I can really feel the heat now

Battlescape
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Really bothers me that everything feels static in games - all games - when it comes to atmospherics, so I added some undulating heat. :smiling_imp:

*And a special thanks to SpaceJay for helping me with camera - works like a dream. :relaxed:

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A heat haze effect would make those areas much more authentic.

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That looked really nice, they should be able to replicate the effect in Inovae engine right? Though if it’s on any form of priority list is another matter :stuck_out_tongue:

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Heat shimmer is a lensing effect that accumulates over distance. To do it properly would require knowing how much heated atmosphere was between the camera and a pixel on an object, with some sort of lateral displacement resulting. I saw an OpenGL implementation of heat shimmer that was pretty awful because it wasn’t cumulative with distance. It just looks like a Photoshop effect.

In contrast, here are a couple examples of real world heat shimmer.

Modest heat shimmer visible only on distant objects:

14180267340_ba2912640e_c.jpg800×486 114 KB

Progressively greater heat shimmer between camera and distant objects to the point where the distant objects start to become unrecognizable. Note that the shimmer is greatest near the surface, where the heat originates. That’s where the air is roiling the most.

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Might be pretty difficult and time consuming
but it really does add to atmosphere.

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Maybe not something as complex as distance between viewer, but at least something that would be locational based on the exposed lava texture. So long as there is some kind of movement to elicit a sense of dynamism on the planet would quite literally make a whole world of difference :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m assuming INS are going to play around with heat systems to affect gameplay as well? You could disguise your heat signature using the intense heat, but at the cost of your hull integrity or engine performance.

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When it comes to visual scientific accuracy, I doubt Keith would be all that happy with this sentiment.

Probably; they talked about doing this sort of thing in interviews and livestreams around the time of the kickstarter.

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Not to mention Flavien’s attention to detail!

I get the feeling that it’s something nice that they’d like to add, but might not have the resources to accomplish the “scientifically accurate” version. Hence why they might need to compromise with a few smoke-and-mirrors techniques.

I forget what they said about animating the lava in the past but it was along the lines of “we’d love to include it, but due to a focused effort on the core gameplay elements, we can’t guarantee anything.”