In summary, I like how it is in my code, where an engine generating no thrust (ie, full stop) does not have a glow, as though it were disabled. Looks better IMO. Since this appears subjective, I guess I'll have to make a command line option.
Originally posted by Kalfireth
Right, now that's clear. I was thinking about ships and their engines. Lets take an Orion, it's sitting there - its engines at idle and it's not moving Its engine graphic sticks out a fairly long way. Set it moving and it goes even further out (to normal level - which is fine). As it stops the graphic reverts to its engines at idle.
The thing is, I think the stick out to far. What I'd like to see is:
A) When not moving, all ships using capital ship engine graphics do not have an engine glow effect of any kind. The engine is off, there's no need for anything to be shunted out of it... whatever tech the engine uses.
Fusion drive, which probably means shoving plasma from a fusion reactor out a really big tailpipe. Anyway, I did this in my code; size of the engine glow is dependent on thrust instead of velocity (yes, ships have a 'thrust' field in their physics info, along with actual velocity and such), and if there is no thrust then the engine glow disappears completely, as though the ship were disabled. (On a related note, engine wash is also turned off when there is no thrust.) This applies to all ships, not just big ones.
B) A fade on / off effect for capital ship engines. Thus when a ship starts up initially it begins a (fairly rapid) fade on/off of the engine graphic to simulate the engines being started. The engine graphic then gets longer once its completed fading in or indeed, disappears when its' finished fading out.
A fade effect for turning engines on/off would be neat. The speed of the fade effect should probably be determined by the ship's size/mass/thrust required/whatnot. Maybe apply a fade effect to the size of engine trails, too. Why limit this to big ships, though?
Waste of time? Something for later? Something you want to see right now?
Already done, so it doesn't matter if it's a waste of time or not.
Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
I agree, to a limited extent. Firstly, engine glows must be on even when a ship is at rest. Not having the engine glows is an obvious visual indicator that the ship's disabled.
It's unrealistic. Not having the engine glows should be an obvious visual indicator that the ship's not trying to move anywhere, be it because it doesn't want to or because it can't because its engines are toast.
By the way, I did this in my own code. It doesn't look half bad. Plus it gives you an indication that you can fly right up next to a big ship's engine without getting washed.
As far as Bobboau's engine tails go, why not link them to the same code that regulates thruster flame length?
Probably already is, but I haven't seen it.
That is, if a ship's at rest you can't see them at all, and they extend depending on the speed of the craft.
Thrust, thrust, thrust. Having engine glows based on the speed of the ship has a good chance of looking
very bad.
Having them extend according to the ship's actual speed and not its engine setting is a great idea, because you can see the ship's acceleration.
Unrealistic again. You can see it accelerating by its movement. Having its engine glows change as it accelerates would look wrong.
While we're at it, can we implement the turning off of specific engine glows when that particular engine subsystem has been destroyed?
Needs table entries for mapping engine subsystems to individual thruster glows.
Since each glow is already linked to a specific engine subsystem the groundwork is already there.
...Or not?
Originally posted by Carl
I think this is important, too. keep in mind the engine glow doesn't actually have to be thrust, just...glow. maybe it's the light from the fuel that's sitting right behind the engine? i don't know. but i think getting rid of it completely when the ship is stopped isn't a good idea.
Um, when you spew fuel or any sort of propellant out of an engine, it is because you are attempting to generate thrust. If you don't want to generate thrust, you don't do that, because you will anyway if you do.
Originally posted by Robin Varley
I might be going crazy, but when I was testing some stuff out yesterday on Shipyard-completed ( you know the FRED2 tutorial one ), when the NTF Aeolus came to a halt, it's engine glows stopped, then again the Sobek might have blown em off. I know this subject was mentioned recently, I think Bobboau brought it up and was saying he'd put it in or was considering it at the least - don't quote me on that though. I think I'll have a search for it.
I put it in, but it got rolled back along with a bunch of other stuff because of breakage. Maybe you grabbed the code before it got rolled back?
Originally posted by SadisticSid
Nah, I think the engines need a glow of some kind when not disabled... I bet you can't turn an Orion's propulsion system on and off with a flick of a switch. Surely it'd need to warm up or something for a ship so big.
Fine, but it's still going to go out once the engine warms down (a la warmdown for big ship beam weapons).
