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New weather effect - atmospheric fog

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:26 am
by Hemisphere
Not sure how technically feasible this would be, but it would basically involve overlaying a semi-transparent graphic over the entire screen - ideally scrolling very slowly to the right to give the impression of a rolling mist/fog.

They could be triggered in appropriate situations, for example just as the sun starts to rise, it would be typical to have a light, rainy mist, or even, far less frequently, a dense fog.

Desert areas could be prone to "sandstorms", and some dungeon areas could be filled with a vile green, almost luminescent fog.

Some mockups of how it might look:

Image
No effect

Image
A cool mist

Image
A dense fog

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A sandstorm

Of course it would be rather difficult to play in a dense fog, or a sandstorm, but that's realism for you :D

They also have the added advantage of making the game look absolutely beautiful (imo) ;)

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:34 am
by Lord Arcia
I think this is a wonderful idea. What would be even better is if during the times of dense fog/sandstorms, your map was disabled. Ever tried walking through a sandstorm? It's hard, even if you know where you're going.

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:12 am
by Hemisphere
Yes, the map thing makes sense too, probably makes it harder to impliment though, and as I understand it developer attention is at a premium around here ;)

The fogs I showed already btw were pretty much monotone - I just tried playing with putting 4 or 6 colours into the fog, and the result is even nicer imo!

Image

Also filters could be applied* to the image to give a more "videogame" style fog:

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Generally I prefer it, but that's probably a matter of taste.

*Filters in the design process of course, not in the client!

Edit: I was thinking, it could even be a more standard client effect during regular gameplay, with the user being able to determine whether they want it on or off. For some people atmosphere and beauty is most important, and for others precision and clarity, so it would be unfair to force it on everyone - it could be set to off, low, medium, o hrigh, depending on individual user preference.

Would look super swanky when promoting the game too - good graphics really do turn heads!

Image

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 9:59 am
by Jupiter
I love fog and I would love to see this IG :P

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:03 am
by Pellandria
Wow man, you are the best addition to the game, since a long time, that fog looks freaking awesome, would be nice if it actually moves while you walk trougth it.

That "coloured" fog could be implented after smoking sibanac or after drinking too much alcohol.

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:17 pm
by Llama
Pellandria wrote:That "coloured" fog could be implented after smoking sibanac or after drinking too much alcohol.
And the human graphics are changed to animal ones :P

Everything else looks neat-o ;)

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 3:21 pm
by maryday
Try that sandstorm grainy and rough maybe.
((Might be also an interesting idea for the devs, as one might need some slight screen-blurring or tiny-localized palchanges?
Filters for the client. Yes, imo.))

I suppose you can prepare different sheets (eventually bigger then screen-res) to blend over each other, for showing
different ammounts of deposit/condensation.

Would be interesting as you manage to animate the fog somehow..to make it swelling thickly, or just dipping all in a soft, creeping mist.

You could also give a try to some area-curtailed effects.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:22 am
by Aust
This looks great, thank you! =) Personally I prefer the first layouts though.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:58 pm
by AlexRose
Hadrian_Abela wrote:And the human graphics are changed to animal ones :P
That would be hilarious. I can imagine the trouble that would cause at the pig pen.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:22 pm
by Damien
DRUG FOG YAY !

;)

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:02 pm
by 1d20
Or if people smoke too much sibanac, then the fog would appear?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:44 pm
by Damien
I'd apply the fog to mushrooms instead of sibanac, but the fog colour should change all the time.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:12 pm
by Olaf Tingvatn
looks awesome:D and yeah seeing some kind of "fog" when you have had a tad to much to drink would be awesome. and morning fog during summer and night fog during winter and such would be awesome to:)

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:38 am
by maryday
-global wind directions or strenght;
-weather setting zones/layers; ((would need to add marker to each tile?))

((already implemented?))

-humidity var ? ((increasing fog/rain chance..decreasing sandstorm chance, and on...))

or too realism fixed, Estralis?

-hail((less PER-penalty then fog, high chance of sickness if nutrition bad..))
-blizzard((PER-penalty like fog, highest chance of sickness if nutrition bad..))
as addition to snow?
((Just thinking, would not need high probabilities for sandstorm/hail/blizzard, just a seldomly occuring effect..))

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:12 pm
by Avalyon el'Hattarr
First Maryday post that I read and actually makes sense :P

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:13 pm
by Llama
Avalyon el'Hattarr wrote:First Maryday post that I read and actually makes sense :P
You have clearly never browsed the forum while drunk then ;)

Re: New weather effect - atmospheric fog

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 4:47 pm
by Valione
Hemisphere wrote:
Image
A cool mist

Image
A dense fog
These are the good ones. The others seem too messy.

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:21 pm
by Hemisphere
In hindsight I agree with you on those two actually :) it was all done on very little sleep tbh and it's just ideas at the moment - if anything does happen, it'll only be after some rigorous testing and stamps of approval all round.

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:29 pm
by AlexRose
Well as for regular fog, we already have that ;)

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:48 pm
by Hemisphere
Oh yea! duh :) should have remembered that from the website screenshots..

Still, my fog is nicer :D

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:58 pm
by Llama
Hemisphere wrote:Oh yea! duh :) should have remembered that from the website screenshots..

Still, my fog is nicer :D
Why did I get the impression that you haven't been IG for a long while ? :P

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 6:03 pm
by Hemisphere
I've only played Illarion for a few hours, and most of that's been spent wandering around looking at the trees ;)