Handheld non-combat stuff

All content discussion will take place here. Any topic that is based upon a phase 2 section must have a link back to that topic.
ACH0225
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2312
Joined:Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:21 pm
Affiliation:Strigiforme
IGN:ACH0225
Location:Cuuyth
Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by ACH0225 » Tue Jun 18, 2013 4:05 pm

There's been a stagnation of development, so here is my idea.

Basic(non-combat) devices, of the garden handheld variety.

Data pad- can hold coordinates, send messages, hack into basic systems, ect. The data pad is the most basic device, and does pretty standard things. Need to remember those coordinates? Right click with data pad and enter a name for them. Need to send a message? Enter a username and a message. Hacking is just done however it is done. The data pad won't be doing anything specialized, but maybe can be used to compute basic stuff like jump coordinated or something.

Calculator- Calculated things. Can calculate jump equations and stuff, along with power requirements. Will be primarily used to craft bigger things, but has a little function.

Communicator- Has a distinct channel, which may or may not be tied into the ship. If you do something special while holding it, it will change the main chat channel to the communicators channel. If you don't do whatever it is, then when you are just holding it.

Glow stick- Makes light. If we can make it so the light will shine like a real light, and you can move with it, would be nice. Other than that, a light that works in vacuum and is brighter.

Scanner- Scans for most things in an area. Can be set to scan for something specific, or will just show the most prominent things. Has tiers with different ranges.
Image
fr0stbyte124 wrote:5 months from now, I will publish a paper on an efficient method for rendering millions of owls to a screen.
mfw brony images
Spoiler:
Image
Image
Image
Image

Chairman_Tiel
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts:1890
Joined:Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:39 am
Affiliation:GLORIOUS REPUBLIC

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Tue Jun 18, 2013 5:30 pm

no me gusta
[spoiler]Image[/spoiler]

User avatar
Tunnelthunder
Ensign
Ensign
Posts:259
Joined:Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:33 pm
Affiliation:Insomniacs
IGN:Tunnelthunder

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by Tunnelthunder » Tue Jun 18, 2013 6:10 pm

YEA GLOW STICKS!

User avatar
fr0stbyte124
Developer
Posts:727
Joined:Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:39 am
Affiliation:Aye-Aye

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by fr0stbyte124 » Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:40 pm

Calculating dynamic lighting is difficult if you can't know how many sources there will be. Non shader lighting would probably be the way to go with that, but there would be no performance guarantee.

ACH0225
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2312
Joined:Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:21 pm
Affiliation:Strigiforme
IGN:ACH0225
Location:Cuuyth

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by ACH0225 » Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:59 pm

Could you somehow boost the brightness for individual clients and make it look like a flashlight sort of thing? Then you could have night vision goggles.
Image
fr0stbyte124 wrote:5 months from now, I will publish a paper on an efficient method for rendering millions of owls to a screen.
mfw brony images
Spoiler:
Image
Image
Image
Image

 ҉ 
Commodore
Commodore
Posts:1574
Joined:Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:50 am
Affiliation:Kzinti Empire
Location:Kzinhome

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by  ҉  » Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:08 pm

ACH0225 wrote:Could you somehow boost the brightness for individual clients and make it look like a flashlight sort of thing? Then you could have night vision goggles.
I don't think night vision like that is a problem at all. The problem is actual light.
;.'.;'::.;:".":;",,;':",;

(Kzinti script, as best as can be displayed in Human characters, translated roughly as "For the Patriarchy!")

ACH0225
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2312
Joined:Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:21 pm
Affiliation:Strigiforme
IGN:ACH0225
Location:Cuuyth

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by ACH0225 » Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:36 am

I won't pretend to be a coder and have any knowledge on this, but, could you make it so the glow stick generates light like a torch, but also forces lighting updates if it moves a block in any direction?
Image
fr0stbyte124 wrote:5 months from now, I will publish a paper on an efficient method for rendering millions of owls to a screen.
mfw brony images
Spoiler:
Image
Image
Image
Image

 ҉ 
Commodore
Commodore
Posts:1574
Joined:Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:50 am
Affiliation:Kzinti Empire
Location:Kzinhome

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by  ҉  » Wed Jun 19, 2013 2:25 pm

ACH0225 wrote:I won't pretend to be a coder and have any knowledge on this, but, could you make it so the glow stick generates light like a torch, but also forces lighting updates if it moves a block in any direction?
Dynamic light mods have been done, they're just hard.
;.'.;'::.;:".":;",,;':",;

(Kzinti script, as best as can be displayed in Human characters, translated roughly as "For the Patriarchy!")

ACH0225
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2312
Joined:Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:21 pm
Affiliation:Strigiforme
IGN:ACH0225
Location:Cuuyth

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by ACH0225 » Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:10 pm

I see.

So no dynamic light for FC?
Image
fr0stbyte124 wrote:5 months from now, I will publish a paper on an efficient method for rendering millions of owls to a screen.
mfw brony images
Spoiler:
Image
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
fr0stbyte124
Developer
Posts:727
Joined:Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:39 am
Affiliation:Aye-Aye

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by fr0stbyte124 » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:32 pm

We can do dynamic sunlight, but it gets complicated for more than that. We certainly can't allow a scenario where we can't control the number of light sources.

User avatar
Keon
Developer
Posts:662
Joined:Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:09 pm
Affiliation:Inactive
IGN:ducky215

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by Keon » Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:38 pm

Just saying, light can be done by putting an invisible block that emits light above the player every time they move.
- I can be reached as ducky215 on minecraft forums -

User avatar
fr0stbyte124
Developer
Posts:727
Joined:Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:39 am
Affiliation:Aye-Aye

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by fr0stbyte124 » Sat Jun 22, 2013 11:21 pm

That's not the problem. The problem is that the light needs to be re-baked every time the source moves. In vanilla MC it is quite expensive and is typically limited to one chuck per draw cycle. If lights are constantly moving around (and we have no means by which to control that) it will make everything outside of that chuck laggy and unresponsive. Look at redstone and piston contraptions at a distance to get an idea.

This is kind of interesting though because changing light levels preserves the geometry so it could be the case that it can be done more efficiently than normal. However, in an effort to reduce on screen geometry, consistent flat areas will have fewer vertices which need to be positioned to make light interpolate correctly. While this can be done for any configuration, it would involve recompiling the entire chunk every time, making it even more expensive than normal.

It's not a matter of effort, games which use lots of dynamic lighting are fundamentally different from Minecraft. An artist can tailor a scene for which parts are visible and how many lights are needed and manually resolve any exceptions, freeing the engine up to do more impressive things. We exchange that luxury for complete world freedom, and so compromises must be made.

We can do outdoor shadows and possibly a finite number of non-shadowmapped lights for particle effects, but we can't do anything that will have to scale.

User avatar
Iv121
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2414
Joined:Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:40 pm
Affiliation:UTN
Location:-> HERE <-

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by Iv121 » Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:02 am

Well I guess lights cannot interact with other elements of the world but it would be nice if there will be static lights at least in the same worlds as the ships, that way the light remains static relative to the ship so no need to recalculate but that also means there is no interactions with outside elements such as other ships, I guess people can live with that.
They're watching ... Image

"I am forbidden tag" -CvN

Dr. Mackeroth
Designer
Designer
Posts:397
Joined:Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:59 pm
Affiliation:Alteran
Location:In the Holy Citadel of Altera

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by Dr. Mackeroth » Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:33 am

So, big ominous search-lights are a no-no? Dang, although I knew the difficulty already.
This is a signature.

ACH0225
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts:2312
Joined:Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:21 pm
Affiliation:Strigiforme
IGN:ACH0225
Location:Cuuyth

Re: Handheld non-combat stuff

Post by ACH0225 » Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:51 am

So will a light on the outside of my ship affect the 'real' server world? If ships are in a separate 'dimension', then will things like light or minecarts be able to cross over into the real dimension?
Image
fr0stbyte124 wrote:5 months from now, I will publish a paper on an efficient method for rendering millions of owls to a screen.
mfw brony images
Spoiler:
Image
Image
Image
Image

Post Reply