[NeoHunter]

I have a question for the people here who have a lot of experience with 3D Studio Max.

How the hell do you create engine glows for fighters and capital ships in 3d Studio max R4 when the ship is flying TOWARDS you?

[Shrike]

Hmm.... well, I use MAX3, and normally I just use a lens flare in the correct location (ie where the exhaust is).  It's kind of.....iffy though, so I'd suggest giving it a try (it's easy to do) but if that doesn't work, you'll have to go to more complicated stuff.

[an0n]

Do what Shrike said or use a very low-density fog with relaxed edges.

Or a Lens Glow effect.

[This message has been edited by an0n (edited 02-08-2002).]

[Ryx]

Try with Volume light and/or atmosphere gizmos.

[an0n]

Nevermind. MAX just died.

[This message has been edited by an0n (edited 02-08-2002).]

[NeoHunter]

Thanks for trying to help. I will wait and see what you got.

Anyway, how do you do a lens glow effect? Oh.....Environment settings.....hee ..sorry.....will try it out now.....

[Vertigo1]

hit CTRL F12.    Add it through there.

btw, if you're going to use a lense flare, be sure to have it set so it won't shine through other objects. (ie: glow behind objects)

------------------
"You know you've played Freespace too much when you're driving along trying to use countermeasures to shake off pursuing highway police." - Top Gun

"Oh and Kazan - you have some nice rocks" - Thunder

"stapled myself to an office chair, forgot about it, and was stuck for 2 hours for one thing" - Stryke 9

Thunder when he's all grown up
/s]

[CP5670]

You know, I had the same problem about a week ago; I was not able to figure out a way to put engine glows on ships where a view of the engine is being obstructed by something else. I'm going to try some of this stuff...

[an0n]

If you play with the occlusion level you can make it still glow even if the view of the center is obstructed.

[Nico]

I could never figure out how to make lense flares and glows go smaller in the distance...

[Carl]

because lens flares usually don't get smaller in the distance.

[an0n]

You can't. The premise being that they are affects on the lense, not in 3D space.

[Galemp]

This is why we need separate forums for discussion and art.

------------------
"An evil mind is a constant comfort."
Revisit the Great War at The Freespace-Freespace 2 Port Project

[an0n]

We do need a 3D forum in general.

Discussion
3D Model/Art
Freespace
NodeWar
Iwar2
Hosted

Thus us the perfect setup.

[Galemp]

 

Originally posted by an0n:
We do need a 3D forum in general.

Discussion
3D Model/Art
Freespace
NodeWar
Iwar2
Hosted

Thus us the perfect setup.

Where are the modders going to go?  


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"An evil mind is a constant comfort."
Revisit the Great War at The Freespace-Freespace 2 Port Project

[an0n]

The General and Modding forums would be squished into one, thus increasing overall forum-thread ratio.

[Nico]

 

Originally posted by an0n:
You can't. The premise being that they are affects on the lense, not in 3D space.

It should: there's that "distance" thing, but I can't figure it out.

[Zeronet]

 

Originally posted by an0n:
We do need a 3D forum in general.

Discussion
3D Model/Art
Freespace
NodeWar
Iwar2
Hosted

Thus us the perfect setup.

No you cant! You cant silence the modders! No never Never!

[Stryke 9]

 

Originally posted by an0n:
You can't. The premise being that they are affects on the lense, not in 3D space.

Well, if you wanna get technical, light sources do appear fainter as they get farther away (unless they're very high-quality lasers), and thus would get dimmer. I guess this wouldn't have quite the effect in a vacuum as it does in an atmosphere, but a significant reduction in lens flare still would be noticeable from, say, 50,000 miles.

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Purveyor of spurious wisdom.

[Ryx]

I'm currently rendering an ani, with a Perseus flying by a camera into the distance (10,000 units) with Vol. light and a glow on the engines.
I chose render effects --> lens fx instead of Video-Post. i checked some boxes regarding the flare and distance, intensity, or something. I'll edit the post with the settings i used later.

[Edit]
OK here are the settings for the Glow:

In the Lens Effects Globals Roll-Out
I checked the 'Affect Z Buffer', 'Distance Affects' (both Size and Intensity) boxes.

Result:
The glow gets smaller until it becomes a small dot. That's it.
[/Edit]

[This message has been edited by Ryx (edited 02-08-2002).]