Fri May 13, 2005 12:55 am
Nomad Stuff
I really really really have to go to sleep, but I have one more quick thing to share: I am fairly certain that I know how Nomad stuff works now.
"What Nomad Stuff", you ask? Well, basically... the way that they look... totally different from everything else in the game.
I will explain this in greater length when I have more time... and have built a demonstration model. Here's the short version:
1. Nomad stuff doesn't use the standard projected cubemap that's used for everything else to simulate specularity. Someday I should actually document that, too, and see if I cannot get a hex-editing wizard to do something for me that I haven't yet been able to do, which is make more specular cubemaps with unique names- I have never gotten the hang of how to do that right- if I only had two or more of these to play with... I could give y'all some really neato things, like a "chrome" shader I built at one point... and then abandoned because I hate hex editing and have never figured out how to rename 3DB/CMP parts the hard way.
2. Instead, Nomad stuff uses a cubical projection that just uses one face, aligned with the active camera at all times... and that face, where it intersects with the surface geometry of Nomad ships, is putting the second texture onto the Nomad ship surface on the effected polygons- this is the named Bt texture of the DcDtBtOcOtTwo texture type. Managed correctly, this is what produces the "iridescent" look of the ships.
3. I strongly suspect (but cannot confirm without a seperate experiment) that DcDtBtOcOtTwo objects are rendered double-sided. That's the Two. Important note there for ship designers- if we can turn this on with our work, then there are a whole BUNCH of things we can do with this- the possibilities are huge.
4. The line nomad = true simply tells the game engine to render the second texture onto the model like the fake specularity, but to apply the model's alpha, instead of ignoring it (this is why Nomad ships aren't shiny).
You cannot have a shiny Nomad ship. The FL engine gets very picky about transparency, period- especially transparency involving an alpha channel. If you try to apply the normal cubemap to a DcDtBtOcOtTwo surface, it quits being drawn, much like what I noticed with my previous experiments creating alpha-channel propellers for WOS... but I digress.
DA went around this problem, instead of through it, but we can take advantage of this...
"What Nomad Stuff", you ask? Well, basically... the way that they look... totally different from everything else in the game.
I will explain this in greater length when I have more time... and have built a demonstration model. Here's the short version:
1. Nomad stuff doesn't use the standard projected cubemap that's used for everything else to simulate specularity. Someday I should actually document that, too, and see if I cannot get a hex-editing wizard to do something for me that I haven't yet been able to do, which is make more specular cubemaps with unique names- I have never gotten the hang of how to do that right- if I only had two or more of these to play with... I could give y'all some really neato things, like a "chrome" shader I built at one point... and then abandoned because I hate hex editing and have never figured out how to rename 3DB/CMP parts the hard way.
2. Instead, Nomad stuff uses a cubical projection that just uses one face, aligned with the active camera at all times... and that face, where it intersects with the surface geometry of Nomad ships, is putting the second texture onto the Nomad ship surface on the effected polygons- this is the named Bt texture of the DcDtBtOcOtTwo texture type. Managed correctly, this is what produces the "iridescent" look of the ships.
3. I strongly suspect (but cannot confirm without a seperate experiment) that DcDtBtOcOtTwo objects are rendered double-sided. That's the Two. Important note there for ship designers- if we can turn this on with our work, then there are a whole BUNCH of things we can do with this- the possibilities are huge.
4. The line nomad = true simply tells the game engine to render the second texture onto the model like the fake specularity, but to apply the model's alpha, instead of ignoring it (this is why Nomad ships aren't shiny).
You cannot have a shiny Nomad ship. The FL engine gets very picky about transparency, period- especially transparency involving an alpha channel. If you try to apply the normal cubemap to a DcDtBtOcOtTwo surface, it quits being drawn, much like what I noticed with my previous experiments creating alpha-channel propellers for WOS... but I digress.
DA went around this problem, instead of through it, but we can take advantage of this...
Though it's good that you are finally getting some answers, if I can help in any way let me know.
