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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wing Commander Saga => Topic started by: Aardwolf on July 09, 2009, 06:46:44 pm

Title: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Aardwolf on July 09, 2009, 06:46:44 pm
All of the modeled engines (or at least Kilrathi ones) I see in your screenshots seem to have a non-black color as the darkest color on their glow maps.

To illustrate:

(http://www.wcsaga.com/images/stories/20090302/2009030201.jpg)
(http://www.wcsaga.com/images/stories/20090321/2009032101.jpg)
(http://www.wcsaga.com/images/stories/20090413/2009041303.jpg)
(http://www.wcsaga.com/images/stories/20090513/2009051303.jpg)

If you don't see it, it's probably because of color-depth or other monitor settings. It's very dark, probably dark enough to be invisible on the monitor of whoever created it.

Edit: I up'd the contrast in one of them, since it's not visible to some people. Look at the actual cylinders of the engines.

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Aardwolf001/2009041303.jpg)
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Gun_Ship on July 09, 2009, 11:47:11 pm
And the problem is?
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Tolwyn on July 10, 2009, 03:37:27 am
I haven't understood a word... What were you saying again? ;)
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: gevatter Lars on July 10, 2009, 06:55:18 am
I also don't quite get what your point is.
From what I understand you say that the darkest part of the map isn't black.
That isn't a question or complain or hint of a problem its just a statement. So what do you want to tell us with that?
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Aginor on July 10, 2009, 07:50:29 am
Perhaps some engines have a problem with that.
Or some modelers/texturers consider that to be bad style.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Wobble73 on July 10, 2009, 08:22:02 am
I see nothing wrong with any of those pictures (apart from the last but you upped the contrast yourself and I see don't see anything wrong with the glow maps) ????

 :confused:
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Colonol Dekker on July 10, 2009, 08:27:39 am
Could it be a case of mistaking it for a transparency issue? All I can think of. I know it doesn't affect the map in any way. Just my opinion :)
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: DaBrain on July 10, 2009, 08:57:26 am
I guess he means the engine models look they're self-illuminated.

At least they don't look like they're as dark as the the surface they are on.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Aardwolf on July 10, 2009, 10:12:01 am
O hai.

I took the liberty of doing a diagnosis. My diagnosis was, it's the glow maps for the engine tube-things. Check the RGB values for the 'dark' parts of the glow maps there. I'm confident you will discover they are not (0,0,0) and they definitely should be.

For people who can't see it (until I up the contrast), it won't seem like a problem. But for people who can see it (like me), it looks fugly and should be fixed.

I guess he means the engine models look they're self-illuminated.

At least they don't look like they're as dark as the the surface they are on.


Yes. Something similar was previously noticed with some version of the GVF Horus in the mediavps. In that case, the glow maps weren't completely black where they should have been, so people with high-enough color depth settings could see 'glowing' gray ships stark against the black background of space.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: gevatter Lars on July 10, 2009, 10:26:30 am
Ah I think I get what you mean. You don't mean the inner parts but the outer shell, don't you?
I was allways thinking about the glow when you spoke of the glowmap ^_^

Don't mind that effect. Its not in the game as it uses another map. Tolwyn is still useing a faulty map when making the images.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Wobble73 on July 10, 2009, 10:41:29 am
Ah the greyness of the outside of the tubes, not the glow of the flames on the inside of the engines. I get you now. By Vectrons beard!!

 ;)
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: gevatter Lars on July 10, 2009, 10:52:28 am
So I am not the only one who first thought he meant the inside ^_^
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Tolwyn on July 10, 2009, 01:56:15 pm
It has nothing to do with the glow map at all. It is related to the post processing effect used here.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: Aardwolf on July 13, 2009, 04:14:16 pm
Ah... I had assumed those were in-game shots (in which case my diagnosis would have been right-on). My bad.
Title: Re: An issue I noticed with your 'eye-candy'
Post by: KeldorKatarn on July 13, 2009, 06:19:37 pm
They're usually a mixture of ingame shots and rendered. Except for the shadows there isn't really much difference but the shaders are not 100% equivalent so certain such artifacts might show up in the rendered versions =)