[Bobboau]

http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/fs2_open_cloak_effect_test.zip

I have it set up to have all ships phase in and out of cloak over the course of one second to allow veiwing of the effect, I'm currently awaiting some information on how to properly integrate it with the exsisting cloaking system.

this build isn't particularly practical, its only good for showing off the effect being turned on and off (over and over again with no actual result on game play)

this isn't your standard alpha blending effect though, I used a rather complex serese of texture rendering, and scaleing /orientation matrices to get it to work out the way it is,  the idea was to have a cloak that looked sort of like it was refractive, it isn't a perfict replecation of what's behind it, sharp angles will cause distortions in the immage, and this is how I intended it, in a dog fight all you'll be able to make out is a slight disturbence in the background, you sure as hell won't see anything untill it's right on top of you, and being cloaked you'r sensors will be of no use, and you will most asuredly lose track of your target, makeing it a quite effective stealth, that does not simply make the ship in question invisable. one of the bigger downfalls of the cloaking effect is that it won't show other ships behind the cloaked ship, I have no intention of trying to fix this as it's about the only way your going to be able to hit one of these things, and I always thought that this should be a limitation of a cloaking device (not able to take into acount near by objects in it's environment projection, if you know anything about optics this actualy makes a hell of a lot of sence).

so enjoy this useless eyecandy demonstraition build

[Black Wolf]

Sounds very interesting - any chance you could get some screenies of the refraction effect?

[Bobboau]

I realy should have the thrusters turned off for the effect

[kasperl]

Well, the ships aren't completely gone. Could you make it that it can fade from this, to completely gone? Perhaps make a table value, specifying of close to completly gone it's cloack is, together with how long it can keep it, and how long it takes to cloack.

[Bobboau]

but... what fun would completly gone be there's no eye cany at all then, it's just nothing rendered, and that just seems unimagenative. I think I'll get some sort of energy thing to flash by as it's halfway through cloaking, and I supose once it's fully to the point it's at I could fade it to an additive alpha wich would be almost totaly invisable.

[kasperl]

Yeah, well, totally invisible for short periods is a great tactical thing, even if it looks, well, dull.

And can you make the blending of the thrusters independent of the main thing? So that a modder can let a bit of thruster seep through, while the ship is cloacked?

[Bobboau]

yeah, but that isn't even the part of the thing I'm working on, Phreak is the one in charge of the cloaking system I'm just takeing care of the d3d implementation of the effect.

[kasperl]

oh, ok.

[SadisticSid]

Bob this is way cool, but kasperl is right, the modder should be able to specify whether or not things can be blended to complete transparency or not. After all if you cloak a capital ship with this it's going to be VERY easy to see which kinda defeats the point. Maybe fighters could use that cool distortion cloak in combat to maintain play balance while capital ships would have a 100% perfect cloak controlled by sexps

This is really sweet, brings cloaked fighters in Inferno one step closer to feasibility

[Bobboau]

yeah, it realy doesn't work very well for cap ships, anything biger than a freighter is probly out of luck with this.

[ShadowDrakken]

its a nice effect... reminds me of predator's cloaking, just not as strong... perhaps keep this eefect, and ALSO add a light transparency?

[Lightspeed]

What Drakken said. Oh, and turn of the squad logos & thrusters while cloaked

[Trivial Psychic]

I know this is sort of going on a tangent, but its always been accepted that when cloaking is finished, that it will be implimented as a tertiary device.  In that instance, once enough teritary devices are coded in, a new tertiary.tbl file should be implimented that allows the modder to dictate what specific capabilities of each tertiary.  Then we could say weather a cloak hides thrusters, makes a ship completely invisible, allows other ships behind them to be seen, etc.  That way, for example if someone is modding star trek ships, then the cloak effect there can be true to its universe, and allow vessels on the other side to be seen through.  Just my thoughts.

Later!

[Nico]

It looks very sweet imho.

[Will the Great]

More screenies plz!

[terren]

I think it looks real good with the thrusters showing.  but that's just me.  and, yeah. more screenies, perhaps cloaking infront of a beem weapon or a realy big explosion?

[Turnsky]

make it look more like the predator effect for ultimate coolness

[HotSnoJ]

Keep the engine glows. Why would it make sense to cloak those? Why would the disappear when in clock mode anyway?

[Lightspeed]

Because cloaking is useless then?

[HotSnoJ]

Then there should be some sort drawback if glows are not there in cloak mode.


BTW excellent job Bob.