Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Carl on March 29, 2004, 11:02:12 am

Title: teh folding
Post by: Carl on March 29, 2004, 11:02:12 am

whenever as laser has a larger head radius than tail radius, it looks like it's being folded down the middle

(http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v109/Carltheshivan/f795789c.jpg)

it's been doing it since retail. any way to fix it?

Title: teh folding
Post by: Bobboau on March 29, 2004, 11:41:38 am

no way short of reworking the entire way lasers are rendered, wich won't happen before 3.6 :)

Title: teh folding
Post by: Carl on March 29, 2004, 11:44:50 am

kthxbye.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Johnmike on March 29, 2004, 04:18:15 pm

Say, when -will- 3.6 be finished?  Any idea? [/Moron]

Title: teh folding
Post by: jdjtcagle on March 29, 2004, 04:26:21 pm

When we get done debugging it:D

Title: teh folding
Post by: Johnmike on March 29, 2004, 04:31:09 pm

I just have no ideal clue to how much work that is.  o.o;  Don't give me a deadline.  =P  Give me an estimate of how long this kind of thing takes.

Title: teh folding
Post by: jdjtcagle on March 29, 2004, 04:37:03 pm

I'm wondering myself.
How much more bugs need squashing???:D

Title: teh folding
Post by: karajorma on March 29, 2004, 04:58:48 pm

Look at mantis :)

Title: teh folding
Post by: ChronoReverse on March 29, 2004, 05:02:17 pm

Go into mantis, look at the bugs.  See if you can reproduce them and report more bugs there :nod:

Title: teh folding
Post by: Zarax on March 30, 2004, 02:46:18 am

SCP has recently adopted 3DRealms schedule programming, so the best date you will get is: When it's done. :p
Aside from jokes, this code freeze will make next releases easier to make, as they will have a much more stable base than before.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Drew on March 30, 2004, 09:57:59 am

well if the SCP got a little more publicity, we could bring a few more coders in and would progress faster.....

Title: teh folding
Post by: Carl on March 30, 2004, 10:52:42 am

or the rest of us could learn to code.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Deepblue on March 31, 2004, 01:52:12 pm

I believe that probem has to do with how freespace does lasers. It maps the bitmap onto a flat plane that adjusts according to its proportions. You have the folding effect because the mesh used is two triangles forming a rectangle. Try mapping an effect in a modeler on the same surface, squish one side, and you will get the same effect when you render the scene.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Flaser on March 31, 2004, 02:40:52 pm

Hmm...could "cough...cough" "pof/model-based laser effects" counter these problems?

I'm no expert, but I was wondering if that could work..

Title: teh folding
Post by: Carl on March 31, 2004, 03:05:47 pm

no, it would be worse, because you couldn't get the plane to face you at all times.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Lightspeed on March 31, 2004, 04:10:59 pm

FS2's lasers are pretty much perfect, except if they get too big and/or mess around with different head & tail radius values.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Flaser on March 31, 2004, 04:19:26 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Carl
no, it would be worse, because you couldn't get the plane to face you at all times.

If it were a simple plane - true.

What if you used a 3D mesh with semi-transparent textures?

Though that would be a real drain on resources...

Title: teh folding
Post by: Bobboau on March 31, 2004, 09:48:41 pm

it wouldn't be that big of a drain

Title: teh folding
Post by: Anaz on March 31, 2004, 10:03:43 pm

or just have 2 spheres, and invert the normals on them...one with a transparent tex, one with a solid.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Lightspeed on April 01, 2004, 07:41:05 am

3D looks utterly crap for any effects. If you want to make it look as good as FS2's 2D effects you'd need huge ressource drain, and, it wouldnt look better at all :p

Title: teh folding
Post by: Bobboau on April 01, 2004, 08:15:20 am

volumetrics would look good, useing a 3d texture

Title: teh folding
Post by: SA22C on April 01, 2004, 11:01:14 am

Verily doth laser light is at the pinnacle of refinement.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Carl on April 02, 2004, 11:11:09 am

The best way to fix this, imo would be to make a special type of laser that renders the way beams and missile trails are done. The x and y axis stay the same, but the z axis always faces you.

Another way to do it would be to use intersecting planes, as some games do, like Tachyon: the fringe. Apparently that's how they did it in B5, too. It won't look as good as with sprites, but it'll fix the folding problem. I would recommend doing it the first way, though.

Title: teh folding
Post by: Lightspeed on April 02, 2004, 04:40:57 pm

Theres absolutely no need for stuff like that.

The fix is really VERY easy - The guys over at Volition simply didnt have all the nice SCP goodies I can use for turret weapons.

When I'm done with them there shouldnt be any visible folding whatsoever.