A hmm moment on wavsets.

[Christopher]

I can asure you, it woudn't have work for a Stargate or a waterfall (unless you want it to look like a soap bubble...)

Christopher

[Karkadann]

hmm a convex Stargate?? we could call it a linking soap bubble or half a soap bubble. I wonder if it would be possible to separate the linking tech from the wave like effects, and just rewrite the part needed. cuz we could always add the linking tech later

[GPNMilano]

There's lots of graphical improvements that we could add into the game now that we have the source code. Waterfalls are a big one. When you look at an age like Gira you can easily see where the animated textures and particle systems end and wavesets take over. To me it just seems that improving the engine graphically would enhance the game so much more and make the old areas start looking like real places again. They have unfortunately lost that appeal when playing newer games and newer engines. There's also non shading stuff we could add into the game engine. Myst V had windbone mods for example that you could attach to trees that would animate the trees according to the speed of the wind in the age. I believe the only age that was used in was Lakiahn.

[Christopher]

Doen't MOULa also have windbones? I remember moving trees in Kemo... Beside this you could also add bones to the tree in max an animate them using Reactor. I think this could possibly look better...

Christopher

[Mystler]

I'm not sure if
a) URU is worth the effort of implementing poweful engine stuff if no one is really using it and the current solution looks good too and
b) that can be done easily and there are pleople who can do it/have the time at all.

[diafero]

Doen't MOULa also have windbones? I remember moving trees in Kemo...

They also move in CC. I assume it's just a normal animation, but I did not look at it in the PRPs.

[Sirius]

Woah... that is a huge waterfall...

[janaba]

I'd say, this looks more like a huge ice palace mirroring something ...

[GPNMilano]

So after doing a little investigation work of the code for the Grass Shaders and WaveSet shaders I think I tracked down the exact book and example codes used by Cyan to create these FX. The bubble shader was included in that book along with a few others that weren't put into any of the Plasma Engines. So I decided I'm going to try and take a crack at implementing at least the Bubble Shader as a test run. For others who may want to to take a crack at it the appropriate reading for how Cyan did it can can be found here: ShaderX Files You can also check out the other Shader X books via this handy dandy little site ShaderX Books

[Sirius]

I'd say, this looks more like a huge ice palace mirroring something ...

Yeah, the cubemap is way too bright... And since it's a picture, you can't see the waves moving.

Of course, as you can see here, the water "texture" is streched since my waterfall is almost vertical. It doesn't look so good in-game when you are close, because you can see the water is obviously not falling. On a picture, though, with both of these effects, it looks quite nice.

Still, doesn't worth Ahnonay's Waterfall... It's made of only 2 textures, but looks really good.
Perfect place for skydivers, BTW.

So after doing a little investigation work of the code for the Grass Shaders and WaveSet shaders I think I tracked down the exact book and example codes used by Cyan to create these FX. The bubble shader was included in that book along with a few others that weren't put into any of the Plasma Engines. So I decided I'm going to try and take a crack at implementing at least the Bubble Shader as a test run. For others who may want to to take a crack at it the appropriate reading for how Cyan did it can can be found here: ShaderX Files You can also check out the other Shader X books via this handy dandy little site ShaderX Books

Interesting So that's where Cyan found their interesting shaders