SpaceSimCentral

This is a brand new laser geometry and texture... Using the crossed planes technique... it can be used as-is, but works best along with a shader that makes surfaces transparent depending on viewing angle, so when a polygon is within perhaps 10 degrees or so of being completely perpendicular to the viewing plane it will become hidden... typically this is called something like a falloff shader.. However it will work without.

flakwall!

Chaff dispenser

view from the gunnery position of the UFS Enewetak. (btw there are no "fancy" shader effects, glows or anything going on there - other than near perfect antialiasing - its basically just textures and geometry spat out as particles)

Now THAT looks like a laser and yes robn that would be a great effect for a chaff dispenser, fireworks (at new years) or perhaps .......some volcanic activity?Mind you, that last pic does indeed look just like a flak cannon giving it some!Great work Steve!

Geraldine wrote:
Now THAT looks like a laser and yes robn that would be a great effect for a chaff dispenser, fireworks (at new years) or perhaps .......some volcanic activity?Mind you, that last pic does indeed look just like a flak cannon giving it some!Great work Steve!
Hey thanks, and Rob, it's basically ready to go, one mesh and one 512 texture with 4 colours / styles... so each mesh has a different set of UV's but gets the data from the same bitmap. So, umm, any ideas how this could be placed within our beloved space simulator?I thought i'd upload another pic why not... Today would be a bad day to be REBEL SCUM.

Coolhand wrote:
Rob, it's basically ready to go, one mesh and one 512 texture with 4 colours / styles... so each mesh has a different set of UV's but gets the data from the same bitmap. So, umm, any ideas how this could be placed within our beloved space simulator?
Not immediately obvious to me. Right now we're just using point sprites for the lasers. We'll have to change that to use a model. That's fairly straightforward to arrange. My only concern is the processing overheads involved - our models can be pretty expensive, even for simple ones. But we'll do it, and we'll test, and we'll optimise as necessary.The best thing you can do is create an issue and attach (link) the data files and a link to this thread. I won't have time to do anything with it for at least a couple of weeks, but I would hope that someone else will be interested enough to pick it up.If we can do this cheaply enough then I think this would be a massive win. It looks glorious!

hah well i'm not suggesting an actual flak wall, i just thought they were pretty pictures, though something similar might be dooable...? you should see the "flak cannon" firing in motion;)This exact method has been used for games for years now so i'm not sure why there would be a big issue with frames. There is no hurry to implement anything but i think it could be a real improvement on the current system.
robn wrote:
The best thing you can do is create an issue and attach (link) the data files and a link to this thread. I won't have time to do anything with it for at least a couple of weeks, but I would hope that someone else will be interested enough to pick it up.
Awesome! thanks.

Our model system is rather heavy at the moment, which is why I'm concerned. It does need fixing, and this may be the thing to push that along. Don't worry, your work is awesome and we shall have it, eventually

one final piccy then, all 4 colours, of course and colour and any variation of texture are possible this way, you could add electrical patterns and so on, make them rainbow coloured, whatever.

purrrfect embrace it and run with it

robn wrote:
Our model system is rather heavy at the moment, which is why I'm concerned. It does need fixing, and this may be the thing to push that along. Don't worry, your work is awesome and we shall have it, eventually
Is it really so bad, if the model has no dynamic function?

tomm wrote:
Is it really so bad, if the model has no dynamic function?
I don't know. It'll probably be fine, but I know its pretty rare to have hundreds of models on screen at a time as will likely happen in a big firefight. I probably shouldn't have even said anything its tested

Geraldine wrote:
Now THAT looks like a laser
I just had to double-check with my laser pointer (cat was delighted). Where did you get your laser? I want one!

Brianetta wrote:
I just had to double-check with my laser pointer (cat was delighted). Where did you get your laser? I want one!
Glad your cat liked it :DThese real lasers (below) are quite something, although I dont if the military laser is still being developed.