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Excellent work, Kindar Naar

How did you do it? Used your own particle update function?

 

I'm glad you like our work :P If you like the static screen you should get the patch and test it in real. :P

 

The effect is created by a fan of triangles with different colors/alpha applied to vertexes. Color interpolation takes care of the rest. (thanks to a friend from work for the idea). The coords are the distorded by some random factor to simulate sparkling.

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I have made a new commit which fixes some things and adds Kindar's heal effect code. Maybe we can con emajekral into making a short video (since Fraps is not an OS X program).

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The effect is created by a fan of triangles with different colors/alpha applied to vertexes. Color interpolation takes care of the rest. (thanks to a friend from work for the idea). The coords are the distorded by some random factor to simulate sparkling.

 

Oh, ok, nice.

Do you think you would be able to make some sort of beam like thing going from one player to another, using the triangle fans? Maybe something like the rail gun from Eraser or Quake 3?

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Oh, ok, nice.

Do you think you would be able to make some sort of beam like thing going from one player to another, using the triangle fans? Maybe something like the rail gun from Eraser or Quake 3?

 

Well, I would have to find some example screens from Q3 with rail to know what we are talking about. Haven't played that in ages :P Would this be used for offensive effect or something like remote heal ('transfer' energy over a beam?)

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Mostly for offensive spells, such as harm, mana drain, life drain..

Basically, if you can make it look like a spiriling beam, it should be OK, I think.

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Do you think you would be able to make some sort of beam like thing going from one player to another, using the triangle fans? Maybe something like the rail gun from Eraser or Quake 3?

I am actually working on a similar effect for restoration...kinda like in Tron when they go down to the game grid.

 

I think the code will need to be slightly modified for "shooting" someone, but I have a good idea on how to do it.

 

[edit] one problem I foresee is avoiding other actors. this might need to include a pathfinding algorithm or to go over the heads of other actors.

Edited by 0ctane

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Maybe actor-to-actor spell effects shouldn't be ballistic projectiles due to the possibility of intervening actors (especially since actor motion isn't depicted synchronously). Maybe the effects could follow multiple arcing paths from one actor to the other somewhat like the arcs of iron filings between two poles of a magnet. I think this way having some of the particles pass through other actors wouldn't look "wrong".

 

Maybe some spells could be shown as a fog moving from one actor to another instead of a spray of particles. Again the fog patch would converge on the target and appear to pass around/through intervening non-targetted actors.

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How about a few prerendered frames of lightning?

Whatever works :blink:

 

@Puntif

A balistic projectile works on the same principle you described with the sparks and magnetic poles.

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My point was that with multiple particles (or whatever) taking separate paths from the source to the target it wouldn't look so odd if some of them passed through another actor to get to the target and it wouldn't look like they were aimed at the intervening actor.

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My point was that with multiple particles (or whatever) taking separate paths from the source to the target it wouldn't look so odd if some of them passed through another actor to get to the target and it wouldn't look like they were aimed at the intervening actor.

I understand what you are talking about. An "effect" could actually be a couple separate entities taking individual paths to the target. Kind of like "lazy missiles" in Robotech/Macross. Would require some randomization code as far as the path is concerned. The other issue is that spells are currently instantaneous. To realistically implement, there would have to be a damage delay for the missiles/projectiles/whatever to get to the target.

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I'd be more then willing to test it, i just built the latest CVS, saw the new shield effect, looks nicer then original version..

Could you post here when there have been some changes in CVS sfxwise so i can fetch it and compile..

 

All in all great work.

 

tnx!

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Could you post here when there have been some changes in CVS sfxwise so i can fetch it and compile..

I have a bad habit of doing "informational" forum posting, so you will likely see me commenting about my commits.

 

I have nearly finished a IMNSHO cool restoration effect, but I have recently been pondering a idea regarding these effects in general. I think the complexity of the spells should increase with the difficulty of casting them. We want people to say, "OMG that was Soooooo Coool...crus is sooo 1337....I want to get better at magic so that I can cast that too." You know, give people an incentive to level magic so that they too can cast the fancier spells. I am not necessarily advocating making the lower spells (like heal and shield) boring, but it is something we should consider.

 

At the same time, the low level spells are cast most often, and we don't want to introduce lagging during an invasion due to 50 people casting a complex heal (no offense Kindar) while 50 invasion beam effects are also being rendered. We need a balance between effect complexity, spell popularity, and spell difficulty. Of course, regarding complexity, we could do a "Slowdown: disabling special effects" escape similar to the disabling of shadows on low fps. Does my rambling make sense?

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I think the complexity of the spells should increase with the difficulty of casting them. We want people to say, "OMG that was Soooooo Coool...crus is sooo 1337....I want to get better at magic so that I can cast that too." You know, give people an incentive to level magic so that they too can cast the fancier spells. I am not necessarily advocating making the lower spells (like heal and shield) boring, but it is something we should consider.

 

 

 

I agree. I remember playing a game that did that, and I wanted to advance to a new lvl JUST to see how much cooler the spell would look :wacko: It makes you more 1337

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I think the complexity of the spells should increase with the difficulty of casting them.

 

I also agree with this. We should keep that in mind while making effects, so that people can have another goal to work towards. Higher level spell -> more complex effect.

 

As for complexity, I think we shouldn't sacrifice it. Instead we can add 'disable effects' option in menu or a 'poor man' mode. The effects in poor man would be much simpler (different effects or lesser poly count). This way people with powerfull machines would be able to enjoy the effects while people going to 'hot' areas (PK, invasions) would still be able to play after applying 'poor man' mode.

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I think the complexity of the spells should increase with the difficulty of casting them.

 

I also agree with this. We should keep that in mind while making effects, so that people can have another goal to work towards. Higher level spell -> more complex effect.

 

As for complexity, I think we shouldn't sacrifice it. Instead we can add 'disable effects' option in menu or a 'poor man' mode. The effects in poor man would be much simpler (different effects or lesser poly count). This way people with powerfull machines would be able to enjoy the effects while people going to 'hot' areas (PK, invasions) would still be able to play after applying 'poor man' mode.

That's a valid point, however you need to remember the frequency of use with regards to higher level spells. With complex spells you get more complex effects but also these spells are popular because of their function. Therefore, you're going to have to compromise between effects and realtime-usage: the higher level spells will be used in a large number of cases where other effects could be used. In turn, these 'other effects' are going to be resource intensive too.

 

Basically, catch 22 :)

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That's a valid point, however you need to remember the frequency of use with regards to higher level spells. With complex spells you get more complex effects but also these spells are popular because of their function. Therefore, you're going to have to compromise between effects and realtime-usage: the higher level spells will be used in a large number of cases where other effects could be used. In turn, these 'other effects' are going to be resource intensive too.

First, I commited the current version of my restoration effect. It would be really cool to use GLSL to get a glowing effect too, but I do not know how to code GLSL. I am going to do a few more things to the effect still, but it is IMO a good start. :D

 

Second, I am glad I got people thinking about the logisitics of the effects. I do think we need to put in a hook for reducing or removing effects if framerate drops too far. In my code comments, I mention LOD (level of detail, but I do not know how advanced that part of the game is yet). If there are multiple LOD, let's say 3, then we could drop back in steps if things get really active, but I do not really want to tackle that challenge. :P

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That's a valid point, however you need to remember the frequency of use with regards to higher level spells. With complex spells you get more complex effects but also these spells are popular because of their function. Therefore, you're going to have to compromise between effects and realtime-usage: the higher level spells will be used in a large number of cases where other effects could be used. In turn, these 'other effects' are going to be resource intensive too.

First, I commited the current version of my restoration effect. It would be really cool to use GLSL to get a glowing effect too, but I do not know how to code GLSL. I am going to do a few more things to the effect still, but it is IMO a good start. :P

 

Second, I am glad I got people thinking about the logisitics of the effects. I do think we need to put in a hook for reducing or removing effects if framerate drops too far. In my code comments, I mention LOD (level of detail, but I do not know how advanced that part of the game is yet). If there are multiple LOD, let's say 3, then we could drop back in steps if things get really active, but I do not really want to tackle that challenge. :P

The effects at present are very impressive. I was startled at seeing it when I did a `cvs up; make`. Perhaps even without LOD just a 'Disable Special Effects' option in the ELConfig would suffice?

 

It looks cool anyhow :)

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I think the new restore spell effect looks great, but in the spirit of tron perhaps it should be for tele2portals room ;)

For smite summons, the "wrath of God" effect at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark would be really cool.

Keep up the great work you guys!

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I think the new restore spell effect looks great, but in the spirit of tron perhaps it should be for tele2portals room B)

Or "beam me" perhaps? I don't know if she can take much more, captain. Oh, wait....Scotty's dead. However, I do not have a problem with moving that effect to a different catagory like tele2range or even invasion spawn (just so long as it does not get dropped). :blink:

For smite summons, the "wrath of God" effect at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark would be really cool.

Keep up the great work you guys!

Yes, something like that IJatRotLA final scene would be really cool. I am trying to think of ways that we can determine the location of all summons within the spell range (as it would be impractical for the server to send all that information). Then you would just need to spawn that number of ghosts effects to chase down the targets. Anyone know the range for smite and heal summon?

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New restoration spell looks really great!!!

Thanks. I aim to please.

 

please post screenshots :)

Again, I need to rely on the public for screenshots, as I cannot capture the effects on my Mac for some reason. How about it Kindar?

 

I have been chatting with Kindar and guildmates about the various effects. We mostly agree that similar spells should have similar effects. As Awn (and others) suggested, perhaps my restoration spell should be moved to a teleportation or invasion beaming catagory. I suggest that the current shield spell (spiralling single particle stream) be moved to the regular heal, and the current heal (raining particle ring) be moved to the restoration effect. In this way, the "heal" type effects remain somewhat similar, with restoration being more complex. Remote heal could be based on the spiralling single particle stream, and a new shield effect would be needed. What does everyone think (especially Kindar since we are moving his effects around)?

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