Any plans for FX update to missiles and beams?

[mr.WHO]

3.0 beta introduce great sound and FX update to laser weapons, but what about missiles?

My ideas:
- make light and heavy missiles visually distinct (e.g. more visible and different color missile trail).
- make torpedos really visually distinct (basically these are the biggest payloads, so it would be good if you could distinguish them by just glimpse).


It might be rather hard to make all types of missile visually distinct, but different between light, heavy and torpedo should be possible (and swarm missiles are already distint from everyting else).

[Artean]

3.0 beta introduce great sound and FX update to laser weapons, but what about missiles?

My ideas:
- make light and heavy missiles visually distinct (e.g. more visible and different color missile trail).
- make torpedos really visually distinct (basically these are the biggest payloads, so it would be good if you could distinguish them by just glimpse).


It might be rather hard to make all types of missile visually distinct, but different between light, heavy and torpedo should be possible (and swarm missiles are already distint from everyting else).

+1

Would like to see some improvements here as well.

[Skeeter]

Missiles like from x2 days would be nice, they i think had alot of variety and looked distinct. Afaik as never used em but saw in x4 vids there all the same blue things which looks a bit boring.

[tomchk]

Agreed!

[Max Bain]

While we are on FX...
@Linolafett: is there a way to give beams a fade out effect? It looks not cool if they insta stop in space instead of a slow fade out effect that makes it disappear slowly the longer the distance over the max range is reached.

[linolafett]

While we are on FX...
@Linolafett: is there a way to give beams a fade out effect? It looks not cool if they insta stop in space instead of a slow fade out effect that makes it disappear slowly the longer the distance over the max range is reached.

Currently not possible in the way the beams are set up

[Alan Phipps]

Thread title changed otherwise the dev reply on a switched topic might not be noticed.

[Max Bain]

While we are on FX...
@Linolafett: is there a way to give beams a fade out effect? It looks not cool if they insta stop in space instead of a slow fade out effect that makes it disappear slowly the longer the distance over the max range is reached.

Currently not possible in the way the beams are set up

Maybe this is a candidate for an engine change . Would make battles a lot more beautyful in my opinion . If not for 3.0 then later maybe?

[linolafett]

Maybe this is a candidate for an engine change . Would make battles a lot more beautyful in my opinion . If not for 3.0 then later maybe?

That is a prime example of why not to change an engine
The way we set up the beams is just very simple, it would need more work to make it behave differently.

[tomchk]

Maybe this is a candidate for an engine change . Would make battles a lot more beautyful in my opinion . If not for 3.0 then later maybe?

That is a prime example of why not to change an engine
The way we set up the beams is just very simple, it would need more work to make it behave differently.

Hi Lino, on a related effects note, will you guys be able to port over XR effects/shaders (at least as nicer placeholders for things like beams) now that Vulkan 1.2 supports HLSL? I obviously don't know what's required to implement 1.2, etc. I just wanted to get your thoughts, as 1.2 seems like it could help X4.

[linolafett]

The new vulkan version does not really affect how we work with shaders (at least to my artist understanding on the matter). It also does not make it possible to simply port over old effects and have them work as expected in x4.
Take a look at the next beta build, as we did rework most of the bullet effects by now.

[Skeeter]

a interesting read on those.

https://www.khronos.org/blog/hlsl-first ... g-language

[Axeface]

Beams are looking awesome in the current beta (and sounding), especially the red ones. The yellow ones are a bit undersaturated though, I like colourful stuff
Missiles could stand out more, they are quite hard to see. Ide like to see them get names again too.

[mr.WHO]

Thread title changed otherwise the dev reply on a switched topic might not be noticed.

- Ask about missiles FX.
- People ask about about beams.
- Devs reply to question about beams.
- Mod change topic to include beams.

...still no reply about missile FX.


...so sad.

[Buzz2005]

no reply means they did not and don't know when and if they will rework missiles, that's what I got from this thread

[linolafett]

I could just answer on the beams, as i was working on the weapon fx.
Missiles did not get any new fx.

[mr.WHO]

I could just answer on the beams, as i was working on the weapon fx.
Missiles did not get any new fx.

Speaking of Beams in 3.0 beta I noticed a funny thing, see this video footage:
https://youtu.be/3JtZVwL7tEM?t=635

When Beam start fire it acts as "jet stream" from X-Rebirth - you can see tip of the jet beam moving from turret barrel to it's target.
However when beam lifetime/ firing sequence stop it act like real life laser beam (it stop immediately in the same time at entire length from barrel to target).

it is really minor thing, but funny when you notice it

[Aken_Bosch]

Hey Lino, while we're on the topic of weapons' fx, any chance the Mass Driver could receive a bit of weight to its action before it gets final? I know it's not exactly related to visual fx but maybe you can relay the feedback around: visuals are just about right indeed (maybe only lacking a bit of that awesome bloom that's been recently added), but it feels and sound like a peashooter at best. I think a bit of a punchy sound (like the one added to pulse lasers or blast mortar) and a subtle shaking of the cockpit with each shot would do wonders in conveying the actual feeling of shooting a mass away at hyper velocity, like a proper rail gun.

[Skeeter]

The starting weapon still has that dreadful sfx i hope they improve that. Just sounds so naff.