Lighting Additions to the Default Shader
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 1:19 pm
This has most likely been suggested before, but here we go.
One of the many impressive features of Griff's ships (with shaders) is the lighting. Cabin lights flicker and turn red, while engines sync with the exhaust color and subtly pulsate. Unfortunately, these custom shaders don't work the best with the new lighting model, and extracting the bits of code that provide these effects is difficult for the inexperienced (like myself).
At present, to the best of my knowledge, a custom shader is required to implement these advanced lighting effects. I believe it would be helpful to ship creators if the default shader was updated with a few extra options.
• emission_engine_map - The color would be the same as exhaust_emissive_color. It would have flicker effects, change colors, etc.
• illumination_engine_map - Ditto, but an illumination map.
• emission_cabin_map - By default a white-yellowish color with a slight intensity variation effect. Would flicker when low on energy and turn red when in danger. Perhaps there could be a way to recolor it.
• illumination_cabin_map - Ditto, but an illumination map.
• reflection_map - Certain Griff craft (e.g. the Viper) have a false reflection effect that looks quite convincing. This is less important but could add a very nice effect to many ships.
These are, of course, suggestions by someone who has no idea how difficult they would be to implement. I believe that they would allow many existing craft (such as another_commander's ships with improved Griff textures) to look a lot better with minimal work on the modder's part, but I do not know if it would be worth the effort required to put these options in the game.
One of the many impressive features of Griff's ships (with shaders) is the lighting. Cabin lights flicker and turn red, while engines sync with the exhaust color and subtly pulsate. Unfortunately, these custom shaders don't work the best with the new lighting model, and extracting the bits of code that provide these effects is difficult for the inexperienced (like myself).
At present, to the best of my knowledge, a custom shader is required to implement these advanced lighting effects. I believe it would be helpful to ship creators if the default shader was updated with a few extra options.
• emission_engine_map - The color would be the same as exhaust_emissive_color. It would have flicker effects, change colors, etc.
• illumination_engine_map - Ditto, but an illumination map.
• emission_cabin_map - By default a white-yellowish color with a slight intensity variation effect. Would flicker when low on energy and turn red when in danger. Perhaps there could be a way to recolor it.
• illumination_cabin_map - Ditto, but an illumination map.
• reflection_map - Certain Griff craft (e.g. the Viper) have a false reflection effect that looks quite convincing. This is less important but could add a very nice effect to many ships.
These are, of course, suggestions by someone who has no idea how difficult they would be to implement. I believe that they would allow many existing craft (such as another_commander's ships with improved Griff textures) to look a lot better with minimal work on the modder's part, but I do not know if it would be worth the effort required to put these options in the game.