Lights on units

Mesafina · Post by **Mesafina** » 19 Jan 2006, 00:20

I am developing a GPL stand-alone mod for the spring engine and had a few questions about things that are or are not possible.

For one, is it possible to create a lightsource other then the map's universal lightsource in the game?

If so, can these be placed on units and/or structures?

If not, could a glowing effect be created instead and attached to a unit?

I'm interested in putting different glowing areas and lights on many of the units in this mod and so any information as to whether or not this is possible would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Post by **jcnossen** » 19 Jan 2006, 01:16

No dynamic lighting unfortunately...
a glowing effect is not possible right now but would be easier to add I guess...

Could you give any details about the mod? Standalone meaning "different spring code" or "not using TA materials"?

Mesafina · Post by **Mesafina** » 19 Jan 2006, 01:25

Thanks for the reply.

by 'standalone' I mean that it will not require copyrighted TA material to use, as everything will be made by our team. It will still use spring as it stands now and will work as a mod for the current (and future) versions of the engine.

More information can be found in this post: http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3540

Also, if it doesn't happen on it's own, I may attempt to modify the spring engine so that it can support a glow effect, as it would benefit our project greatly, and would probably be appreciated by the development commmunity as a whole.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 19 Jan 2006, 04:16

That would certainly kick ass, yes, yes very much. Proper, scalable engine glows would be pretty awesome.

AF · Post by AF » 19 Jan 2006, 20:33

it'd put the oomph back into alot of weapons that you got in OTA.

Comp1337 · Post by **Comp1337** » 25 Jan 2006, 21:51

just think of night-themed maps... the blue glow of annihilatorbeams is the only thing lighting up the night (exept for some ambient light) ahh

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 25 Jan 2006, 22:05

Comp1337 wrote:just think of night-themed maps... the blue glow of annihilatorbeams is the only thing lighting up the night (exept for some ambient light) ahh

That kind of vision will be... something to good to describe in words.
you might catcht the expression with: 'Oh for the-, that is just-, omg, sweet monkeys tuesday, hot piss.' -sort of thing.
Might be building such a shot in maya or so. Just to get a feeling like that. Actually I'm busy with a complete redo of units just to make a FTW intro. However, things doesn't go fast. Busy with the core silencer becouse that model can be improved a lot. Expect result in a year time or so... ^.^'

Noruas · Post by **Noruas** » 26 Jan 2006, 23:46

If your talking about a certain glow that lights up the area, star trek armada would be a great place to take an example from them. i dont know to much about script but projectiles for an example released more of an invisible glow hidden by animations. a cannon flying through the air will need more spefics on simple glowing effects. i realized that star trek armada glowing was very simple, but still effective. the weapon needs a few laws.
Light=1;
GlowStrength=1 to 100 min-max;
GlowRadius=How far the Radius glows, can use Area of Effect by default
GlowColor=the color the projectile glows, could use the same color of laser or lightning by default;
GlowBrightness=I think this might be needed, from 1 to 100;
This would make warfare look much better in Spring, but techniqually not alot, noting the fact that TA does not use Photon Torpedos. This would make explosions look brighter on the ground and on near by kbots and tanks, even if they are not effected by the explosion. you can make a source light that only follows the weapon, that only makes a color glow, and if you really worked hard, get multi shadows, which would be a new setting thing, because this will cause more graphic lag. techniqually i think it might be possible to use the similar lighting system to how spring uses maps, but it would require some hardcore changes. Although very simple glowing or lighting systems will be very nice addition, espically since that means that lightning would have uber brightness. then people will yell that the glow of a red looks awsome, but they want to change the explosion texture.
Since im done with lighting, i want to make one complaint. The lightning on the original TA engine was very well animated and made it look very fast and furious and strong. The lightning in TA Spring seems abit stiff, doesnt seem to be flowing or actually alive. I know that real lightning does not move as much the TA engine did, but i think itd be righteous to take some experimenting into what makes lightning look more awsome or some sort of customization of the lightning in the weapon.tdf file availabe. Then, we need to to make a hangover glow, when you look at lightning, its so bright in real life, it leaves an afterimage in your eyes of a weak glow, is it possible to make lightning quickly or slowly fade and flicker randomly into non exsistence just like real lightning?

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 27 Jan 2006, 02:34

Noruas: There is no dynamic lighting in TA Spring at all. Projectile lighting would be really nice, that and headlights would look awesome. But even the ability to assign static light sources to features could really add to what spring can do.

Spring RTS Engine

Lights on units

Lights on units

Well Lightsources are preety looking.