what can we do about nebulas

[safemode]

There are a couple things about nebulas that I believe are fundementally broken.


1. Size.

nebulas are way way too small. Nebulas should be the size of a small system at least.

2. Graphics.

Nebulas look like crystals in-game. We have to find a way to make them respectably like a nebula.


Aside from how they're broken in-game when dealing with the making ships systems haywire.

There's a couple issues with fixing nebulas however.

1. We cant make them too big without using a lot of polygons. Coupled with having to make them semi-realistic, this may be too much for most gpu's to handle.

2. What method would we use to make them realistic without effecting the system outside of the nebula.


Solution:

the only solution i can think of is getting rid of the Nebula unit altogether, and making an entire system act like a nebula. These systems would be special in that it would be very foggy, sensors wouldn't work, no planets but lots of starts and maybe unstable wormholes and such.

[javier]

I agree with you on this. Nebulae on systems have always seemed an strange artifact more than anything. A change of paradigm is needed.

Only a point. Nebula, are technically very large concentrations of Hydrogen gas where young stars are born. That means to me high temperatures and strong radiation, and also big gravitational forces interacting. All counted, it seems a too much dangerous environment to any vessel to leave the system unharmed.
Could we do vessels slowly accumulate damage as long they stay on that system?

[safemode]

It would be a constant hit of energy....which only the strongest of shields would be able to stem off indefinitely.

Coupled with the damage a star can do (and there would be many in a nebula system) many of the "interesting" jump points may be inaccessible with most ships. (you'd die before you got close enough to make the jump).


How to go about building such a system would be interesting. Most would obviously be totally python. But we'd have to allow a mechanism for "Background radiation". We already have a means to make a fog. Stars already cause damage. We'd just need a means for background radiation and the rest would be python and we'd have it.

[Shark]

An alternate method is discussed here:

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... a&start=75

(I suggested it in an earlier post.)

[safemode]

I think size of the mesh would be the limiting factor. Think of how many triangles are needed for a planet. now extrapolate that to the size of a solar system. In reality, nebulas are much bigger than even that.

I think the best way to do nebulas would have to be making the entire system you jump into, be inside the nubula.

[Shark]

I'm not sure what you mean. The thread I linked to does away with the nebula-as-a-single-mesh and replaces it with something different.

[safemode]

i was suggesting just making the entire system be as if it were inside a nebula. Just standard fog with varying densities and scrambling of sensors and constant damage and such things. No real complications from any sort of "nebula" objects. Basically, we'd have nebula systems, which would behave differently than normal systems. I think that's quite simple and gets the job done more realistically than some smaller feature.

[Moe479]

2 particles instead of 1 would make a nebular ... nebulars are ever expanding clouds until they match the particle-density of the space around them (this means this means they never stop to expand cause there will be always space that is 'thinner')

future more dustclouds are the birthplace for new stars.

this would make them a very dangerous place.

these clody areas u see in games like fl r nice eyecatchers but got in size, behavior, visibility nothing to do with real space nebulars ...

i would stick withe the more colorful system-backgrounds to be within or close to a space-nebular