Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: ShadowGorrath on October 04, 2009, 05:46:26 am

Title: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: ShadowGorrath on October 04, 2009, 05:46:26 am
Can anything be done about increasing nebula moddability? I'm talking of the full nebulas ( the ones that you fly inside that is ). Like, the ability to increase or decrease visible range, allowing the backgrounds to be seen and ability to specify how the poofs move/behave would really increase the possible environments. Would be usefull for a lot of mods, not just those that do atmosphere missions.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Dragon on October 04, 2009, 06:25:38 am
Also, it would be great if you could increase some of the limits like amount of nebula backdrops, amount of available poofs, etc.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on October 08, 2009, 11:02:26 am
i wouldn't mind having distance fog so we can simulate atmospherics to some degree.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Pottuvoi on October 16, 2009, 03:14:31 am
Also, it would be great if you could increase some of the limits like amount of nebula backdrops, amount of available poofs, etc.
Something like poof location editor would be nice as well, or just poofs from vertex soup.
Importing a object and transforming it to a nebula might be nice, perhaps even with a vertex colors for color and size. (pre lighted and colored 3d-nebula.) ;)
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: headdie on October 16, 2009, 04:27:07 am
my would likes for this are
1) to be able to select a greater range of colours available
2) have options to blend the clouds
3) Density ranges
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on October 17, 2009, 04:57:00 am
i kinda want thin nebulas that would simulate atmospheic haze and no poofs. just simple distance fog, maybe with dense spots (clouds).
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: ShadowGorrath on October 17, 2009, 05:55:26 am
But wouldn't working on poofs instead need less time? And it'd probably be possible to achieve the same effect anyway. Minus the clouds...

Something like this can already be done, but there are various problems with it. (http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/6986/screen0040w.jpg) Like, for example, the ships still fade out after a while, and you can only see the skybox in the background. Moreso, unless the speed is high enough, the effect moves too slowly. Lastly, you can't do a rain effect, because of how the poofs move. If it was possible to specifiy how poofs move, how far they are, how transparent they are and at what distance ships fade, it'd grant a large variety of possible scenery and all.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on October 17, 2009, 05:39:13 pm
i kinda want to be able to turn off the poofs and just have distance fog. fred control to turn poofs on and off would actually allow for clouds. when you enter a cloud, poofs go back on, exit they go back off, possibly with some fade effect. problem is how would you model the clouds from the outside. rain could probibly be faked with a bunch of zero damage weapons being fired downward. with custom explosion effects you could make them look like they splatter when they hit your ship. you only need to spawn them in the area around the camera, then ramp the fog distances down to make the air denser and bluer while its raining.

distance fog could also be used with backgrounds to have a planets are there but the atmosphere is in between u and it.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: hundeswehr on November 19, 2009, 09:41:22 pm
do you think the nebulae should be made less dense? i heard the gas particles that make up nebulae aren't really all that compact.

it would be interesting to see slight darkness and stars beyond the veil of nebulous gas.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on November 19, 2009, 10:38:14 pm
i think it should be an option to have a less dense nebula. sometimes you just want to make it look like your in an atmosphere thats not dense at all. you just kinda want things at a distance to be tented to the color of the atmo.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Solatar on November 20, 2009, 11:31:50 am
I wouldn't mind being able to just have a bit of the fog, but no poofs.  With a visible background (stars, nebula, etc.) it would nicely emulate a thin dust cloud; might look good in an asteroid field.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on November 20, 2009, 12:31:58 pm
thats the kind of effect i want. not total pea soup like we have now.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Solatar on November 20, 2009, 12:58:23 pm
Right; I think the same effect could be used for a variety of applications from atmospheres to dust clouds.  I'd love to be able to make an area of space feel "dirty".  It would really add to the mission environment.
Title: Re: Request: Better nebula moddability
Post by: Nuke on November 20, 2009, 02:46:19 pm
of course all the parameters should be settable from fred or scripting. things like close distance (range where fog starts), far distance(range where maximum opacity is reached), color and opacity (rgba), ect. so i could simulate an atmosphere by ramping the fog down to nothing as your altitude increases for example.