Oolite Bulletins

As a beginner, I figured it'd be a simple exercise to make an alternative effect for space jumps and docking. As a long-time Blender user I'm excited by the possibilities that could be applied in this regard. Sadly, having trolled the forums etc, I can't seem to find where to start. Even going over the BGS documentation hasn't helped. I've found the graphic for the shader effect, but how that image gets distorted into the transition and then opening out to the new system ??? Can anyone give me a pointer here please.
Thanks
ps. fantastic to see E(Oo)lite back again!

d8sconz wrote:

ps. fantastic to see E(Oo)lite back again!

Hi d8sconz, and welcome.
I don't think it really ever went away. Even in the years before Oolite, it lived on in our thoughts.
I can't help with the shadery stuff, I'm afraid - lots to learn I suspect, so good luck with it.

G'day d8sconz, and welcome aboard!

Before somebody far more knowledgeable than I comes along to give you a more in-depth answer, I'd just like to ask you if you've seen the latest jump-effects in the trunk (development) branch, when used in conjunction with the development-only BGS1.6 version? It's much more impressive than the current 1.76.1 release version effects.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Before somebody far more knowledgeable than I comes along to give you a more in-depth answer, I'd just like to ask you if you've seen the latest jump-effects in the trunk (development) branch...

Hee hee. It's Murphys law. No I haven't seen any of the new stuff. Having finally stumbled upon Oolite I'm having way too much fun playing the game again and I've only just started poking around under the hood. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens with the jump effects. In the meantime I've started making a new craft in Blender. Getting that into the game is probably a better first step.

d8sconz wrote:

Having finally stumbled upon Oolite I'm having way too much fun playing the game again and I've only just started poking around under the hood. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens with the jump effects. In the meantime I've started making a new craft in Blender. Getting that into the game is probably a better first step.

Ha, drawn to the Dark Side already! I hope you know what you are letting yourself in for - making OXPs is more addictive than Arzaquarian MegaWeed

Welcome onboard, d8sconz

d8sconz wrote:

I've found the graphic for the shader effect, but how that image gets distorted into the transition and then opening out to the new system ???

The vertex shader makes the whole thing appear as screen aligned quad with a depth (z) of -1.0 (0.0 in v1.6) and passes the texture coordinates with a offset of 0.5 (center).

The fragment shader modifies the passed texture coordinates (logarithmic, modified over time) and mixes the result with the fog color (logarithmic from center, exponential density and color, modified over time). The result is (again) modified over time and discarded if specific value are reached. The shader also modifies the color based on uniforms for galactic/standard jumps and interstellar/normal space. Or as non-technical bit - the texture gets stretched from the center.

d8sconz wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

Before somebody far more knowledgeable than I comes along to give you a more in-depth answer, I'd just like to ask you if you've seen the latest jump-effects in the trunk (development) branch...

Hee hee. It's Murphys law. No I haven't seen any of the new stuff. Having finally stumbled upon Oolite I'm having way too much fun playing the game again and I've only just started poking around under the hood. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens with the jump effects.

Unless you install the current trunk version (get that from here - you can have a separate trunk install from the main 1.76 install), then I suggest you look at this video on YouTube.

JazHaz wrote:

I suggest you look at this video on YouTube.

Here it is in HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-vZralVyU&t=97