[Scuddie]

If you've seen the homeworld 2 demo, you'd know what I mean .  I am thinking of how awesome FS2 would be if it was like that.  The engine leaves a really nice trail, and it's not from a PCX either.  IMO, it adds lots of detail and accent to HW2, and I think it'd be much better in FS2.  Also, I'd like to see the explosions look like they do in HW2, those things are just so damn cool .  I would imagine it wouldnt be too hard to implement, and although it is a cosmetics issue, it would be a huge addition to eye candy.  Whaddaya guys think?  Phreak, you wanna do it? .

[Unknown Target]

Umm, from what I understand, all of that would be incredibly hard to implement, especially the explosions.

[Flipside]

I would say the Engine trail code on homeworld is the brother of the Missile/Nebula trail code from [V]. I suppose one way you could do this is rather than using a particle generator as is being experimented with now, for that Freelancer feeling, assinging a missile trail to each thruster, with a longish lifespan?

Flipside

[Lightspeed]

that'd look crappy

a thin, flat line going around in bizarre edges and stuff -- imagine a serapis dodging missiles.

[Bobboau]

I never realy liked HW's engine trails, just doesn't look quite right

[Flipside]

LOL Anyone who's ever zoomed in on a swarmer on evasive will notice there's a certain 'low-polyness' about it

Flipside

[Scuddie]

Well, if it's an issue of horribly complex coding, I'd like to hear it from several coders.  Anyway, if it were up to me, I'd get rid of the stupid ugly 8bit .pcx trails altogether and replace them with REAL trails.  all the missiles, nebula trails, beams, etc all look like crap IMO.  It would be really good if something like laserglow with a fade time was used.  The explosions are just random lensflares, so I would imagine it'd be fairly easy to do that.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I see it .

[Unknown Target]

Alright, you spend three years coding it

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I never realy liked HW's engine trails, just doesn't look quite right

They make the game for me.

Of course, I like Iwar2's directional vector trails in the HUD.

[ChronoReverse]

Actually, I find the Homeworld 2 demo fighter trails to be rather simplistic, especially when zoomed in at maximum.

The explosions would also be very bad in a space sim because when you zoom in to the size you would see it in Freespace, you'll note that the explosions fill the entire screen.

[LtNarol]

Personnaly, I like the PCX trails because they let you customize weapons effects - more stuff for modders.  I'm wondering, would it be possible to make the trails appear smoother without sacrificing too much processor time.  Opinions, coders?

[Bobboau]

there is a spew time for trails, lowering it would smooth out the trails

[Deepblue]

how do you lower it so that the trail maps connect smoothly to eachother instead of looking really chopped up?