Shiny Surfaces/Metals (Cubemap shader)

[Winterhome]

Going off of and refining Aceface's suggestion a bit, with a possible technique. We have metal ingots already, yeah? Why not add the other three wedge shapes for them and add a cubemap shader to reflect the sector skybox?

Right now there's no real reason for players to use them as decoration in their ships, when they can just use Hull blocks instead. Crystals and circuits and such benefit from light or transparency, but Ingots have no such benefit over hulls.

To balance them with hulls a little, I think they should be given the armor value of standard armor or something. That way we can have all the hideous golden ships flying around the galaxy we can possibly want.

A cheap shader could be disabled via the ingame menu, of course, if need be.


This is not a Texture request. This is a shader request.

 

[NeonSturm]

This is a shader request.

add a cubemap shader to reflect the sector skybox?

Wouldn't that look weird indoor?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Wouldn't that look weird indoor?

Maybe have the shader also reflect blocks of the entity itself(and entities docked to it)[not-docked entities are excluded for performance reasons]

 

[Winterhome]

Maybe have the shader also reflect blocks of the entity itself(and entities docked to it)[not-docked entities are excluded for performance reasons]

Possibly, but we're not talking about actual reflections. They don't have to be high enough quality to pass as mirrors or anything, they just need to look like they're reflecting something.

Cubemaps are not reflections. Cubemaps simply look like they could potentially be reflective surfaces. Actual reflections absolutely mangle GPU usage - a single reflective block would double the amount of processing power needed to render a ship, and the amount needed grows exponentially with every new reflective block. I don't recommend even trying, unless there's some new extremely efficient method that I'm unaware of.

 

[NeonSturm]

Actual reflections absolutely mangle GPU usage - a single reflective block would double the amount of processing power needed to render a ship, and the amount needed grows exponentially with every new reflective block.

Reflection is about the same as dynamic lightening based on view angle.

• Reflections of Reflections would probably be disabled.

Imagine having a mirror showing the rear or bottom of your ship

• Would be nice for some cases like docking, but you would essentially render a second|third|forth|... viewport (or screen).

 

[Crusade]

I don't think we need cubemapping... However, having a specular map for textures would be freaking awesome. No more metallic grass, anyone? It'd give the illusion of reflections, and make textures look a bit more believable.

 

[kupu]

I don't think we need cubemapping... However, having a specular map for textures would be freaking awesome. No more metallic grass, anyone? It'd give the illusion of reflections, and make textures look a bit more believable.

Yea, i agree. Specular mapping would allow shiny materials + benefit every other block in the game.

However, last time i checked we are limited to a quantity of map types (2 - diffuse and normals). This would require a us changing image formats and adding a 3rd map on the alpha channel of the existing normals then pointing a shader to that particular channel. It's not an impossible task, but it's obviously not priority.

Specular / glow maps are things i'll keep on the back burner, but right now i don't want to push for them. I want rails. I want PVP updates and creatures. The game doesn't *need* gold blocks right now (and i love deco options!).

I won't press that red rejected button this time. ^^

 

[Winterhome]

Yea, i agree. Specular mapping would allow shiny materials + benefit every other block in the game.

However, last time i checked we are limited to a quantity of map types (2 - diffuse and normals). This would require a us changing image formats and adding a 3rd map on the alpha channel of the existing normals then pointing a shader to that particular channel. It's not an impossible task, but it's obviously not priority.

Specular / glow maps are things i'll keep on the back burner, but right now i don't want to push for them. I want rails. I want PVP updates and creatures. The game doesn't *need* gold blocks right now (and i love deco options!).

I won't press that red rejected button this time. ^^

That's all I ask. ;D
Something to be planted in the future plans for the game, for when we're finally ready to start making it shinier and prettier with more fun shaders.

 

[Crusade]

Why not use a single DDS for all texture sheets?