Malleus on 26/2/2005 at 00:03
Maybe I really missed something, but I didn't notice any weather effects (rain, snow) in TDS.
I'm not interested in level editing, but I'm curious if the editor allows you to use such effects - I've a seen some cool rainy FMs for T2, I wonder if you'll be able to create such enviroments with T3ed.
plebeian on 26/2/2005 at 00:13
With particles and physics already there, I'm sure it's quite possible.
Bumbleson on 15/3/2005 at 01:54
I made this while playing with sprite emitters (click to enlarge):
(
http://img72.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img72&image=cradlerain1zk.jpg)
Inline Image:
http://img72.exs.cx/img72/8447/cradlerain1zk.th.jpgDepending on the map size this could turn out to be a big performance killer if only one emitter is placed for the entire map (this one already slowed down things considerably on my Radeon 9800). I don't know enough about emitters yet, but perhaps it's possible to place several emitters with a small number of particles which are turned on and off based on player distance to minimize performance loss.
ZylonBane on 15/3/2005 at 02:43
Precipitation effects in video games are usually implemented as local to the player-- wherever the player is, it only snows/rains/whatever in a limited radius around him.
If you want to get proper, non-perfomance-killing weather into TDS, you're going to have to figure out how to have the emitter follow Garrett around, and how to have it not emit inside of buildings.
Rosd on 15/3/2005 at 02:59
Nice rain! Makes for a nicely atmospheric screenshot, and I'm sure it looks better in action. Emmiters might be big headaches, but they can give some amazing visuals if wrangled properly. Snow could look amazing in this game, along with some thick fog or blowing dust.
Karkianman on 15/3/2005 at 04:04
afaik (not far though), couldnt you just divide outside and inside into portals, have the emitter linked to above garret if inPortalOutside == true, and if inPortalOutside == false, you could just spawn emitters at the windows and door, and add a rain to roof sound?
rujuro on 15/3/2005 at 17:04
Another option might be to modify Garret so he has an emitter rigid linked to him with an offset to put it above him, then place volume triggers that stop the emitter at every possible entrance to an interior and one next to it that starts it as you go outside again.
ZylonBane on 15/3/2005 at 18:40
The problem with that is that the moment Garrett crosses a threshold, it would appear to stop raining outside as well. The deactivation would have to be done on a per-particle basis. This may well be impossible without the SDK.
Zillameth on 15/3/2005 at 19:20
There is a property called EmitterState (as opposed to EmitterSpawnState). It can be set to one of three values: always on, completely off and on when rendered. Maybe setting rain emitters to "on when rendered" would cause them to spawn rain only when player is near (because when he is in a distant zone, emitters are not rendered and should be off). There could be a problem with emitters turning off too early, though.
One could also try another approach. Place emitters all over the map, and turn them on and off cleverly, so that they turn on, when player is coming, but before he can see them. For example, if the only entrance to the house is a hall with non-transparent windows, turn outside emitter on as soon as player enters hall, before he opens front door. This would require a bit of tweaking and perhaps some design compromises (such as non-transparent windows), but it still could be a reasonable tradeoff.
Krypt on 15/3/2005 at 19:33
Placing tons of weather emitters all over the place in an outdoor area would likely cause some serious performance problems. It might work though if the emitter wasn't too complex and there aren't more than 5 or so in view at any one time (i.e. no weather in really large outdoor areas). It could probably also be done by attaching an emitter to Garrett, but it would be a very elaborate hack and might look weird sometimes. I would probably go with the volumes at all the doors to turn the emitter on/off. To fix the problem ZylonBane is describing, you could place a rain emitter above the door on the outside that turns on when the one attached to the player turns off, preserving the illusion that it's raining outside.
