More eye candy on the laser beam front?

drew · Post by **drew** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:23 pm

I know that technically you wouldn't even be able to see a laser beam in space, but the thought occurs that the laser beams in Oolite are very basic graphically.

I wondered if there was any appetite for making them look a bit more like 'Star Trek Phasers' or similar, or maybe the ion cannons from games like 'Homeworld' etc.

Is the laser OXP-able?

Cheers,

Drew.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:31 pm

I have better laser code laid out in my head, but it relies on better camera code that isn’t there yet. :-)

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:55 pm

@Drew - is that Homeworld - or Homeworld II? I forgot how nice it looked! I used to adore that game - still got it floating around somewhere - of course now I've joined the Penguin-brigade... :¬(

drew · Post by **drew** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:40 am

That's the original homeworld, circa 1999 I believe.

Great game, I still load it up occasionally. Homeworld 2 is even more pretty, but lost some of the elegance or the original, and the ship designs were less memorable.

Homeworld had one of the best emotional moments in any game I've come across in the single player missions. There is a point early on in which you realise your home planet has been utterly destroyed by the enemy from orbit and you and your few ships are all that's left of your race. The voice over is accompanied by Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' in a choral arrangement. Very immersive indeed. Really motivates you to take the fight back to the enemy.

Both worth a go if you can find a copy on ebay etc. Not Elite, but very good space sims/combat/RTS.

Eye Candy is still impressive almost ten years later.

Homeworld code was opensourced, but the linux port is still not quite there yet. v0.5 I believe... http://www.homeworldsdl.org/

Cheers,

Drew.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:48 am

Drew - I remember being blown away emotionally at exactly the same point - desperately fighting off the aliens and trying to rescue my ships in orbit with the last of my race onboard.

Astonishingly clever stuff.

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:12 pm

"I know that technically you wouldn't even be able to see a laser beam in space"

why? :-/

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:32 pm

Not enough dry ice.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:46 pm

@Killer Wolf - you only see lasers here on Earth at the source and at the point of illumination - anything you see in between is purely reflection from tiny particulates between the two points (when I was teaching in schools I used to bang two chalk rubbers together before using the laser pointer - of course now its all white boards and overhead projectors!)

The rarefied near perfect vacuum of space offers nothing to scatter the laser to make it visible. (and anything which does scatter the beam diminishes its power at the point of impact). Gene Roddenbery was aware of this which is why he created the "Phaser" - he didn't say *what* it was only indicating it wasn't a laser and that's why you can see it.