Oolite Bulletins

I was going through the wormhole code and found that for, like ever, we had the effect kind of wrong. There is a part in the code that does calculations and consumes cpu cycles only to output the result with an alpha of 0.0, i.e. completely transparent, i.e. invisible. I fixed that and made a few more changes to that and this is what I have in my test builds now:

The Witchspace Eye

I think it looks kind of mesmerizing and I am considering defaulting to this effect for wormholes. This has the added bonus that it is visibly different to the q-bomb effect, which right now is coded in a very similar way.

Windows test executable available for a few days here if you want to experience it for yourself: https://we.tl/t-KCADD62Yry

Tried it - like it, much better than the current one!

So +1 for making it default

Looks a bit Goatse-ish, or is that just me?

Here is a different take on the effect.



Temporary link to Windows test executable: https://we.tl/t-of3GBAgMxO

another_commander wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:56 am

Here is a different take on the effect.

I think I prefer this one... Not because it's less subtle but because it makes the edge of the circle less obvious (and therfore less obvious it's a flat circle).

another_commander wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:56 am

Here is a different take on the effect.



Temporary link to Windows test executable: https://we.tl/t-of3GBAgMxO

Looks fascinating.
But just not what a black hole should look like. I mean- since when is it transparent so the planet behind is visible?

I'd like a black hole to be black. If computational possible the rim may have a lens effect on the surrounding space, but that's it.

So would it be possible to at least render the effect on a solid black circle?

The wormholes in Oolite are definitely not black holes. They are soft sci-fi phenomena created by spaceships and powered by intense handwavium, therefore any cool looking effect is sufficient.

Oops. This thread is about wormholes.
Yes it's cool with that effect.

Scrap my previous post...

another_commander wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:56 am

Here is a different take on the effect.

Are the colours loaded from planetinfo, so anyone can experiment? Are the colours changeable from JS, so they can be changed at any time?

I'm imagining an effect that starts an intense violet colour, changes several times through the colours of the rainbow until it reaches red, then goes to a very dim, dark red before finally disappearing.

Wildeblood wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 8:55 pm

Are the colours loaded from planetinfo, so anyone can experiment? Are the colours changeable from JS, so they can be changed at any time?

I'm imagining an effect that starts an intense violet colour, changes several times through the colours of the rainbow until it reaches red, then goes to a very dim, dark red before finally disappearing.

No, at the moment the color is hardcoded and not changeable neither from planetinfo nor from JS.

This of course could change in the future. It's not entirely straightforward, but should be doable.

Is this change for Windows only, or might it be getting blocked by BGS?

No, it is for Linux too and it shouldn't be blocked by BGS (I am running BGS here).

Note that the latest revision of the effect is not on github yet.

another_commander wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 9:23 pm

Note that the latest revision of the effect is not on github yet.

The github pages say things like "Enhanced the wormhole effect. Also typo fix." and "Brightened up and further enhanced the appearance of the wormhole eff…", which might (did) lead one to think that the wormhole fluffing was effected on the github releases.

Yup, the latest version of the wormhole got into github master a couple of hours ago.

another_commander wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 12:47 pm

Yup, the latest version of the wormhole got into github master a couple of hours ago.

Ah! Misunderstanding my side. This is the wormholes left by NPCs, rather than the wormhole effect of the player jumping.

Is there anything that could be done to smooth the latter? I usually find it's lumpy mid warp, which hampers immersion.

Edit: PS.target.exitSystem() Oh nice!!!