[Lynx]

Not that I plan on doing something like that, but I had an idea:

Namely, would it be possible to simulate underwater areas in the Freespace engine? As far as I know it'd be possible without any code-changes; landscapes are already a possibility in the engine, and the nebula-mission feature can be useduseful to limit the visibility range. The engine glows and trails would have to be reworked for that though to represent a trail of bubbles and/or heated water or something, but that would just take new trail effects. Such a mission would also eliminate the need for gravity as it would be needed for normal ground missions.

So, what do you people thing? Would that actually be possible? Where are the troubles and limitaions? Maybe someone can draw from that idea and produce something different with that in mind for a change.

[NGTM-1R]

Somebody already managed to create a underwater-ish effect, by accident, leading Goober to jokingly propose a "Seasick" campaign, so it can be done.

[aldo_14]

It's interesting, but i'm not sure I see a real advantage.  IMO the cool thing would be having fishies and whatnot swimming about, and you can't get that with FS (no proper skeletal animation).  Or dappled light breaking through the surface of water, etc.

[Lynx]

True, it'd miss some of the cooler effects. But -for once- that'd be realistic( really ) if you have a mission taking part in deeper water, like 100 - 11000m; there are no plants or anything rarely any fishes or other animals, the ground would actually look more like a desert. Remember seaQuest? The deep sea would actually look like that, monotonous and barren, the life takes place in the first few dozen meters at the surface.
But true, for a close to surface mission it'd lack some important elements like proper animation for animals, light effects(though I'd think you could probably simulate that one with some tricks). Theough remember, the sea-life thing was rarely seen even in dedicated submarine games, at least I can't remember seeing it in Aquanox or that older game whose name I forgot) or you could always make something up to explain the lack of animals(were killed by ecological catastrophe/it's actually a sea on another planet etc.)

[NGTM-1R]

I'd like to see it, personally...I have fond memories of seaQuest on SciFi.

You'd need to create a new build, I think, because you would need to tinker with the nebular view distance in addition to disabling poofs.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Lynx
True, it'd miss some of the cooler effects. But -for once- that'd be realistic( really ) if you have a mission taking part in deeper water, like 100 - 11000m; there are no plants or anything rarely any fishes or other animals, the ground would actually look more like a desert. Remember seaQuest? The deep sea would actually look like that, monotonous and barren, the life takes place in the first few dozen meters at the surface.

Albeit at that sort of depth is it not completely, utterly pitch black anyways?  With powerful lamps only lighting a few metres?

[MicroPsycho]

and that would also be cool!...kinda...I guess...maybe not...100 metres maybe

[Galemp]

Actually, Nico and I have already tried this. Just replace all the poofs with totally black ones and play in a nebula mission with a blue background, it's neat. And the spinning submodel feature would make great propeller blades.

But it turns out it's already been done, by a German company, and it looks so gorgeous that we decided to leave it to the pros. Try it if you can find a copy, it's not bad.

[AqueousShadow]

Originally posted by Lynx
/it's actually a sea on another planet etc.)

But where there's water, there's life, no?

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by ngtm1r
Somebody already managed to create a underwater-ish effect, by accident, leading Goober to jokingly propose a "Seasick" campaign, so it can be done.

Ah, someone remembers that.

Here's my original post.  Unfortunately, the pictures that spurred it seem to be no longer online.

Originally posted by aldo_14
IMO the cool thing would be having fishies and whatnot swimming about, and you can't get that with FS (no proper skeletal animation).

Nah, you can get that with retail.

[Fury]

...mmmm Archimedean Dynasty, I still remember when I borrowed the game from my cousin. Damn it was good. Sadly I have not played AquaNox or AquaNox Revelations.

[Flaser]

IMHO the graphic leap aside they butchered the game to apply to the FPS fans out there.

The main point what sets apart a shooter SIM from a plain shooter is the weapon simulation. Even I-War 2 suffered from this.
I sure missed my programable turrets from AD or the simultaniously used torpedo launcher.

Aquanox was a fun FPS shooter, while Relevations was plain and simple BAD.

[NGTM-1R]

Actually, I'm trying to think of a reason why you couldn't operate an FS fighter underwater and not coming up with one...

[Col. Fishguts]

Originally posted by ngtm1r
Actually, I'm trying to think of a reason why you couldn't operate an FS fighter underwater and not coming up with one...

Uhm.... resistance of the water, salt water killing your engines, water pressure ?

[boewolf]

As for fish or other animals you might like to try animated asteroid / debree fields with new pofs...   That might get you your fishies...   Hmmmmm...   Would you like an order of chips with your rocky fish...

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Col. Fishguts


Uhm.... resistance of the water, salt water killing your engines, water pressure ?

All can be overcome with technobabble!

resistance; inverted antigravity tech to push back water and create a microvacuum
salt water; hermetically sealed hull with rust proof coating
water pressure; shields modulated to resist / prefviously mentioned inverted antigrav pish

[Col. Fishguts]

Of course you can solve all problems with technobabble.

I was just pointing out that a stock FS fighter isn't exactly sea-worthy, with the exception of the Bravos, of course

[aldo_14]

Yaar.

[Mefustae]

Originally posted by Col. Fishguts
Uhm.... resistance of the water, salt water killing your engines, water pressure ?

Leela: "Depth at 4500! 4800! Five Thousand Feet!"
Professor Farnsworth: "Dear Lord! That's over 150 Atmospheres of Pressure!"
Fry: "How many atmospheres can this ship withstand?"
Professor Farnsworth: "Well, it's a Space-ship... so i'd say anywhere between Zero and One..."

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Col. Fishguts


Uhm.... resistance of the water, salt water killing your engines, water pressure ?

Well, let's examine that.

You'll slow down. Okay. That's a given. Your weapons range will decrease drastically. Also a given.

Salt water killing your engines...iffy. You're not running conventional rockets but fusion-powered ducted plasma, so this is highly debatable.

Think about the fact that most FS craft are able to withstand the sheering and compression from a small nuke before you mention water pressure. Trust me, they can handle it.