[Freelancer Mod News]Updated DX9 Engine for Freelancer
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With phase 1 of the MODDB awards coming to an end, the FW:ToW worked very hard over the past several days to convince you why you should vote for us.In the past 10 days, we’ve been putting out image after image of our new DX9 engine and some tweaks that have gone a long way making the game look even better than before. FriendlyFire has been working, even when he should be studying for exams, at making this nearly 10 year old game really shine. Below is some of his work with summary of what he did:
Planets
One of the key points was to make planets actually look like planets and not foggy, blurry spheres. In order to do this, we scrapped the old-style Freelancer atmospheres and implemented a custom atmosphere shader which reacts dynamically to the lighting and viewing angle, after which we implemented normal and specular mapping support for planets.
Old Version:
New and Improved:
With this accomplished FF went at work at figuring out how to apply normal, specular and glow mapping to the planets to really make them look even more drop dead gorgeous. The results below speak for themselves!
Glowmapping
Although glowmapping has existed in Freelancer for some time, the glow maps never really “glowed”. They were a brighter texture than the others, however there was something missing. FriendlyFire figured out a way to bring this missing piece of the puzzle to the DX9 engine for our mod. Below are the samples of his work:
Glow mapping takes certain parts of a texture, usually called the “emissive texture” since it appears to emit light even if it is not illuminated by anything, and blurs them out, reapplying the result on the image. This gives the impression that the emissive texture is much brighter than it would otherwise appear to be.
Old Version
New and Improved:
Specular Mapping
W0dk4 instituted specular mapping a number of months ago now. However, with that being done, there was still some tweaking to do to get it to really bring our models/textures to life. FriendlyFire again went to work to see what he could…and my lord did he do some excellent work. The video below captures our new and improving specular mapping/lighting:
<iframe width=“560” height=“315” src=“http://www.moddb.com/media/iframe/547784”></iframe>
Updated DX9 Graphics Engine for Freelancer - Mod DB
If you like what you see please don’t hesitate to give us a vote for the MODDB awards! We’ll be churning out more videos/images over the next few weeks to prove to you why we’re one of the best up and coming mods out there!As always, any comments, suggestions or questions are welcomed!
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Goulash wrote:
Was going to say emissive textures are nothing new as they have always been there, i can’t tell from these shots the subtle difference you claim there is. What is impressive however is the specular mapping, very cool indeed.So both of the mc80s images have glow maps. In the bottom one there is quite a striking difference with how the light is cast.
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I see what you’re doing with those glows and it makes sense, but forgive me for thinking they look a little over done, on that mc80 anyway.
I must have clicked back and forth the two images 1900 x 1200 fifty times just to make sure, but the lighting is just so soft it looks more like the bloom from a star or an engine than an artificial light source. Doubt there’s much you can do about it really though.
Now, now FF, I’m just saying, I don’t want any trouble!
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I agree with with Timmy about this, looks more like bloom. You’re forgetting that on modern gfx cards a number of effects can be forced onto FL, mine looks like it already has DX9 on it sometimes with the effects i have added. What’s really missing is the shader support which thankfully you’ve already added. I’d be careful about going too nuts with this glowmap effect, personally i’d wind it back a bit but that’s just my opinion. At least make it scaleable for users.
One other thing i find odd is the reflection of the sun on the planet, it’s not a billiard ball, what would the light reflect off of in the first place? The detailing of the texture however is exemplary
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Um… Perhaps water? Just a wild guess.
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Doubtful as atmospherics would reflect the light which is why you won’t see this effect in reality and why it doesn’t look very good in games. Seen this in many games and it always looks wrong. On stations and ships it’s fine, but not on planets. Anyway, make it an option if you can, then people can choose it if they wish.
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If you don’t like it, don’t use it guys, but if you want to bring realism in a game about space ships flying at FTL speeds…
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Yeah, we’ve had to push back the release to Q1 2012 for a variety of reasons.
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We’ll of course be maintaining it, considering how much of a beast it is. We might also do larger-scale “expansions”, though nothing set in stone for now.
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I have discussed that topic with Wodka quite a while ago and the problem was he didn’t have enough knowledge of how to develop an engine. Since I am developing one myself I have to say it is easier. If I had the time I would have finished it way before them with all the features plus more. But as you might have noticed concerning the .obj -> .sur converter my developing speed is not that high due to time restrictions
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I never knew you were working on your own engine, Schmack. Do you have a demo at all?
