TWOK Mutara Nebula - 'flash' ideas?

[Lurok91]

Taking break from bridges so gone back to something started earlier this year.  Attempt to make a more canon Mutara system.   Set up system with Regula station above Regula, and Reliant behind Regula.  Player warps in or starts close to Regula,  enough to trigger Reliant offensive.   Two nav waypoints:  Nebula Entry and Nebula Centre.   As you head to nebula entry,  image is blue/pink nebula as see in movie.  Once enter nebula,  goes all blue with dust clouds.  Obviously limitations of BC system/graphics, but this is close as can get as moment as WIP.   (and before anyone mentions, yes I do know Ent sneaks up behind the Reliant   )

[Picky]

Never seen a more canon nebula: without offense to the author of the actual khan system, I don't understand why that nebula is orange... A lot of compliments!

[Morgan]

Very cool Lurok!

[Joshmaul]

I was wondering if maybe we'd see something like this...and of course, it looks absolutely fantastic.

Cookie, good sir.

[JimmyB76]

(and before anyone mentions, yes I do know Ent sneaks up behind the Reliant   )

awwwww!  but....but....i wanted to nitpick!  i know you love nitpicks!  
*runs*

[Bren]

Just thinking out loud here... Like in my oldschool BC n00b days (8 years ago)... for the flashes of light, maybe put one of those invisible, non-collidable point ships in the nebula, the ones some of the Machinima makers use.

Make it non-detectable, give it very poor sensors (so it's weapons routinely miss the mark) and arm it with loads of invisible torpedoes that do very low damage.

The torpedo script should set it's colour to white, it's speed fast, and make the light cast by it as bright as possible (I'm rusty on the parameters of torpedo scripting). The sound should be a crackle (or a few torpedoes with a selection of crackles) sampled from the nebula thunder in the film.

The Point-ship's AI should make it attack people randomly from time to time.

Net effect: Every so often, a crackle goes off, and the hull is lit up white, like in the film (pity we can't get the nebula clouds to flare up too!).

As I say, just thinking out loud. Use it if you like

[Lurok91]

awwwww!  but....but....i wanted to nitpick!  i know you love nitpicks!  
*runs*

lol 

Just thinking out loud here... Like in my oldschool BC n00b days (8 years ago)... for the flashes of light, maybe put one of those invisible, non-collidable point ships in the nebula, the ones some of the Machinima makers use.

Make it non-detectable, give it very poor sensors (so it's weapons routinely miss the mark) and arm it with loads of invisible torpedoes that do very low damage.

The torpedo script should set it's colour to white, it's speed fast, and make the light cast by it as bright as possible (I'm rusty on the parameters of torpedo scripting). The sound should be a crackle (or a few torpedoes with a selection of crackles) sampled from the nebula thunder in the film.

The Point-ship's AI should make it attack people randomly from time to time.

Net effect: Every so often, a crackle goes off, and the hull is lit up white, like in the film (pity we can't get the nebula clouds to flare up too!).

As I say, just thinking out loud. Use it if you like

What a GENIUS idea     Have to try that and let you know...

[baz1701]

Looks good, look forward to flying my twok bridge around it.

Is there a way to have the ship lose there shields and sensors like in the film?

[Lurok91]

Looks good, look forward to flying my twok bridge around it.

Is there a way to have the ship lose there shields and sensors like in the film?

Absolutely     Scripted so no shields or sensors.  Flying blind.  And static screen. 

[Villain]

Dude that looks incredible! I love Brens idea, too (But how could someone not like it? lol)

Always amazed at how you always manage to do such great work mate, keep it up!

[Lurok91]

Thanks again for feedback. Like I said, started this ages ago but just never bothered to get back to.   

Anyways, tried Bren's idea. Works in  principle in that I can get pointship in firing, but it doesn't create right effect.  Anything it targets/explodes just look like explosions, no matter how much I tweak,   rather than sheet lightning effect.    Any other ideas welcome? 

One thought I wondered was whether I could create some sort of simple transparent nif I could place in set and then add animated textures to it? 

Here's a pic of the extra puff cloud you encounter in nebula. Adds to 3d effect. 

[Bren]

Yeah, I thought about that shortly after posting, that there'd be little explosions going off, spoiling the effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't get on a computer to say it! Sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase!

Oh well. Glad you liked the idea to begin with

Isn't there some relationship between the torpedo script (damage or radius settings?) and the size of the explosion? Maybe if the explosion were tiny enough not to be noticed, you'd only notice the light from the torpedo lighting the hull?

That's assuming torpedoes cast light on their target's hulls? I know they do cast it on the ship firing. Never occurred to me that it might be limited... is that what you were saying?

I'm not sure what we're seeing in the "Extra puff" picture?

[086gf]

The white streaks im guessing.

Looks sweat btw.

[Lurok91]

The white streaks im guessing.

Correct.  Each nebula can use two textures, and for the second I made this wispy cloud-thing that looks a bit like the one you see in TWOK.  

So, for second pass, I've ditched the static nebula texture and replaced with a custom viewscreen-type nif that uses same texture.   It's not perfect, but not dreadful either.  Advantage is uses animated texture,  so now get flash glow effect from pinky bits in blue cloud.  It'll be clearer when post video.   Of course, still doesn't affect hull glow or ambient light, so that's still another nut to crack.

PS: flyby pic you'll have to expand to see tiny Ent in centre...

[Bren]

Not to sound unoriginal, but what a GENIUS idea!

[Lurok91]

So here's vid of tests so far.   Main issue is trying to get animation to run smoothly.  Just using 8 frames at slow cycle at moments;  may need more frames but faster but that will eat up processing.  Decisions, decisions...

[FarShot]

The white wisps feel too heavy at the beginning.  They're fine once you get into the blue layer, but if you could tone them down halfway, I think it would be a huge improvement.

[Blackrook32]

This is really stunning, Lurok. I agree with Farshot on the white wisps. But still breathtaking!

Keep up the good work!

[Bren]

Flash idea update!

Don't use Torpedoes, use Phasers!

I was watching one of Rifleman80's videos in the Youtube Videos thread in General Discussion, and I realised that the Warbird was getting lit up in exactly the way we want.

Torpedoes don't light the target's hull, phasers do!!!

We just need to tweak the phasers to have a quick discharge, long recharge and a narrow firing arc. Then give them the sounds, make the beam invisible, and you're set!

[Lurok91]

That seems much more....logical?

 

The white wisps feel too heavy at the beginning.  They're fine once you get into the blue layer, but if you could tone them down halfway, I think it would be a huge improvement.

At the moment it's tricky controlling where the white wisps appear and when.  I have to fiddle with the system/nebula params.  But they shouldn't appear until entered nebula.

Re: nebula storm timing.  The current approach too intensive to provide consistent results.  Simpler but equally effective method has been to just place flash frames in the sequence.   New pics soon...