Kupu's thread

    Ithirahad

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    There isn't really, because having each light block be cross-entity is laggy. Thus, your docked entity is hit by sunlight just like the outside of your ship.
     

    kupu

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    Hey kupu,
    there are two things that bother me and couldn't really find anything on the forum about.

    Firstly, it would be great if you could fix this:
    Same problem with all color types of forcefields and all types of slabs.

    Secondly, is it technically possible to make docked entities stop "glowing" in the dark?
    Also docked entities don't seem to cast a shadow:
    (the green light is behind the door)

    Is there a solution for this? I hope so, because I hate plex doors :)
    Firstly, welcome to the forums!

    On to the problems...

    1) Correct me if i'm wrong, but am i seeing slab blocks with light sources showing as white light instead of coloured?
    If yes, i can fix this.

    2 + 3)

    This is a flaw in the current lighting set up. The light is not dynamically cast, so entities do not exactly share the same lighting properties as they would in a real life scenario or dynamic system. This requires a re-write of how lighting works in Starmade to be resolved. It has been talked about internally and is being considered, but not 100% planned.

    I hope this helps a little?
     

    Criss

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    Yes slabs of forcefields produce white light. Something I displayed in the release video :P
     

    Reilly Reese

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    Yes slabs of forcefields produce white light. Something I displayed in the release video :p
    And slabs have a perk where they screw up lighting in general since they are considered full blocks.
     

    kiddan

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    You might be able to make your docked entities look better if you turn shadows on, I don't know if it would help much though, I can't really play with them so I lack experience.
     
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    Firstly, welcome to the forums!

    On to the problems...

    1) Correct me if i'm wrong, but am i seeing slab blocks with light sources showing as white light instead of coloured?
    If yes, i can fix this.

    2 + 3)

    This is a flaw in the current lighting set up. The light is not dynamically cast, so entities do not exactly share the same lighting properties as they would in a real life scenario or dynamic system. This requires a re-write of how lighting works in Starmade to be resolved. It has been talked about internally and is being considered, but not 100% planned.

    I hope this helps a little?
    Thanks! And yes, that was exactly my problem. (And that I can't sit on them ;))

    Mhh... Interesting. I wouldn't have thought the light to be static. Does this also apply to starlight or only player created light sources?

    I think if it doesn't kill the performance, the game could really benefit from a rework of lighting. I'm not sure, if that's actually related, but all non-full blocks (wedges etc.) seem to have occasional problems with lighting in my experience and cast rather queer shadows.



    You might be able to make your docked entities look better if you turn shadows on, I don't know if it would help much though, I can't really play with them so I lack experience.
    Yes, that does help indeed, thanks. I didn't think of this, because Steam for some reason starts the game with Intel onboard graphics that doesn't support shadows... :/
     
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    Ithirahad

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    How exactly does the lighting work? I would expect it to be ray casting with some minimal reflections, which would make cross-entity lighting rather easy.
    It's some kind of super-cheap system. I don't know exactly how it works. We need someone who actually knows how this stuff works to answer this. AndyP maybe?
     

    therimmer96

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    How exactly does the lighting work? I would expect it to be ray casting with some minimal reflections, which would make cross-entity lighting rather easy.
    An overhaul to a more proper lighting system is already planned.
     

    Blaza612

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    It's some kind of super-cheap system. I don't know exactly how it works. We need someone who actually knows how this stuff works to answer this. AndyP maybe?
    Welp, shit. Hopefully it does get overhauled, I'd like my doors to not glow in the dark.

    An overhaul to a more proper lighting system is already planned.
    \o/

    MY BROWN LIGHTS MAY YET BE A THING!
     

    Reilly Reese

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    Welp, shit. Hopefully it does get overhauled, I'd like my doors to not glow in the dark.



    \o/

    MY BROWN LIGHTS MAY YET BE A THING!
    Err no I think the "rejected" tag is pretty clear.
     

    alterintel

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    So I just got a Mac (My first mac!). So of course the first program I loaded was Starmade :)
    I have a MacPro 2014 13"

    I noticed some curious artifacts. Has anybody seen this problem before? and does anybody know how to fix it?
    I'm posting here, because this may be a bug that kupu can address.

    Noticeable on wedges you can see the block behind them. And especially noticeable the farther way you get. in the next example you can clearly see the shield rechargers behind the armor wedges.

    so here is what it looks like from far away:
    artifacts far.jpg
    A shot about half way away
    artifacts mid.jpg

    and here is how it looks close up: you can see the whitish lines along the edges of the wedges.
    artifacts near.jpg
    So is this a bug, should I report it, or am I just being stupid and there is a simple setting that I'm missing?

    Thanks :)
     
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    kupu

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    So I just got a Mac (My first mac!). So of course the first program I loaded was Starmade :)
    I have a MacPro 2014 13"

    I noticed some curious artifacts. Has anybody seen this problem before? and does anybody know how to fix it?
    I'm posting here, because this may be a bug that kupu can address.

    Noticeable on wedges you can see the block behind them. And especially noticeable the farther way you get. in the next example you can clearly see the shield rechargers behind the armor wedges.

    so here is what it looks like from far away:
    View attachment 22503
    A shot about half way away
    View attachment 22504

    and here is how it looks close up: you can see the whitish lines along the edges of the wedges.
    View attachment 22505
    So is this a bug, should I report it, or am I just being stupid and there is a simple setting that I'm missing?

    Thanks :)
    This is pretty strange, i'd not experienced that before when i was on OSX.

    Reporting these will always be helpful, but definitely try adjusting VBO or turning it off / on first. Quite a lot of rendering bugs we see are fixed by that setting. Things like bloom shouldn't create that, but no harm testing it too. A thread in Game Support might help you or others experiencing this problem. Let me know how testing these options go.

    I will reply with the standard warning about a limited number of id's.

    How many do we have left right now anyhow...
    That thread's tag was a simple misunderstanding. It's now accurate as Read by Council and will be considered further on in development by Schine (i'm maxed with other projects currently).

    As for ID's? We've used approximately 940. Roughly 300 are set aside for custom server blocks. Current limit is 2048, however schema has said before this is not the max limit Starmade can use. Expansion options are available to us. It's good practice to be conservative with resources, but we're not panicking over occupied ID space. :)
     
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    kupu

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    It's been a while since something of substance was posted here. Unfortunately my recent projects have been either conceptual or still in development, meaning i don't have much to publicly show...

    However, after being inundated by requests from the player base and council, i have been poking some things in my down time. Small quality of life fixes, effects and some shader tweaks and bundled it into a pack.

    I should probably mention, this was a testing project. Not something that should be considered a "bug fix" nor indicative of future content. This Simply re-purposes existing code to try and achieve something else for a bit of fun, and exploring temporary options. It's not a drastic overhaul.

    Let's break down what the pack contains.

    Explosions:
    Larger explosions with a new explosion texture.

    Beams:
    Larger beams with a smoother beam texture.

    Missiles:
    New missile sprites.

    Sun Bloom:
    A brighter, larger, smoother sun bloom with less intrusive lens flares. Sun colour should be more distinct. Very slight tone mapping added.

    Lens Dirt:
    Dirt and artifacts appears when turning the player camera into the sun. It is no longer only visible via lens flares, but the entire sun's bloom effect.

    Space Dust:
    Smoother, duller particles that will still indicate movement without distracting or creating harsh white lines along your screen.

    Shields:
    A slower, more liquid looking hit effect.

    Stars:
    Distant stars have been increased in size by a couple of pixels. This is to avoid smaller stars popping in and out as they occupy either a single pixel or no pixel at all.

    Material properties:
    Hull's reflective properties have been altered.

    Specular lighting:
    The specular (suns reflection on blocks) value has been slightly increased and is slightly less yellow in colour.

    GUI:
    The target info box order now matches the player's ship bars. Shield - Armour - HP.
    Target Armour and Ship Armour colour bars have been tweaked for legibility.

    (Performance note: Bloom will require more resources than default. If you struggle with current settings, don't use this.)

    You can find the FX test pack on the community content: here: FX test pack
     
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    therimmer96

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    Pics before clicks, it applies to everyone ;)

    Crusade needs to step up his FX game :P
     

    kupu

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    Pics before clicks, it applies to everyone ;)

    Crusade needs to step up his FX game :p
    I'll some screenshots into the main post in a bit. I've not been testing these in a cinematic setting with large ships or anything yet.

    To be honest, cru and bear have done most of this before, just in slightly different methods. It's all just a test that i happened to share.