Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: ShadowWolf_IH on January 04, 2010, 09:38:44 pm
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anyone know how to break into the .neb files? found in effects in sparky vp.
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I think .neb files are edited with Nebedit from the original FS2 Source code release. The "guided tour" of the source code says that nebedit is used to generate data for FS1-style backgrounds.
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Some of them are left over from FS1, others are a different format from FS2.
I personally tried to get nebedit working once, but I gave up because it had a horrible interface and it didn't look very useful anyway. It appears to go along with the FS1 nebula format, however. The format appeared to have basically just defined a bunch of triangles.
I don't know about the FS2 .neb files, however.
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so then fullneb01.neb isn't the full nebula. well that sucks.
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what i am wanting to do is increase visibility in a full nebula. I mean increase it by a great margin
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I'll cast my vote for more nebula features/adaptability anytime!
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what i am wanting to do is increase visibility in a full nebula. I mean increase it by a great margin
I already posted a request for that on SCP before.
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uh... can't that already be set in FRED?
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The radar range can be set in FRED, but not the visibility.
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There are, IIRC, many different hard-coded values that affect nebula visibility. Some things begin to fade, or completely fade, at different distances than other things. While it might be possible for them to write a multiplier for all of those distances, somehow, I'm not sure it'd be that easy...
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What I'd really like in addition to the potential "visible range multiplier" for nebulas ('1' could be default, something greater than this number would increase the range, while a decimal would make a nasty, soupy nebula...) would be a "wave" or cloud effect. Basically, this would be a variable-density nebula. Even better, you could have one that would "move" - packets of the thicker stuff would drift about the thinner stuff... add this to stormy, red nebulas for epic awesome... Or, just have everything fixed while still having the variable density stuff.
I'd like to think you could do this as FS has a grid-like coordinate system. By almost "procedurally" producing denser pockets at algorithmically-determined distances, you could do a lot of neat things. Heck, this would be an AMAZING way of making clouds and fog for atmospheric mods. The wave effect would simply mean that the mass would move at a desired velocity... If you could have various sets of "dense pockets" moving at different speeds in different directions, you could make a truly fierce "swirling" effect...
And next, if you like my musings on this matter, would be the density by distance/altitude. Basically, set a desired standard or custom plane and "altitude" in FRED as the center point, apply the nebula density and direction in respect to the plane's normal, and you're good to go. Thus, everything below the plane would get denser (or less dense, depending on the settings) and everything above it would become the opposite. This would be good for atmospheric fog or a mission in which you're fighting in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant. Diaspora would be all over that one...
Last, the ability to use several different nebula types at once in a mission would be the icing on the cake. You could create environments that would just kick bumcakes in every concievable fashion... Heck, even just having a user-defined nebula "box" (similar to asteroid fields) would be great...
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You're right, all that would be awesome. Unfortunately, it would probably also have our coders gnawing thier own arms off...
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I'd personally like to see retail-like 3d poofs, but with a soft-particle -ish effect so that they don't intersect hulls like they used to (which was the main reason for abandoning them, I reckon)
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i just want greater visibility / less density / greater opacity (is that a word?)
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Have you tried making the poofs more transparent? (black=100% transparent IIRC)
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That will only affect the poofs... there's still distance fogging, and since 3.6.10 or earlier poofs aren't even 3d effects.
i just want greater visibility / less density / greater opacity (is that a word?)
Opacity = how opaque something is. Greater opacity is the opposite of what you want. You want greater transparency.
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note to self, no more posting until my second cup of coffee.