Author Topic: Someone figured out how to add glows in BC (video included) (Read 1276 times)

Anew7 · « **on:** March 31, 2011, 11:52:13 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEPRwkgNVlA

Wow.

Black Patriot · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2011, 01:33:52 PM »

Pretty impressive, though there wasn't anything on there about how he did it, sounds like it's some sort of glowing decal or texture (but separate from the alpha channel glows), since I don't think the bridge commander engine could really handle more than 2-3 lights at once without crapping itself.

Photorp Tech · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2011, 02:25:57 PM »

Oh no! Quick hide this video. This spells the end for Excalibur

Michael · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2011, 02:40:16 PM »

Well I suppose he could have used torpedoes or something attached to the model... but I'm not so sure the light had enough flexibility to be as refined in the video as it was.

If he is using that method, I'm pretty sure he'd be limited to 8 active lights.

The video didn't show when the lights are off, so it's impossible to tell if it was just simply baked into the diffuse texture either as another method. The last method I can think of is the same model attached to the ship with a different texture set (just the glow bits as the diffuse) and using transparency to blend it on top of the Model but if I remember right, BC and transparency is a B*tch.

All these methods are possible ways I would try... but he may have stumbled on something you can do with NIF models... in the video there was text... "NIMULTITEXTURE IN NIFSKOPE" my first run of the video I thought that was german or something lol... but now I'm thinking it was some way to add an additional texture to the NIF model to have it blend both together.... not sure what that means when you turn off glows. But if it works that's pretty NIFty (yes pun intended

)

I guess with that we can go back to using BC's Engine! lol.

Mark · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2011, 02:44:05 PM »

Quote from: Michael on March 31, 2011, 02:40:16 PM

in the video there was text... "NIMULTITEXTURE IN NIFSKOPE" my first run of the video I thought that was german or something lol... but now I'm thinking it was some way to add an additional texture to the NIF model to have it blend both together.... not sure what that means when you turn off glows. But if it works that's pretty NIFty (yes pun intended )

Yeah that'd be my guess... you can use something similar on bridges for a kind of "diffuse-blended" detail map too

MR_7 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2011, 03:50:27 PM »

I was gonna post that at somepointm but for a different reason.

Is there any chance of that kind of glow for people like me where defered lighting doesn't work

.... avoiding the answer "upgrade you pc"

Mark · « **Reply #6 on:** March 31, 2011, 04:53:51 PM »

Well, it's an artist heavy solution which would REALLY bulk out the download size, use quite a lot of extra system resources and would be totally incompatible with the hard-point system meaning you couldn't control individual lights.

It's a cool hack for a nine-year-old engine like NetImmersive, but it's not something you would want to implement on a state of the art engine like Evolved.

John · « **Reply #7 on:** March 31, 2011, 05:17:34 PM »

Very cool indeed, nice one cord!

My vote is for some extra faces placed just on top or just underneath of the glowing areas which is textured to glow and if necessary set to invisible.

Jonny · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2011, 06:01:17 PM »

Quote from: Black Patriot on March 31, 2011, 01:33:52 PM

Pretty impressive, though there wasn't anything on there about how he did it, sounds like it's some sort of glowing decal or texture (but separate from the alpha channel glows), since I don't think the bridge commander engine could really handle more than 2-3 lights at once without crapping itself.

If you go one BCC, there are two tutorials, one by me and another detailed version by cord, on how to apply it to ships.

~Jb

John · « **Reply #9 on:** March 31, 2011, 07:22:59 PM »

Oh, very nice! I had no idea BC could do that

Michael · « **Reply #10 on:** March 31, 2011, 09:23:49 PM »

Quote from: MR_7 on March 31, 2011, 03:50:27 PM

I was gonna post that at somepointm but for a different reason.

Is there any chance of that kind of glow for people like me where defered lighting doesn't work .... avoiding the answer "upgrade you pc"

Well essentially that's what our _illum.dds maps are doing. Which is fine for smaller lighting like the Impulse engines on the Defiant. But if the glow crosses a window or another glow area... you can't turn off that individual light. That is why we are mainly using deferred lighting for self illumination.

So for you... you could add glows of this type to your _illum maps MR_7 and have it essentially look almost the same as using deferred lights on the ship. The downside is you do not get Specular Highlights on these lights like you would with a deferred light.

MR_7 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 01, 2011, 02:52:34 AM »

Quote from: Michael on March 31, 2011, 09:23:49 PM

Well essentially that's what our _illum.dds maps are doing. Which is fine for smaller lighting like the Impulse engines on the Defiant. But if the glow crosses a window or another glow area... you can't turn off that individual light. That is why we are mainly using deferred lighting for self illumination.

So for you... you could add glows of this type to your _illum maps MR_7 and have it essentially look almost the same as using deferred lights on the ship. The downside is you do not get Specular Highlights on these lights like you would with a deferred light.

you couldn't just let me be lazy could you lol.... works quite well actually, just a pain to do on that galaxy class. Registry is impossible as it appears somewhere else. Now i just need a way to fake AA

Michael · « **Reply #12 on:** April 01, 2011, 03:50:03 AM »

See I knew you could do it! Looks good... guess we don't have to switch back to BC's Game Engine afterall!

But you still need to upgrade

Anew7 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 01, 2011, 06:55:01 AM »

Quote from: Jb06 on March 31, 2011, 06:01:17 PM

If you go one BCC, there are two tutorials, one by me and another detailed version by cord, on how to apply it to ships.

~Jb

BTW JL, I LOVE all your work man! I'm also really looking forward to your delta quadrant pack!

You are definitely of the elite modders for the bc community, great work man!

Poseidon · « **Reply #14 on:** April 01, 2011, 07:09:14 AM »

Quote from: Michael on April 01, 2011, 03:50:03 AM

See I knew you could do it! Looks good... guess we don't have to switch back to BC's Game Engine afterall!

But you still need to upgrade

Upgrading will be something that may be a requirement for less computive GFX cards. I am saying that your rig will most problebly be good enough, but to get the lighting effects you guys are talking about, you would need to upgrade the GFX card. Since DX10 cards (older ones) are rather quite cheap now, this would be a good idea. Besides, the latest DX11 6xxx series has a new AA/AF and GFX enhancements that all previous cards do not have, like "geometric enhance" and crap like that. Make everything look pretty smooth. Even older games. So, when this gets near completion, I am sure most of the community will be up and ready for it.

Michael · « **Reply #15 on:** April 01, 2011, 10:39:44 AM »

Well just as a heads up, we are most likely dropping Pixel Shader 2.0 support for the Evolved Engine. For initial Release it will not support it. The idea is we want to move forward to newer stuff.

So I'm sorry to all this will affect in the future, but the majority of PC's out there have at least 3.0 support so that will be the bare minimum now.

Poseidon · « **Reply #16 on:** April 01, 2011, 02:01:23 PM »

Quote from: Michael on April 01, 2011, 10:39:44 AM

Well just as a heads up, we are most likely dropping Pixel Shader 2.0 support for the Evolved Engine. For initial Release it will not support it. The idea is we want to move forward to newer stuff.

So I'm sorry to all this will affect in the future, but the majority of PC's out there have at least 3.0 support so that will be the bare minimum now.

I agree that most fans will have better rigs than they have now. People need to also understand that this project will be of the most highest quality in design and function. In other words, there is soo much more you can do with shader 3.0, than with 2.0 And, if STE is going to be shader scalable, 4.0 and the new 5.0 will be better than 3.0 IQ (image quality) will increase to new "realism" with the shaders and tessalation effects during things like explosions and specular lighting, ect. We would like to keep a broad based group of PC configurations, but the IQ of this game will be such that it will border what we have seen on TV and the Movies. That kind of platform will require some to upgrade there rigs. But, the benefits will far out way the costs IMO.

Daedalus · « **Reply #17 on:** April 11, 2011, 05:30:26 AM »

Excellent mind-set, now just put the bleeding horse that is XP out of it's misery and drop DX9 support!

Black Patriot · « **Reply #18 on:** April 11, 2011, 06:41:48 AM »

Quote from: Daedalus on April 11, 2011, 05:30:26 AM

Excellent mind-set, now just put the bleeding horse that is XP out of it's misery and drop DX9 support!

Whilst that's a good though, and exactly what DICE is doing with Battlefield 3, it does leave quite a few people in the dust. It's fine for you and me to say "drop DX9 support", since we have DX11 cards, but a lot of people out there don't really want to upgrade. Personally I'd also argue for DX11, if only because by the time this game is released DX11 hardware should be exceptionally cheap (which in some cases it already is), and we'll probably have DX12 as well, but if the devs want backwards compatibility with XP then that's their choice.

Maxi · « **Reply #19 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:11:04 AM »

Quote from: Black Patriot on April 11, 2011, 06:41:48 AM

Whilst that's a good though, and exactly what DICE is doing with Battlefield 3, it does leave quite a few people in the dust. It's fine for you and me to say "drop DX9 support", since we have DX11 cards, but a lot of people out there don't really want to upgrade. Personally I'd also argue for DX11, if only because by the time this game is released DX11 hardware should be exceptionally cheap (which in some cases it already is), and we'll probably have DX12 as well, but if the devs want backwards compatibility with XP then that's their choice.

I red somewhere they plan to be upgradable...anyway as open code can be modded.