[Cobra]

I like it just the way it is. Me wants it now.

[Ferret]

Those are some frikking sweet pics S-99.

[Gregster2k]

I love the effect on front but the side "bowl" shape has always bugged me since vanilla. =/

Have "radically alternative" subspace warp model shapes ever been tried and tested? Like...oh, I don't know, spheres? I'm curious as to what it would look like.

IDEA TIME:
Try changing the subspace portal to be a fully white sphere (use a perfectly white glowmap with white textures), with a glowpoint or similar always-facing-player texture inside the center of it that uses the subspace vortex animation. That way, from all angles, you get this subspace portal that always seems to be facing your eyes!

Although breaking canon, and thus would definitely HAVE to be optional, a solution like that would eliminate the "bowl" entirely and, with HDRish or even simple Anti Aliasing be a seamless transition between "space", "subspace", and the ship coming out (or going in) -- as long as the "halo" of vortex is matched correctly to the size of the fully white sphere.

If this is possible, I'd like to see it -- I can't do it myself.

[S-99]

That actually sounds like a great suggestion. It'd be definitely great for say, a deimos warping in I know everyone here has seen a deimos warping in before The bowl thing really doesn't look all that great. The subspace effect really only looks good if you look at it from the front.

[Wanderer]

Only few problems... AFAIK and also based on what i have tested myself...

i) glowpoints do not scale with the warp model
ii) animated glowpoints do not appear to be functional

[DaBrain]

We should try to get this nice obscuring affect without fake hdr of course

I don't think this is possible without shaders. At least not in a FPS conserving way.

[Herra Tohtori]

My concept of ideal shape (though this is but a fast doodling):




The vortex is quite "flat" for most part of it, but when going towards the center it curves hyperbolically, and when the radius of the funnel reduces, its brightness intensifies until at the end of the funnel there is the flash. And on the edges, the brightness fades into familiar "waves" surrounding a subspace vortex.

Note that I don't think it should be that dim as in the picture. I just didn't bother to edit it more than I did already. This is mostlu regarding the cone geometry, and the idea that brightness intensifies when the radius reduces, until at the end there is the flash, where time and space mix and shatter due to tremendous energies.

Now, what would be really cool would be an effect that reduces the incoming ship's size when it emerges through the vortex, so that it wouldn't seem to be coming throught some white cloud but really coming from the flash at the end of the vortex... 

I don't know if that can possibly be done. At least it would be quite complex. Regardless it'd be magnificent. And more believable than the current (and canon) effect IMO.

[neoterran]

Now, what would be really cool would be an effect that reduces the incoming ship's size when it emerges through the vortex, so that it wouldn't seem to be coming throught some white cloud but really coming from the flash at the end of the vortex... 

That would be totally cool, but I don't think it's possible with the current engine.

[Cobra]

unless the SCP team finds a way to manipulate the source code to produce that effect...

[Axem]

All I would want is to see the Warp Vortex spin around like in the cutscenes. It really gave it the look that something was opening up from another dimension.

[neoterran]

speaking of that, i'd like the GTI Arcadia to look like it does in the cutscenes as well. Between it and the Orion, they both take the cake for "most 1999-like texture maps"

[Herra Tohtori]

Oh well, if it isn't possible to have that "magnifying ship"- effect, let's have a pseudo-one.

How'bout this: The ship doesn't start to emerge immediately, but instead there could be a growing dark thingy in the middle of the vortex, but only when looking in from the frontside. The dark blob (it wouldn't need to be particularly ship-sized to produce a relatively nice effect) would increase swiftly in size, representing the front silhuette of incoming ship. After it reaches some sixe, the real ship starts to emerge from certain level... uh, this is difficult to explain in words, let me draw a picture:



So that when the frontal silhuette of the ship grows onto the size where it equals the ship's real frontal silhuette, the real ship model starts emerging from that level.

Only thing is, the dark silhuette should only be visible from inside the vortex model. That way it would create an illusion (on some level at least) that the vortex is really leading somewhere, and the ship comes from there. Right now it'd be all the same if the ship just emerged from perfectly flat cloud.

I even think that the same dark blob could be used for any ship. The animation could be relatively fast, lasting about half a second or perhaps two seconds at most (for really huge ships), from a single dark pixel at the center of vortex, to full-sized vessel silhuette.

What do you think? I think all it needs is another texture at another side of the vortex model, that's all.

[Axem]

That's sorta what I did.



There's a second part of the model that just uses a tiny part of the map that's always white.

[neoterran]

Oh well, if it isn't possible to have that "magnifying ship"- effect, let's have a pseudo-one.

How'bout this: The ship doesn't start to emerge immediately, but instead there could be a growing dark thingy in the middle of the vortex, but only when looking in from the frontside. The dark blob (it wouldn't need to be particularly ship-sized to produce a relatively nice effect) would increase swiftly in size, representing the front silhuette of incoming ship. After it reaches some sixe, the real ship starts to emerge from certain level... uh, this is difficult to explain in words, let me draw a picture:



So that when the frontal silhuette of the ship grows onto the size where it equals the ship's real frontal silhuette, the real ship model starts emerging from that level.

That is an idea that sounds like it would be easier to implement, but seems like a good one.... any graphics coders weigh in on the feasability of these ideas (since i got flamed for saying somehting was easy last time)

Only thing is, the dark silhuette should only be visible from inside the vortex model. That way it would create an illusion (on some level at least) that the vortex is really leading somewhere, and the ship comes from there. Right now it'd be all the same if the ship just emerged from perfectly flat cloud.

I even think that the same dark blob could be used for any ship. The animation could be relatively fast, lasting about half a second or perhaps two seconds at most (for really huge ships), from a single dark pixel at the center of vortex, to full-sized vessel silhuette.

What do you think? I think all it needs is another texture at another side of the vortex model, that's all.

I think that's a great idea. Any graphics coders / modellers tell us if they can do that ?

[Axem]

Ah sorry, I didn't read it all. I have a bad habit of skimming. Anyway, I have an idea of how that might work. Just some creative use of the UV space. I'll see how it works out.

[S-99]

Shaders like hdrish don't really take an fps toll, just as an example, not saying use hdrish, if a bloom shader was applied to only the the subspace vortex that'd make it a lot nicer

[neoterran]

There is a bloom shader library written for doom3 (or any opengl game) that some kid on the net wrote as a c  library (I think.. it might be Cg) that hooks into opengl somehow and sits in the freespace main directory, but when I was using it it caused horrendous slowdowns and flashed on and off, so its not usable. But it shows it's possible to do it. I know HDRish is around and stuff, but this works even on an Nvidia card. So, maybe if someone looked at the code.. too bad there is no source.
I found it here :  http://d3glow.clanugsm.com/doom3.htm

I told the author about freespace SCP and asked him if he had any time if he could try to make it work properly for us, maybe he'll throw the source code at taylor or whomever and they can incorporate it..

[Shadow0000]

You're right, it's doesn't seem to be usable with the SCP:



I have to tell, that was a really interesting experience, but not enough for an epileptic convulsion...

[neoterran]

 

Look how much smoother the 3D Radar looks tho ! 

[Shadow0000]

Look how much smoother the 3D Radar looks tho ! 

 

No!!! The stars are going Supernova!!!. That's an apocalyptic shader

No, I have a 8xS AA activated because I was using a modeling program...the Shader works really well, you can notice it has that Glow/Bloom effect, as seen in the Doom screenshots, however it doesn't work for the SCP.

There are other Shaders which are in the category of Edge Cutting, the result is like an AA, but it's not the case of this Shader.