[C4:AC] Fungus graphics options

[Rubin]

How do we implement fungus graphics?

One option may be to replace one of the existing 3D terrain features with a new set of 3D graphics; some kind of thin layer or blanket. I don't know how the features align to the terrain, but here are some screenshots of the 3D features:

Fallout - Forest - Ice


Jungle - Oasis


It looks like we can modify the 3D graphics, but I have no idea if this could work.

Another option would be to simply replace the existing terrain with "fungus terrain"--or tell the game to override the default terrain graphics with a fungus texture if the tile is marked "fungus". This might not work on coastal tiles and rivers, though.

Any ideas or solutions?

[Maniac]

Aren't there already red jungle graphics?

[ForesterSOF]

The easiest way to change the amount of fungus, pods and anyother item you can think of is to replace existing items.

If you add the items then I will see if I can add the needed Python so SmartMapAC will let us set them to whaer we want them.

[GeoModder]

No use for the blue lattice stuff from Roanoke?

[Kable]

Transposing the ice down would do for sea fungus... it gives it a similar feel to the original fungus which looks like it's below the surface.



In this screenie I've simply transposed the ice down and removed the 'skirt' around the edges of the iceberg for one of the .nifs. It could go a little lower, as it peeks through the surface near the corner.



I'd like to see ice kept in the game, because almost any planet with oceans are likely to have some kind of ice caps.

Anyway, I could manually apply the changes to all the ice .nifs, although it will probably take me a couple of hours so I don't want to embark without checking what people think pf the idea...

Also, has anyone tried adding a new landscape feature yet? Does Worldbuilder pick it up automagically from the XML descriptions, or is there a fair bit of work involved?

[ForesterSOF]

There are some MODS that add resources so I think we could add Fungus (land and sea) and spore launchers etc.

To edit it we would have to take one of the external map editors and update it or go with what the SmartMapAC does.

[Rubin]

Originally posted by Kable
Also, has anyone tried adding a new landscape feature yet? Does Worldbuilder pick it up automagically from the XML descriptions, or is there a fair bit of work involved?

It is possible to add new features, but I don't think it has been possible to add graphical representations of the new features. I've tried and I can place the feature on the map; I can see the feature effects (e.g. impassable or +10 food), but I cannot get any graphics to show.

I can replace the jungle feature graphics with a copy of the ice feature graphics and this works. This means that we can have two sets (or more) of the ice feature represented graphically--as long as we are "replacing" and not "adding".

The transposed ice looks very promising, Kable! Can you upload or attach the modified .nif file?

[Kable]

Here's a pack with various transpositions and a very grainy xenotexture I made by filtering the icepack dds.

At Z=-4 the model is no longer visible.

At Z=-3 (blender units) (note the cropping at the bottom of the model)


At Z=-2


At Z=-1


It seems that at some points in the middle of the ice sheet there might be a few peaks, but I think that a -3 transposition followed by tweaking to make sure that nothing but the tiniest peaks show through... after all it should be passable by sea in all directions...

[Kable]

Okay, I think this process looks the nicest so far.

20% Z scaling, -1.25 Z position, remapping UV's around 'skirt' on the bottom of the ice:


Still visible zoomed out, but not too intrusive:


I can repeat this for the whole set if you like it, shouldn't take more than a couple of hours and I can probably fit it in before the end of the week.

[Rubin]

Thank you for the files, Kable!

I tried the Z=-1 and the Z=-1.25 (?) and applied some different textures for testing.

When the feature is below the water surface, it does not show at all on my setup.

Transparency gets ignored using the Z=-1.

I was using the "icepack" as replacement for the jungle feature. I then replaced the ice feature and got a different result.

The submerged parts of the feature now show but transparency still gets ignored, though only on the modified .nif.

If we are able to use a 50-75% transparent texture it might look good on the Z=-1; some fungus above water and some below. However, it is difficult to tell--perhaps a Z=-0.5 would look better at coasts.

Kable, do you know why transparency is ignored in the modified .nif file?

[Kable]

Could it be where there are 2 levels of transparency? I did notice that alpha appeared to be either on or off instead of graded, once you sink below sea level. I found this when I tried to 'punch' holes all over the fungus using a soft edge eraser.... I'll do more tests tomorrow night... office party tonight so I won't be able to do anything.

NIFScope might reveal a setting which can be tweaked in the blender export script.

[Kable]

Can't see any significant difference between the original and modified files, although the specular colour is different which i don't think should affect the alpha.

General further investigation reveals:

In Fall from Heaven they have added terrain features, but using 'single square' graphics, i.e. bTileArt isn't set in the feature art defines, and the graphics consist of a single nif.

The bTileArt features appear to be a special case, and it seems to be beyond the scope of either the xml, python or c++ code to create additional bTileArt feature classes. Using Process Explorer, I can see references in memory to FEATURE_ICE, FEATURE_JUNGLE and FEATURE_FOREST, but nothing for the other features. The values are hardcoded into the main program binary, and the binary is scrambled. I'm 100% sure that the in-memory strings aren't a byproduct of loading the XML for the features, because only the 3 bTileArt names appear. I tried adding other features with bTileArt set and they didn't show. There is another reason which confirms this, but I'm not posting that here .

My conclusion: The SDK simply does not have the means to add extra bTileArt features. New features will need to be single square .nifs like oasis etc.

So basically it seems that replacing the iceberg/jungle/forest nif's is going to be the only way to get an organic fungus which appears as a contiguous mass which spreads over multiple tiles.

Here's a quick version, where I applied the 20% scaling and set it at Z = -0.5 for all the ice files. In large areas a small blip of fungus pokes out of the surface, but I can amend that if required.



Haven't had time to remap the UVs round the ice skirt yet, but I will do that at some point.

I'll for now I'll focus on adding the "clear/plant xenofungus" to the worker boats actions, if no-one else is working on that feature.

[Rubin]

Kable, am I understanding you correctly in that the only way for sea fungus to display properly--based on the ice feature template--is to replace the default ice feature? That is, we cannot simply duplicate the ice feature and replace, for example, one of the forest features?

[Kable]

We can replace forests and jungles.

Forests and Jungles are also special case bTileArt textures, so they can be used to create an area effect. I've tried switching jungle for ice and it works.

But the ice does have 3 times as many models which the main program appears to alternate between in order to create more variation. That element we will probably lose, as I doubt it would pick up all 3 variations on the models if they were dumped into forest or jungle. That's quite a minor issue, and it should still look good.

What I'm saying is that for the ice or any of the original bTileArt=1 (those being ice, jungle, forest) features to work, the xenofungus must maintain the original name of the feature (e.g. renaming FEATURE_ICE to something else will stop it showing on the map, try it).

Replacing Ice/Jungle/Forest with xenofungus won't be a problem, but adding new ones and retaining the old ones is impossible.

The forest and jungle could be turned into a single .nif like additional forests in the Fall from Heaven mod, so they be kept, but won't be as shapely in dense areas. They'll either look like blobs with too much space or square blocks.

edit:

btw don't forget to change the name of feature_ice back, because things go crazy... it looks like ice is on every ocean square, but if you draw with the ice brush it goes blank...

[GeoModder]

Looks quite good already, Kable. Congrats on your findings.

As I see it, seafungus would normally be the most isolated form of fungusgrowth on the surface (ocean currents and stuff). Therefore I think it's best to, if a modeler is prepared to do so, create a few different seafungus .nif files and let them be put on a map according to an adapted mapscript.

Something else, you do realize that with another new .nif file a borehole can be completely accurately simulated, don't you?
Replace the water in the oasis .nif, remove it's palmtrees and there's already a good start.