Re: Effects showroom!
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I seriously love them smoke FX Why, its just given me an idea ^^
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One of my ultimate effect dreams for Freelancer, aside from the missiles that didn’t work, was a Battlestar Galactica style flak screen. Well, after some furious coding, I managed to finally do it. Don’t ask me how this functions as an actual weapons system because I haven’t a clue. I just wanted my flak screens.
Images do not do it justice however.
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THAT is SERIOUSLY AWESOME.
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Shure,
This one I thought off.
http://the-starport.net/share/
Don’t expect a lot from it, i have no GFX experience at all, and you probably will be on the floor rolling laughing.
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I will post the code up when I finish with the effect. The current effect is basically a half-broken Patriot explosion. The primary purpose was to duplicate an effect, which I finally managed to do for the first time now. Next step is to make the effect actually look like flak. Which I am working on now.
[Edit]
I would say the effect is pretty much done, I’ll post updated pictures and stuff soon as I can. Note though, in pictures it doesn’t look all that different, its the motion and timing of the effect that has mostly changed.
[Double Edit]
Currently, the effect looks much better and actually looks like flak as opposed to just random explosions all over the place. The flash is much quicker and there is a lingering bit of smoke over where the explosion took place. I also tried my hand at sound editing, and the flak effect now has its own muffled little flak explosion sound. Although I’m fairly certain that if you fly into it, it becomes very loud. It has to be seen to be believed, and I will have a video up sometime later.
Gameplay wise, the flak actually works as a weapon now. Disregard balance for the moment, I’m just going to explain how it works. The Flak explodes at a pre-set distance of somewhere between 500-1500 meters. With obviously the points in between being the weapons effective range. What this does, is effectively create a “fighter repellent.” The flak is almost purely a defensive weapon. Should any fighter wander too close to a large capital, it will find itself within the flak’s kill zone, which is a very unpleasant place to be.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqyR-mETepA&fmt=18
It is very difficult to see the subtleties of the effect in that video. I will have screenshots up shortly.
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The effect itself is done. However I’m trying to figure out an implementation of this that won’t fall apart under lag. In a lag-less environment it works spectacularly. But because the weapons are missile based, when you get those one or two second pauses due to lag, the missiles stay in their barrels and explode right on top of you.
Note: The below pertains specifically to the 88 Flak mod, I thought I would copy-paste it anyway just to give you an idea of what I’ve been doing.
Update: I balanced the weapon based on the assumption that you will use a quarter (4 guns) of a large capital armament for flak. While you could equip all 16, it is a very bad idea due to energy drain, not to mention you would lag up a storm. I also adjusted ww2JacobBot and wo3dy to use the Flak for testing and fun.
