a few thoughts on visual quality (pictures inside)

[mathee]

hello fellow dreamers,i a calm minute i was playing around with taking some screenshots in pioneer and doing some post-process work on them. Here's want i want to share with you:1. Here's the original screenshot (HDR enabled, i think that was a great step tomm ):[attachment=414:nice.JPG]2. I did just 2 things here, changing the atmosphere so that there's no black sky during daylight and adding a kind of bloom effect on that sun. that's it. Now i was really surprised how much that really would add to the gaming atmosphere.[attachment=415:nice_post_process.jpg]what do you think guys?

[mathee]

Gudadantza wrote:
Looks fine. It is a pain I can not use Bloom effect or very high terrain details.
Don't get me wrong, that is not in-game. I just made some changes on that screenshot. However, that is how it should look like being on a planet, on my opinion. Hopefully this is not too difficult to implement so that we can enjoy something similar to this in the future... alpha 9 or so??

[mathee]

btw, this is a leaked secret screenshot from pioneer as it will look like in alpha 73 [attachment=416:mars.JPG]

[Stardreamer]

mathee wrote:
btw, this is a leaked secret screenshot from pioneer as it will look like in alpha 73

mars.JPG

Oh you swine! You absolutely had me going then! Mentally, I'd put a . inbetween the 7 and 3 = Alpha 7.3! I was all, like, "No WAY!" and really excited!

[mathee]

however, in order to get back to the topic, anyone an idea if something like i showed in post #1 is possible?

[Marcel]

I think it's certainly possible, but I'm only a rudimentary programmer. I agree that's what Pioneer should look like.

[s2odan]

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Now i was really surprised how much that really would add to the gaming atmosphere.
Me too.
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Oh you swine! You absolutely had me going then! Mentally, I'd put a . inbetween the 7 and 3 = Alpha 7.3! I was all, like, "No WAY!" and really excited!

[ollobrain]

bloom effects done right are quite effective

[Necalli]

Bloom is a good addition to any visuals, albeit in reasonable amounts. But for the Pioneer, I think right now those basic things like tweaks to planet athmospheres, fog color mismatching athmosphere color, realistic sun flares (like, for example, in Evochron Mercenary) and so on, are more important. The complete and proper color model itself would make the game look great without any more shader crutches (not to mention this alone means *a lot* of work).Not that I want to add to the 'idea hysteria' though. I think for now we should settle down a bit and wait for the next alpha. Just to release some pressure around here.

[sscadmin]

I really like that 2nd shot and btw there is a Pioneer gallery you can upload pics to as well and link them in.

[ollobrain]

idea generation and new angles can help down the track, idea hysteria can be a good way to motivate and bring out new ideas for those working on the game for the record love the bloom chnages makes it look quite bit more realistic

[s2odan]

I was going to buy that a while ago hen they had the promotion going, it was going pretty cheap but I cant remember the price. It looks really good.

[s2odan]

Do ships have a maximum speed imposed on them though?

[shenle]

Interesting, Miner Wars. Didn't know about it until I read this thread. I actually get a feeling more of Bioshock than IL-2 (old and dusty, rather than old but shining new - does that make sense?). Of course the fact that it's online-only gave it a couple of thumbs down in my book; and reading through their forum, I get the impression that MMO is really the goal of the company, with the single player mode being more of a stopgap/fundraiser until the MMO is ready.

[shenle]

There's a limit to the realism MW has. I went to a small asteroid, and cut it in 2 halves with the cannon. Then I started firing from inside at the halves, and also tried pushing them apart with my ship. They wouldn't move relative to each other. That destroyed my suspension of disbelief right there.

[s2odan]

Im sitting on the fence. I know its cheap.... I dunno though... To be honest I don't buy many games at all, I have enough already! The last game I got was Minecraft and I was disappointed with that, so I just gave my little brother my account for Christmas Again, I know it was only 10£ But its the principle. I can go and play Dwarf Fortress, which is a far far larger and more in-depth game than Minecraft, and its FREE.Again I have the same problems with Minerwars. I could go and play Vegastrike or Pioner for free, And I would probably prefer these games. What justifies Miner wars having my money over a Donation to say Tom, the Pioneer Lead-Dev or To Toady-One the Dwarf Fortress Dev?Now, on the other hand I understand that these guys have poured a lot of time and effort into their product and want to be paid for it. But so has litterally everyone else who has ever been involved in GPL projects, and we never got paid.I have just downloaded the demo, So everything I have just said may get thrown out of the window if I enjoy it

[shenle]

s2odan wrote:
But so has litterally everyone else who has ever been involved in GPL projects, and we never got paid.
Sometimes you do get paid... sorta. Just this week I donated a laptop to one of the VegaStrike developers. It's broken, true, but he said he can fix it. :)And before anyone asks, I don't have any laptops left to donate.

[s2odan]

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The free computer time I have is spent on oldies, remakes or indie projects...It has been a seamless invisible way step by step...
I think we are probably just getting old
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Actually I ve discovered that nowadays I use more free and open source games than commercial ones in a 99 percent 1 percent ratio optimistically speaking.
The last commercial game I got was Silent Hunter 5. I had it 2 days before I had to return it, which required all of my powers of persuasion just to get a refund, bear in mind that the game did not run in that time that I had it, I still dont know how the game plays It could even be really good for all I care.I broke a number one rule by getting that game, I didn't read about it before hand simply buying it on the success of the others, as I have thouroughly enjoyed the previous titles many years back.God, everytime I actually pay for a game instead of getting a free opensource one, I feel disappointed. I suppose its like you menioned Gudadantaz, We care nothing for graphics, gameplay is more important. But to most younger generation all they care about is graphics.

[s2odan]

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Actually I give graphics a lot of importance, telling the truth. Just the secret is in judging what a well done graphic is. A New fashion effect? or a selected effect in an artistic way?Aesthetically speaking, of course, I know some development tools and programming stuff versions like shaders etc are easier to program often.
Do you mean like a graphical style? EG, Fallout 1 and 2 although very dated and sprite based isometric games, they had a special style to the graphics which was very effectively portrayed. IMO they still have good graphics today because of the style, however in technical terms the graphics are very poor.

[s2odan]

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Who remakes good old sprite animations in game ports? nobody! something is lost in the way, for sure.
Normally yes, but I have seen one guy do some very good work on the NMA forum, I'll try and dig up a picture...By Ursa: By Jositz::lol: Thats a big gun for such a little fella. They are all new animations but they fit perfectly with the old style, which is very very hard to do.[url]http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55655[/url]