[Mefustae]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I fail to recollect previous threads on the topic [so stifle those groans, people].

Would the latest upgrades to the engine allow for the creation of localised Nebular Gas Clouds, such as those seen in the likes of Freelancer and soforth? While i've read that particle effects such as those needed to create a suitable effect in an SCP-worth fashion are somewhat resticted in the current engine, has anything come of the subject? Namely as I really want to have a campaign in which a Cruiser or 'vette escapes a Destroyer by hiding in a sensor occluding Nebular Cloud, all in the same mission.

Edit: Ach, this would probably have been better placed in the SCP forum, sorry lads.

[Roanoke]

you could do a Red Alert in the mean time.

[DaBrain]

I have a concept for this. It requires a LOT of work!
You'll need at least two glowpointed models.

1. Model... well it's no real model. It has to be invisible. It's just the basis for a glowpoint. The glowpoint has to be big... very big. It simulates the nebula from the distance. It won't need lods.

2. Again it's only a glowpoint, but this time a lot smaller, but still really big. Lod 1 uses the glowpoint with a full sized nebula poof map. Lod 1 uses a smaller version and lod 2 doesn't have any glowpoint anymore. Lod 2 is the pure nothing.
You should probably add a lot glowpoints into one model. Like a matrix.


Now place these models some where in FRED. You'll need a few (5?) of the first 'model' and a whole bunch od the second one.


Now to the drawbacks:
-The performance will be worse than in a standard nebula.
-The poofs don't move or rotate
-There'll be no gas 'debris' floating around
-Did I mention it's a lot of work?

[Omniscaper]

I've attempted this 2 years ago. The problem with that approach is poof orientation and  the way the glowpints multiply each other's brightness. Check out the pics of my experiment at the bottom of this thread. http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27255.msg549263.html#msg549263

[DaBrain]

That's what the lods would fix. You just have to set the lod settings to values, that make only two, or maybe three lod0 appear at once.

[Herra Tohtori]

Um, suggestion?

How'bout making a relatively dense asteroid field having something like no_collide (i don't know what it really is called) on the "asteroids" and having a texture of opacue color of choise? These "asteroids" would then move and form an apparent nebula. The movement of the asteroids seems to be pretty well suited for this kind of thing.

Obvious (?) problem - it should look good from outside but what will happen when you get into it and plunge inside the asteroid model...? Probably generates some intersection problems and stuff, I wouldn't know. Oh well. Just tell me would/could this work.

I'm not a modder or coder or anything at all - I'm just throwing wild ideas. I don't know what is possible, I just try to imagine what the results would be of doing something.

[karajorma]

I believe Nico suggested that approach years ago HT. I don't think anyone ever tried it though.

[WeatherOp]

Or you could use animated beam glows to make it looks as gases were mvong around, in fact you could probley even make lightning that way.

[Cobra]

Or you could use animated beam glows to make it looks as gases were mvong around, in fact you could probley even make lightning that way.

But whoever tries that needs to be careful, since beamglows can take up a lot of RAM...

[Nuke]

i have a better idea, make an asteriod field using a new kind of asteroid. rather than asteroits, make models with of random glowpoints and no geometry. it requiress very little work.

[StratComm]

There's still the rotation issue.  Glowpoints always render "upright" so while the poofs would swirl positionally they would always face the same way relative to the player.  And there's the additive quality of glowpoints, which further hinders usefulness.

Truth be told, if this was really something I thought people would use, it should be handled with dedicated code.

[Cobra]

unless someone uses that SEXP WMCoolmon came up with that spawns a nebula out of nowhere if you reach a waypoint or something.