[ShadowGorrath]

Hey,

I've seen in a preview video of Nexus2: The Jupiter Incident ( but the 2nd one, unreleased ) and it seemed to have more graphical features than FS2 SCP now has, and it was a strategy game from 2002, though never released. Including reflection maps, normal maps, space distortion etc.

Normal maps are in, have no idea about those reflection maps, but I've never seen space distortion and think it would look perfect for newer mods, or just plain FS2 SCP normal campaign. You know: distortion shockwaves, engines, weapon effects, beam cannons, etc. Would look more realistic and eye catching.

Any ideas?

[Colonol Dekker]

I dunno......... 


Is it a bit too new an effect to plug into the old trusty old SCP engine?
Or am i completely wrong, If so, I think a distortion effect should replace the subspace entry vortex.....

[Jeff Vader]

Or am i completely wrong, If so, I think a distortion effect should replace the subspace entry vortex.....

Omg you know, I was just thinking the same thing. Sure, the blue swirly things are pretty, but a huge distortion with a ship coming through it would be, like, so cool. Intimidating even.

Edit: Or use it with a Knossos. Having the circling thingies generate a constant distortion within the portal... damn.

[ShadowGorrath]

Working distortions were on the 2002 Nexus2. I'd say it's possible on SCP, but I'm no programmer.

[Turambar]

it's just a shader

we'll be able to do it once all that code gets done.

[Colonol Dekker]

Deep joy


Funky shields on the way too no doubt after that.
Stealth systems, gravity wells and "hopefully" WC3/4 style bullet impacts on your screen.

[Retsof]

...Stealth systems...

Can you imagine being able to stealth ships with the distortion effect.  It'd be like " *squinting* What the heck is that ... does anyone else see a ripply thing?... Oh crap it has beam cannons!"

[Snail]

Can you imagine being able to stealth ships with the distortion effect.  It'd be like " *squinting* What the heck is that ... does anyone else see a ripply thing?... Oh crap it has beam cannons!"

Then when a high-poly ship is made it's completely given away.

Granted, it would be useless, but just pretty damn badass.

[Mars]

*Starts looking to replace the old 7600

[Gregster2k]

Can you imagine being able to stealth ships with the distortion effect.  It'd be like " *squinting* What the heck is that ... does anyone else see a ripply thing?... Oh crap it has beam cannons!"

Then when a high-poly ship is made it's completely given away.

Granted, it would be useless, but just pretty damn badass.

I think whether or not the details give it all away depends on how heavily the ship's cloak distorts background details "behind" it. The less distortion, the harder it is to figure out what the ship is. And if a particular shader somehow bases its appearance depending on the angle at which a camera is looking at it (as opposed to simply acting as a texture modifier), then things could get really interesting.

As we know, original FS2 explosion shockwaves always faced the camera, and always appeared circular. If someday in the future we make a shader based distortion shockwave expanding like the original [V] made.......it might actually look better than a 3D planar or spherical shockwave.

[blackhole]

Its just a screenspace distortion shader. Rather standard in today's games, its just that the SCP doesn't support screenspace shaders (postprocessing) of any kind yet, or it'd also have bloom, and  HDR, and motionblur, and...

[ShadowGorrath]

But it WILL support them, right ?

[n0s]

anytime in the future, as far as i kno

[ShadowGorrath]

How far of the future? 2009 ? 2010 ? 2335 ?

[Colonol Dekker]

I don't like the sound of that.........

How far of the future? 2009 ? 2010 ? 2335 ?

Playing Freespace in my Apollo............... Irony.

[chief1983]

I think he meant anytime from here on out, because there are already testing builds with shader support, so someone could already start writing a shader for it I believe.

[Colonol Dekker]

I nominate ShadowGorrath.................

[ShadowGorrath]

Nominate for what?

[Colonol Dekker]

so someone could already start writing a shader for it I believe.

I expect a download by 18:00..........

[ShadowGorrath]

Gah !

Um... Yea... Well... The thing is... *goes offline*