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Outerra Tech Demo download. Help with graphics driver issues

Author Topic: Blinking lights  (Read 4737 times)

zzz

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Blinking lights
« on: February 11, 2015, 04:11:32 pm »

Is there a timer function to make blinking lights easier? I have a whole bunch of blinkers that need to be in delayed phases.

Also having an issue with point lights. At some angles they disappear, even when I move them so that they're clear of the mesh. And it's well-within the draw distance, though that is another thing that is too small causing pop-up lighting effects.
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cameni

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Re: Blinking lights
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2015, 04:37:59 pm »

Given how frequent the blinking lights are, we plan to add optional parameters to the light definition. But for now you have to base them off some accumulated simulation time value, like in the existing vehicle scripts.

Point lights should not disappear since there's no concept of angles at all. Do you mean angles relative to the model?
Pop-ups are known limitation of how the current halo is done, it will change.
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Uriah

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Re: Blinking lights
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2015, 10:29:58 pm »

I think zzz is talking about same think I am experiencing. Point lights seem to be very angle dependent. They are visible at any angle under a certain distance, but beyond that distance, sometime 350-400 meters, they are only visible at certain angles, like they are being occluded by a certain parameter. The occlusion/visible angles seem to be very consistent, and I have reloaded the light script after making an edit, and suddenly all of the point lights are visible to beyond 11 kilometers and seem to be working perfectly, until I re-start OT, they are angle dependent again. I think there is a minor glitch somewhere in the point light system affecting visibility at certain angles, spot lights don't seem to have this problem, as they cast light on the ground and objects, that light is visible from any angle.

Regards,
Uriah
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cameni

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Re: Blinking lights
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2015, 02:25:37 am »

Hm, what's odd is that point lights really do not have any angle factor, just distance. But lighting is computed in cells, so the angles might come from that. At certain distance the lighted area is tiny on screen, and only the point light itself should be visible. That's now done with a simple halo that doesn't render entirely correctly.

Spot lights have light source diameter that's used for attenuation computation but also to render the reflector itself. I think that perhaps the point lights should have it too, and use it to render the light from distance. That's because material reflectivity is usually 5-10%, so the light itself remains visible a lot longer.
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