[Nico]

Originally posted by Zarax
Wow, they're pretty cool...
I think that they would be better if they looks like the ones in the DVD version, similar to homeworld's ones.
Are trails generated by the engine alone or do they require POF modifications for every ship?

they're generated friom the glow, so I suppose they need no additional pof data?

[IceFire]

Could someone take some pictures of the trails in the DVD version.   Better yet, find the PCX files that generate them and help us out.  We can replicate the effect no doubt.

[Nico]

Originally posted by IceFire
Could someone take some pictures of the trails in the DVD version.   Better yet, find the PCX files that generate them and help us out.  We can replicate the effect no doubt.

no thanx, the DVD ones are ugly from what I've seen.

[IceFire]

Well at least show me a picture so I know what they look like...then we have grounds to improve.  From the looks of it, I'd like to control the begining/ending width, begin/end alpha, and bitmap...just like on bombs.

[Bobboau]

you can specify on a ship by ship basis how tarnsparent they are to be at creation, they will grow more transparent untill they are totaly invisable as the trail section grows old
there is also table based controle on the relitive width (a number that the width it is multiplyed by) of the trail, by defalt they are set to be 1/2 the diameter of the glow they come from (so if you want realy thin ones you set +Width: to be .2 wich would make them .2 the radius of the thruster they come from)
I didn't set table controle over ending width (just set it to 0), but if you all realy want it I can add it fairly easily
bitmap is controlable on a ship by ship basis

[Nico]

that's so cool. so there is a new tbl entry, if I understand right?

[Bobboau]

Originally posted by Bobboau in the sixth post
ok in the new tables it's gona look like this

Code: [Select]


$Trails:
+Bitmap: name of bitmap
+Width: relitive width of trail
+Alpha: starting alpha
+Life: life time in seconds


inside the after burner section
so for example

Code: [Select]


$Afterburner:           YES
+Aburn Max Vel: 0.0, 0.0, 150.0
+Aburn For accel:       0.7
+Aburn Fuel:            300.0
+Aburn Burn Rate:       50.0
+Aburn Rec Rate:        25.0
$Trails:
+Bitmap: ABtrail
+Width: 1.0
+Alpha: 1.0
+Life: 15

is what the Ulysses' afterburner section is going to be
if you include the $Trails: string you are going to have to specify all four of the values, if the $Trails: string is missing that ship will not have any trails [/B]

yes

[phreak]

you should do a shrink percent field so it tapers off the longer it stays active... same thing maybe with transparency

[Bobboau]

it shold be doing that (like it does with missle trails and nebula trails) though I can see it isn't, I think it has to do with how long there set to be

[Bobboau]

I've upped the maxamum trail segments, and it seems to improve the problem, I'm doing a few tweaks to this and other things (like trying to get the fighter beams to record player kills)

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bobboau

yes

lol sorry, didn't look at that, I thought that was code for the source

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I've upped the maxamum trail segments, and it seems to improve the problem, I'm doing a few tweaks to this and other things (like trying to get the fighter beams to record player kills)

check if the narrowing doesn't happen only on the last segment

[Fury]

Originally posted by IceFire
Could someone take some pictures of the trails in the DVD version.   Better yet, find the PCX files that generate them and help us out.  We can replicate the effect no doubt.

See here: http://www.geocities.com/ipw47/afterburner.html

[IceFire]

Cool!  We can do better...but that looks cool!  They adjusted the thickness at beginning and end like bomb trails.

[Bobboau]

it seems that upping the trail segments fixed it, I'd upload the changed version but I've already started on my next thing, refineing the fighter beams, things like the warm up\down ect... and I'm not at home right now