Oolite Bulletins

I am looking for opinions on an improvement to the laser visuals. It's subtle, but I think it's definitely there. A more glowy laser appearance has been implemented on the laser_visuals branch on github. Builds for those with a github account available at the bottom of this page. Please test it if interested and let me know what you think of this proposal for the laser beams.

So looking behind the curtain, this is how the magic works. The default code puts a bright white stripe in the middle of the beam. It looks ok overall, but it could be improved. Rather than using a white stripe for the mid-beam area, what if we used a property of our tone mapper, ACES, instead? ACES by design desaturates colors as you increase their brightness in order to simulate a filmic appearance. We have already used this trick within the Tianve OXP; the pulsar has no whites at all in the latest version, it emits only blue color, but it is so strong that it desaturates towards white, which is how we get the nice blue-towards-white gradients for it.

So we are effectively doing the same for lasers. Rather than paint a (strong) white stripe in the middle, we paint a (very intense) stripe of the actual laser color instead. The tone mapper desaturates it as required the more intense it becomes and the end effect resembles a lot what we have now, but I think it looks a bit better overall.

Original laser effect



ACES based laser effect


In-game

Realistically I'd expect not to see a laser beam in empty space at all. Only if particles are on the way they would get roasted and may distribute/reflect/emit light - partly to the spectator's direction.

So if at all I'd expect a very weak line source to target.

Everything else is just effect added to our 'experience' of laser beams in atmospheric conditions.

When did Oolite become realistic?

Here is with the laser brightness all the way down. Could go actually even further if we so wished.


Pilot's view:


I guess it's not bad, but Rule of Cool says that it must look like Star Wars, so I'd stick to the bright version.

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 11:15 am

When did Oolite become realistic?

Ack. So it is argueable how a space adventure should look like.
Let's show off what the GPU can do...

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 11:38 am

Rule of Cool says that it must look like Star Wars

Right

Maybe something a little more in the middle for me but it likely is going to be a matter of personal preference I think.

Anyway, nice work

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 11:38 am

I guess it's not bad, but Rule of Cool says that it must look like Star Wars, so I'd stick to the bright version.

I believe that this is a non sequitur.

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 11:38 am

Here is with the laser brightness all the way down. Could go actually even further if we so wished.

I guess it's not bad, but Rule of Cool says that it must look like Star Wars, so I'd stick to the bright version.

Could the brightness setting be a variable which an oxp (or a shipdata.plist ) could change?

Could a ship that is hit by laser flash up? As if it were in a strong spotlight?

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 4:44 am

Could a ship that is hit by laser flash up? As if it were in a strong spotlight?

Yes, that's part of what the Custom Shields OXP does.

another_commander wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:09 am

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 4:44 am

Could a ship that is hit by laser flash up? As if it were in a strong spotlight?

Yes, that's part of what the Custom Shields OXP does.

I tried it, and it is very satisfying as that meets expectations quite well.
Even more than the sound that allows distinguishing a hit from a miss.

I think it should be part of one of the flavors.

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:26 pm

I think it should be part of one of the flavors.

If you intend to include it in a flavor, remember that in tis latest published form this OXP doubles the game difficulty. It gives shields to NPCs.

Sorry to Hijack but... Is this not the latest version of the Give NPC's Shields type of OXZ: N-SHIELDS?

The Wiki is offline for some reason so the backup has been used. This also means no downloads at the moment, hopefully temporally. The Wiki's download entry is only for v1.0.1 but the Expansion Manager and the Main Page both list a v1.0.2.

As to the More Glowy Lasers, my agreement is with Redspear. Something a bit more middle of the road, not so dull but with no bright white or brighter colored area at all down the center. Perhaps just a solid bright color all around might be best. cbr's idea to make it a variable is also intriguing.

I am thinking of letting go of this or maybe get it in the code in a disabled state in case anyone would want to revisit it in the future.

The problem I have is admittedly an unexpected one: lasers do not look the same between sdr and HDR game modes. They look distinctly different, with the sdr version showing raised yellows for the pulse laser beam, while in HDR it looks much more like what I would expect.

This difference comes from the slightly different tone mapping algorithms used between sdr and HDR. I would not want to start experiments with the tone mappers because they are very hard to get right for all colors and ard testing them is very time consuming.

If I get a bright idea (pun intended) I may get back to it, but for now I think I'll leave lasers alone.

Could one craft an oxp which would detect the monitor used and tweak the laser appearance accordingly?