Soft Particles, Dynamic Lighting and DX9 wonderfulness in FW:ToW

Sushi · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 03:30

Freelancer’s capabilities of rendering dynamic lights has always been massively lacking. Not only was there a 4-light per object limit, once there were more lights affecting an object, lighting would get bugged quickly, not drawing the closest lights. To counter this major disadvantage in rendering lighting I’ve been converting Freelancer’s forward rendering pipeline to deferred rendering.

In deferred rendering, the geometry is first written to geometry buffers in a single pass. Then, in further passes, the geometry buffers are used to calculate the correct lighting. This allows us to render many lights per object without critically affecting the frame rate. However, there is still a noticeable performance decrease due to the nature of deferred rendering. I wont go into more detail at this point since its very technical. For further info, simply search the internet for deferred rendering.

Besides much improved dynamic lighting, deferred rendering also enables us to implement more next generation effects into the 7 years old Freelancer engine, such as Soft Particles. Soft Particles basically get rid of hard edges where particle effects collide with the environment. On intersection, the depth buffer is queried to make the particle fade out seamlessly, resulting in effects that feel a lot more natural. This is especially useful for smoke and fire effects as well as explosions.

Now to the eye candy. We are still exploring ways to add light sources to the game, however, FriendlyFire has added light sources to many beam/impact effects (and to stations) in order to show off the power of deferred rendering:

Also, here is an effect, made as well by FriendlyFire, to show off Soft Particles:

Please note, this is all still a work-in-progress. However, stay tuned for further updates on our quest to update Freelancer’s graphics engine! Also, please vote for us in the MotY Upcoming category!

As always any comments, suggestions or questions are always welcomed!
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NeXoSE · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 03:36

Cool!

Hope someone share how it be done. It’s something like the ENB?

FriendlyFire · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 03:58

If ENB is a Toyota Camry, then this is more like a Porsche 911.

Why485 · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 04:11

That’s just not fair.

NeXoSE · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 04:14

FriendlyFire wrote:
If ENB is a Toyota Camry, then this is more like a Porsche 911.

So finally it can be braked.

Is that is a is a DLL or something? I’m still guessing. :roll:

Xarian_Prime · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 04:46

Looks awesome

So… when do we get to play with it though? Seriously… i fell very teased right now, lolz

nice to have a team 'eh

Forsaken · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 05:50

Pushing the boundaries of FL to the max! Great job guys!

LancerSolurus · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 07:20

Excellent work indeed!

On a side note, could you post some of the articles you used to get the deferred rendering to work?

BTW, voted for this mod…

TheDvDMan · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 07:37

Awsome! I saw it also in Crossfire.
BTW how is it done? With some C editing?

? Offline · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 08:10

Excellent work, i suddenly feel like a total amateur…

Cannon · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 08:46

Yep, great work. Good on you guys. It looks great. I vote for you too…XD.

Kuze · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 10:51

So cool O.o and also the turret view is actually a turret view…nice.

Sushi · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 11:55

Thanks for the kind words, fellas (and votes :)). It’s all W0dk4’s coding genius and FFs beautiful effects! They’ve made the graphics in this game really pop from the screen.

Gisteron · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 12:03

the game deserves it. thank you, gentlemen and keep it up.
“May the Force be with you!”

w0dk4 · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 13:43

TheDvDMan wrote:
Awsome! I saw it also in Crossfire.
BTW how is it done? With some C editing?

This has nothing to do with Crossfire. Crossfire does have lights on some weapon effects IIRC, however they are also bound to the old way of FL’s bugged lighting rendering system.

w0dk4 · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 13:49

LancerSolurus wrote:
Excellent work indeed!

On a side note, could you post some of the articles you used to get the deferred rendering to work?

BTW, voted for this mod…

Hey LS,

actually I couldnt really find a “tutorial” like article about deferred rendering… I basically browsed through the internet and learned by doing.

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=424979

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=263350&reply_id=3432126

http://www.guerrilla-games.com/publications/dr_kz2_rsx_dev07.pdf

NeXoSE · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 14:25

Looks you need to do some programming for it. But how you done this in FL w0dk4? You done some new render lib or made something like ENB?

Nova · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 14:42

Share the technology
I don’t like starwars, and would like to see this in common FL

FriendlyFire · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 16:51

The plugin will be released some time after FWToW is itself released. Then just about everyone will be free to include it in their own mod

And just so you understand the difference, this can run 1000 lights simultaneously (there’s no limit, but we’ve only tested up to about a thousand so far). FL, by default, can run 4.

NeXoSE · wrote on 7 Dec 2010, 16:58

FriendlyFire wrote:
The plugin will be released some time after FWToW is itself released. Then just about everyone will be free to include it in their own mod

And just so you understand the difference, this can run 1000 lights simultaneously (there’s no limit, but we’ve only tested up to about a thousand so far). FL, by default, can run 4.

plugin? Ahahaha, my guess is right!