Planned New Decoration Block idea: colored linear particle emitters

[jayman38]

I have been watching a play-through of Half Life 2 and got inspired by some of the visuals. We need a way to decorate our ships with translucent particle streams.

The particles would each be a simple 2D billboard displayed in 3D space, moving away from the emitter block.

9 new blocks in two categories:
1. One-color particle emitter for each of the 8 standard colors.
2. Multi-color particle emitter, so you can select how many of the 8 standard colors are included in the particle stream.

Edit: There would only need to be one block type, with configurable color available.

The block mechanic would work like this:
1. Emit the set number and size of particles from the "active" face of the block (default: up?) at the set speed.
2. Terminate the particles when they hit another block (area activation blocks can be used to stop the particles in "mid-air") or when they reach the outer dimensions of the structure.

The "R" block interactive key doesn't just turn the emitter on and off. Instead, it opens up a control panel with at least 4 5 controls:
particle speed (default: 1.0 block per sec.)
particle size (default: 1/32 block size)
particle amount (default: 16 at once)
particle fade (default: despawn the particle after [edit: fading as it travels] 4 block lengths)
Edit: particle color (default: white)

With the multi-color emitter, an additional control would be enabled, allowing the player to select which colors (can pick any number of them between 0 and 8), and then those colors are randomly used for the particles.

Other ideas for controls: particle spread? (maybe have the particles move out from the emitter in a fan pattern?)

Linking ideas: logic attachment for turning the emitter on or off. weapon attachment for additional weapon launch effects (maybe a weapon effect option, so that when hit, the target "emits" those particles temporarily?)

Ideas? Can we do something like this with an existing block already?

Edit: I almost forgot to mention game limits. The game should probably put a certain limit on the number of total particles in the universe. 2048 seems like too few, but any more and it might bog the system down too much. It would be something to test.

 

[молоток]

I think this could be done more simply by a four panel animated block... just like the new charts. Making the block animation 3d would be too taxing, but I like the idea of customize-able animated effects.

An additional item could be electrical arc blocks, animated blocks that are mostly transparent, but with an electrical arc animation. They should damage astronauts that move through them. An additional feature is that they should disappear and reappear like doors when activated by logic.

 

[lostinplace]

should be a compiled shader so that way the server doesn't have to care

 

[jayman38]

I think this could be done more simply by a four panel animated block... just like the new charts. Making the block animation 3d would be too taxing, but I like the idea of customize-able animated effects.

An additional item could be electrical arc blocks, animated blocks that are mostly transparent, but with an electrical arc animation. They should damage astronauts that move through them. An additional feature is that they should disappear and reappear like doors when activated by logic.

Oh, I'm not talking about animating the surface of the block. I'm talking about putting dots into space above the block. Like embers that float up out of a fireplace.

I'd love to see electrical arc blocks. Harder to make work right. Electrical arcs would be cool, and would be neat to see on the outside of damaged ships, like in the Freespace games.

 

[Valiant70]

Well, I'd certainly like to see something along these lines. Beats me why you'd need to implement 9 blocks instead of just one configurable one though.

 

[jayman38]

Well, I'd certainly like to see something along these lines. Beats me why you'd need to implement 9 blocks instead of just one configurable one though.

I was thinking of ease-of-use, but Block IDs are more important. It should be just a single block type, with the white color as the default.

 

[jayman38]

I threw together a quick animatic of what the particle emitter might look like, based on an old StarMade hallway exploration animatic I made a while back. To make it spacey, the speed might need to be pumped up a notch. Also, it will probably look better if each individual particle is given a more artistic base image. The "sun sprite" image, for instance.

Default values:


Red, green, and blue colors selected in one block:

 

[jayman38]

It took me a while to figure out even a simple electrical arc algorithm, and now that I can see it in action, it would be really neat to see in-game. It would need to have severe limitations (turns off beyond 1000 m, no more than a hundred arcs active at once anywhere in the universe, etc.) to keep from crashing the game, but wow, you'd really have a good sense of being in the future and/or in space. (Edit: Or in a mad scientist lab, such as Dr. Frankenstein's... Bring on the mutant lab-grown aliens!)

 

[srs008]

actually, that is not so bad, but i suggest we use ONE block id, we use some folders to separate the block's settings, "surface" being the block itself, "particle shape" is the mask for the particle's shapes... and "particle textures".
this way, people can add textures and such as desired. the server simply tells the client the SETTINGS it has, and the client renders
accordingly. that way, people can turn them off in their settings WITHOUT interfering with the game.
alternatively, a PLAYER should be able to override the block settings locally, or switch that block off locally.
this MUST not effect the server setting. so that does who do NOT own the block, can still change it to THEIR tastes.

 

[Calbiri]

Particle effect decoration block are confirmed.

 

[jayman38]

Neat! Thank you!