Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Bobboau on November 29, 2003, 07:19:32 pm

Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Bobboau on November 29, 2003, 07:19:32 pm
the current rendering method renders the archs with only a line, I sudgest that after relese of 3.6 the rendering method is altered to render a texture in a manner similar to that being used to render trails with a texture.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Nico on November 29, 2003, 07:27:40 pm
Mmh, I think they look fine the way they are, no?
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Bobboau on November 29, 2003, 07:44:39 pm
they do look fine, but why should we settle for that, wouldn't they look better if they were rendered with a texture running across them (they would be less aliased for damn sure)
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: diamondgeezer on November 29, 2003, 08:03:12 pm
Well... wouldn't they look better if they didn't make the whole ship light up white? At least I think they're still doing that.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Fineus on November 29, 2003, 08:11:13 pm
Remember Aliens? At the very end where the atmosphere processor is going belly up there's some pretty cool lightning effects/arcs. Just a thought.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Carl on November 29, 2003, 11:52:08 pm
so, you're saying it should be something like a missile trail  instead of a one pixel wide blue thingy? i don't know if that'll be better. the arcs aren't that dramatic looking, but i think that the subtlety thing they've got going works well.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Ace on November 30, 2003, 12:16:49 am
I think that a glow effect of some kind on the blue lines would make them look much better.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Nuke on November 30, 2003, 01:15:11 am
kinda going a little off topic, but it would be kinda cool if you could make arc effects avalible as a glowpoint option so you could have a localized arking effect that is always visible, you could use aurora to add them and it would be done like a localized or vectored glow. arc points arc around the point unless there are several points in close proximity, in which case they will arc over the gap. radius could be used to specify a field of influence. if two arcpoint's field of influence intersects with another then the arc crosses the gap (even if the arcpoints are in two different models).  think of that effect on the sathanas fleet as they powered up to destroy capella. alternatively you could add them to asteroids to have a localized electrical storm.

for the original idea, i dont think using a bitmap would work. every time i use a bitmap for a thin beam it looks kinda choppy. instead could you not generate some sort of aura around the line and do some aa. it would be faster and look beter i think. texturing everything isnt always the answer. it is possible to enhance the arc effect without using a bitmap.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Bobboau on November 30, 2003, 01:28:33 am
well there chopy as all hell now
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Terorist on November 30, 2003, 01:44:20 am
How about using something like the new method used in the missile trails? It'd be fast, at least.
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Starks on November 30, 2003, 01:57:03 am
Are we talking about the EMP Nebula Storms???
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: Bobboau on November 30, 2003, 02:23:15 am
were talking about the effect were ships that have had the crap beaten out of them start emitting sparks, I want to modify it to be more like everything else in the game
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: RandomTiger on November 30, 2003, 07:44:19 am
talking about trails, they still have some issues I think
Title: idea for improved electrical arch rendering
Post by: RandomTiger on November 30, 2003, 07:45:07 am
..and if you make it optional no one can complain