Section glows and how-to?

Kazutek · Post by **Kazutek** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:58 am

Have a question thats nagging me atm: How do people manage these "soft glow" engine effects? Linking a reference picture:

http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx35 ... Fleet3.png

Reason why I asked is even though there is a custom glow option in sections, whenever I attempt to use it, it ends up erroring when loaded into BSF. I must be doing something wrong even with not touching the settings other than turning the custom glow on...

Is there a "correct" way to do this?

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:43 am

Get the Fraxy sprite pack, grab the glow sphere, stretch it, recolorize it.

Kazutek · Post by **Kazutek** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:55 am

Right, that solves one half of my question, the other is left unresolved and the curious cat in my head demands an answer

. So how does custom glow actually work?

EDIT: on the side, wouldnt creating that glowsphere as a section, wouldnt it be considered a "solid" object when under fire? Does "additive" changes this?

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:12 am

Yeah it'd be a section.
You could import it as a doodad if it was a *.GIF

As for custom glow:
You want to use fake aegis with a very low alpha ~0.05
and a high spread ~5-10.

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:55 am

Kazutek wrote:Right, that solves one half of my question, the other is left unresolved and the curious cat in my head demands an answer . So how does custom glow actually work?

EDIT: on the side, wouldnt creating that glowsphere as a section, wouldnt it be considered a "solid" object when under fire? Does "additive" changes this?

Additive merely changes the blending mode, so no.

The tradeoffs between having it as a section and having it as a doodad largely focus on whether or not you need to have it glowing using faux aegis effects. If not, then make it as a doodad. If you do, then make it as a section.

It's also worth noting that engines aren't the only thing it can be used for, as the Daredevil II shows;

It might not make sense, but it looks cool, and that's the important part.

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:06 am

Also used for "glowy cores" :p (I usually layer 3 of them with different colors white - > darker and set to additive).

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:24 am

In that instance it was 2 - one orange and one white, both additive, with the white layered atop the orange.

Kazutek · Post by **Kazutek** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:48 am

Good tips on the glowy sprite. Just tried combining 3-4 layers of it with different colors and had cool ideas to try out. I also havent contemplated it being used as a doodad, and the additional effects of this.

Going back a post or so brings this nagging (read: hammering my skull) question:

Where did that ship come from? Daredevil II?

Droid · Post by **Droid** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:55 am

Metagame.
It's a third (fourth?)-gen alliance assault destroyer.

Cycerin · Post by **Cycerin** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:05 am

http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4089

Use the search function, please. Or sticky that fucking thread. This question gets asked all the time.

Kazutek · Post by **Kazutek** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:35 am

Kind of doesn't help when I search "glows" I keep landing on discussions on ships that apparently had the glow thingy starting out, back to the adv. docs (which didnt have anything except mentioning it), and other extras.

Now if someone told me I could search "fake aegis" I would have gotten something (and do so, search works in this case and lands the linked thread), I wouldnt have asked in the first place.

I'm going to have to look at the Metagame, seems to me it contains the rules and gamebalancing skeleton for me to frame my ships onto. It doesn't help when I could do "ANYTHING" and my brain goes "*pop**sputter**stall*".