Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: [1] 2 3

Author Topic: Better venting effect graphics  (Read 3655 times)

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Better venting effect graphics
« on: October 28, 2020, 08:48:47 AM »

I feel kind of bad asking for a graphics update when there's so much content being worked on - it's just that the venting effect really stands out to me. It seems like a very low res texture. Granted, it's less obvious when animated. But especially during venting it's often a good idea to pause the game to survey the tactical situation, and then this effect appears less than optimal. So, yeah, an update to bring it to the graphical standard of the rest of the game would be appreciated. Maybe as a graphic options toggle to not tax older systems unnecessarily.

Spoiler
[close]



I also found this really old quote, which I find amusing:)  (Or have shields ever looked different from what they look like now? I don't remember them ever being changed...)

It would be nice to have some feedback, like if a kinetic weapon hits the shield, display some kind of shield dispersion effect, just a small one...so you know that something realy bad for your shields hit it.

Funny thing - we already have some shield animation graphics for just this purpose. Just haven't had time to add those in :) Btw, the "shield hit" sound is different for kinetic damage vs everything else, though it's easy to miss in the heat of battle.
Shields have been on my list of "graphics to improve" for a while now. I wouldn't say they're *bad*, but we've got some ideas.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2020, 09:15:51 AM by Gothars »
Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Schwartz

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1452
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2020, 09:01:13 AM »

Yeah, I have to agree that venting looks off. On smaller ships it's sort-of alright, but on bigger ones as the screenshot shows.. I wouldn't think this was supposed to be a heat venting effect. Looks more like a magical levelup aura or whatever. ;)

Ideally, I think dense white steam coming at high pressure out of a few valves on a ship (not a whole 360° aura) would look good. Make the steam slightly more yellowish or orange or other colors if the flux level of the ship was higher at the point of venting.

This would require that each ship model be given a handful of points where exhaust could come out. Or, and this would be the easy mode and less visually interesting solution, have the exhaust come out of the engines as these points are already defined.
Logged

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2020, 09:24:18 AM »

It would make sense to have so kind of steam (I actually like the purple color) come out of the weapon mounts, where most flux is generated. To have it come out of the engine might be misleading, because they are the only thing that still works normally during venting.

A disadvantage of having it come out of certain points is that it's less easy to read at a glance if you are not familiar with the ship at hand. A compromise might be to have a ring of flux-steam come of the entire ship only for the first second, and then continue the venting through openings.

But honestly, I would be happy with the effect staying more or less like it is, just with sprites that are higher resolution and have smoother transitions between them. At the moment you can clearly count the 12 individual sprites.
Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Schwartz

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1452
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2020, 09:26:34 AM »

Yeah, that's an idea. Have every weapon turret and hardpoint vent steam at -30° and +30° relative to the current point of aim. Something like that. Would probably end up being very visually busy, though. Or have each gun vent in succession.

It actually looking like high pressure steam would be a big step, no matter where it comes out of.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2020, 09:28:34 AM by Schwartz »
Logged

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2020, 09:39:10 AM »

I'd suggest just having it vent away from the center of the ship. Might still be too busy though, right.

 Then there are ships with have no or very few weapon mounts. On those it might be impossible to hard to tell if they are venting, if only the mounts do so. Maybe the initial all-hull steam ring could go on at a low level for the entire vent procedure, to help those ships vent more visible. As a side effect weapon laden combat ships would vent far more impressively than civilian ships, which is a nice detail.


It could be even more fancy and correlate the size of the weapon mount vent plumes with flux dissipation rate during venting.
Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Gwyvern

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 318
  • I build ships.
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2020, 03:48:01 PM »

Using those new cloud effects Alex was working on might be fun here, puffing out a big cloud of 'flux' like those big steam engines used to do, even if it doesn't make sense.

Don't really know what sort of performance impact that might have but yeah, the current flux effects are ugly.
Logged

Avanitia

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 123
  • Local Egg Demon
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2020, 04:23:13 PM »

I do agree - having higher resolution texture for venting effect would be nice.
Logged
You haven't played Starsector unless your storage has one thousand Vulcans in it.

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2020, 07:02:19 PM »

... I may have something to share tomorrow :)
Logged

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2020, 07:10:26 PM »

 :D
Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2020, 10:48:43 AM »

Here we go!

https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1321869905180925952

And here's a screenshot (the twitter link has an animated gif):



Click image to see it fullsize.

(Edit: oh, regarding shields: I'd messed with them some here and there, but there was never anything promising.)
« Last Edit: October 29, 2020, 10:59:53 AM by Alex »
Logged

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2020, 11:07:07 AM »

That looks great and you are great ;D Thanks for listening!
Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2020, 11:13:42 AM »

Thank you for bringing this up! I've never liked how it looked in stills (for obvious reasons) but the hideous shot you posted in the OP was just impossible to ignore :)
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2020, 11:38:24 AM »

The old, current one looks like a purple flower.  The new one is... Purple Haze.
Logged

Dri

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1403
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2020, 11:45:16 AM »

Purple rain, purple rain...

I dunno, I feel there should be at least some other color than pure purple to give it some slight contrast.
Logged

Schwartz

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1452
    • View Profile
Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2020, 12:21:38 PM »

Looks better and more gaseous for sure.
I don't know what twitter is on about there, about it having to stand out even more than it already does? We're paying attention to little red pixels for torpedos and the color of incoming ballistic shots. Even half of the new effect would be a big fat sign that says "I'm venting".
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3