Forums » Suggestions
Make the light from jump animations throw a shadow within sector
It seems as if we're moving towards a lot more of "hide and seek" gameplay (a good thing!). Given this move, I think it would be good to make visual scouting a little easier by making jump animations somewhat bigger or brighter. This could be done by having jump animations throw a shadow within a sector like stars do to roids. I don't really see a reason why the light from a jump wouldn't throw a shadow for the period of a jump.
Such an addition would give visual scouters an advantage over those who rely solely on radar (as radar at distance is being nerfed anyways).
Such an addition would give visual scouters an advantage over those who rely solely on radar (as radar at distance is being nerfed anyways).
as radar at distance is being nerfed anyways
Is it? I'm really not sure what you're talking about.
Anyway, dynamic lighting is pretty resource-intensive. If we're going to continue support for running VO on an 80286 with 600 kb of RAM, we can't add features like that.
Is it? I'm really not sure what you're talking about.
Anyway, dynamic lighting is pretty resource-intensive. If we're going to continue support for running VO on an 80286 with 600 kb of RAM, we can't add features like that.
In terms of radar occlusion and the possibilities of eventual stealth an the like... I'd say it is being nerfed. Though good call on the resource intensiveness. Maybe there are ways around much of the computations though (I'm not much of a graphics guy).
@ Landron
I was also of the impression that the radar distance was being reduced from 5000m to something less along with the change to the sector list so that it does not include players in the sector that are out of range.
I was also of the impression that the radar distance was being reduced from 5000m to something less along with the change to the sector list so that it does not include players in the sector that are out of range.
I think un-occluded radar range should be increased 5 fold at least. It's absurd that radar (whether it's actually radar or called radar) should literally cut off it's detection ability at 5k.
I'm still not sure on the radar distance thing, and will approach that again when I get to it.
Dynamic shadowing is not yet possible in the engine. We don't have shadows, as it is, we just have.. one side of the object being illuminated more than the other. Dynamic lighting is possible (despite what Rogue wrote in our wikipedia article), but there are technical upward limits for the number of lights per scene in OpenGL (it's like 15 or something, and can have other hardware dependencies). Right now we generally only use two lights, but it's possible for us to attach another one to wormhole things. Of course, big convoys jumping could still run the scene out of lights, it might not be a good idea.. not sure.
To do more dynamic lights, there are some cool techniques we would like to do, that give both more interactive lights and also more of an HDR-look to lighting. Shadowing will require implementing.. shadows. Both are not a high priority, as I've promised we'll be focusing on gameplay until quite a bit of "Stuff" is fixed.
Post-universe-redux, dense asteroid sectors would look totally awesome with shadows. Or dynamic lights attached to missiles or lasers being fired through them.
Dynamic shadowing is not yet possible in the engine. We don't have shadows, as it is, we just have.. one side of the object being illuminated more than the other. Dynamic lighting is possible (despite what Rogue wrote in our wikipedia article), but there are technical upward limits for the number of lights per scene in OpenGL (it's like 15 or something, and can have other hardware dependencies). Right now we generally only use two lights, but it's possible for us to attach another one to wormhole things. Of course, big convoys jumping could still run the scene out of lights, it might not be a good idea.. not sure.
To do more dynamic lights, there are some cool techniques we would like to do, that give both more interactive lights and also more of an HDR-look to lighting. Shadowing will require implementing.. shadows. Both are not a high priority, as I've promised we'll be focusing on gameplay until quite a bit of "Stuff" is fixed.
Post-universe-redux, dense asteroid sectors would look totally awesome with shadows. Or dynamic lights attached to missiles or lasers being fired through them.
Very cool info, and I stand corrected on shadows vs lighting.
Regarding maxing out the lighting sources... I wouldn't object to clusters of multiple "close" (definition up to interpretation) wormhole things acting as one light source. The point of having the wormhole things act as light sources is to promote visual scouting, which would be just as possible if one light source (albeit a longer lasting one) were used for an entire convoy.
Also... I completely agree on the shadows. I'm gonna have to buy the two-year sub to make sure I'm around for this stuff :).
Regarding maxing out the lighting sources... I wouldn't object to clusters of multiple "close" (definition up to interpretation) wormhole things acting as one light source. The point of having the wormhole things act as light sources is to promote visual scouting, which would be just as possible if one light source (albeit a longer lasting one) were used for an entire convoy.
Also... I completely agree on the shadows. I'm gonna have to buy the two-year sub to make sure I'm around for this stuff :).
incarnate, would it be possible to circumvent the light source limit by assigning them dynamically? I.e., only some of the ships jumping in actually get to shed light, but enough to make it seem like it is done by more than them?
It might be horribly complicated, though...
It might be horribly complicated, though...
Yes, lots of things are possible. It's common to pick the "X nearest lights", but you can also do stuff like creating proto-lights that represent "conglomerations" of lights to reduce the number of total sources but keep the appearance of something dynamic. Lots of pros and cons, especially when the lights are moving around at fairly high speed (not an issue with wormholes, but a big one with missiles, ships, lasers). The best systems allow you to cook many lights into a single representation per object, but I can't remember the algorithm names off the top of my head, it's really Ray's field.
Whenever we get to do it, though, we'd really like to go about it the "right" way (which we try to do with everything, albeit with varying levels of success). There are still even a couple of options for the "right" way, but they'll all require some significant time dedication (a few weeks, maybe more if something goes awry) that we really can't spend on eye candy right now.
There are methods, particularly using shaders, that make a lot of things like lights and shadows far more efficient (if the required hardware is present). Imagine, if you will, a firefight in a dense asteroid field with shots both illuminating the asteroids as they move, but also shifting shadows as the lightsources fly by. That's the sort of thing I want to see. However, I won't make it any sort of "gameplay requirement" (the way Fog is) so that lesser machines without the requisite shader hardware will still be able to play, and just not see all the Awesome.
Whenever we get to do it, though, we'd really like to go about it the "right" way (which we try to do with everything, albeit with varying levels of success). There are still even a couple of options for the "right" way, but they'll all require some significant time dedication (a few weeks, maybe more if something goes awry) that we really can't spend on eye candy right now.
There are methods, particularly using shaders, that make a lot of things like lights and shadows far more efficient (if the required hardware is present). Imagine, if you will, a firefight in a dense asteroid field with shots both illuminating the asteroids as they move, but also shifting shadows as the lightsources fly by. That's the sort of thing I want to see. However, I won't make it any sort of "gameplay requirement" (the way Fog is) so that lesser machines without the requisite shader hardware will still be able to play, and just not see all the Awesome.