Matrix Games Forums

Edit : Adding new stuff in as I think of it


Well, once again milo has proven he bends to the community, spec maps was not even slated for starshatter, he was thinking of it for starshatter 2

Milo is so the man.

So, milo, here is the list of things I've made up over the last month or so of things I though of that could be added or fixed, kind of a lot, but hey, some of it might be good lol.

Missions

Ability to add pictures to messages

Play certain music on certain events(ie certain track when a ship blows up)

Ability to include an entire wing as an event, ie event is only true if the whole wing is destroyed

Enhanced mission editor to prevent dropping out to edit the txt files


Functions

Real manual firing, think freelancer, you could go into an external view, scroll around, and where ever you pointed the mouse any weapons in that arc would fire.. thats what starshatter needs for manual firing. That way, even if you cant lock on you can still point the guns in that direction and fire(and I need it for the minbari lol)

Ability to turn off collision detection for objects,in fact the abilty to turn them totaly off for the ai, this will enable some funky nebulas and other things.

Ability to override milos defaut ships and galaxy(sorry milo lol)<- not a priority until everything else becomes common(dynamic camps.. interface changes.. ect)

Limited access to the dat(or just examples so we can build from there), specifically anything to do with awards, explosions, hud/interface, and dynamic campaigns, even if it means learning everything on our own.

Skin support

Ability to add gravity to objects.. So they will pull you towards them

Ability to add light objects that will changed the background light based on seconds and/or distance to them(ie hyperspace flashing)

Ability to add more then one star to a starsystem


Graphics
Done Spec Map Support(way to go milo!)

Bump Map Support(Should be noted that unless this can be combined with spec and lum maps its usless except for planets... perhaps making specs and lums worth together would be much more important)

Animated Texture Support

Surface scarring, for example, when a ship gets hit.. A black scar appears there.. And stays for a time we specify, same with fire.

Dynamic planet mesh changes, so there are no blocky spheres up close

Addition of spec and bump maps to the planets

Flair effects on the atmosphere to create a planet look


Here is more about planets.. I think this screen says its all, its from the freespace2 b5 project


From what I can tell of the pic the planet is made up of a basic diffuse map(sstarshatter supports)
The ocean effect is a specular map(ss supports just not for planets yet, that I know of)

After staring at the coulds for a long time I have to think they are actually bump maps under diffuse maps.. I think the same for the land areas also, it makes sence I do that in max.

As for the "flair" around the atmosphere, I dunno how that is done, I know -how- to do it in max, but not what effect its called.

Finally, this points out the problem ss has with close planets, I dont know why but if you get even resonbly close the textures get all blurred up, you can see the polygons making up the spheres.. it just does not look good...

I will try to find more about how this was done

Later!

I found some info out

That planet is actually a render made in max, and put on a skybox(like the nebula backgrounds)

I suppose I could do that in ss to..... but it would remove a lot of things ss does... like different times of day and planet rotations and stuff....... I prefer to stay with what we have, and let milo do his thing lol

Helps that NASA was there to provide the texture.[;)] Try looking up threads by Omniscaper, he was the first to explore 3D planets.

if we're in the wishlist mood then

- Environment Mapping

The Dynamic Campaign could use some expansion, perhaps an RPG like personel system or the inclusion of supply. Enemy Engaged is solid model for a simple yet engaging DC.

ya, I hear that on the campaign, but.. man.. I cant see it being easy.. dynamic campaigns of any size I imagine would be very hard to program...

something like falcon4 would be best in my opinion, however I think milo would go mad before getting it done lol

Enviro mapping sounds interesting, have to admit.. i"M not up on all this enviro dirt and detail mapping, ive only used mapps that directly relate to games(bump, spec, diffuse, lum, some displacment)

Another feature.

Ray traced shadows.. or stencil shadows... real time ether way.. that would be REALLY nice, I can imagine that wont be easy to implement tho...

This one is important for what I"m doing

A Fleet movment option, so when you build a mission, and place your ships in the screen)say 5 ships each a different ship.. not 5 ships in one group), you can select them all, assign them to all one fleet, and that fleet will move in that EXACT formation at the speed of the slowest ship and -will not- under any conditions break formation, it will follow a waypoint setup around the map firing at anythign in range.

very important for setting up cool looking fleet battles... and it can be used to force some things like having a minbari ship jump out of a jumpgate and run over a cargo ship in its way ect

Environmental mapping would require some texture work on your side (not to mention Milo's effort), and in the the more temperate systems the effect would be far more subtle. However with a red or blue light source it becomes quite impressive. Using the final missions of Starshatter as example, your ships would take on the charred glow of the system backdrop.

In general though, each feature requires an extra texture map. You really have to pick and choose. The addition of Lum and Bump mapping would be more rewarding and gets my vote from the sideline.[;)]

Try the following link for a Stencil shadow display, again its the open source Freespace on display.

nice.. I think I know what you are talking bout, I looked into eviro a few years ago.... that would give a cool look

does not il-2 use stencil maps for its shadows?

Bumps are nice... very nice.. from a b5 point of view thow unless I -really- threw out stock textures(I am doing that anyways lol) they would be only used on planets..

BUmps also take alot of work so you avoid that crap crap they did for x2... what were theyt hinking lol

I"ll do some reading tho... "bone" up on them so if they ever get added I know what i"m doing(sort of lol)

X2 was remarkably in that respect, the most unnattractive buzzword title.

oh, are you planning to have 3D cockpits in your Dilgar War release?

Holy shoot! Starshatter may just be the best thing yet except for crappy looking planets it does not cease to amaze me. Except for stencil shadows and environment mapping the graphics have all but tied FSOpens. Plus it has newtonian physics [:D].

EDIT: Omniscaper had some fairly nice 3d planets using spec maps + ultra high resolution maps but he could not find a good way to simulate the glow. He had tried using a giant glowpoint but the perspective differs from that of normal model rendering which caused some ugly distortion.

interesting


I have not explored 3d pits yet, in fact I dont even know how to make them and what is supported

but if they are just cages without functions then no, if they have tie ins.. likle you can use dials and displays to display game info like speed and such then hell ya I would

Got some piccies of Omniscapers 3d earth model. He is planning a Version 2 release presumeably with better texes/planetary glow.




That the effect you want in SS?

You can find these pictures plus download links in the TBP forum under the thread titled "Democles X."

ORIGINAL: DamoclesX

interesting


I have not explored 3d pits yet, in fact I dont even know how to make them and what is supported

but if they are just cages without functions then no, if they have tie ins.. likle you can use dials and displays to display game info like speed and such then hell ya I would

It would be useful at least to model some exterior bits, wings struts, to help orient the player while panning the view. Visual ques to keep the player oriented. I like the idea of a full cockpit but I'm not sure how much function they would serve.