NanoFX 1.7 Preview

[MajorD]

Very nice, needs work, but where it's going is obvious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kkh7c96RVE&feature=youtube_gdata

The good things:

Engine looks pretty in general.
Control over warp and impulse looks smooth and heading the right way.
The warp rainbows actually look right. I don't think I've seen that before.

The problems I notice are:

Camera transition flashing--it's messing with my brain.
Warp rainbows get too close the center of the warp tube roughly every five seconds.
The camera not following the ship into warp smoothly.

The stationary follow camera needs some more variation, it actually gets repetitive extremely fast. One solution may be to mix up the fixed follow with other view modes. Other games do that, and it's not perfect, because it's a basic cycle with no visual dialog.  Thematically related camera positions could get over this; something like stationary follow, locking into fixed follow at an angle after a pass, then switching to off center nose on view fixed on targeted object, back to friendly fleet/player in wide angled position fixed, to wide angle enemy side position fixed.

It can go further, with switching to internal views when taking hits, framing weapon hits externally, and framing weapons fire, both enemy and friendly.  I guess that's a procedural director mode.

One thing, that might be simpler, and which would be very nice would be able to slide the camera around within certain fixed views.  For instance, the forward view from aft, it can be nice to have the camera higher than center, but possibly not always.  Going a bit further, what if the camera automatically slides in the Y plane in the direction of the target. That way the ship is always a bit off to the side opposite the target, which opens the screen up more on the target, while still staying in the otherwise fixed forward view?  The over all goal is for when zoomed in close so the ship doesn't divide the screen, while still seeing as much of the ship as possible.

[Michael]

The problems I notice are:

Camera transition flashing--it's messing with my brain.
Warp rainbows get too close the center of the warp tube roughly every five seconds.
The camera not following the ship into warp smoothly.

Thanks for the post and comments MajorD... as you know this is just for Render Testing as it's the NanoFX Viewer... we have bigger fish to fry in the Evolved Engine... namely getting the renderer up to 1.7.

The transition flashing was merely brainwashing stuff so you will forever love our work... mwhahahah
But I fixed that for the most part.

All the camera stuff will be worked out in Evolved.  NanoFX Viewer is just basic... and it will be the final release so I can focus strictly on Evolved and Excalibur.

Thanks for watching and hopefully it tides you over until I release it!

[Kaempfer]

Other than a few (very) minor things, the new warp effect looks great. I can't wait to try the new viewer once it's finished.

[Poseidon]

Great Job Mike!!!!

Looks fantastic! 

I noticed there are not too many updates now because I believe that the team is now focusing on the code.  Looks great thus far! 

Patients is a virtue.  I hope things move along smoothly.  Hope to be playing this baby in a year or to.  Keep up the great work guys.

[Zero]

It really is amazing progress! Very close to getting fully functional at this rate. And the sound was perfect. Also... love the glows on the starbase ;3 (didn't think I'd notice that, eh?).

Only thing that's actually standing out to me is the differed lighting glow from the nacelles is actually becoming rather overpowering now on the engineering section, where in the show it's much more subtle; kinda knocked me out of the moment of marveling at the realism. I bet a luminosity setting along side the diameter setting for the lighting bubble would fix that right up. Still, having that extra lighting effect is FANTASTIC; especially the red buzzard glow on the underside of the haul, that's bloody perfect.

Anyways, just stunning guys. hopefully it's getting easier to work with now that it's all coming together like this. Can't wait to see more!

[Zer]

ONE request from me for the viewer...

Volumetric lighting effects.

PWEAAAASE!

[Roar54]

It really is amazing progress! Very close to getting fully functional at this rate. And the sound was perfect. Also... love the glows on the starbase ;3 (didn't think I'd notice that, eh?).

Only thing that's actually standing out to me is the differed lighting glow from the nacelles is actually becoming rather overpowering now on the engineering section, where in the show it's much more subtle; kinda knocked me out of the moment of marveling at the realism. I bet a luminosity setting along side the diameter setting for the lighting bubble would fix that right up. Still, having that extra lighting effect is FANTASTIC; especially the red buzzard glow on the underside of the haul, that's bloody perfect.

Anyways, just stunning guys. hopefully it's getting easier to work with now that it's all coming together like this. Can't wait to see more!

I have to agree with Zero. Absolutely brilliant. Mind boggling. But, as he said, the warp nacelles glow was quite strong, not unbearable, but isn't it a little less strong on the real D? I've got no idea how you could change that , (I think the above quote had a solution in) but other than that, brilliant! And I won't be accidentally shaving off half of my ship  when I enter a star base anymore! The bay door is massive, and 3D! Finally. Realism! It's not just an area which is cut out of the star base.

Oh, and was that warp 1? It seemed pretty slow for faster than light travel... But it gives me more time to walk around the bridge if that's in system warp travel! "Oi you! What are you doing *fiddling* with the inertial dampener control?"   

[MR_7]

Heres my favorite bits in this preview:

The sounds from the ship as it passes,
The way the ship drops out of warp,
The sheer sence of speed that the space dust gives.

 and ..well everything else aswell its all pretty much spot on. How much more ( abit or lots ) is to be implemented in future releases?

Nice planets by the way

.........Oh one thing that needs fixing ever since the first ever release. When you stop the ship and it just reverses very slowly instead of a complete stop.

[Michael]

Ya ya I finally fixed that too

You mean it wasn't cool that your ship drifts slowly in space?

[Photorp Tech]

Looks great! Well done. The only thing I would have liked to see more is the ship dropping out of warp (from the star base's point of view). I don't know if its done yet or not but couldn't really see it to judge it
Otherwise everything else looked great, other than the slow warp travel.

[MajorD]

On that note, the one thing I was disappointed with was how the ship didn't go to warp while the camera was facing the planet, and how the ship dropped from warp so far away from the station. There's this scene in the first Star Trek New Voyages trailer where, well you can see it yourself.  It gives me shivers every time I see it, at 0:52.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5pacJ75BXI#t=0m40s

The camera is caught by the ship as it passes at warp.  The reverse is very much like that, but with the ship stopping very close to the planet so it just about fills the screen.

[Michael]

Serious MajorD?

lol that's the first time I've ever seen that type of go to warp effect from Trek... it's not even a cannon effect.  It's kinda cool... you can mod it in when you get the game... how about that?

[Anew7]

Awww no weapon updates yet?! I cant wait to hear and see those torpedoes!

[MajorD]

Serious MajorD?

lol that's the first time I've ever seen that type of go to warp effect from Trek... it's not even a cannon effect.  It's kinda cool... you can mod it in when you get the game... how about that?

It's not an effect, it's just the camera looking in the right direction. The only canon effect for entering warp is the light streaks in the movies or the purple vortex like thing seen in a couple episodes of TNG. I don't think we've ever seen anything for leaving warp except the star streaks settling down. That fact that we're probably seeing stars means we should see planets while at warp, so the zoom effect should happen if you start or stop close enough to an object, since that's what happens if you move to or away from an object fast enough.

Catching the camera is something else entirely, and I really think it should be in the game.

[AdmiralKathrynJaneway]

I think the viewer is coming along excellently! I actually LOVE the warp effects shown for 1.7, it captures the feel of Voyager's effects almost perfectly. Great work guys and have a beer on me

[Mark]

Catching the camera is something else entirely, and I really think it should be in the game.

I like the idea in that context, but it doesn't really fit into what we're going to be doing.

[newhalo123]

So, is this going to be a st. pat's day or Easter gift(if it's Easter, that is WAAAAY too long )? Cuz i want it BADLY!!!!!!

[MajorD]

I like the idea in that context, but it doesn't really fit into what we're going to be doing.

I thought this game was about fancy camera tricks. I'm worried now, does this mean we won't be getting star wipes?

[smoki]

When you say "wipes" (star wipes) you mean something like this?

[MajorD]

Yep.   I would also accept the Super Friends star cut.