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Florian

Visual Effects for harvesting events

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I want to make the server send some extra information when a magic spell is cast, or in some other circumstances.

//special effects
...
//when a player casts heal summoned. Player
#define SPECIAL_EFFECT_HEAL_SUMMONED 9

I'd like more local events and visual effects, like

// radon pouch hit, orange gas cloud maybe
#define SPECIAL_EFFECT_RADON_POUCH <byte>
// cavern wall collapses, greyish cloud of dust maybe
#define SPECIAL_EFFECT_CAVERN_WALL <byte>
// mother nature gets pissed, maybe lightning strikes
#define ...
// blessing by queen of nature, green glow perhaps
#define ...
// stung by a bee, swam of bees flying around player
#define ...
// teleport nexus, same effect as for t2r spell, different color(s)
#define ...

 

Now go ahead and pick my ideas to pieces ...

 

Flo

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You wouldn't need any defines for those, or any special server messages, just parse the incoming messages for x just hit a teleport nexus etc. No real work at all (apart from the design of the new effects - I refer to the checking server string).

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Sounds like a cool idea, maybe bring it up in the special effects thread in the programming section, see what the devs and karenrei has to say

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yeah i like it, would make doing repetive actions more interesting when events like those happen.

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I'd suggest having a configuration file which maps message strings to event effects. This would allow messages to be updated or extended on the server without having to rebuild the client (assuming event effects are available). May also support I18N.

 

For that matter, if effects where designed to be composite rather than specific, it would allow new events to be represented without a client update. ie, rather than have a "radon explosion" effect, have a "spherical explosion radius X, colour Y, ...".

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I'd suggest having a configuration file which maps message strings to event effects. This would allow messages to be updated or extended on the server without having to rebuild the client (assuming event effects are available). May also support I18N.

 

For that matter, if effects where designed to be composite rather than specific, it would allow new events to be represented without a client update. ie, rather than have a "radon explosion" effect, have a "spherical explosion radius X, colour Y, ...".

If the effect is defined in a file, then an autoupdae could update the effect.

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If the effect is defined in a file, then an autoupdae could update the effect.

Yep; if effects where defined in, say, an xml format, then a directory of platform independant effects files would be autoupdatable. Effects would then be specified by name, and new effects (or rather combinations/composite effects) would appear as-if-by-magic. This does require a lot of thought into the design of a SFX library.

 

Meanwhile, even if the individual effects are hardcoded, a configuration files for string pattern (extract player name) mapped to event name for harvesting (and other) effects would be reasonable future proof.

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Done :D

 

Please note this code gives all events the same effect at the moment, but it is just a case of changing the SFX type for each one when the time comes.

 

https://developer.berlios.de/patch/index.ph...p;group_id=1256

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And another eye candy idea:

 

when a player puts on some armor, it just appears, when a player takes it off, it just disappears.

 

Could there be some "fading-in" effect? Like let opacity go from 0% to 100% an vice versa.

 

The server message "change clothes" is already there, so this would be another client-only thing.

 

Regards

 

Florian

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Yeah and these eye candy effects really arnt that complicated so they wouldnt be that hard for a programer to do right? (Note: im not a programer so i got no idea on this)

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Yeah and these eye candy effects really arnt that complicated so they wouldnt be that hard for a programer to do right? (Note: im not a programer so i got no idea on this)

Then you should hold off such statements ok.....

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Could there be some "fading-in" effect? Like let opacity go from 0% to 100% an vice versa.
not so easily, not with the current setup. each part of an actor has a texture associated with it. that could be a shirt, or chainmail, or a fur coat, but always one of them.

to do this, we'd need to add more texture slots (more memory), and run timers over the change (memory and processor time), as well as using a scale of transparency (processor/GPU time).

IMO, the work required to add this, as well as the slight extra demand on computers, isn't worth the possible gains (personally, faded on clothes sounds odd to me)

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Could there be some "fading-in" effect? Like let opacity go from 0% to 100% an vice versa.
not so easily, not with the current setup. each part of an actor has a texture associated with it. that could be a shirt, or chainmail, or a fur coat, but always one of them.

to do this, we'd need to add more texture slots (more memory), and run timers over the change (memory and processor time), as well as using a scale of transparency (processor/GPU time).

IMO, the work required to add this, as well as the slight extra demand on computers, isn't worth the possible gains (personally, faded on clothes sounds odd to me)

OK, my fault, I thought the textures were layered one over the other. So removing one texture and blending in the other would make the char translucent for a small time :rolleyes:

 

OK, forget it :hug:

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As for the difficulty of adding new special effects, it depends on how complex the effect is and how similar of an effect I've already created. I'd wager that all of the harvesting effects together would probably be something like 6 hours of work to create + integration time.

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OK, my fault, I thought the textures were layered one over the other. So removing one texture and blending in the other would make the char translucent for a small time :)
if you scaled both at the same time, yes. if you leave the old one at 100% and scale up the new one, and don't scale the old one till new hits 100% you don't get ghost-like clothing... the rest of the problems are still present though

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one way of 'eye candying''it up would be to add a basic animation when any item of clothing is put on. not necassarily item specific, but there could be a brief moment of general scrambling around and a slight delay with texture change.

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