[Nighteyes]

think about it, glow points on ships, missiles and engines are all representing light sources... thus should act like real lens flares(like our new suns)

I've been adding glow points to capships engines to test it out, and found a strange behavior for large radius glow points(radius of 50-200):
when you fly close to the engine, the glow point would move towards you and go bright until you fly through it, instead of staying at the position of the engine, I have no idea why this is happening, and even if this is intentional, it looks very strange, the glow point should stay where I put it.

other glow point problems is that they don't shut off when a capship dies, IMO when a capship enters the death roll phase glowpoints, as well as the glow map should turn off, the ship is splitting in 2, I doubt the electricity is still working at this stage...

screenshots will follow a bit later as im not on my FS computer atm

[Bobboau]

the glow map should turn off, the ship is splitting in 2, I doubt the electricity is still working at this stage...

when ever this is brought up I ask should the glow map on the flaming debris also get shut off?

[mjn.mixael]

But I use the glow map in my damage chunks...

[Nighteyes]

guys,  the debris object is a separate object, if you want have the glow map "on" so that you can have some glowing hot metal and such, thats fine, what I'm talking about is the actual model that is splitting apart, the original whole ship(glow map and glow points should turn off when its starting its death roll)

also for the old way of having debris using 2 maps(original and damage), the glow map can turn off on the original and stay on for the damage texture...

now, back on topic, glow maps rendered as flares, this is what I have in mind:
its a bit strong, and I still need to play a bit with the mipmaps, maybe have it activate only when far away/close

[Mobius]

Well, wow. Amazing, really - I can't wait to see this feature fully implemented.

[Nighteyes]

some more screenshots:

[Nighteyes]

and here is the ugly problem with the glow points not acting as lens flares, basically the same problem we once had with our suns...

[torc]

good job Nighteyes...i'd like to see it in Diaspora once is finished
i think this effect and the thruster distortion should work really good in-game

[Nighteyes]

Diaspora won't have anything like this, do you remember seeing anything like this in the show? if it wasn't in the show, I won't add it, Freespace on the other hand... I have a bit more creative freedom 

[JCDNWarrior]

This looks very very good. The effect may need to be a little toned down as you said before but I love it. Especially perfect in screenshots, curious how it's in actual movement. Do you think you could post a small video demonstrating it's effect, so I can get a better idea of the effect? Thanks in advance

[torc]

well,i was thinkin that tuning down the effect could fit and give a more realistic look.
Anyway, i think that the effect needs to be blink as you see in this video,but more faster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpwI_O9CY-A

Sorry but i haven't found a better example than this

[MetalDestroyer]

Woaw !! Could you give us your glow point effect ? I really like it.

[DaBrain]

and here is the ugly problem with the glow points not acting as lens flares, basically the same problem we once had with our suns...

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5166/screen0034r.jpg

Alright, let me explain how the lensflares work. It's basically on or off. It's not sorted. Thanks to the Z-Mode change it's simply on top of all other objects. No problem so far, but we need to determine when it's supposed to be on or off.  This is done by a raycast. If the ray is blocked by geometry, the flare is turned off.

A hand full of raycasts for the suns are no problem. Once we do it for all glowpoints on every single ship, it might become a problem.
I am not a coder, so I can't say how bad it will be, but I doubt it will be cheap.


On the other hand, there is a better way to do it, but it requires HDR rendering. We could add a streak bloom effect to everything on the screen that is very bright. (Actually brighter than the white your display.)
That would give specular highlights a "flare" effect as well... and everything else bright.

[Dragon]

Didn't Valathil implement HDR at some point?
He's working so fast I lost track of all the improvements he made. 
Anyway, that's not a bad idea.

[Nighteyes]

thats an option, but will be problematic in missions that are very bright, like atmospheric missions... can someone test out this raycast thing? it might be a very simple check that will not even affect FPS, also having the control over lens flares for various effects would be awesome, think about it, together with the mipmaps trick, you can have simple things like lasers wizzing by your screen create a bright flare 

anyway, here is a video showcasing the flares as someone asked here, its also showing the problem with the glow points dissapearing before the center point is out of screen, the grow big, bit vanish before they should(seems like even Volition thought of using them as lens flares )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADXodHXS0w

[Goober5000]

This is a bad idea.  I do not want FSO to turn into the latest Star Trek movie.

[mjn.mixael]

This is a bad idea.  I do not want FSO to turn into the latest Star Trek movie.

This is a bad post. Sorry. Because you do not like a visual element does not mean you should actively try to keep it from being available for other mods to use. If you don't like all the lens flares, then don't play Nighteyes' mod. The solution, however, is not to keep this feature from being added.

EDIT: Deja Vu Am I the only one that doesn't like seeing "I think that's ugly, don't add that feature" posts? (With the implication seeming to be that we must limit people to creating what is only generally acceptable.)

[Commander Zane]

thats an option, but will be problematic in missions that are very bright, like atmospheric missions... can someone test out this raycast thing? it might be a very simple check that will not even affect FPS, also having the control over lens flares for various effects would be awesome, think about it, together with the mipmaps trick, you can have simple things like lasers wizzing by your screen create a bright flare 

anyway, here is a video showcasing the flares as someone asked here, its also showing the problem with the glow points dissapearing before the center point is out of screen, the grow big, bit vanish before they should(seems like even Volition thought of using them as lens flares )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADXodHXS0w

I like how they appear on FRED.
Anyway, this looks awesome.

[Dragon]

I think that lens flares over glowpoints are a bit of stretch (thrusters are fine though, as long as the effect is subtle). On the other hand, making glow points render like lens flares (on top of everything else) and using raycasting (or HDR, if I understood this correctly) to make them disappear when obscured is a good idea.

[Nighteyes]

this is what I mean, on very bright parts like thrusters a flare could be seen, Goober, don't worry too much I know and hate the lens flares in film like the new star strek, I do however love it when its used subtly, look at mass effect for reference to awesome looking lens flares... keep them subtle and on very specific things and it can look amazing.