Outerra forum

Outerra Engine => Development screen shots and videos => Topic started by: cameni on July 06, 2011, 11:59:41 am

Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 06, 2011, 11:59:41 am
I've been implementing some atmospheric controls that can be used to change how the atmosphere scatters different wavelengths of light and to alter the sun color. It's not yet finished and there will be more on that later in a blog post. An interesting thing is that it can be also used to simulate a terrain lit by the Moon. Here are some screenshots for you to see how it looks like:

(http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night2.jpg) (http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night2.jpg)

(http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night1.jpg) (http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night1.jpg)

The colors aren't entirely right because there's no gradual desaturation implemented yet, that would simulate how the human eye perceives world at low light levels. It will be implemented as a post-process effect in the same place where the exposure is being applied, handling also the HDR adaptation.

A darker variant, as if just lit by stars:

(http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night3.jpg) (http://www.outerra.com/shots/s-night3.jpg)
Title: Let there be night
Post by: sniperwolfpk5 on July 06, 2011, 12:08:39 pm
Thx God. At least new images were released. I like the first one too much. It looks like i am walking at night with a little bit moon light
Title: Let there be night
Post by: SpaceFlight on July 06, 2011, 12:10:40 pm
Niceness.  :cool:

By the way, will there be a day and night cycle in the demo?
Title: Let there be night
Post by: C. Shawn Smith on July 06, 2011, 01:08:49 pm
Very nice :).  Can't wait to see screenshots with an actual moon in there too.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 06, 2011, 01:20:11 pm
At the moment you can set the position of the sun by means of setting day of year and solar time of day, but the planet doesn't rotate yet, so the sun is frozen. The only thing that is holding us from releasing the sun is that because of some optimizations it's caching some of the generated data, and there needs to be a system that will refresh the cache as the time of day changes.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: OGREMAN on July 06, 2011, 01:21:45 pm
I Love it! Very Very cool...
Title: Let there be night
Post by: corona on July 06, 2011, 05:01:12 pm
Quote from: cameni
At the moment you can set the position of the sun by means of setting day of year and solar time of day, but the planet doesn't rotate yet, so the sun is frozen. The only thing that is holding us from releasing the sun is that because of some optimizations it's caching some of the generated data, and there needs to be a system that will refresh the cache as the time of day changes.

Cool, when thats in please release a video showing a sped up day-night cycle in a few locations ;-)
Title: Let there be night
Post by: ZeosPantera on July 06, 2011, 11:44:01 pm
Quote from: cameni
but the planet doesn't rotate yet, so the sun is frozen

I am so old school I didn't even contemplate the earth rotating in a game. I always assumed it would be the center of the universe and everything would rotate around it..

Mind Blown again.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 07, 2011, 02:00:00 am
Well, technically it's a matter of interpretation. In the end everything is transformed into the camera (screen) space, so the world rotates around you. It's a question of how the data are stored and manipulated internally. While you are on the planet it uses ECEF (Earth-centered, Earth-fixed) reference frame internally for referencing objects, so effectively it's the sun and stars that are rotating, but that's not important for simulation. Flying away would switch you to a solar system reference frame and so on.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: OGREMAN on July 07, 2011, 08:47:52 am
Quote from: cameni
Well, technically it's a matter of interpretation. In the end everything is transformed into the camera (screen) space, so the world rotates around you. It's a question of how the data are stored and manipulated internally. While you are on the planet it uses ECEF (Earth-centered, Earth-fixed) reference frame internally for referencing objects, so effectively it's the sun and stars that are rotating, but that's not important for simulation. Flying away would switch you to a solar system reference frame and so on.

Through my interpratation (and I may be quite wrong here)! would this not create problems with using celestial references for navigation at night ... aircraft or ships at sea for example...? Certainly when Night flying in clear air most pilots will use the main constellations as quick references for navigational purposes... will that be available in the demo?
Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 07, 2011, 09:06:00 am
You always get the same visuals, whether it's the sun and stars that we are computing the rotation for, or it's the Earth that we are rotating. Our internal representation should not matter to you. When we implemented the stars, we actually went to identify some constellations to see if it's correct.

Of course it wasn't right then, so I had to tweak and debug it until there was Polaris that was not rotating as the night went by, and after that we could also identify some of the constellations.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: ZeosPantera on July 07, 2011, 10:11:35 am
From the sound of it Ogreman, movement will be relative to the player.. So when standing on earth it will be still and the entire universe will appear to rotate around it.. But when in space the universe will be still and the earth will rotate.

So constellational navigation through random variation will no doubt be forsaken without proper modulation so you better stop the hatin' on the good man creating or your gonna hear the making of a coder procrastinating...

Quote from: cameni
after that we could also identify some of the constellations.

Perhaps something in the demo to highlight and overlay the constellations in the sky. Either with just connecting lines or those awesome 1940's Disney science films.

(http://www.learnwhatsup.com/astro/constellations/charts/leo.jpg)
Title: Let there be night
Post by: Snook on July 08, 2011, 06:45:52 pm
Is that a city blocked out in rectangular primitives in the background of the first shot?
Title: Let there be night
Post by: Abc94 on July 08, 2011, 07:11:20 pm
Night looks good!

Artificial light sources are still pretty far away on the list of things to do, right?

Quote from: Snook
Is that a city blocked out in rectangular primitives in the background of the first shot?

I think that's Fractopolis.  :P
Title: Let there be night
Post by: Jagerbomber on July 09, 2011, 02:56:44 pm
Quote from: Abc94
Quote from: Snook
Is that a city blocked out in rectangular primitives in the background of the first shot?

I think that's Fractopolis.  :P

We're slowly getting closer shots of it.  :P
Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 09, 2011, 03:14:45 pm
Quote from: Jagerbomber
We're slowly getting closer shots of it.  :P
It's a forbidden city. No human being shall set foot in there :P

.. because it's just a pile of buildings made to make a silhouette of a city in distance, nothing neat up close :)
Title: Let there be night
Post by: ZeosPantera on July 09, 2011, 03:35:20 pm
Quote from: cameni
it's just a pile of buildings made to make a silhouette of a city in distance, nothing neat up close :)

Sure it is... try and hide all the gold and oil and diamonds and women. "Nothing to see here people"

Fractalopolis is the first place I am going.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: RaikoRaufoss on July 09, 2011, 05:36:23 pm
Quote from: ZeosPantera
Sure it is... try and hide all the gold and oil and diamonds and women. "Nothing to see here people"

Fractalopolis is the first place I am going.
I already raided the place.  Turns out it's a facade to hide the largest cache of root beer in the world.  When the 100th anniversary of Amundsen reaching the South Pole comes up this year, my root beer will be ready.
Title: Let there be night
Post by: cameni on July 10, 2011, 03:08:30 am
Quote from: ZeosPantera
Sure it is... try and hide all the gold and oil and diamonds and women.
Quote from: RaikoRaufoss
Turns out it's a facade to hide the largest cache of root beer in the world.
Yeah, everyone's own El Dorado ;)
Damn, I'll have to hide the city to save the legend. Somewhere into the hole on the South Pole. With a repulsion field. Once Raiko arrives to the pole by foot it'll be all fixed :)