[FreeSpaceFreak]

IMO, more like this:



Just a little less blurry.

[Herra Tohtori]

Er... Subspace shouldn't have a starfield behind it.

Oh ye of little faith. 

...For those who don't want to download a 7MB short gameplay video of the effect, let it be said that all the stars in previous screenshots are part of the jump "vortex" effect. There are no stars on the skybox background.

[Galemp]

My god... It's full of stars!

seriously, that effect is perfect. Perfect! Now let's get code support for it. The stretching doesn't matter one iota, it looks amazing as is... we can write off any stretching as being a byproduct of the space distortion resulting from the jump.

[Herra Tohtori]

Delicious Caek, 61x1024^2 DDS files + an EFF file. 18.97 MB download...

Overrides the normal jump effect. If you want it to replace the Knossos effect, just rename it to warpmap02* instead of warpmap01*.

Also. I did not post a model file with it because it looks pretty good either with any of the models available, or with 3dwarp disabled... the video used VA's rather recent model, here's a comparision shot using Axem's model (which has a swirly UVmap that makes the black/transparency transitions moving outwards into a spiral but stars stay stationary...):




Looks completely different but strangely appropriate...


EDIT: I'm mipmapping the DDS files with another filtering options that doesn't fade the stars out when it resizes the main layer... new file coming up sooner than later. Should keep stars visible from further as well as just from point blank range.

EDIT2: Link updated. For anyone who wants to see the older one for comparision, it's still here.

[ShadowGorrath]

Can you see how it looks on normal space? Should look distortiony, unless I understood something wrong.

[jdjtcagle]

That's cool looking

But does subspace make any sense when they are coming from the sides?  I always thought it was point A to point B (one "entrance" to the subspace tunnel and one "exit" - no in-between).  What's your guys thought on that? 

[Droid803]

Beautiful 

[Retsof]

NICE!

[blowfish]

Well, I just looked at the code, and it looks like this would be pretty easy to implement.  It would require a bit of discussion about the finer points of how things should work/interact though.

[Galemp]

Well, there's the little tickbox for 'mission in subspace' that turns on a bunch of things like the skybox and ambient SFX. Why not have it use this effect by default, as well?

Oh, and Blowfish... if you're looking for something to do... can you pleeeeeez make it possible to use the Nebula Lightning Storm in subspace missions?

[Herra Tohtori]

But does subspace make any sense...

...not much actually.

...when they are coming from the sides?

They aren't coming in "from the sides" (of the subspace skybox model, if that's what you meant), it just looks damn much like it. Basically they are jumping into middle of the corridor from a subspace vortext that opens a "window" into the normal space they are supposed to be coming from.

I always thought it was point A to point B (one "entrance" to the subspace tunnel and one "exit" - no in-between).  What's your guys thought on that?

That's what this is supposed to be... What I'm thinking that for intersystem jumps, the ships jump into a common jump corridor, to which they have access from subspace nodes, and the blue-white swirly light coming from the vortex is a "window" into the jump node. Consequently, it would be logical to think that from the corridor, you should see normal space through the jump vortex.

Small distance, intra-system jump drives probably generate a ship-specific, limited jump corridor that behaves pretty much like the jump node-connecting big corridor, but disappears after use and can only be used for limited distances (d'oh). Same lighting dynamics apply though - you see into a corridor from normal space, and that means that in normal space, the effect should be swirly light vortex.

[jdjtcagle]

But does subspace make any sense...

...not much actually.

Ahh... ok

[Herra Tohtori]

Hmm, I wonder if this should be moved to FreeSpace Modding, as this isn't actually about upgrading an existing effect but rather change the philosophy behind a certain effect group (jump vortices) from what it was in FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2.

[Solatar]

I could see how this could turn into a thread discussing other ways to upgrade the subspace mission system (adding lightning storms, making it look more like FreespaceFreak's picture, etc.)

[Galemp]

Since (as an FSU upgrade team member) I would like to see this integrated into the core Media VPs and actuvated by default in all subspace missions, I'd like to keep it here.

[Herra Tohtori]

Since (as an FSU upgrade team member) I would like to see this integrated into the core Media VPs and actuvated by default in all subspace missions, I'd like to keep it here.

We talked about it in IRC with VA and he brought up an interesting point - canonically we don't ever see what the jumping out (or in for that matter) from a jump corridor looks like. Or, well, in one mission you do jump out if you phail the mission, but canonically that mission cannot be failed so clearly that is non-canon and we're free to change the effect for our purposes if we so want.

(rationalization for the win.)

So let it stay... I'd like to see this in MediaVP's as well. Especially as there's no canon evidence against it as was just proven.

[blowfish]

It needs to be coded first

[WMCoolmon]

It'd be pretty cool if you could make it look as though the ship were actually flying into the effect, too, rather than disappearing at the horizon. A pseudo guess as to how you might do this:

Code: [Select]

if((dotproduct(normalized(Viewer - Warper), Warper->fvec)) > 0)
{
     do_effect();
     do_clipping();
}
else
{
     gr_buffer_set(READ_ONLY);
     do_effect();
     gr_buffer_set(READ_WRITE);
}

do_ship();
end_clipping();
Which would clip the ship if you were viewing it from the other side. Which would look pretty friggin' cool.

EDIT: Doh, on second thought, that wouldn't work at angles were the ship was longer than the apparent width of the effect. Oh well...

[Goober5000]

My god... It's full of stars!

Most. Appropriate. Quote. Ever.

And yeah, this effect looks really cool. I vote for it to be included in the mediaVPs, with SCP support.  (It should be handled in the same way as the apply-loadout-to-wing and scrollable-command-briefing features: activated depending on whether the media file is present.)

[blowfish]

activated depending on whether the media file is present.

Or maybe weather or not its defined in fireball.tbl