Fog of war?

Fog of war?

Various things about Spring that do not fit in any of the other forums listed below, including forum rules.

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AndiNo
Posts: 24
Joined: 23 Mar 2009, 09:45

Fog of war?

Post by AndiNo »

Hi! I'm new to Spring and really like it! However there is one thing I'm not sure about: Why is there no "fog of war"? If I remember correctly it was in (the original) Total Annihilation. Maybe it's my computers fault, but it's kinda strange to see enemies "popping up" before me because I can't see how far my units can see...
Note: I'm playing XTA, but I haven't seen any fog on the screenshots on the Spring website...
Anyways congratulations to this very good TA remake :)
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KDR_11k
Game Developer
Posts: 8293
Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 08:44

Re: Fog of war?

Post by KDR_11k »

Hit L, the LOS view is off by default.
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AndiNo
Posts: 24
Joined: 23 Mar 2009, 09:45

Re: Fog of war?

Post by AndiNo »

Yes, I read that the LOS view can be activated, however this isn't exactly what I mean. The LOS radii only get updated every second or so and having all these colors there isn't helpful all the time :)
I'm thinking of the grey/black type of fog which is used in most RTS games. Is it possible to activate this?
Tobi
Spring Developer
Posts: 4598
Joined: 01 Jun 2005, 11:36

Re: Fog of war?

Post by Tobi »

You can press ; to disable many of the colors in the L view (the radar radii etc.)
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SwiftSpear
Classic Community Lead
Posts: 7287
Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 09:29

Re: Fog of war?

Post by SwiftSpear »

You might not have noticed in the heat of the moment, but even in classic RTS games fog of war didn't update for seconds at a time. It's significantly more expensive calculating vis in full 3D, so it's really not fair to expect 5 updates a second.

It's not just the fog renderer that hits once every second, it's literally matching the speed of the vis calculation.
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AndiNo
Posts: 24
Joined: 23 Mar 2009, 09:45

Re: Fog of war?

Post by AndiNo »

Thanks for your replies so far, I will play Spring anyway, with or without fog :)
But take CNC Tiberium Wars for example. It's full 3D, has fog of war and it updates very quickly. So I guess it IS possible to implement, maybe it can be done in the future...
Anyway thanks!
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RogerN
Posts: 238
Joined: 24 Jul 2006, 23:29

Re: Fog of war?

Post by RogerN »

It's full 3D, has fog of war and it updates very quickly. So I guess it IS possible to implement, maybe it can be done in the future...
They might be using a visual trick to give the impression that the fog of war is being updated more quickly than it really is. For example, they might be drawing the fog of war at smaller distance than what it is calculated at. The visual artifacts of slow updates would then be invisible since they occur inside the fog.
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Gota
Posts: 7151
Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:55

Re: Fog of war?

Post by Gota »

Try Supreme Annihilation,it has a fog of war in the way you'd expect it to be.
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MidKnight
Posts: 2652
Joined: 10 Sep 2008, 03:11

Re: Fog of war?

Post by MidKnight »

Did you even read the thread, Gota?

As for my opinion, a widget that uses fading to smooth updates would be quite nice!
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Pxtl
Posts: 6112
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 01:43

Re: Fog of war?

Post by Pxtl »

MidKnight wrote:Did you even read the thread, Gota?

As for my opinion, a widget that uses fading to smooth updates would be quite nice!
Would also be nice if units didn't simply pop into-and-out-of-visibility. A fade-in or fade-out animation would make their appearance less jarring. But that probably wouldn't be possible without an engine change.
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MidKnight
Posts: 2652
Joined: 10 Sep 2008, 03:11

Re: Fog of war?

Post by MidKnight »

It is possible, but it may be confusing, what with the cloak effect.
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danuker
Posts: 53
Joined: 04 Feb 2008, 22:37

Re: Fog of war?

Post by danuker »

OTA could do it. Spring can't. Almost 13 years have passed.

Conclusion:
3D fails.
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SwiftSpear
Classic Community Lead
Posts: 7287
Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 09:29

Re: Fog of war?

Post by SwiftSpear »

danuker wrote:OTA could do it. Spring can't. Almost 13 years have passed.

Conclusion:
3D fails.
Spring updates fog of war as fast as OTA did.
Ashnal
Posts: 104
Joined: 24 Jun 2008, 00:57

Re: Fog of war?

Post by Ashnal »

A widget to visually smooth LoS updates would be nice, and I'm sure jK could code something to fade units in and out once they enter/leave LoS.
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