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

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Author Topic: Better venting effect graphics  (Read 3659 times)

Goumindong

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Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #30 on: October 29, 2020, 04:21:05 PM »

The new vent animation literally looks 100x better! But... I think there is one more thing that could be done to really make the most of it :)

Make the start of the vent sequence more energetic, like a pressured release followed by the steady flow. So right at the onset have a denser wave of particles (that also maybe moves a bit faster).
Completely agree here. Something that sells the "violent, dam breaking nature" of the vent, especially at high flux, would help make it even better

It’s more thick at high flux and tapers off as flux is removed.
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FooF

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Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #31 on: October 29, 2020, 06:47:37 PM »

That looks really good! It's amazing how a small change like that can add so much. The idea of a "pressure wave" that's just a millisecond long and travels out at a much higher velocity, followed by the existing animation would be kind of cool but it I wouldn't shed any tears if it didn't happen.
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #32 on: October 29, 2020, 07:02:41 PM »

If you want a more energetic start, consider having the first particle white and fade to the standard purple over 5-10 frames.
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Alex

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Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #33 on: October 29, 2020, 07:20:25 PM »

For me it's not the lack of turn following, but that ship forward movement has no effect on it. If a moving and venting ship would leave a little bit of a flux trail (like engines do) that would sell it perfectly.

Ah, I've tried something along those lines; maybe it's possible but the things I tried didn't click.


Make the start of the vent sequence more energetic, like a pressured release followed by the steady flow. So right at the onset have a denser wave of particles (that also maybe moves a bit faster).
Completely agree here. Something that sells the "violent, dam breaking nature" of the vent, especially at high flux, would help make it even better
If you want a more energetic start, consider having the first particle white and fade to the standard purple over 5-10 frames.

It's actually quite tricky to make something like this feel like a pressure release. Basically, if it's not an explosion - i.e. it starts with a set of already-faded-in particles - then it has to fade in more gradually, and that makes it tough to make the start feel very forceful. And the sound effect for the vent I think actually makes it make more sense as a gradual-but-quick buildup, not a "pressure/dam-breaking" sort of thing.

That looks really good! It's amazing how a small change like that can add so much. The idea of a "pressure wave" that's just a millisecond long and travels out at a much higher velocity, followed by the existing animation would be kind of cool but it I wouldn't shed any tears if it didn't happen.

Yeah, something like that *could* work, but - having recently made an effect of that nature for something campaign-related - it's tough to make the visual look good. Plus, again, the sound effect wouldn't match; I'm going for "just" replacing the visuals, not doing a lot of collateral damage that requires additional work :)

It’s more thick at high flux and tapers off as flux is removed.

Yep!


I think I worked out what looks weird when the ship is rotating. The venting gas is being released from the edge of the ship, so when the ship is rotating, the gas should have some extra velocity due to the fact that the point it's being released from is moving relative to the center of mass of the ship. It looks like the gas just inherits the velocity of the center of mass of the ship. I could be wrong about how the gas velocity is being calculated, and it also could be a lot of trouble to adjust that.

Ahh, that's a very good point! (Of note, semi-related: factoring in angular velocity/angular momentum etc was key to making the collision system feel good.)

Gave this a try, and I think there's something good here; will post more tomorrow. It only really matters for small/fast turning ships - you can barely see it on a Medusa, for example, though you *do* see the venting gases reacting to the movement - which I think is what really matters, even if you can't always pick out the exact nature of the reaction. On capitals, it doesn't matter either way, since they don't generally turn fast enough.
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Alex

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Re: Better venting effect graphics
« Reply #34 on: October 30, 2020, 12:12:57 PM »

With the angular velocity changes:
https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1322254788722085890

Only matters for frigates, really - can still see it a bit on the Medusa, but ships that turn any slower than that, it really doesn't show much. Which seems fine since those ships also don't have the problem of the effect not reacting to their movements, since they can't move fast enough for it to *be* a problem.
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