I need help for my Mod

Fingers · #1 September 14th, 2007, 07:11 PM

I keep putting that off... Maybe next month if I remember

(We're trying to submit something to IGF with the deadline being 9/30, and I'm shipping another game at work that's kept me really busy for the last year)

Lord_Vader · #2 September 19th, 2007, 08:34 PM

Hmm, I was wondering if it's possible to make completely invisible spaceships by simply making a completely black/blank alpha channel on the ship graphics. Maybe Fingers could help? I'll try it soon anyway.

Mafaa · #3 September 19th, 2007, 09:59 PM

Well, i don't mod all that much but the problem i see is that enemy ships wouldnt know its invisible so if you have a three way battle the ai would just attack it.

Phlagm · #4 September 20th, 2007, 12:36 AM

I wonder what would happen once the shields are down and the missiles are trying to crash into the solid part of the hull. If they can never hit white on the alpha layer, I'm not sure they'd ever be able to hit. They might be able to knock down shields, but maybe not finish the ship off.

sgqwonkian · #5 September 20th, 2007, 11:32 AM

The ship wouldn't be invisible for players, either. You'd still see a red triangle around it, wouldn't you?

And I wouldn't be surprised if the game crashed the first time a weapon tried to target the alphaless ship.

Fingers · #6 September 20th, 2007, 08:44 PM

Well, the game wouldn't crash... But it'd be impossible for projectiles/beams to collide with the ship so you could never destroy it (unless you knock down its shields and finish off the hitpoints with the same hit). Black parts in the alpha channel are merely non-solid, not "invisible" if there's something in the RGB channels there... Non-zero RGB with zero Alpha gives you the transparent glowing effect used for the ship lights and Kawangi reactor glow.

This would allow you to create an insubstantial / indestructable "ghost ship" which could be really interesting

(I think it'd only be destroyed by the bomb or a nova if you don't give it a shield)

Lord_Vader · #7 September 21st, 2007, 12:02 AM

I tried it, and the results were strange. Instead of being invisible, it came out as loads of black lines. Whether it could be destroyed or not remains to be seen.

But yeah it'll raise up too much problems so I'll just equip them with cloaking devices, make them shadowy, and then we'll have as close to invisible as possible.

Since the race I'm making these for are called Phantoms, maybe I could make a ship called the Phantom Menace. ; - )