Dynamic lighting and Player roll..

[AURAvulpes]

Dynamic lighting
I've been flying around the spawn area for a while with shadows on and I've tried to light blocks up blocks using the light on the nose of my ship but it wont even illuminate anything (apart from the ship itself)..

So i thought i'd suggest "Dynamic lighting" where the light blocks actually emit light to other objects surfaces and stuff..

This would improve the light blocks (and other luminous blocks) greatly, plus it would allow the lights on ships to be more practical as you can light up blocks in a dark place like behind an asteroid or on the back face of a planet.. The only thing that needs changing with this is the tiny range of the current lights.. they need to be able to light up an area, without having to be almost touching the area you're trying to light :/

Additional (optional) changes: There are a few other things that could expand this, but aren't quite as necessary, although it'd improve it quite a lot..

Make stars have a certain light distance so that they light up objects greatly when near them but when it goes further out of the solar system it dims to black space (you can still see the stars out in the distance so it's not like you're blind), in this dark part of space you'll find it difficult to see asteroids or even other ships (providing they have no light sources on) unless you turn on your own lights to illuminate a short-mid range around you depending if you use regular lights or beacon lights..

Player roll
This is one thing I've been waiting forever to be added but for some reason it hasn't.. It's a simple change but makes it much easier and less annoying for all players..

Ships have a control where you can roll by holding "ctrl" and moving the mouse left or right, but for some reason this isnt the case for the player.. which makes it very difficult and annoying when you exit your ship and you cant get back in the narrow doorway you've made because you cant rotate your body to fit in there, this is also the same case for mining asteroids by hand..


Thanks for reading :D
~AURA

 

[Saber]

So i thought i'd suggest "Dynamic lighting" where the light blocks actually emit light to other objects surfaces and stuff..

Now I don't remember perfectly, as it's been a long time, but I believe I remember schema talking about this some time ago, and basically the reason something like that isn't currently implemented is because it would take a huge amount of work to get that to work and not lag the heck out of everyone. One light shining on one asteroid would be no problem, but you have to consider the craziest possibility imaginable, like 50 ships all trying to illuminate the backside of a planet...with crazy disco rave lights. That isn't to say schema won't be able to find a way to implement it in the future, but for now I'm thinking it's probably a "back-burner" project.

I do completely agree with you about player roll though, that may just be something that's been overlooked, but who knows, regardless it will be a nice addition when it's implemented.

 

[AURAvulpes]

One light shining on one asteroid would be no problem, but you have to consider the craziest possibility imaginable, like 50 ships all trying to illuminate the backside of a planet...with crazy disco rave lights.

Hmm.. the lighting would be all client sided.. and if you didnt want to lag a client due to too many lights then you can limit the amount by either:
A: Setting the distance from the player where dynamic lighting will be active..
B: Using some of "count limiter" to limit the amount of simultaneous lights the client can run at once.. any lights exceeding that number will not have the additional lighting, for example if the Count limit for the dynamic lighting is "20" and there are "28" lights active within the players render distance then the furthest 8 lights (with the exception of a star) will not render..

That should enable some degree of control of lag reduction caused by too many lights.. and even so it's not like it's going to lag "everyone" as it'll be a toggle-able option in the settings

 

[Saber]

I don't think schema would add something as effective as dynamic lighting to be only client-side though. That would be something which could greatly benefit other players in multiplayer. It's just a tricky balancing act between what will keep things running smoothly and what will benefit everyone.

 

[ltmauve]

Having dynamic personal lighting should be too huge of an issue. Having a huge instant rock show that you can mount on a fighter is where you start getting problems. Having hard limitations on the lights as well (like say only 20m) will help keep the performance costs down.

 

[WaffulMann]

but but but but but guys you are forgetting
I know it's gonna take a lot of coding
but it's a very good suggestion. :3

 

[AURAvulpes]

I don't think schema would add something as effective as dynamic lighting to be only client-side though..

This would put too much stain on the servers if they were calculating the lighting.. plus the client is the one that renders it so putting lighting on the server side is kinda pointless.. the only part server sided is the light block positions (as with all other entities and the blocks attached to them.. which the client renders).. this information is sent to the client then the client renders the lights, just like it does for shadows.. which is kinda like the opposite of the type of lights I'm talking about..

Perhaps the dynamic lighting system could be developed from the current shadows system, but inverted? :/