Make me a billboard...

[Nielk1]

If only BZ2 didn't have so many issues with transparency. Half Life 2 has some amazing looking holographic billboards that are made by haivng teh same slightly curved plane 3 times over itself. As an effect, it only looks good when viewed from teh front, and the edges are a bit blurred, but if u look from the side, the side is nice and the front is blurry.

A computer class can get you scrolling signs, and when used in conjunction with a draw geometry emit it could have some nice effects, but your still playing with transparencies if you want it to look good.

[Red Devil]

The console in the Hadean 'Eyes of Xyr' has a nice see-through panel.

[OvermindDL1]

Most games will do two major passes for the in-scene objects.  First they will draw everything in the frustrum that has no transparency from front-to-back, to minimize overdraw.  Then they will draw all the transparent items that are in the frustrum from back to front so that it looks correct.  BZ2 does not do this, it seems to draw things pretty randomly (actually there is an order I notice, just not well made).

[Avatar]

Ooh, can't have it rotate as viewed, it has to be planar, seen only along one direction.  Like I said, a billboard along a highway is a good example. 

Don't need flashing, or scrolling, as I can (as noted) use computer class for scrolling.

I want 'fade in', 'fade out', or barring that 'blink in', 'blink out', or any combination of the two.   

Can even be the same image each time...  think "Eat at Joes"... or  "Bachelor Chow"... 

I appreciate anything anyone can do to point me to the right ODF...

-Av-

[Steeveeo]

AFAIK there is no way to have 2 different animations in the same particle...yet...(Hint PB4 people)

So its either blink in-fade out or vice versa.

I have not yet figured out how to fake it...

[bigbadbogie]

ah...you mean like one of those billboards that changes from one image to another...that should be very simple

i think thats what you mean...right???

[Avatar]

No, just one image hanging there...  doesn't have to switch back and forth, or flash, or anything.  Just fade in, then fade out, then fade in, then fade out, that sort of thing...

I know the on/off/on/off bit can be done as I've seen blinking lights, but getting an image up there seems beyond me.  I'll try 'draw sprite' a bit, see what that does...

-Av-

[bigbadbogie]

um - that sounds like the easiest thing in bz2 to mod-- now you are scaring me av...you dont know that and you are making BZC???

[Nielk1]

AFAIK there is no way to have 2 different animations in the same particle...yet...(Hint PB4 people)

So its either blink in-fade out or vice versa.

I have not yet figured out how to fake it...

If that's how it is, then you ahev the rade out ruetine start right when the fade in ends, so it blinks inwhen it blinks out.

I beleive drawgeom goes it how you want Av.

[bigbadbogie]

make the sign in 3dsmax - use a draw_geom effect to make it fade in and out - make it fade by decreasing the alpha transparency (the number at the end of the RGBA colour -- 255 opaque and 0 transparent) on the finish colour. The start colour should be 255 or whatever transparency level you want for the sign - 127 for semi transparent.

[Render]
renderBase = "draw_geom"
textureName = "signtexture.tga"
textureBlend = "one one modulate"
startColor = "255 255 255 255" <------
finishColor = "255 255 255 0"  <-------
startRadius = 1.0
finishRadius = 1.0
animateTime = 1.0
geomName = "signgeom.xsi"

[Steeveeo]

make the sign in 3dsmax - use a draw_geom effect to make it fade in and out - make it fade by decreasing the alpha transparency (the number at the end of the RGBA colour -- 255 opaque and 0 transparent) on the finish colour. The start colour should be 255 or whatever transparency level you want for the sign - 127 for semi transparent.

[Render]
renderBase = "draw_geom"
textureName = "signtexture.tga"
textureBlend = "one one modulate"
startColor = "255 255 255 255" <------
finishColor = "255 255 255 0"  <-------
startRadius = 1.0
finishRadius = 1.0
animateTime = 1.0
geomName = "signgeom.xsi"

The result would still be a blink in->fadeout

[TheJamsh]

computer class??? where do all these new class labels keep appearing :S

[Avatar]

um - that sounds like the easiest thing in bz2 to mod-- now you are scaring me av...you dont know that and you are making BZC???

My strengths are terrains, modeling, & scripting, and definitely NOT effects.  The whole effects system seems very powerful and therefore pretty complex...  and I haven't spent any time at it.  It goes hand in hand with weapons, I think, which I also suck at.

Know your strengths and get help with your weaknesses...

Thanks for the code, I'll have to give it a try and see if I can get what I want.

***

Cool, this works well enough for what I want...

renderBase = "draw_geom"
textureName = "billboard00.pic"
textureBlend = "one one modulate"
startColor = "255 0 0 255"
finishColor = "255 155 0 255"
startRadius = 30.0
finishRadius = 30
animateTime = 0.1
geomName = "billboard00.xsi"

Hangs there nicely, although for some reason it's greenish.  I'll have to play with that...

Thanks!

-Av-

[Nielk1]

The result would still be a blink in->fadeout

That's why you would have one that fades in and blinks out occur first and have the one that blinks in and fades out ocur immediently after using some sort of initial delay. You can do that, but I tihnk it requires another render thing to makes the 2nd part

---

As for computer class, it is a stock class used by the shield in the last ISDF mission.

[Steeveeo]

um - that sounds like the easiest thing in bz2 to mod-- now you are scaring me av...you dont know that and you are making BZC???

My strengths are terrains, modeling, & scripting, and definitely NOT effects.  The whole effects system seems very powerful and therefore pretty complex...  and I haven't spent any time at it.  It goes hand in hand with weapons, I think, which I also suck at.

Know your strengths and get help with your weaknesses...

Thanks for the code, I'll have to give it a try and see if I can get what I want.

***

Cool, this works well enough for what I want...

renderBase = "draw_geom"
textureName = "billboard00.pic"
textureBlend = "one one modulate"
startColor = "255 0 0 255"
finishColor = "255 155 0 255"
startRadius = 30.0
finishRadius = 30
animateTime = 0.1
geomName = "billboard00.xsi"

Hangs there nicely, although for some reason it's greenish.  I'll have to play with that...

Thanks!

-Av-

Could be because you have your RGBA values set to that, what was the blendmode to keep the original TGA intact again? Maybe just "DSTCOLOR" would work?