A better-looking cloaking device

overmage · Post by **overmage** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:03 pm

So, while this may be impossible to code into the Oolite core (maybe in some far-off future release?

), I was thinking:

the current cloaking device works like this: an ugly blinking of the ship in and out of view.

Now this is purely conjecture, but is it possible to create shaders for a ship that would give it the appearance of stars, and have them be displayed only situationally (e.g., when a particular mine is launched)? (yeah, i understand this may be ship-specific, just wondering if it is possible at all

)

Or any other possible 'trick' to give such a 'cloaking' shader an on-off option, really.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:16 pm

Well, for a start the on-off option could be hitting '0' on your keyboard, couldn't it?

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:16 pm

And I'd be precluded completely from cloaking, cos my laptop doesn't support shaders at all...

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:54 pm

To be frank, I don’t think we can trust OXPers to implement shader-based cloaking responsibly and consistently. (For starters, all the existing shadery OXPs don’t support it.)

There are other ways to make it look better, but I’m trying to avoid adding new features. We’re already two years behind schedule.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:46 pm

Ahruman wrote:
To be frank, I don’t think we can trust OXPers to implement shader-based cloaking responsibly and consistently. (For starters, all the existing shadery OXPs don’t support it.)

There are other ways to make it look better, but I’m trying to avoid adding new features. We’re already two years behind schedule.

Then you're still 10 yrs ahead of Elite IV...

overmage · Post by **overmage** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:44 am

lol! nice one

Well I was thinking about whether it can be done via an OXP (like i mentioned earlier, putting it in the core is probably not doable at the moment, better things to do too im sure),

mainly just seeing if it is... well for lack of a better term, technologically possible.

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:57 am

Ahruman wrote:
To be frank, I don’t think we can trust OXPers to implement shader-based cloaking responsibly and consistently. (For starters, all the existing shadery OXPs don’t support it.)

There are other ways to make it look better, but I’m trying to avoid adding new features. We’re already two years behind schedule.

There's a schedule?

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:57 am

ClymAngus wrote:
There's a schedule?

Yes, the sound of milestones whizzing past is very soothing.