Kupu's thread

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Currently i had no plans to add another decorative computer block. I'll add it to the pool of ideas when i look at deco blocks again.

I don't really think we need more, just that it would be aesthetically beneficial for the ones we have to have a single computer face and be able to change their orientation.

 

[kupu]

Spoiler: Spare 10 minutes

1920x1080

 

[jzimmerman4]

So I have a suggestion for the future of starmade textures. My idea is that once multiple block of the same kind are placed together, their textures change to become continuous. For example, if a player placed down a 5x5x5 block of thrusters, all of the individual textures would be covered up by a single enlarged thruster texture. But then if a thruster block was placed on the 5x5x5 block the textures would return to normal until the thruster unit returned to a box (allowing for players to easily have either visual effect). Now this would mostly just be a really pretty visual effect except for power modules. For power the textures would only "blend" if the unit was in box dimensions. This would really help players know if their power units were all with proper dimensions or if they had messed up somewhere along the line.

I know I explained this really poorly but if you have messed around with minecraft mods you may have encountered this before.

edit: chests from minecraft show what I am talking about, how their texture changes once two are placed together.

 

[therimmer96]

Have you seen minecrafts connected textures mod? I think this is what your talking about

 

[jzimmerman4]

I havent but that sounds exactly like what I am talking about.

 

[kupu]

Yea, i know what you're talking about.
The only block i would probably want to apply connected / pooling textures to are hulls, but even then, i've got so many other things to finish and fix i have no desire to try get it implemented any time soon. Certainly something i've considered and will continue to consider though.

 

[jzimmerman4]

Glad you do because I am having a hard time explaining things today. Though I think it would look so nice on other block too, for a few reasons:
1) better resolution for textures because on a 5x5x5 block of shields the texture would be at 320 if the player was using the 64 textures.
2) sexy decorations would be possible to make, like giant power tanks would be bomb looking! :D
edit: plus having the end of thrusters turn into one giant output would look oh so nice

So when ever you do have the time connected hull textures will be a promising start for sure

 

[flpsantoss]

may i sugest that the player could connect the trusters to any block and them that blocks could made the engine plum effect instead

 

[RoyalWolfe]

If the engine plume effect thing, is to be considered at all, mite I suggest that it be added as an affect block by itself instead of directly to the thrusters.

That way, I could if I desired, hide the engines behind hull, and place the desired plume effect elsewhere. in effect make the engine exhaust come from where I want it to.

 

[kupu]

If the engine plume effect thing, is to be considered at all, mite I suggest that it be added as an affect block by itself instead of directly to the thrusters.

That way, I could if I desired, hide the engines behind hull, and place the desired plume effect elsewhere. in effect make the engine exhaust come from where I want it to.

Yea, a few dev's have discussed this as an option, but nothing was ever planned. We'll wait and see how we can use the particle system one it's implemented.

----

Hope you're all enjoying the new update, keep the bug reports coming and let me know if you see a wrongly assigned texture or something is looking goofy.

I've fixed the bleeds on computer blocks to remove that jagged black edge between computer / screen blocks and another type and have a few planned remakes to improve clarity on block purposes. (Undeathinator).

Also I started work on the new normal mapping;

I've improved the hull normal map too, reduced the level of noise made the bolt marks a bit more subtle. Should tile a lot better from a distance. They'll be added to the game all in one go. So expect another loose 2 week ETA for full normal map support.

More updates as and when they get done. Flora and normal maps are on the immediate hit list.

 

[Saxopi]

These blocks remind me of the original Half-Life. Fabulous stuff.

 

[kupu]

Well those "2 weeks" flew by... I managed to complete the normal mapping over the weekend. It should be added into the game in the next public release.

Now onto the Flora!

 

[flpsantoss]

i have to say that the circuits looks amazing, when i saw the texture files i was wandering what they were, but know that i know they blow my mind how good the look in-game

 

[Byamarro]

Sweet! I <3 normalmapping. Please think also about specular mapping because planets looks tooo shiny :/

 

[kupu]

Sweet! I <3 normalmapping. Please think also about specular mapping because planets looks tooo shiny :/

I would if i could. We can only have 2 maps loaded at a time currently. So that would be our diffuse and normals. There may be work arounds which i will try investigate. I agree though, most of our organics are too shiny.

 

[kupu]

@Byamarro , Right, i've been looking into our specular settings and think i can avoid adding specular control through maps, which with our current builds is not possible.

The specular / attenuation ratio was way off. I'm still finding a balance that a) Doesn't alter the diffuse colours too much b) helps show off the normals and c) doesn't blind the player when looking at bright blocks (white hull) in direct sunlight.

Samples below show the differences in the WIP currently. Top is old shader, bottom shows the fix. We still get some glare, it's just no longer blinding.

I was flying around remembering how far starmade has come... it'll continue to improve i'm sure of it.

Spoiler: Old / New

Click Zoom​

 

[der_scheme]

I love this.
(… but being able to do this with textures would still be totally awesome.)

 

[Ithirahad]

Ah, yes, the old textures... Someone still has to tell me why the heck the game originally had textures that didn't tile. Sure, I'm not a very good texture artist, but even I could make some nice pixel textures that actually tile properly, even if it looks a bit silly.

 

[jzimmerman4]

You might want to revisit the plexstorage in the new default texture pack. I feel like it looks very unrealistic compared to everything else. The texture from the realistic pack (or something similar) ;however, would look really nice.

 

[kupu]

You might want to revisit the plexstorage in the new default texture pack. I feel like it looks very unrealistic compared to everything else. The texture from the realistic pack (or something similar) ;however, would look really nice.

I disagree. Nothing really looks realistic in the default pack.

Besides, they seem to sit nicely beside other blocks already. Most of the textures have that smooth look to them. see > http://i.imgur.com/9KjO4an.jpg