Visual/audio effects suggestion thread

With the recent decision to recruit the creator of Thaumcraft 2 to the team once we have more to show than backend work, I thought it might be a good idea to start getting suggestions for special effects. If you don't know what I mean by special effects, go watch some Thaumcraft 2 videos.

Please describe the effect at least a little, and try not to suggest effects that rely on details that we haven't nailed down yet.

Examples:
Whenever a ship hovers over water, small particles of water appear over the surface to make it appear that the ship is disturbing the water.

Whenever a ship is hovering, a humming noise can be heard outside the ship. The humming becomes deeper the larger the ship is, and speeds up the faster it is moving.

I think the sound part would be simple to find, as its an essential part of every sci-fi movie ever, but how would the ripples work? Unless we had a separate texture for them, we would have to make the water flow from a central point or points, but what if the ship is asymettrical? Also, how bout noises for the weapons IN AN ATMOSPHERE. Do not confuse this with noises in space, as that is immposible.

ACH0225 wrote:

I think the sound part would be simple to find, as its an essential part of every sci-fi movie ever, but how would the ripples work? Unless we had a separate texture for them, we would have to make the water flow from a central point or points, but what if the ship is asymettrical? Also, how bout noises for the weapons IN AN ATMOSPHERE. Do not confuse this with noises in space, as that is immposible.

But noise can be heard while in your ship.

ACH0225 wrote:

I think the sound part would be simple to find, as its an essential part of every sci-fi movie ever, but how would the ripples work? Unless we had a separate texture for them, we would have to make the water flow from a central point or points, but what if the ship is asymettrical? Also, how bout noises for the weapons IN AN ATMOSPHERE. Do not confuse this with noises in space, as that is immposible.

Not ripples, more like if you pour water on top of a active waterproof speaker. I thought of ripples, they would require significant work considering even some high end engines don't support them by default.

I agree about the sound thing, no noises in space for anything not on your ship. What would be even better is things you normally wouldn't hear appearing when its very quiet, like the sound of your blood moving(that hum you hear when its quiet), your breathing, your heartbeat. Shattered Horizon is a excellent example for what combat in space sounds like.

I think adding those beam cannons will be cool .



Those could BTW effect blocks by temporaly making them orange-glowing (melted methal) and then turning them slowly into a black impact mark if you think it won't be complicated.

Hmm... We'll see.

How about distortion around the engines of ships in atmosphere to show some effect on the surrounding air.

Iv121 wrote:

I think adding those beam cannons will be cool .



Those could BTW effect blocks by temporaly making them orange-glowing (melted methal) and then turning them slowly into a black impact mark if you think it won't be complicated.

Wow. I love the look of those cannons on the blue ship. Could you make a forum post with up close pics of those cannons? I have a hard time building guns on my ships.

The terran or alien guns on it ? Both are quite simple though .

What about the dopplar effect? That could be interesting.

Iv121 wrote:

I think adding those beam cannons will be cool .



Those could BTW effect blocks by temporaly making them orange-glowing (melted methal) and then turning them slowly into a black impact mark if you think it won't be complicated.

I like the concept of the beam, but I don't like the fact that it's on the side of the ship.

They are front beams, rear beams , side beams , all in the name of literal destruction . No srsly saying it's bad to place a beam cannon on the side of the ship would be like saying it's bad to place a plasma turret there . If you do it I'll be there , watching you , and flanking you OFC .

IF you stand in front of the Lucifer’s main cannons (arms) you're dead, if you stand in front of it's bombardment beam cannon (side) at full capacity you're dead too. This means your only way to survive long enough to make a blowing strike is it's tinny back, move a bit to the left or the right and you're in range of the bombardment cannons.

Iv121 wrote:

They are front beams, rear beams , side beams , all in the name of literal destruction . No srsly saying it's bad to place a beam cannon on the side of the ship would be like saying it's bad to place a plasma turret there . If you do it I'll be there , watching you , and flanking you OFC .

IF you stand in front of the Lucifer’s main cannons (arms) you're dead, if you stand in front of it's bombardment beam cannon (side) at full capacity you're dead too. This means your only way to survive long enough to make a blowing strike is it's tinny back, move a bit to the left or the right and you're in range of the bombardment cannons.

I my opinion, I would use either a small ship that can easily outrun the beam (I'm assuming it fires slowly), but still hold against anti-fighter turrets, or something the size of the Banhammer, that laughs at your pathetic weapons.

Remember who designed it, and again NEVER EVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ENEMY. That ship annihilated countless species for thousands of years for a reason. You may also consider making the banhammer bigger as the real lucifer was around 2 KM long . The small ships don't carry enough firepower to destroy the lucifer's shields. Without knowledge about the ship's design you cannot defeat it, with it a heavy bomber squadron will do the job. Besides what's the point in dick measuring if our ships don't even have cannons.

Iv121 wrote:

Remember who designed it, and again NEVER EVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ENEMY. That ship annihilated countless species for thousands of years for a reason. You may also consider making the banhammer bigger as the real lucifer was around 2 KM long . The small ships don't carry enough firepower to destroy the lucifer's shields. Without knowledge about the ship's design you cannot defeat it, with it a heavy bomber squadron will do the job. Besides what's the point in dick measuring if our ships don't even have cannons.

I have half a mind to ban you for that last sentence, it was extremely rude.

I think it was more crass than rude.

Doppler effect:

A SFX that basically modulates all sound's pitch by the relative velocity of the entity creating the noise.

Cloaked ship diffusion:

When a ship is cloaked, it distorts the light. See a cloaked unit from Starcraft II or something.

Sparks:

Sparks are a very simple, low computation entity. I hope.

Explosions:

You know. BBOOOOOOMMMM!

And the most important: Phase Jumps.

These better be good, that's all I have to say.

If you rly want to ban me go ahead. It will only mean you cannot be criticized and won't have serious effect on the situation on the forums. I forgot to put **** indeed next time I'll do it.

One of the important qualities of a moderator is patience. With those powers comes great responsibility. You cannot just ban everyone that does not obey you, as you will be no different from the local tyrants like Assad in Syria who uses power and military force to get rid of the civil protest (The "civils are also not that peaceful BTW and now Assad has to face riots and rebels all around - nothing good for that country). A banhammer is not a tool to win arguments. I even strongly recommend the moderators to consult before they do such an action. Maybe it was a bit crass but it transfers just the line of view we should have - it's pointless to say "My ship is better" without even guns on it.

Back to the topic as futurecraft won't be compatible with minecraft I guess you can change the lighting system to be more colorful - that would be cool .

Mod Edit: I minimized the offtopic text.

@Everyone:
Great ideas so far, their awesome!

Iv121 wrote:

If you rly want to ban me go ahead. It will only mean you cannot be criticized and won't have serious effect on the situation on the forums. I forgot to put **** indeed next time I'll do it.

One of the important qualities of a moderator is patience. With those powers comes great responsibility. You cannot just ban everyone that does not obey you, as you will be no different from the local tyrants like Assad in Syria who uses power and military force to get rid of the civil protest (The "civils are also not that peaceful BTW and now Assad has to face riots and rebels all around - nothing good for that country). A banhammer is not a tool to win arguments. I even strongly recommend the moderators to consult before they do such an action. Maybe it was a bit crass but it transfers just the line of view we should have - it's pointless to say "My ship is better" without even guns on it.

Back to the topic as futurecraft won't be compatible with minecraft I guess you can change the lighting system to be more colorful - that would be cool .

Not a bad idea actually, this has been done before and I'm 90% certain there is a 1.2.X version. This method has downsides though, namely no more lagless sunsets.

This thread is for the discussion of special effects in Futurecraft.
It is a good thread, and I would ask that anyone who has unrelated matters to discuss do so elsewhere, preferably in private.

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

This thread is for the discussion of special effects in Futurecraft.
It is a good thread, and I would ask that anyone who has unrelated matters to discuss do so elsewhere, preferably in private.

I would post the 'badass here!' image but I'm quite scared of being banned.

Legion wrote:

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

This thread is for the discussion of special effects in Futurecraft.
It is a good thread, and I would ask that anyone who has unrelated matters to discuss do so elsewhere, preferably in private.

I would post the 'badass here!' image but I'm quite scared of being banned.

Yes you are.


On topic: cloaked ships shouldn't have a visual disturbance, that defeats the purpose of a cloak. However, there should be an effect while it is cloaking and decloaking, preferably a shimmer.

Lord Mackeroth wrote:

Legion wrote:

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

This thread is for the discussion of special effects in Futurecraft.
It is a good thread, and I would ask that anyone who has unrelated matters to discuss do so elsewhere, preferably in private.

I would post the 'badass here!' image but I'm quite scared of being banned.

Yes you are.


On topic: cloaked ships shouldn't have a visual disturbance, that defeats the purpose of a cloak. However, there should be an effect while it is cloaking and decloaking, preferably a shimmer.

A very very slight effect could be viable, so ships arn't entirely visible but could be found if one looked very hard. And i agree, there should be a uncloaking/cloaking effect.

Oh, and one other problem with that: what happens when you jump out of a cloaked ship? Like if you put on a spacesuit, got a running start, and jumped out a open airlock? Would the ship just dissapear the instant you were outside the hull?

I suggest that a cloak field will be a sphere like a shield. As long as you're in you can see the ship, the second you leave that field the ship disappears.