That new sprite looks very interesting, I'm sure it can be used for a nice special effect.
A display with explanations would be very nice. I'm looking forward to your next update.
Thank you for explaning how you made your sky.
The Sprite Gallery
Re: The Sprite Gallery
"To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind."
-Wallace Stevens-
-Wallace Stevens-
Re: The Sprite Gallery
I now have a ULM that shows version 1, 2, 3 and 4 of which 1 and 3 are available. 
Re: The Sprite Gallery
I have added text and an animated model (!) to explain the motion of the sprites with two degrees of freedom. These are sprites 1 and 2. Sprite 4 has 1 degree of freedom. Sprite 8 has 3.
The behavior of the 2-degree sprites at zenith is interesting, but the angle of view is very restricted. I tried to use sprites this way to make sparkles, but was disappointed. You'd probably get a better effect just by direct animation. So, my message is still to use sprites in their well-behaved regimes. Not that I'm one to talk about being well-behaved...
Getting all the transparent objects to not interfere with each other was tricky. Everything opaque, including the stellar sphere, has pass index 0. The "alpha atmosphere" sphere, that causes twinkling, has pass index 1. The sprites and static, transparent part of the little model have pass index 2. The moving part of the little model has pass index 3.
I'm delighted with that model and the other sprites, actually. The stars can be seen to twinkle through the sprites. The transparent parts of the model render correctly, even though they intersect.
Enjoy learning, Explorers, or simply dream under the blazing stars.
The behavior of the 2-degree sprites at zenith is interesting, but the angle of view is very restricted. I tried to use sprites this way to make sparkles, but was disappointed. You'd probably get a better effect just by direct animation. So, my message is still to use sprites in their well-behaved regimes. Not that I'm one to talk about being well-behaved...
Getting all the transparent objects to not interfere with each other was tricky. Everything opaque, including the stellar sphere, has pass index 0. The "alpha atmosphere" sphere, that causes twinkling, has pass index 1. The sprites and static, transparent part of the little model have pass index 2. The moving part of the little model has pass index 3.
I'm delighted with that model and the other sprites, actually. The stars can be seen to twinkle through the sprites. The transparent parts of the model render correctly, even though they intersect.
Enjoy learning, Explorers, or simply dream under the blazing stars.
Re: The Sprite Gallery
Oh, I forgot to mention the star texture. It's just Blender's clouds with brightness and contrast tweaked so only the very brightest parts show up. Those controls are under the "colors' tab of the texture panel.
Re: The Sprite Gallery
I put in some geometry fixes.
I have included scSpriteGallery.blend with v9. It's a version you can run in Blender. It only has basic interface features, but it's fun. Blender doesn't have the sprite options Plasma has, so only two geometries are available.
I have included scSpriteGallery.blend with v9. It's a version you can run in Blender. It only has basic interface features, but it's fun. Blender doesn't have the sprite options Plasma has, so only two geometries are available.
Re: The Sprite Gallery
I added ambient sound.