Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: Bobboau on September 13, 2003, 10:00:46 pm
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I have been working on a new explosion effect for the SCP that basicly works like the grow modifier in 3DS max, it is somewhat interesting but not that good looking, so I want to know what are the best methods for creating cool looking explosions (try not to use volumetrics or insane amounts of particles/voxels), preferably something that uses some sort of geometry trick (such as the grow modifier)
also we could use some new effects, so while I'm posting this I might as well ask people to try and make better media for us as well.
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You could try something like this:
http://www.hi.is/~nonnib/3dtut12.htm
[edit] its more for shockwaves, but maybe it can be adapted. Would be nice to have 3d shockwaves like this too... [/edit]
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err...no. FS2 has the best looking explosions in any game ever. they actually look like real explosions. not a bunch of orange and yellow photoshop cloud sprites like on other games.
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that is a nice looking shock wave, but we alredy have 3d shockwave suport
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there's no good way to make 3d explosions with a mesh. the options are the ones you know:
- the particles one ( used in many recent games )
- the volumetric one ( about never used on it's own, but often put with particles or animated maps for precalculated work )
- the animated map on a plane ( like in FS2, often used in precalculated stuff - that's what they use in most movies, you know ).
The best way would be to mix the first and the third.
a small number of particles, particles would be animated maps.
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Originally posted by Bobboau
but we alredy have 3d shockwave suport
Yes. And to be honest. The 3d shockwaves _really_ suck.
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Yes, yes they do. But they are there, so we can improve them. Namely with better models, and better textures. :rolleyes:
The .pof we have now was just something Bob whipped up to show us what it did.
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ripping the ones from wing co prophecy should be enough, for a first improvement.
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3D shockwaves look cool for Cel-shading, but less cool for 'realistic' style.....
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As I said, in Prophecy, they look wicked. You don't HAVE to have a sphere, you know ;)
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Any examples? It's been ages since I played Prophecy and I never got around to installing my Voodoo2 to play it again.
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hows this (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/shockwave2.zip) one look
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Our fearless leader has gone and got himself a new avatar eh?
\Oh and, I think the Inferno explosions look great. Its not really an area that needs improvement.
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Originally posted by Kalfireth
Any examples? It's been ages since I played Prophecy and I never got around to installing my Voodoo2 to play it again.
a screenshot would look bad I suppose. it's just like your regular fs2 disk, but applied on a 3d plane, so it has no defined angle ( not always facing you ).
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Found one :)
(http://lea.hamradio.si/~s56jlp/prophecy.jpg)
I remember them now, certainly not bad. And being as FS2 would have more detail to it / far more impressive than that - I reckon it'd be worth a go!
Bob, trying your new .pof out now...
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"looking at the screenshot"
rah, those nephilim ships were sure brilliant designs, I miss that game...
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I know, I loved it - thats why I bought the V2 in the first place, I wanted WCP in all its 3DFX glory!
And Bob, I've lost the plot. Is there a way to get that POF working in game? I've got it in MODVIW32 but that's it. Was it meant to work in game? How? (I feel so... foolish)
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Idea: instead of using one shockwave pof, use 2.
A first pof thats not as thick with ends that meet at the trailing edge, essentially a flatter more disc like pof, mapped with a shockwave animation as seen from above. Render this first.
A second pof like the current one, mapped from the front with a animation thats mostly white, rendered semitranslucent just ahead of the first pof. In effect, you'd get a blast wave look ahead of the main wave.
If you could apply alpha blending to the rendering of the maps for the pofs, this would be even better and you could leave the second pof almost fully opaque (since the fading to black on the map would handle the transition).
Opinions?
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Originally posted by LtNarol
Idea: instead of using one shockwave pof, use 2.
A first pof thats not as thick with ends that meet at the trailing edge, essentially a flatter more disc like pof, mapped with a shockwave animation as seen from above. Render this first.
A second pof like the current one, mapped from the front with a animation thats mostly white, rendered semitranslucent just ahead of the first pof. In effect, you'd get a blast wave look ahead of the main wave.
If you could apply alpha blending to the rendering of the maps for the pofs, this would be even better and you could leave the second pof almost fully opaque (since the fading to black on the map would handle the transition).
Opinions?
:yes:
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Originally posted by Kalfireth
Found one :)
(http://lea.hamradio.si/~s56jlp/prophecy.jpg)
Taunting enemies would be fun...:devil:
Originally posted by Venom
"looking at the screenshot"
rah, those nephilim ships were sure brilliant designs, I miss that game...
I think they influenced the FS1 Vasudan designs to a degree (see Seth, Horus, Aten)
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Yeah they brought in some experienced hollywood designer to do the ships. Thats probably the reason why I find the ships in Prophecy for the humans looking the most functional (sensor pods, gun ports, and missile launch ports all over the place) while the alien ones look the most alien.
Too bad that they couldn't make a sequel these days. With DX9 graphics....all of those ships would REALLY come alive. Think of the possibilities of moving parts, reshaping alien spacecraft with moldable surfaces...or whatever...amazing things could be done with the right kind of art direction.
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Originally posted by IceFire
Yeah they brought in some experienced hollywood designer to do the ships. Thats probably the reason why I find the ships in Prophecy for the humans looking the most functional (sensor pods, gun ports, and missile launch ports all over the place) while the alien ones look the most alien.
Too bad that they couldn't make a sequel these days. With DX9 graphics....all of those ships would REALLY come alive. Think of the possibilities of moving parts, reshaping alien spacecraft with moldable surfaces...or whatever...amazing things could be done with the right kind of art direction.
Syd Mead who also did the art direction for movies like 2010 was the one behind Prophecy.
Sure the story sucked for the game, but the art direction was top-notch. :)
I still remember the PC Gamer ad first showing the Midway.
I bought my first voodoo card just to play WC:P too.
Then shortly after beating the game, I saw FS1 in action (the 2nd mission in the asteroid field) between that, downloading the demo, and remembering an earlier PC Gamer preview I went out to buy it.
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the story sux? but FS1/2 plots are surprisingly alike...
Syd Mead also designed all the Blade Runner stuff :) ( the buildings, the flying cars, etc ).
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any build of the shockwave model code should load the first shockwave.pof file it finds as the defalt shockwave model, meaning that unless you did some table editing any time you saw a shockwave it would be that model
so basicly to set a model as the shockwave model place it into the main fs folder and name it shockwave.pof