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Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix: **Uh.... It's so off topic, that I think you probably should have kept that piece of well known trivia to yourself.
Matrix
**
I couldn't help myself, anyway, to bring it back on topic. Consider this, thrusters aren't really there at all. Consider them massless in your image. Just like light. (volumentric lighting works well for thrusters). It has always worked for me.
------------------ The Evil Spoonman My Brain is Right here (Subject to Change Without Notice) Albatross!!! "Life is to important to be taken seriously."
Originally posted by Jules: **...explanations of stuff... The next is for shaddows... When it is a sphere with shaddow, then the object will cast a shaddow when rendered. If it has no shaddow, then it wont cast a shaddow when rendered. If it is stripey with a shaddow, im not sure. ...closing paragraph... **
Hehe, I'm sure. Keep in mind that light sources can be set to either cast shadows(default) or not cast shadows. Now, when that little pict has a shadow, that object will ALWAYS cast a shadow, regardless of the light source casting them or not. When it has no shadow, that object will NEVER cast a shadow, regardless of the light source casting them or not. When it's all stripey, the object cast have a shadow from a light source that casts them, and will not cast a shadow from a light source that doesn't cast them.
Originally posted by PolarBear: **Oh Crap! Haven another Problem.Using that Linking Tool and then rotating isn't working out. I made the ship and all of it's parts one group and the made all the engine flames another group and then linked the engine flame group to the ship group but now when I rotate the ship ten degrees the engine flame also rotates around it's own Y axis with the end result being the engine flame is still behind the ship but it's kinda bent to the side as if it had vectered thrust. That make any sence? **
Um, not a whole lot of sense, but I got the gist of it. I've had similar problems when I've had object with negative dimensions, they make Strata go all funky. Only thing I can recommend with this is to group each group again(not to eachother, but just each to itself) and see if that makes a difference. And I know that you've made all you sprites already, but remember this for future projects.
(edit) The Strata 3D 3.0.2 online manual: (url="http://"http://www.strata.com/support/3dmanual/index.html")http://www.strata.co...nual/index.html(/url)
------------------ I like long walks, especially those taken by people who annoy me.
(This message has been edited by Ernimtir (edited 03-13-2003).)
Actually I've already put it in the game and it looks fine to me. I've even fixed up the texture a bit so it doesn't look quite as stony as it did. Looking a little closer to metal now. As for the running lights, I tried making a little sphere then aplied the glass texture and tinted it red then added a red aura maxing out the distance and intensity and that looked pretty cool close up but when I zoom out far enough to make it appear the size of a running light bulb it's totaly invisible when rendered. It doesn't even show up. So any coments or suggestions there would be welcome.
side note: Don't get me started on spellings and pronunciations. I could really tare in to you Europeans with you SHeduals and Skools and your Medsins and your Aluminium hehehe
------------------ DANGER WILL ROBINSON! MY ARMS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!
(This message has been edited by PolarBear (edited 03-13-2003).)
Ok, first things first... spelling and pronunciation! For a start, the English language originated in Brittain (I know it derives from Latin, but is was first spoken in Brittain). Therefore there is no way Ameraicans can say that we have goofy spellings and pronunciation. The English language was being taught and spoken over here before anyone even knew there was an America! Infact I have exams in a hall where it was being taught before America even existed (yeah, my University is older than your country so there ). What is this about sKool? Its spelt school and pronounced the way you do. Schedual is pronounced various ways, personally I pronounce it sKed-ual even though that is evil and icky and incorrect Aluminium... ok this is the biggy. ALL Americans pronounce Aluminium wrong. I mean where do you get Alum-in-um from? It is spelled Alumin- i -um. the i is there at the end for a purpose you know. It isnt a silent i, so why ignore it completely when pronouncing it. Geez!! :mad:
Anyway, back on topic, there are two good ways of making lights. One make a really small lens flare with only the flash enabled. The second is the way I described above (make sphere textured with a glowing colour the colour you want the light, and apply an aura of the same colour asit - with all selected for where the aura is to be applied to).
By the way, are we going to see this ship posted on the image gallery?
ewan
------------------ (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)
(This message has been edited by Jules (edited 03-14-2003).)
Originally posted by Jules: **Ok, first things first... spelling and pronunciation! For a start, the English language originated in Brittain (I know it derives from Latin, but is was first spoken in Brittain). Therefore there is no way Ameraicans can say that we have goofy spellings and pronunciation. The English language was being taught and spoken over here before anyone even knew there was an America! Infact I have exams in a hall where it was being taught before America even existed (yeah, my University is older than your country so there;) ). What is this about sKool? Its spelt school and pronounced the way you do. Schedual is pronounced various ways, personally I pronounce it sKed-ual even though that is evil and icky and incorrect Aluminium... ok this is the biggy. ALL Americans pronounce Aluminium wrong. I mean where do you get Alum-in-um from? It is spelled Alumin- i -um. the i is there at the end for a purpose you know. It isnt a silent i, so why ignore it completely when pronouncing it. Geez!! :mad:
By the way, are we going to see this ship posted on the image gallery? **
Jules, you can't say that there's a right or wrong way to pronounce ANYTHING. Languages are like living creatures and they evolve. British English sounds similar to Australian English, but isn't quite the same. Irish and Scottish English evolved on the same tiny island as British English but you don't see very many people confusing a Scotsman for an Englishman. The Brits brought English to India, but an Indian speaking English doesn't necessarly sound like a British speaking English. The British have at least several different accents (Cockney, London, Liverpool, etc). American English used to sound like British English, but slowly evolved (due to immigrants from foreign nations) into lots of dialects (West coast, pigin, southern, midwestern, new england, italian, just to name a tiny few), as well. English during Shakespeare's time sounded nothing like it does today. Historians believe that it sounded a bit like (I think) a German english accent. In conclusion, you can't say that we Americans pronounce words right (British) or wrong (not British), because the English language changes and grows as time passes.
Anyway, PolarBear, you need to exaggerate your running lights when you render for sprites. I've found that lights that would look hideously large in a shipyard pic, look perfect in the Nova universe, so you'll just have to experiment. If you can't get your glow large enough, my suggestion again is to use a shadowless sphere with 100% luminosity (so it looks like light is being cast on it evenly from all directions - even when there's no light), render against a black ship, and after making it into a PICT sprite, use photoshop to blur the spheres, and remake your mask (magic wand the black, invert the selection so you're selecting just the lights, and press delete).
------------------ "Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."
I think lights created using the lens flare tool work really well. I just remembered that thats what I used for the weapons glows on the big grey destroyer I have up for download from (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")Ewan's Lair(/url). Sorry, I will try and refrain from shameless advertising
They can be made bigger than this, but just for a general idea, here is clip from the spin:
OK, Here's an interesting problem. I've made a few diffirent colored running lights (red, green and yellow) with the glowing sphere technique and they look preety good. They even cast some light on the ship which is cool. But when I render. Strata doesn't render all of the lights. It'l only render 2 colors of glow at a time. I've given Strata 90 mg of ram so it's not a ram problem. Any ideas?
Ive had this problem before, what are your render settings?
RT Best
edit: Problem solved. I was using the camera icon at the bottom of the tool pallet to initiate the render and there are only limited options available from that button. I just noticed the render option under the plus menu in the top right corner of the display window that offers more options. So I maxed them out and now all of the colored lights get rendered. Now I'll just play with those settings to figure out what the minimum settings are that I can get away with to cut down on the "Rendering final effects" time.
(This message has been edited by PolarBear (edited 03-15-2003).)
Originally posted by PolarBear: **Yeah that helps a bit. Thanks. If someone knows where to find that Strata Manual out there (hopefully in PDF), that would be gold.
EDIT
Oh Crap! Haven another Problem.Using that Linking Tool and then rotating isn't working out. I made the ship and all of it's parts one group and the made all the engine flames another group and then linked the engine flame group to the ship group but now when I rotate the ship ten degrees the engine flame also rotates around it's own Y axis with the end result being the engine flame is still behind the ship but it's kinda bent to the side as if it had vectered thrust. That make any sence?
OK, This is for any one who happens to be looking at this as a result of a search in the future.
I figured out what I was doing wrong here. I was rotating relative to object as oposed to relative to world. Rotating relative to world clears this up.
Relative to world? I pretty much always rotate relative to object. That way you have more control of how the object rotates relative to itself, not the world. That sounds weird, but take this for example:
You have the object already rotated 15degrees around the z-axis (when making banking sprites for example). When you rotate it for the spin, when using world rotation properties, you will have to calculate exactly the angles the object will have to each axis for every 90 degree rotation when doing the animation - this is very boring and gets extremely annoying after a while. By using object relative rotation, you all you have to do is rotate the ship round its y-axis (which itself will be rotated by 15 degrees in the x-axis).
Get what I mean?
(This message has been edited by Jules (edited 03-15-2003).)
Just had another idea...
You make a small sphere with high white texture glow (say 5 or 6 on the slider) and put that in a larger sphere with a mist texture of density about 250-300 with the required colours and detail low. That would make a very nice light
Originally posted by Jules: **Just had another idea...
That does sound like a good Idea. I'll have to try that.