[CptWhite]

Create a sun that is 128x128 size colour it all black and name is "remove_ambient.pcx"

create a tbl entry for the sun in stars.tbl like so :


$Sun:      reduce_ambient
$Sunglow:   reduce_ambient
$SunRGBI:   -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0

now create the background as usual and where-ever you place your sun also add the reduce_ambient sun at the same co-ordinates.

now play the mission - note the ambient lighting is now removed (ie you only get light specifically from the sun you placed)  i think it adds a lot of atmosphere.

here are some pictures :


 

 

 

 


hope people find this useful.  i am conducting further research into this at a later date to find out more about what can be achieved.  credit to icefire for finding this out.

o btw the high res texture fix DOES WORK. here are some picture to prove it :

 

 

 



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[untouchable]

Nifty

[Jabu]

  @ Z'ha'dum and especially the nebula. Yay for the Eagle nebula too.

Nice lighting trick too.

[This message has been edited by Jabu (edited 09-29-2001).]

[DragonClaw]

O...M...G!!!!!

 !!!!

That nebula is AWWEEEESSSSOOOMEEE!

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[Londo Molari]

HOLY**** THAT LOOKS NICE!!!!!

lighting looks amazing! it IS a big breakthru... but as for the high res backgrounds...look amazing! what kinda fps are you getting there tho?

[Kitsune]

*Blinks in shock*
Alright, THAT kicks *** !

[IceFire]

Thanks for the mention CptWhite  

Definately very cool.  I tested some settings that make it look like StarLancer's ambient blues and greens and it definately works out quite nicely.  Of course, there are other colors to test as well.

In any case, it adds some atmosphere to things.

The only disadvantage is that you go totally blind when you look at the sun.  So don't look at the sun (because your using 2 suns)  

[Sandwich]

     

AWESOME!!!

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[Setekh]

Holy crap... that is amazing. This was one of my major gripes with the FS2 engine - no shadows. You've silenced me, that's for sure...  

[Shrike]

 

Originally posted by Setekh:
Holy crap... that is amazing. This was one of my major gripes with the FS2 engine - no shadows. You've silenced me, that's for sure...  

*coughs*  You do realise we're using this in MT as well?  Trust me, having played with it on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  It's a fair bit harder to judge distances, which is realistic, I suppose.... but a bit annoying.  

Anyhow, about the backgrounds, while they are nice, could you make 256x256 versions for those of us, who for some reason get crummy large bg images?  (Like me, my big planets just sucked for some reason)

[Setekh]

 

Originally posted by Shrike:
*coughs*  You do realise we're using this in MT as well?  Trust me, having played with it on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  It's a fair bit harder to judge distances, which is realistic, I suppose.... but a bit annoying.    

Anyhow, about the backgrounds, while they are nice, could you make 256x256 versions for those of us, who for some reason get crummy large bg images?  (Like me, my big planets just sucked for some reason)

  No, I didn't know that   Besides, I didn't say anything about fun. I can make a bright background to put the entire thing on if I want. It looks cool, at the very least - that's what I was pointing out  

[Raven2001]

Man! You just found out what I was still trying to do!  

Thx a lot! I'll use your knowledge in caught in the middle   That's a big break trough!

Icefire: could you tell us how did you do that lightning similar to starlancer? PLease!!!

[Nico]

hey! I knew that for long too! I was just said not to talk about it for I don't remeber what reason. But the effect can be improved  

[CptWhite]

MT secret weapon eh? uncovered !

These pictures were a test - im going to improve on the effect now.

To whoever it was who mentioned low res background art.  Dont worry.  High Res work comes as an "upgrade" pack -  ie all work is 256x256 if you download the standard version.  I would like to ask a few questions that you might want to check :

have you enabled the keys in the registry correctly   obvious i know

what card have you got - can it hanle high res textures

YOUR SETUP IN freespace 2 - is hardware acceleration on FULL -  it needs to be

do you have the high res background installed correctly in /effects  or in /maps

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[IceFire]

 

Icefire: could you tell us how did you do that lightning similar to starlancer? PLease!!!

Sure....no problem.  After I figured out howto remove the background and passed that along to CptWhite to play with (we'd been looking for ways to do that for a while) it was the next logical step.

Make a new sun called 'BackBlue.pcx'.  Now...there are four numbers under all stars.  The Red, Green, Blue and Intensity.

For a dark blue background, try this.

RGBI: 0.0 0.0 0.4 -1.0

Now, place the BackBlue.pcx at the same co-ordinates as the sun already in the mission (or make one and then place it at the same co-ordinates).  The -1.0 for intensity will display the blue light on the opposite side of the regular sun so that the color fills the "dark side" of the ship.

Thats howto do it.  Mind you, StarLancer's got some fancy metalic shine stuff (specular highlighting) and FS2 doesn't have that...the rest of it looks pretty damn snazzy  

[Anduril]

  Yes!
Amazing! There's so much you can do with this! This has also been a big gripe for me, and having true shadow effects will be AWESOME. The blue-tint background sounds awesome, and those high-res backgrounds are stunning too. Great job White and Icefire!



[This message has been edited by Anduril (edited 09-30-2001).]

[Grey Wolf]

Too bad you can't have ST-style lights mounted on the ships...

[aldo_14]

What about the $ND value - what effect has that?

BTW, I have a set of ships that would look f-in braw with that lighting.  

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[Setekh]

Given the right settings, you could make some pretty nice renders with that.