Saturday, December 22, 2007

Per pixel lit particles

Hi, i added nice feature: per pixel lit particles.
i can now set if particles emitter needed per pixel lighting via effects file, so this emitter will effected by scene lights.
the effect rendered with shader model 3, so i could gather more than one light and render the particles in one pass.
for example: if i create smoke particles and the particles goes through red light, the particles will get some of the red color from the light.
here is few screenshots:

left: unlit smoke, right: lit smoke

Under water effects

I did some changes in the rendering order, because when i worked with scenes with water surfaces i notice that particles and decals effects doesn't rendered correctly under water, so few fixes here and there, moving fews functions to the right place fixed the problem :)
here is few screenshots:

under water blast

under water smoke

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Weapons Lighting Effects

hi, last weeks was very stressed because finally the baby comes out :) - yes i'm now officially a father, this i very new to me and i'm trying to adjust myself to the new situation, can't tell you how happy i'm, this is amazing feeling :)

for now i'm finding few minutes here and there so this new update i just a new feature i added to the effects system, this feature allow you to create and attach dynamic light to specific effect.
for example: when you fire your weapon you see the muzzle flash effects a small area around it, this is because the muzzle flash is a real light and it lights the area around it.
to create this realistic effect i changed effects script and add dynamic light with small radius for x milliseconds for the muzzle flash effect, this way the area near the flash will be lighted.
i also changed rocket effect so it will create light attach to the rocket and cast shadows.
here is few screenshots:

muzzle flash lights the area around
muzzle flash lights the character
rocket cast shadows and lights the area around

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Freezing the scene

hi, it became very difficult to debug AI and effects, so i thought it will be nice if i could freeze the scene and move with my camera to see things from closer view.
so i added the new feature along with few options:
1. freezing the scene and get a free camera so i could move around, good for debugging effects from different view.
2. do one update step so i could see how things get updated, good for AI debugging.
3. keep my free camera and let the scene updated for a while, good to see how bots moves and fight.
here is few screenshots that couldn't be captured without freezing the scene.