Make all hull blocks able to have lights

[AsherMaximum]

I have a suggestion for implementing lights in a way that would allow them to match any ship hull color. Currently, lights match grey hull, and can look odd when on a different color hull. It would be nice to have light blocks for each hull color, but that is adding a lot of blocks to the system, which would end up getting hard to manage.
Instead, why not take advantage of what was added for the new shard & ore system? Those items can be place my the game engine within any block from what I understand. So, add the ability for players to place those type of items back into a block, and then, make lights just like shards & ores, simply an item that is inside another block.

There would be a few problems with this, mainly that the lights would not be added back to your inventory when you removed them in build mode, but I am pretty sure it would be possible to add a setting to texture blocks (currently shards & ores) that marked whether they were recoverable in build mode.
Also, being able to add a light to a dirt block. I don't think that is really a problem though, yeah it might look weird, but hey, so do many things we can build!
The other big issue I can see is controlling light emission; I am not sure how hard that would be. I think any block can be made a light emitting block, but I don't know if the programming would allow that to be changed based on what texture block is in the block.

This would also have the added advantage of allowing us to re-create ore/shard containing blocks for decoration on our ships. Of course, we would have to be careful to only use the salvage beam to remove them though, so we don't loose them!

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I think this has been sorted by the new update with the lights (8 new colours of lights+rods).

 

[AsherMaximum]

Not quite; the new update is for 8 new colors of glass, not lights. The rods are new though, and I think the grey & purple are new colors.
(I'm assuming you are referring to this tweet).
It also doesn't solve the border issue. If you want to have a red wall with a white light on it, you can't do that without a grey border. Now, the new rods will allow you to put some sort of light up without a grey border, but if you want the full square lights, you're still stuck with the grey border.

Those new rods do look really cool though, can't wait to play with them! The colored glass. Fingers crossed that it comes with wedges, tetras, and pentas on the initial release!
I do imagine though with the new rods, one of the first things people are going to ask for is corners!

 

[FunnyBunny14]

It is released already, there 8 colours of glass come with all the other types (wedges, tetras etc.), but the lights don't.

 

[jayman38]

Take another look at the "floor" in the Twitter pic. The colored blocks on the floor in front of the light rods? Those are light blocks. There are about 3 or 4 new light colors in the latest update. I haven't used the black light yet. Does that give anything an odd technicolor glow in low light, like a conventional black (UV) light?

However, yes, you can see that all the lights do still have a grey border. A modification to this suggestion thread might be to make the borders match the light.

 

[AsherMaximum]

Yeah, as I noted, the Purple and grey/black light were probably new. The other colors already exited (although now that you mention it, I think orange is new as well. Not sure, I stick to white lights for the most part).

Also, this suggestion wasn't really related to new light colors, but being able to have different border colors for the lights. You'll be able to get something like that with the rods, assuming they put out enough light, but that wouldn't be a walkable surface, so it would only work for ceiling, wall, or exterior lights, not interior floor lights.

 

[jayman38]

... but being able to have different border colors for the lights.

By extending the light color to the edge of the block, the light may not look quite as nice, but at least you won't have to worry about ugly grey lines messing up your architecture. The best part? Not needing to use up block IDs. Since it's more of an artistry thing than a game engine thing, such a suggestion might be more likely to be implemented than an average suggestion that requests changes in functionality. It's up to you.

 

[AsherMaximum]

By extending the light color to the edge of the block, the light may not look quite as nice, but at least you won't have to worry about ugly grey lines messing up your architecture. The best part? Not needing to use up block IDs. Since it's more of an artistry thing than a game engine thing, such a suggestion might be more likely to be implemented than an average suggestion that requests changes in functionality. It's up to you.

My suggestion would not use up any more block IDs either, since the light would be a texture block within a normal block.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

The lighting is bugged. Lights in dark areas don't add more light (and there are most likely a lot more bugs than that)

 

[Lecic]

I'd like to see lights have the border on lights get removed.

 

[AsherMaximum]

The lighting is bugged. Lights in dark areas don't add more light (and there are most likely a lot more bugs than that)

Yeah, I've noticed that lights behave weirdly in shadows. I turned shadows off because of it.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

It is only worse with shadows on... Lights still behave like that with shadows off.

 

[AsherMaximum]

It is only worse with shadows on... Lights still behave like that with shadows off.

The main thing I noticed is that light blocks stopped emitting light from one of the surfaces had another block within 2m of it. That doesn't happen with shadows off.

Also, my base in the middle of space is really, really dark with shadows on, not so much with shadows off (and right now, it's mostly flat. WIP, so no walls yet.)