when turned away from the light rather then fades in as if in real life or before.
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Originally posted by Bobboau
on a totaly random note; I beleve system of a down's Innervission is by far the coolest song to have playing in the background of the last mission, particularly if you have it timed so that the super nova hits you just as the realy quite part at the end hits the realy loud part.
*Chucks on Winamp.....* Wait... You're right!;7
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Works pretty good, and looks great Bob, only weirdness I get is slowdowns in the main hall screens when I am exiting the game. To be more precise, the cursor movement slows to a crawl and sometimes takes a while to register a click - seems only to affect the exit though.
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So... wait a minute... damn now I forgot what I wanted to post... < /spam>
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nothing has been changed in the specular code
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Wow, this looks fantastic. :yes: Will this be appearing as a standard feature in the next fs2_open release version?
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Excelent:drevil: - No.1 quality as usual, from the script machine/cyborg:cool:
They are a bit Freelancer'esque, but it's still better than the old thruster (I miss those blue flames:nervous: ).
IMHO a particle system would still be bettter (I think it IS possible to create non-bendy beams with that! After all real figher engines too work like that, it closer to Real-Life (tm), than anything else), but this stuff rocks; especially the vectoring part.
BTW, IIRC GE has taken up the task of shinemapping the existing things - were I smoking something too hard, or he indeed works on them?
BTW - no.2: Is there a decent shinemap collection availible?
I believe most of the troubleshooting and complaining is due to the lack of good (in other words: super, top-notch, :v: quality) shinemaps, that would take benefit of the system's true potential. One such map for example is the blue-shine map of the Arcadia, but that's only a basic start IMHO.
BTW - no.3: Is there any chance Bobbau, that you're developing a skin system?
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GE was doing them, but he did them wrong (he did them in grey scale) so I'm not sure what the status is now
the thruster models shaould still be there, there just a bit over powered by the new glows.
this was inspired by a few FL screens, I saw them and thought, "I can do that, I can do that easely"
some particles could be added in for added effect
I have been planing a material system but nothing (other than some preleminary design) has been done, and probly won't untill after christmas
as of now, I am not planning on includeing in the next relese of FSO, as this is still in the development stage and I doubt I'll get it totaly pollished before our next relese, wich will probly be in the next week or two (I don't know anything you don't, just my assumption) shine mapping and 3D shockwaves will however be in the next relese
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new build up, it has new graphics due to some changes in the way things are handeled now
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someone mentioned something about particle generated thruster effects, so I did it, zip has been updated, you will need to make changes in you're ships tbl
here is an example
note; this is for technical explanation of what you have to do and my testing of the code, the example that follows is extreemly ugly in game, this is becase it is only being provided to let you see how the table is formatted, I repete it is ugly as sin. it is you're job to make a good looking one!!!
$Name: GTF Myrmidon
$Short name: TFight2t-05
$Species: Terran
+Type: XSTR("Advanced Space Superiority", 2987)
+Maneuverability: XSTR("Average", 2988)
+Armor: XSTR("Average", 2989)
+Manufacturer: XSTR("RNI Systems", 2990)
+Description: XSTR(" ", 2991)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR("removed for great justice.", 2992)
$end_multi_text
+Length: 16 m
+Gun Mounts: 6
+Missile Banks: 2
$POF file: fighter2t-05.pof
$Detail distance: (0, 180, 300, 1100)
$ND: 253 253 168
$Show damage: YES
$Density: 1
$Damp: 0.2
$Rotdamp: 0.35
$Max Velocity: 0.0, 0.0, 75.0 ;; in x/y/z -- z only specified forward. use special tokens for backward movement
$Rotation time: 4.0, 3.7, 5
$Rear Velocity: 0.0
$Forward accel: 2.4
$Forward decel: 2.0
$Slide accel: 0.0
$Slide decel: 0.0
$Expl inner rad: 25.0
$Expl outer rad: 75.0
$Expl damage: 25.0
$Expl blast: 1000.0
$Expl Propagates: NO ;; If set to Yes, then when the ship dies, the explosion propagates through it.
$Shockwave Speed: 0.0 ;; speed shockwave expands at, 0 means no shockwave
$Allowed PBanks: ( "Subach HL-7" "Akheton SDG" "Morning Star" "Prometheus S" "Prometheus R" "UD-8 Kayser" )
$Allowed Dogfight PBanks: ( "Lamprey" "Prometheus D" "MorningStar D" "Circe" )
$Default PBanks: ( "Prometheus R" "Subach HL-7" )
$Allowed SBanks: ( "Rockeye" "Hornet" "Tornado" "Tempest" "Trebuchet" "Stiletto II" "Hornet#Weak" "EMP Adv." "Infyrno" "Helios" )
$Allowed Dogfight SBanks: ( "Rockeye D" "Hornet D" "Harpoon D" )
$Default SBanks: ( "Rockeye" "Tornado" "Tempest" )
$SBank Capacity: ( 20, 20, 40 )
$Shields: 390
$Shield Color: 100 100 255
$Power Output: 2.4
$Max Oclk Speed: 95.0
$Max Weapon Eng: 150.0
$Hitpoints: 290
$Flags: ( "player_ship" "default_player_ship" "fighter" "in tech database")
$AI Class: Captain
$Afterburner: YES
+Aburn Max Vel: 0.0, 0.0, 135.0
+Aburn For accel: 0.8
+Aburn Fuel: 320.0
+Aburn Burn Rate: 60.0
+Aburn Rec Rate: 25.0
$Countermeasures: 36
$Scan time: 2000
$EngineSnd: 126 ;; Engine sound of ship
$Closeup_pos: 0.0, 0.0, -30
$Closeup_zoom: 0.5
$Shield_icon: shieldft-05
$Ship_icon: iconfighter2t-05
$Ship_anim: ssfighter2t-05
$Ship_overhead: loadfighter2t-05
$Score: 10
[b]$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: particleexp01
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.0
$Min created: 1
$Max created: 2
$Variance: 0.12
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: thrusterparticle
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.5
$Min created: 1
$Max created: 4
$Variance: 0.10
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: ParticleSmoke02
$Min Radius: 0.75
$Max Radius: 1.75
$Min created: 2
$Max created: 6
$Variance: 0.20
[/b]
$Trail:
+Offset: 0 -4.29 -.75
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Trail:
+Offset: 8.11 -.81 -.47
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Trail:
+Offset: -8.11 -.81 -.47
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Subsystem: sensors, 10,0.0
$Subsystem: communications, 10,0.0
$Subsystem: weapons, 10,0.0
$Subsystem: navigation, 10,0.0
$Subsystem: engine, 35,0.0
the important part here is obviusly the
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: particleexp01
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.0
$Min created: 1
$Max created: 2
$Variance: 0.12
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: thrusterparticle
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.5
$Min created: 1
$Max created: 4
$Variance: 0.10
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: ParticleSmoke02
$Min Radius: 0.75
$Max Radius: 1.75
$Min created: 2
$Max created: 6
$Variance: 0.20
you can have three (this can be raised if so desired) independent particle emiters on each thruster glow each with diferent values, radius is relitive to the thruster glow, so 1.0 will have particles of the same size as the glows, Variance is a scale of how close it stay on the negitive z value of the ship, 0 would be a strait line of particles, 1.0 (or 2, the documentation was a bit vauge) would have a fire ball going out in all directions
the life of the particle (and thus the length of the particle stream) is based on the length of the ani (it may or may not be affected by framerate of the ani, I have not tested)
you can have (at this time, this can be raised with one key stroke) three of each of the two (normal and afterburner, diferentiated by the bitmap line) '$Thruster Particles:' sections, the order in wich you enter them is not relevent but the formatting of each section is.
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well, 3 is far from being enough. to have a good looking thruster, you'll need at least two per thruster, so...
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It's certainly getting there, I turned up some of the settings and got something like a firework fizzing away at the back of rhe ship :D I suppose the only thing I would suggest if possible is the you can control the lifetime of the particles? Still, excellent work!
Flipside :)
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Great stuff as usual Bob, I have a problem with the latest exe however. For some reason it restarted my fs2 campaign, and if it crashes it corrupts my pilots. When trying to continue or restart the freespace2 campaign with the same pilot it crashes with an out of memory error.
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Originally posted by Target
Great stuff as usual Bob, I have a problem with the latest exe however. For some reason it restarted my fs2 campaign, and if it crashes it corrupts my pilots. When trying to continue or restart the freespace2 campaign with the same pilot it crashes with an out of memory error.
when using a new FS_OPEN build, always make a new pilot.
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It corrupts my new ones as well.
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Mine seems to be working ok....
Been fiddling with the settings a little :)
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen02.jpg)
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen00.jpg)
My only request is that it is active for both LOD 0 and 1.
Flipside :D
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Holy crap. I don't think I can say much more than that...
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The particles would only be useful for a ship with damaged engines. Those Serapis fighters look like their engines are about to blow up.
I'm using the fs2_open_e build for my mod that I'm developing alongside T&T that takes place in my own sci-fi universe. It's perfect because of the long thruster tails. I made a green one for my Savaran Imperial Alliance faction.
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Well, this is still in Beta stage, the particles have been set to too large here, and they 'poke' through the POF, I'll try making them smaller and seeing if I can post some pics of what I mean :) Also, is there any way I can get them to take a bit longer to fade Bobb?
Flipside :D
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make you're ani longer (try lowering the ani's frame rate)
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LOL Well, winner of todays obvious question award is....
Me :)
Thanks
Flipside :D
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen1.jpg)
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen2.jpg)
The lower ship is the Tyr Class from the TI campaign :D
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i think the particles would be ideal if we had something like
a = number of max particles
b = number of normal particles
number of displayed particles = b+((engine damage%)*(a-b))
like that, you could set ships with a very clean burn (nearly no particles) and ships with some really, really nasty thrusters :D
(and getting engine damaged would 0wn :) )
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One thing I have noticed is that the partcles keep on going after the ship has warped out :)
Flipside :D
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Ha - like the fire trails on the DeLorean. :D
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well, all those goodies look great and I'm sure they will give the opportunity to the modders to make something special, just be sure they remain optional:)
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Originally posted by Goober5000
Ha - like the fire trails on the DeLorean. :D
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... travelling through an unstable warp-hole and ending up back in time in the middle of the Vasudan or Great War with the GT(V)A's only Erinyes.... That'd be an interesting campaign ;) LOL
Flipside :D
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Flipside: Would you mind posting the code you used to get those effects? They are uber sweet. :nod:
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I'll check if it's ok with Vasudan Admiral, it's his disruption ANI I use for the 'Fizzy' effect :) If he's ok, then I'll post it tomorrow :)
Flipside :D
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OK. Thanks. :) It looked really sweet. :yes:
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:lol: i was wondering why it looked a little familier :D
sure the 'fizzy' effect can be released, but it was made before i knew even the basics of psp. i think someone could have done a better job in ms paint :p
it was actually ment to be a disruption lightning effect, but looks really simple and silly.
i think you'll be a *bit* disapointed by it anyway :D :p
and these new thrusters look sweet! :eek2: i think we'll need new engine noises just to do them justice....
great work bobboau :)
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I like the new thrusters :yes::yes: except for the lines. They look too much like, well, lines.
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Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
:lol: i was wondering why it looked a little familier :D
sure the 'fizzy' effect can be released, but it was made before i knew even the basics of psp. i think someone could have done a better job in ms paint :p
it was actually ment to be a disruption lightning effect, but looks really simple and silly.
i think you'll be a *bit* disapointed by it anyway :D :p
and these new thrusters look sweet! :eek2: i think we'll need new engine noises just to do them justice....
great work bobboau :)
uhm, what kind of iamge would image noise be?
then i might me able to make some.
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I think he just means engine sound?
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Originally posted by Venom
I think he just means engine sound?
\
ah well.
whatever image those lines are based on.
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Originally posted by Flipside
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen2.jpg)
looks like the soul-reaver:D
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Originally posted by Flipside
LOL Well, winner of todays obvious question award is....
Me :)
Thanks
Flipside :D
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen1.jpg)
:eek: Is that animated?
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Originally posted by kasperl
uhm, what kind of iamge would image noise be?
then i might me able to make some.
yeah what venom said-engine sounds :)
the current ones make it seem quietly thrumming away, but these look like they're providing some serious thrust :D
and those lines are part of the animated lightning effect i was talking about-not really made for thruster wash :D (at all)
so if someone could whip up a proper partical ani i think this effect would be given one big boost :D
(if it looks good with my silly little lightning ani, it can look even better with....about anything else :p )
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I love the screenshots but that said - I think it might look better if you lost most of the blue surrounding particles and just kept the white ones... the blue looks really out of place that far out from the trail!
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$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: disruption
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 25
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: Puff
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.6
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 40
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: exploAeA
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 25
$Max created: 60
$Variance: 0.1
This is a bit heavy on the particles, but it needs to be for the effect to work. I'll try doing some more ANI's and seeing what effects I can get :)
Here (http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Anims/Thrusters.zip)
Flipside :D
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Originally posted by Kalfireth
I love the screenshots but that said - I think it might look better if you lost most of the blue surrounding particles and just kept the white ones... the blue looks really out of place that far out from the trail!
What he said. Oh and, tone it down a bit like Icefire said. The point is for the engine trails to look spectacular but now distracting.
Oh and Bobboau: You are most certainly the man. Amazing stuff, just really very really cool. :yes: :yes:
As well, I read in the first few posts that the egnine trails are visible even when ships aren't moving. Has that been fixed?
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I'll try working on toning the effect down a bit... some of these ani's were'nt really created as particles, I'll try to do some more appropriate ones :)
Flipside :D
Edit :Updated the link in my last post so it works :)
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Originally posted by Flipside
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: disruption
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 25
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: Puff
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.6
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 40
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: exploAeA
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 25
$Max created: 60
$Variance: 0.1
This is a bit heavy on the particles, but it needs to be for the effect to work. I'll try doing some more ANI's and seeing what effects I can get :)
Here (http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Anims/Thrusters.zip)
Flipside :D
For the first time in years, I modded FS2. Thats right, this inspired me. Flee in terror.
Anyway, try this:
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: disruption
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 0.4
$Min created: 10
$Max created: 15
$Variance: 0.15
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: Puff
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.6
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 40
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: exploAeA
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 25
$Max created: 60
$Variance: 0.1
Again, using Flipsides files (and complete kudos to him) but I found the blue disruption ani. a bit on the heavy side. This changes that (as you can see) and I think the effect is much nicer overall.
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/*flees in terror*/
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I rather liked the frizzy nature of Flipside's particles, but it was innapropriate for the Herc II, so I put Thunder's in there... It looks good on the Mara too (I had to change the blue to red though)
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Why not get rid of the particles alltogether? THe basic thruster glows (without the particle spew) look great to me.
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people wanted them, they now have the option
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Originally posted by Rictor
Why not get rid of the particles alltogether? THe basic thruster glows (without the particle spew) look great to me.
What an incredibly... *thinks of word* stupid thing to say...
We fight for so long to get it, and someone asks for it to be removed?
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At least make it optional. I prefer the original look as well.
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I have yet to see a particle system that I thought looked better thank the newer glow effedt, but I think the newer glow effect looks better than the origonal,
these are all optonal with the defalt set to off
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Perhaps I minsunderstood the whole innovation of this thread. I was under the impression that the big thing here was the new and improved (thorugh use of the source-code) thruster glows+trails. Don't think that I'm putting down the effort or anything, I'm just stating what I think from a purely aesthetic point of view.
The particles are certainly commendable. Perhaps grouping them more closely would result in an effect that resembles a cohesive uh.. particle group. I think you understand what I mean.
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Well, from my point of view, it's not jets that are the important part, it the definable particle emitter.
The ani's I used for the jets are a disruption, and explosion and one little 128 x 128 'puff' ani I made up, so they are only really just to see what the engine (of the game) is capable of.
My own thoughts are that if you put a tiny little object in a game, with 'thrusters' pointing on 4-6 directions, emitting very large, long lived textures (1 fps ani's?), it would be interesting to see what kind of particle effects you could come up with?
All the emitters are optional, if they are not in the table file, they won't appear in the game, simple as that. I'm not certain how Vanilla FS2 would cope with them being there though.
At the moment, for certain ships, yes those particles are a little too 'Fluffy' for my tastes also (Though I still like the idea of breaking one 'particle' down into multiple ones), but you've seen what was done with the standard effects in Inferno, and that was just using the inventiveness of modders coupled with the standard(ish) game Engine :)
Flipside :D
Edit : Bobboau, is there any chance of LOD settings similar to the explosions for this? That way I think I might be able to come out with a little something interesting ;)
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I can't get this latest feature to work, anyone mind posting screenies of the latest progress? Particles have got me really interested... :)
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Originally posted by Flipside
*snipitty snip*
Originally posted by Flipside
*Snippity snip snip*
Originally posted by Flipside
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: disruption
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 25
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: Puff
$Min Radius: 0.5
$Max Radius: 1.6
$Min created: 15
$Max created: 40
$Variance: 0.05
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: exploAeA
$Min Radius: 0.2
$Max Radius: 1.2
$Min created: 25
$Max created: 60
$Variance: 0.1
This is a bit heavy on the particles, but it needs to be for the effect to work. I'll try doing some more ANI's and seeing what effects I can get :)
Here (http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Anims/Thrusters.zip)
Flipside :D
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Did you have to quote all that? :doubt:
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I have to agree that I better particle generator would be extremely useful.
I belive with small enough particles almost anything with liquid/gaseous qualities could be modeled (thrusters for instance, but before you argue with the FL type bendy beams, let me interject: if you gave the particles a high speed and a low lifespan, then you could simulate a thruster quite well without the FL bend part), lcoalised nebulas for instance.
This is just a wish, and may not fit with Bobbau's plans for his development I just wanted to cast some light on the usefullness of a particle system in the future.
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I prefer Bob's effect. The particles look horribly..... pixelly.
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Originally posted by vyper
I prefer Bob's effect. The particles look horribly..... pixelly.
They are too big.
BTW I don't think that the fine particle system we talk about has to use the actual particles to simulate the effects we want.
They could be used as a base for other type of graphics - right now I can only think of some aplha blend, but still it could do wonders since you can leave the particles to act as the definers of the movement.
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Can those particles be used in a flamethrower-style beam cannon?
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I think theres already particle emitter tags for weapons, that could produce a similar effect :)
As for the particles, for the third time in this thread, they are an explosion, an electric disruption and a little 6 frame puff I made up in about 5 minutes, I know they are too big, just as specular ships were too shiny, the pics were only supposed to give you an idea of the particle system working, not to give you a finished product.
Flipside :D
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hey we could use the particle genrator to greatly enhance the exhaust of weapons as well. Think a helious leaving a vapor trail.
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Originally posted by vyper
I prefer Bob's effect. The particles look horribly..... pixelly.
just needs better bitmaps imho.
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Bobboau, am I right in assuming the volecity of the particles is directly proportional to the speed of the vessel, so when the vessel is not moving, the particles don't go anywhere? Also, it might well be better NOT to use LOD support, else it tries to draw the particles in the HUD display and things go splat :(
Flipside :)
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Originally posted by Woolie Wool
The particles would only be useful for a ship with damaged engines. Those Serapis fighters look like their engines are about to blow up.
Just noticed this and thought I'd say that those Serapis ARE about to blow up, it's the first mission on the campaign where you have to escort freighters with the damaged Serapis escorting them ;) There are no thruster particles on them at all :)
Flipside :)
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Those things are amazing!
The new particals are AWSOME, perfict for showing a drive that goes by pure power, like on a bomber or a heavy cap ship. and the outher things they can be used for, wow.
and I like the new stabbing drive effect it's so shiny...
good for anything fast and manuverable. or top of the line new drives... I have to go now, drooling to much.
Tell me your puting everything you have into geting this into the next release? pleese!
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Hate to be a kill joy at this stage - but I just noticed something with Bobs engine trails (the standard type, not particle):
When a capital ship is at a stop - the trail keeps on going as if the ship was moving. It's kinda off putting, especially on larger ships like the Hecate, to see huge trails getting chucked out of the back of the ship while it's not moving. If you could make them revert to "all stop" engine trails (for want of a better word) while the ship isn't moving, that'd be great :)
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Yes, the '100 mph' look can be a bit odd.
Maybe just turn the 'beam' effect off when speed is below 15 or something, that would look good for those famous 'handbrake turns' that fighters love doing ;)
Also, I've noticed that when you are on the normal of the model's thrusters, they turn off, it's only for a frame or so and is a very minor irritation, but I just thought I'd let you know ;)
Flipside :D
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Originally posted by StratComm
If argv[-1]'s engine glows scaling gets put in with this though
Engine glow scaling is already there. I just changed it to turn off engine glows entirely if there's no thrust. There seems to be some contention about whether or not this is a good thing, unfortunately... :(
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Yeah, bad idea for capships. But for anything exceeding 50 m/s in speed...
...kicks major arse! :nod:
When will it be included in the official SCP release? Whenwhenwhen?
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That particle effect (especially on the myrmidon) is ugly as sin - but the origional stuff [just the trails like in StratComm's post] are super
and length can be speed or sheer power [higher the power the longer it's going to be, and the higher the speed the longer it's going to be]
btw StratComm what mod is that it looks spiffy
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Hey, I like the particle thrusters on the Myrmidon. They're pretty.
Since it's a particle effect, it apparently isn't affected by borken normals on the engine glows in the models (like the other kind). Also, I imagine the thruster trails would curve as the ship turns (it looks like that's what's happening in the second screenshot).
As an aside, in FreeSpace 1, on the command briefing for 'Playing Judas', there is an animation that shows the Dragon in all its detail. Among other things, the engines are labelled 'particle thrusters'...
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Originally posted by Flipside
(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/screen02.jpg)
Flipside :D
Yay! Finally we have particle engines.:cool:
I have a question: The trail of the Satis freighter is not particle, or is it? IMO it looks better right now than the engines of the Myrmidon, which looks more like it's trailing smoke from damage or something. I'm sure it's possible to create a continous thruster trail without such random 'cloud' thingies coming out, isn't it? Would it possible with the system to create a XWA like thruster flame?
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The Satis don't have any particle trails on them - they use Bobs revamped engine trail thingy.
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I still think the formula that regulates the particle's movement is far from perfect.
By giving them a higher initial velocity as well as a shorter fade-out time coupled with a colorscale based on time we could achieve better effects.
Even the position compared to the engine's center should be taken into account, so particles coming farther away from the center would start with a positive time added to them, simulating their shorter lifespan and difference in color.
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Wow, that is looking super!
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Uhh, where should I put the files and is the FS2 Open e a replacement for 3.5.5 or does it have all of 3.5.5s features plus the new engine stuff?
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Originally posted by Kazan
That particle effect (especially on the myrmidon) is ugly as sin - but the origional stuff [just the trails like in StratComm's post] are super
and length can be speed or sheer power [higher the power the longer it's going to be, and the higher the speed the longer it's going to be]
btw StratComm what mod is that it looks spiffy
Them's me ship mods ;)
They can be found in my sig and are floating around the community and some can be found in campaigns here and there. The Raynor was a community project but since I finished it I host it for download.
As for the length of the trails, it looks like right now they are being drawn on a polygon that always faces the player. If this is so, could we not just have the length of the polygon shorten as engine power decreases? Tie it's length to the percent of total thrust? I wouldn't be against the capship engines if they weren't [quite] so long, and if there were no trails when they were sitting still. Really the trails while not moving are the big problem, but making them a bit shorter would help too IMHO.
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Im getting an error message when i try to play the game after updating FS_Open. Something to the effect of:
'The Paging file is too small for this operation to complete.'
Is this a memory problem or is the build a little screwry? Btw, im running on 384Mb Ram with a Radeon 9000.
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Originally posted by Kazan
That particle effect (especially on the myrmidon) is ugly as sin - but the origional stuff [just the trails like in StratComm's post] are super
and length can be speed or sheer power [higher the power the longer it's going to be, and the higher the speed the longer it's going to be]
btw StratComm what mod is that it looks spiffy
I have to agree... I think that the original trails effect (Freelancer-like style) looked better...
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well paticles are disabled by defalt, becase I don't like them ether, but if someone wants them they have the option
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Originally posted by Bobboau
well paticles are disabled by defalt, becase I don't like them ether, but if someone wants them they have the option
The way they work now, does not apply really to an actual jet engine (or rocket engine). As I said a new algorythm has to be written if we want particle engines.
BTW this stuff would still come handy for a number of effects and especially the smoke trail, that missles leave.
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Wow, particle engines... I've waited years to see those. :):yes:
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uhhh how do you use these anyway?
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I wish I knew
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is it possible to implement a gaussian blur of sorts to the particles? right now it looks like someone used the spray can in paint.
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that's pretty much what it was :D
i made that disruption ani well before
A) i knew what i was doing in psp5
B) the SCP even came out, let alone before this super cool particle engine was made.
heck, it isn't even a partical ani :D
what it was ment for was as the impact ani for a disrupter weapon. the idea was to have lightning bolts play over a ship upon impact. this was a very old and rubbishy test ani flipside had to see how lightning might look ingame upon impact.
however since the ship lightning thing was implimented, and since flip made a MUCH better impact ani, it's outlived it's usefulness :)
i think what's needed is a simple particle ani that has a 1/a couple of particals on it that start out in a uniform bright white and quickly fade to black. (at slightly different rates if using multiple particals).
this one sorta went out from the middle in blue lines, got much bigger and moved around before fading to black where it was. thus you see the really weirdly shaped trails :P
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can we use the current particle code for smoke coming out of the hulls. like when we see redish orange particles from the hulls from impacts of lasers and stuff.
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You don't even need new code for that. Just replace the *.ani with something else. You can even have it start as a fiery orange and fade to a grayish smoke color and then fade away.
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I think he means to have persistent smoke trails coming out from random points of the hull when the ship is severely damaged.
the standard hull hit effect could work, but need to be redone (is it an ani?) and made persistent, it could also work to have it coming out from where the hull was hitted, but you should also put a limit at the number of trails.
Another cool way to use this damage smoke trails effect could be on destroyed/damaged subobjects.
If a subobject is severely damaged, it emits smoke trails, if a subobject is destroyed it emits smoke trails + something like a fire effect
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How about fumes, leaving big white steaks...as if stem was rapidly escaping.
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Mmm... steak...
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I'd really like to see a B5ish damage effect-it's like some kind of flame where the damage is located; it's somehow like the impact thingy we have now, but better looking and much bigger. Could be useful for big weapons damage...
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Those damage spray effects are *.ani rendered as particles, and spewed from the point of impact. Hence, they can be changed to be fire+smoke, if you so desire. You can do a lot with them! This includes destroyed subobjects, but I don't think it includes live but damaged subobjects. Anyway, they are persistent, but there's only a certain number of them allowed at one time (otherwise things can slow down badly, for obvious reasons). I think the limit is hard-coded, though -- maybe it should use dynamic memory allocation instead.
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(http://www.lancersreactor.com/images/news/pic27.jpg)
looking at this pic from freelancer, I think we should really expand on the idead of particle trails :p
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looking at Freelancer, i think we should really have a go at the backgrounds...
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Originally posted by Venom
(http://www.lancersreactor.com/images/news/pic27.jpg)
looking at this pic from freelancer, I think we should really expand on the idead of particle trails :p
I said this a while ago
Originally posted by redmenace
hey we could use the particle genrator to greatly enhance the exhaust of weapons as well. Think a helious leaving a vapor trail.
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Missiles can already leave trails, but not particles. I think the trails are rendered the same way as the laser bolts.
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Originally posted by _argv[-1]
Missiles can already leave trails, but not particles. I think the trails are rendered the same way as the laser bolts.
i was thinking the same thing, to make them like missile trails. is it possible to apply missle trail code to the exhaust ani/pof?
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Well, a quick fix is just to add a nebula trail at the location of the Glow and then turn on nebula trails all the time :D
Flipside :)
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Those trails can be rendered outside of the nebula, and I'm pretty sure it's the same code as is used for the missile trails anyway. Play around with the weapon trail settings; they are more flexible than you might think. They can also be used on primary weapons -- see the Shivan Super Laser weapon, where the bolt is tiny, and most of the effect is a trail.
Also, there is a 'particle spew' weapon flag that is used for the Lamprey. This might be a basis for a more generic particle spew effect. I'm not sure if the current particle spew would work with missiles, since it seems to take its color from the laser effect's color (notice how the Lamprey particles are the same color as the bolts). Needs more configurability, as with the new corkscrew code.
On a side note, the muzzle flash effect for flak weapons is cool. :yes: Configurability for this would also be nice, for non-flak machine gun type weapons (like the FS1 Avenger was supposed to be -- look in the tech room description).
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I like the muzzleflash effect of the massdrivers in HW. Something like that would be cool beyond your wildest dreams.