Implemented New Personal equipment: Flashlight

[Marduk_Zoekoff]

Definite Must for those of us who play more for exploring and building ships and stations rather than blowing them up. I could probably be arrested for littering with all the light rods I have lost in asteroid belts and planetary caverns hunting materials.

 

[Zinth]

I want some sort of character based lighting be it a flashlight or some light from a helmet or special space suit. I was exploring a planet and fell in a cave system and got lost in the dark for a bit. had to turn my gamma up to get out. (think it was to low anyways). But it would also add to the feel of the game and make searching through abandoned stations much creepier.

 

[Proxima_Centauri]

The devs have already stated that light ray casting is "too complicated for the engine", so I doubt this is going to happen.

Though we have one less problem as our lighting system is smoother than MC.

It also murders performance compared to minecraft lighting.

 

[DreamingOfRoundPlanetsAndNoBlocks]

I find it specially annoying when you mine 2 blocks deep and then it becomes too dark to see what the block is so you dont know if its a regular block or it has ore. We Need a flashlight.

 

[Glutton]

No "No"s so far... I think its clear that we do not need Flashlights ever. :p

 

[PreparationsA-G]

What about the Shield-Effect?

What about the light that emanates from shields when you shoot a ship's interior with your laser pistol?

That produces light.

I don't know if it actually "emits" light, or if its just simply a "visual side-effect" of the shield graphic on the blocks it renders over top of, but when you're in a dark ship and you shoot the walls, the shield-graphic thing lights up the area around your shots, and you can see enough to know what's around you.

Couldn't this effect/property/principle/mechanic be utilized to make some kind of crude flashlight? I feel like it could.

How I was Thinking This Could Be Done: (sorry its kinda long)

Spoiler: You don't have to read this part if you don't want to.

Couldn't you just add in a new "action" (like "firing" some (new) specific item/tool (in this case a "flashlight" item/tool) at any physical block) that would produce that same shield-graphic? Except alter the "shield-graphic" that would render for this new action slightly, so that instead of having the white, rippling, chicken-wire graphic of the current shield-effect, it would be more of a solid shade of some transparent-ish white (such that it would just illuminate the blocks behind the effect) (and look like a flashlight beam).

Perhaps also the radius of this effect should be changed from that of the original so that it would more resemble the size of a flashlight beam. Or maybe it could even have the radius of the "altered-shield-effect" graphic be dependent on the distance of the player or entity "firing" the new (flashlight) item/tool from the object being hit by it. That way the flashlight beam radius could get bigger as you got farther away from the object being lit up.

Could something like this work?
(I ask, because I only vaguely understand game code and such)

 

[Deleted member 392097]

been requested to death

If it has been requested to death then it means that it needs to be implemented. :D

 

[Crimson-Artist]

If it has been requested to death then it means that it needs to be implemented. :D

Indeed, but unless someone is willing to pull up their sleeves and make a mod we're just gonna have to wait till Schema implements it and i do believe its planned.

 

[montecristo]

It also murders performance compared to minecraft lighting.

Sigh.. there's a whole different thread on it, so I won't go on about it.

Anywho.. I run Starmade on a craptop that gets maybe 30 FPS when things are running smoothly in-game. Yet, when I choose the "lighten" option in adv build mode, all the blocks lighten almost instantaneously. Why can't the flashlight apply a localized, circular version of this lightening method? Granted, it washes out block edges, but I think - correct me if I am wrong - BearishMushroom fixed that in a mod.

 

[PizzaPress]

PreparationsA-G
The problem is it's just a shader. You might vaguely see the shape of the blocks, but you won't know what they are. Though, something that temporarily turns the block you hit into a light might work. :p

 

[NeonSturm]

I once build a completely black pyramid ship and required my hand gun and the shield effect to find the entrance because you could see absolutely nothing.

You could tell it's there if you see stars missing or a part of a planet was black.



You don't need full light, just a gun which does 0 damage, don't aggro the trade guild (or whatever) and show you the shape of your surroundings.

For block identification we could have similar of what we have in build mode.
If the block under your cursor changes, the top left notification area blinks - it also shows you the block type.
Why can it not show a preview of the block like in build mode when you past a template, showing above the blocks.

Everything is already there.

 

[PreparationsA-G]

Maybe instead of a flashlight, we could instead have "night-vision goggles" or a
"Night-Vision Mode"
available when wearing your space helmet.​

It could kind of function in 3 layers:
(1 2 3)

1. It could function kind of like lighten-mode by lighting up all the blocks in your field of vision (and just to the player using it, so it would be client-side (which is easier, right?)).
2. But then, on top of that (the lighten-mode), it could have some kind of shader (like the shield-effect shader), that would tint all of the blocks a greenish (or perhaps a color of the user's preference), and make it look more night-vision-y.
3. Then there could maybe be a final layer (that would perhaps be toggle-able), that would identify the type of block the player was looking at in sort of a Heads-Up-Display(HUD)-type fashion (perhaps up to a certain distance), like is done in build mode, similar to what NeonSturm suggested (but much cooler looking than build mode, and more HUD-y). Maybe the HUD-identifier could also identify the types &/or names of mobs & astronauts that the player looked at, as well as names of ships.

I'm not sure it would really be as "cool" as a flashlight, but it might be much more do-able alternative.

And it kind of fits the genre/setting of the game a bit better too if you think about it.

...Just an idea.

 

[jath]

Maybe instead of a flashlight, we could instead have "night-vision goggles" or a
"Night-Vision Mode"
available when wearing your space helmet.​

It could kind of function in 3 layers:
(1 2 3)

1. It could function kind of like lighten-mode by lighting up all the blocks in your field of vision (and just to the player using it, so it would be client-side (which is easier, right?)).
2. But then, on top of that (the lighten-mode), it could have some kind of shader (like the shield-effect shader), that would tint all of the blocks a greenish (or perhaps a color of the user's preference), and make it look more night-vision-y.
3. Then there could maybe be a final layer (that would perhaps be toggle-able), that would identify the type of block the player was looking at in sort of a Heads-Up-Display(HUD)-type fashion (perhaps up to a certain distance), like is done in build mode, similar to what NeonSturm suggested (but much cooler looking than build mode, and more HUD-y). Maybe the HUD-identifier could also identify the types &/or names of mobs & astronauts that the player looked at, as well as names of ships.

I'm not sure it would really be as "cool" as a flashlight, but it might be much more do-able alternative.

And it kind of fits the genre/setting of the game a bit better too if you think about it.

...Just an idea.

I'm surprised this hasn't been thought of sonnet. This is a good idea.

Night vision: genius

One way the flash light could work is it could place a temporary invisible non physical light block on the aimed at surface regardless of faction permissions. The frequency of the block placing and how long they last could be adjustable for performance. I think 1 block placed every half second, lasting half a second could work. This could be a temporary solution. And people won't use flashlights constantly anyway.

 

[Gamel]

Maybe instead of a flashlight, we could instead have "night-vision goggles" or a
"Night-Vision Mode"
available when wearing your space helmet.​

It could kind of function in 3 layers:
(1 2 3)

1. It could function kind of like lighten-mode by lighting up all the blocks in your field of vision (and just to the player using it, so it would be client-side (which is easier, right?)).
2. But then, on top of that (the lighten-mode), it could have some kind of shader (like the shield-effect shader), that would tint all of the blocks a greenish (or perhaps a color of the user's preference), and make it look more night-vision-y.
3. Then there could maybe be a final layer (that would perhaps be toggle-able), that would identify the type of block the player was looking at in sort of a Heads-Up-Display(HUD)-type fashion (perhaps up to a certain distance), like is done in build mode, similar to what NeonSturm suggested (but much cooler looking than build mode, and more HUD-y). Maybe the HUD-identifier could also identify the types &/or names of mobs & astronauts that the player looked at, as well as names of ships.

I'm not sure it would really be as "cool" as a flashlight, but it might be much more do-able alternative.

And it kind of fits the genre/setting of the game a bit better too if you think about it.

...Just an idea.

Mate, this is genius!!!!!!!

 

[SapioiT]

That is mostly correct. Its the same reason that lighting doesn't carry over from ship to ship when docked or in close proximity.

Than make the flashlight another sun entity with no damage and which is dependent to the position of the player. Problem solved... well, kind of...

 

[NeonSturm]

Or just make flash-light a :

1. Constantly firing gun
2. which activates something like the shield effect
3. with a texture which highlights the underlying blocks (ignore shadows %)
   
4. and mixes with the normal light-emission in that very same screen area.

 

[Gamel]

we finally have flashlight !!!!:D:D:D:D
Thanks

 

[Blakpik]

we finally have flashlight !!!!:D:D:D:D
Thanks

So does this mean that lighting isn't arse anymore... Or is it just the flashlight? Either way, it's cool.

 

[kiddan]

Lighting -since the last release- has had a brighter minimal level of light, the flashlight -in the latest Dev Build- also helps a ton though!

EDIT: And thanks for the heads-up Gamel !

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Time to make more horror themed builds. That tiny flashlight would make my lost shangra-la many times creepier!