[devi1sdoz3n]

I am trying to make nicer looking full nebulae - so far things look good, but I'd like to be able to change the fog distance parameters.
I searched the board, and I've found a lot of topics which say it's possible by changing the settings in objecttypes.tbl. I can't find that one in any of the vp files.
Is that a separate download, and where can I get it?
Also, is it possible to stop ships from disappearing when they reach maximum view distance in fog (I want to use a skybox for the background, so I need them to stay there, not pop out of existance)
And one final question - it seems to me that explosions, particles and thing s of that type don't fade with the distance in the nebula. Any way to change that?
Thanks.

[Fury]

FS2 Open has a lot more tbl (and tbm) files that the retail FS2 does not support. As such you won't find them in retail vp files, but may find in mediavps or other vp's by other mods.

Short answer: create one yourself.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Objecttypes.tbl#.24Fog:

[Trivial Psychic]

There are also per-mission fog multipliers in the background editor in FRED.

[devi1sdoz3n]

OK, got it.
I can now control the fog distance through objecttypes.tbl, however not for everything - I still can't control the fog distance for asteroids. Also, as far as I can tell, explosions, trails and things like that are not affected by fog at all, which breaks the illusion a bit, and the objects still pop out once they reach the maximum fog distance.
In the wiki example there is +Disappear factor: line which looks suspiciously like the thing that I need, but it gives an error if I try to include it into the objecttypes.tbl.
Hope these are not silly questions, but I've been at this just for a few days now, and am not a coder but an artist anyway.
As for the range option in fred, that's just for the radar range, isn't it? Or am I looking at the wrong one?

In case anyone's interested, here's what I have for now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av-GXBqNBpo

Looks much better ingame - video compression destroys a lot of detail.

[BlasterNT]

Wow, those poofs look amazing.

[Spoon]

Looks far nicer indeed
Feels less like you are moving through layers with that

[rscaper1070]

I'm sold! That's very cool and eery, when can I get my hands on that? I'd love to see this coupled with Valathil's godrays.  Nice work! 

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Yeah, really good job.
Feels like flying through soup, and that's the way it should be, me thinks.

[Commander Zane]

Blue nebula that isn't blinding.
I approve.

[The E]

Very nice. Moving to FSUpgrade, as this is of interest to FSU.

[Zacam]

As for the range option in fred, that's just for the radar range, isn't it? Or am I looking at the wrong one?

Add "Fog Near Multiplier" and "Fog Far Multiplier" options for missions. Allows the FREDder to tweak distances at which ships fade out in a nebula.

Not sure if you're already using those or not, but I think that was what was being mentioned.

And yes, the FSU is definitely interested. You just managed to leap past the progress that I was making on trying to accomplish the same thing.

[LHN91]

This looks much, MUCH better than any other setup I've seen on FSO. Good job, seriously.

[Fineus]

Looks great but - and I'm a layman here - can anything be done about the "pop-in"?

By that I mean the random asteroids or - in some cases - the Aquitane - appearing out of seemingly nowhere. Everything should fade in from an extreme distance.

Another idea I had (sort of): Would it be possible to have dust *in space* (rather than in a nebula)? I know it wouldn't be realistic but I was toying with the notion that it might be quite a nice way to get a sensation of speed and add a bit more ambience to the mission. It would have to be heavily editable of course so that it wouldn't be as thick as a standard nebula and would be at the discretion of (a mission designer) as to how thick the dust is. But what do you reckon... possible?

[T-LoW]

Maybe toying around with the asteroid field editor (creating nebula/dust texture plains that always face the player instead of asteroids)?

But I really have absolutely no clue about the whole theme - just a thought lol

Cool results so far

[Nighteyes]

really liking the look and feel you got there, was playing around a bit with this myself but as Zacam said, you just passed what I was doing, so go full speed ahead 

looks like you are using a skybox for the backgrounds right? with custom poofs... on some of them I would try taking the brightness down a bit, this will make the pop in less noticeable, and the overall look less cartoony.

*on another note, something really needs to be done with the pop in, maybe a shader that fades the objects into view instead of a hard pop in...

[Cyborg17]

Awesome job, dude.  These poofs are exceptional, especially the green and blue poofs.  These new poofs are used with matching skyboxes (I think), which make the nebula feel *much* more organic and fluid.

Could someone explain what is getting multiplied?  Is it distance or is it another formula?  Is there attenuation, etc.?

I think we can all agree that this style looks a lot better, and that the old way was probably set up that way because of the limitations  had to deal with.  If we can pair this with an upgrade to how nebula fog works, probably after 3.6.14 is released, it would probably become the standard way of doing nebulas and would surpass Freelancer's nebulas (which can look really nice, too.)

[headdie]

the first one looks exactly like what you see in the intro

[Ulala]

A very welcome improvement. Thank you for your hard work on this!

[H-Alien]

looks great!

as mentioned if there is some way to reduce the popin it's a certain winner

[headdie]

can we apply a translucency shader similar to the cloaking one to "fade in" ships