[Deepblue]

Would it be possible to set things up so that engines and weapons effects were rendered with multiple flat planes (think Starlancer) instead of 1?

[Flipside]

My own thoughts are that, if the SCP get surface glows up and running as they hope, then it would be good to be able to define the laser POF and leave the hard work to the modders

Flipside

[Carl]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Would it be possible to set things up so that engines and weapons effects were rendered with multiple flat planes (think Starlancer) instead of 1?

We already had this discussion, and we came to the obvious conclusion that one flat plane always facing you like in FS always looks better in every possible situation compared to multiple planes with look like crap unless you're looking straight at one of the planes.

the starlancer way would essentially be a downgrade.

[Liberator]

I'm a big fan of a geometric sphere meself.  Nothing complex mind you, just a simple with a good texture job.

[aldo_14]

Fake it w' a pof

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Carl


We already had this discussion, and we came to the obvious conclusion that one flat plane always facing you like in FS always looks better in every possible situation compared to multiple planes with look like crap unless you're looking straight at one of the planes.

the starlancer way would essentially be a downgrade.

I have to disagree. I find the multiple planes method better in all respects. Given three to six surfaces, intersecting radially, with an additive opacity and glow mask, you get a far better effect. But hey, its all opinion.

[Carl]

Originally posted by mikhael


I have to disagree. I find the multiple planes method better in all respects. Given three to six surfaces, intersecting radially, with an additive opacity and glow mask, you get a far better effect. But hey, its all opinion.

but the starlancer way will look like planes if you're not looking at it from the right angle. with the FS way the bitmap is always facing you all the time, so it never looks like it's made out of planes. from a fact based standpoint there is no possible way that the SL way could look better. observe:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=84965&stc=1

left= SL way from several different angles.
right=FS way from several different angles.

notice how the FS way never gets messed up depending on how you look at it.

[SA22C]

Your link didn't work for me...

[Lightspeed]

Doesn't work for me either, but Carl's right.

The FS2 way of handling it looks 4000+ times superior to the multi plane approach.

[Nico]

Yeah, but freelancer's way is even better

[Deepblue]

Speaking of which... has anyone worked more on particle engines?

[Taristin]

I liked them, but most people deemed them worthless. I personally prefer them to how they are now.

Maybe a combination of the two.

[SadisticSid]

The first thing the coders could do is change how missile trails are rendered. Right now high-definition images seem to be severely blurred when used as missile trails, whereas beams work fine.

[mikhael]

I can't see what Carl's talking about because he can't seem to post a useful link.

Thrusters are things on the tail end of moving ships. Unless you're moving in really close and doing your best to get a dodgy angle, you simply won't get a dodgy angle. Furthermore, if you handle the layout of the polys properly, even a dodgy angle doesn't look bad.

I'd rather see thrusters done in the Iwar2 manner, but A) nobody but me likes thrusters that cut off, and B) you'd have to rework the entire POF structure. And god knows, we don't dare change the way the game works.

[Carl]

Originally posted by mikhael
I can't see what Carl's talking about because he can't seem to post a useful link.

maybe if someone would put the uploader back up.

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Speaking of which... has anyone worked more on particle engines?

Particle engines would look cool on bombs, but only if they were constrained to trail directly behind the bomb like the PCXs do currently.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Nico
Yeah, but freelancer's way is even better

yeah, freelancer had quite some nice effects.

[Nico]

Originally posted by mikhael
I'd rather see thrusters done in the Iwar2 manner, but A) nobody but me likes thrusters that cut off, and B) you'd have to rework the entire POF structure. And god knows, we don't dare change the way the game works.

I like them too, but they'd make no sense with the way FS2 ships fly right now ( way that doesn't make much sense either, but heh ).