incarnate: thanks for explaining. I did not mean to give a qualified comment, just an observation about that other game. I fully understand how VO works and is set up and I am following you. :-)

But your "dusty sector" DOES look cool, spidey.
Points for technical execution: 9/10
Points for originality: 3/10
Points for "actually able to see this ingame in the near future": 2/10

I can't wait for my Corvus Prime Pirate HQ station floating in the outer layers of the Orange Gas Giant Planet Kraz.

Like warping into dense orange fog, you'd have to use your radar to find the station.

well i think it would be worthwhile when video cards can take it without too much of a performance hit, I think its a hell of allot better implementing volume shadows than remaking all the models and textures.

Could an 8800 gtx render that in real time?, also their are still players using 3 year old video cards (not everybody can afford to throw near a grand at a new box every year), I've only just recently upgraded to a 6800 from a 440mx, so I wouldn't count on making an 8800 (or better) a minimum requirement for much of anything for at least two years, probably two and a half, depending on when it hits the 50 dollar range.

even if this is implemented that i doubt it would for good reasons,
what makes it required for the game why can it not be an "option" in the graphics menu, even if this were implemented right now and made an option it wouldn't force anyone to upgrade it would just let people with superior hardware have more eyecandy.

twas the same with preloaded textures and high quality Full scene glow effect, i don't use them but people with a gig of ram and something like a 7000 series do use them it did not force me to upgrade my 5 year old box.

The reason why you're still arguing about the possibility of doing "this" is because you failed to use any antecedent to clue us into what "this" is. Sure, I see a shiny picture, but what the hell am I supposed to make of that? The only graphic artists in this discussion as far as I can tell is incarnate, and you? So what are we talking about here? Dusty sectors, volume light and shadows, looking at the sun through trees? To make things worse, you didn't even really explain *why* you posted that (admittadly very pretty) picture at all. You just kind of put it up, as if everybody in the world was tuned directly into your head and thinking "Oh, of course. Spidey's Dusty Sector mock up. It makes perfect sense!".

So we're talking about something whose purpose is assumed, and is a different thing to each person who sees it. Some people think you're making a suggestion, even though this is clearly the general discussion board. Others perceive an insult, as if your claiming rendering pictures like that in real time ought to be the de facto standard for people with computers across the world. Still others assume your asking for some kind of a judgement, and all the mixes between. Worse yet, you're still constructing sentences which imply bizarre circumstances. "even if this is implemented that i doubt it would for good reasons,"... a small glimpse inside Lord~spidey's universe where even as things come into being, they cease to be. For good reasons, no doubt.

Also, assuming you *are* still talking about a sector where the visuality is obscured by dust, as it were, such a change would affect gameplay in obvious ways. Generally, things which affect gameplay ought not to be optional. How many people would keep ion storm fuzz checked on if that were an option? Thus any such 'Dusty Sectors' would need to scale up from low to high-performance options, but with the same general level of obscurity for everyone.

Bah just forget all the nonsense i tried to talk about and stare at the pretty picture.

When i said "Even if this is implemented, that i doubt it would for good reasons." i meant that if this should be implemented right now it would not be worth the effort that the devs put into it, since it would not improve the gameplay in any way, and would only improve the game for a small part of the community that have machines capable of rendering this in real time without bad performance.

If no one is getting what I'm trying to explain my grammar must suck really really bad and I'm not noticing...

Anyways if anyone with a gigantic monstrous wide screen display could snap me a nice shot of a sector with roids obstructing the sunlight partially. :)

You guys all missed the coolest part:

"And we're going to be adding a lot more sectors with a lot of asteroids."

I mean, yes, we know it's going to come. But this makes me damned excited. Particularly at the possibility that there might be one or two grey-space sectors between Deneb and GR (No-Mans Land...or Pirate's Heaven, mwah!)

what would be really cool, sectors with moving asteroids, possibly orbiting around a giant honeycombed iceyo (maybe a giant iron rock or something). 30 or so orbiting rocks would be really cool to fight around, and in the big iron rock. also it might make mining fun, trying to manevour around to keep close to a rock with out hitting another roid.

Pirates Heaven, I like that name, just put it between two very busy sectors so people 'have' to traverse it...hehe...

*wanders off dreaming..

Mystic, I thought Pirates' Heaven was found in your...

Oh, nevermind.

That's not pirate heaven. It's more like being taken to a separate dimension where passion is brewed and happiness is used to water the roses. It's like tripping on love and falling into a fiery sun.

Umm...
That 'effect' spidey created could be created and pre-rendered in some fashion where it doesn't create as much, if not any at all, overhead. A fake lensflare and some neat client screen effect perhaps.

It wouldn't be 'real' volumentric shadows/lighting but if you did it right it would still look saa--weeet.

But I agree, gameplay should really be the focus atm.