Engine FX V2

[Coolhand]

based on the laser effect, these were very easy to make... I'd like to try them out, but although the engine effect at the moment appears to be based on a mesh, i can't find it to replace it.

[robn]

Coolhand wrote:
based on the laser effect, these were very easy to make... I'd like to try them out, but although the engine effect at the moment appears to be based on a mesh, i can't find it to replace it.
They're not loaded from a mesh, but rather built up from GL primitives. GenerateThrusters() and RenderThruster() in LmrModel.cpp are the culprits.

[Coolhand]

So can that be changed to use an imported model?I have worked some more on it anyway, thought maybe red could represent military fuel... with a civvie drive and hydrogen as a fuel, perhaps performance would drop by 10% to represent less energetic fuel.

[robn]

Coolhand wrote:
So can that be changed to use an imported model?
Anything can be done if someone writes the code

[Geraldine]

Coolhand wrote:
thought maybe red could represent military fuel... with a civvie drive and hydrogen as a fuel, perhaps performance would drop by 10% to represent less energetic fuel.
Great idea Steve! But isn't a blue flame hotter than a red one? If your using a more energetic fuel wouldn't it burn hotter and give you a blue exhaust? Anyways those look a lot better than the ones at present

[s2odan]

Quote:
But isn't a blue flame hotter than a red one? If your using a more energetic fuel wouldn't it burn hotter and give you a blue exhaust?
Hey, thats why the exhausts are a purple-ish colour... its the colour that is emitted by the hottest stuff wrt a blackbody diagram.It goes something like this from hottest to coldest:Purple, Blue, White, Yellow, Orange, Red.So they should be purple/blue.... Red is just too cold, even modern rockets are either Orange, Yellow or Green (Flourine Gas).But I suppose they can always add in some 'hydrogen additive' to change the colour

[Brianetta]

If you're burning that hydrogen, you're not making the best use of it (and will have run out before breaking orbit). Ionise those hydrogen atoms, and accelerate them electrically for best specific impulse.

[Coolhand]

Well look guys, By making the cores of the effect a solid glowing white implies a lot of energy whatever the halo colour, Chemistry was one of my preferred subjects at school but we clearly aren't talking a normal chemical reaction and this is a thousand years in the future so who knows exactly what we're looking at - the energy levels certainly imply nuclear - whether fusion or annihilation or something more mysterious i do not care to speculate but its certainly not conventional chemical or electric propulsion alone. So the plumes are pure artistic license and i chose the colours based on association - hydrogen being the nice clean fuel source (maybe it could have been 'green' but who wants a green exhaust) and military fuel being nasty and evil, colour association - evil things have glowing red eyes, the bad guys in the starwars have the cool red blades. So the only reason its red is artificial, however you look at it. If you're looking for an explanation with a backstory - Military fuel is a synthetic fuel, a designer fuel, one which is despised much as our nuclear power is today. To meet interstellar regulations, military fuel must produce the distinctive red colour which is caused by tweaking the structure of the fuel elements. basically, its science fiction, they can be any colour you want them to be and if they're defined by a user editable mesh and texture, then they literally can be, and very easily too so lets not get hung up on colour choice... You dont like my idea, fine. the model and texture i've created here are tools for people to make their own effect, and whats important is that If you're making an engine effect (an important effect in a game like this) and if you want it look any good, its something you have to let an artist get at and start painting.

[Geraldine]

Coolhand wrote:
So the plumes are pure artistic license and i chose the colours based on association - hydrogen being the nice clean fuel source (maybe it could have been 'green' but who wants a green exhaust) and military fuel being nasty and evil, colour association - evil things have glowing red eyes, the bad guys in the starwars have the cool red blades. So the only reason its red is artificial, however you look at it.
I suppose if you put it like that Steve then yes. After all, you do get red and white diesel here in the UK. Maybe in the future, the law dictates they have to put an additive in the fuel to give it a distinctive colour when its used.

[Potsmoke66]

i'm crazy for the red white and blue....and green ...and orange....

[Coolhand]

thankyou for your support guys. here's another version, less primary kinda mixed up a bit more and resulting a little more pinky/purply, also reshaped the exhaust

[Marcel]

Now that's about right! One other thing I think it needs is a bit of animation. Not as jiggly as FE2, but a little something to keep it from looking static.

[Guest]

These last exhaust efects are into my wildest desires.Models?Textures?Alpha 11?

[ollobrain]

and then maybe a bit more before alpha 11. no the graphix changes look good - dont forget the HUD changes

[robn]

The laser & exhaust models will almost certainly not be in alpha 11, as the cutoff date for 11 is this Friday evening (my time, about 56 hours from now). Unless of course someone wants to drop the required code on my lap before that Otherwise it'll have to wait. Its not forgotten though, its all tracked in the issue tracker.

[ollobrain]

oh werll maybe alpha 12 then

[robn]

Maybe. Patches quite welcome.