Precursor to atmospheric worlds - in game effects already exist

[Capt. Hook]

I think it would add a lot more interest to atmosphere planets visited if that in gulleys, valleys and depressions low hanging mist could be seen swirling about, much like seen on refining stations. Perhaps the mist could be thickened in places and drift. It would make planets seems more much active, particular if plants like fungoids that maybe depend on a damper environment etc can be found there. Would make for some interesting lighting effects as well.

Just to add that ground ports and installations could look dramatically different from place to place if mist and associated lighting effects employed.

 

[aRJay]

Yes but.
The atmosphere inside any station with a docking slot is the same pressure as Earths so readily supports things like mists and clouds etc.
The thin atmospheres of the worlds we can land on are much more of a thick vacuum which makes such things much less likely to occur or endure.

 

[Capt. Hook]

true. but some worlds are described as having water rich/ammonia etc atmospheres so having mist in trapped depressions could be a thing.

 

[thistle]

At one time pre-odyssey release it was clearly on the cards.

From my posts in this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-fdev-changing-something-in-e-d.637771/page-2

Comparison between what we got and what the pre-release looked like:

 

[thistle]

Sadface.

 

[æryn]

I can't see this happening without some refactoring of the engine, or until a sufficient percentage of the player base have much better graphics processors.

 

[varonica]

Comparison between what we got and what the pre-release looked like:

Yeah, also in the pre-release they had the bio turned way up, so high that in some places you could get 4 or 5 bios packed in the same area so close you could barely walk, and the dust effects so high that if you laned on the right planet and drove along you couldn't see where you were going, you know it's almost as if they were, you know, testing to see how far they could push it without causing issues, found it to demanding on the hardware and later dialed it down for release. You know, like sort of, I don't know, Beta test?

So we had this sort of bio density you no longer see in game:

And these dust storms you can't find anywhere now:

And these blue planets that were toned down:

I also want thicker atmosphere and every release I hope they do release new planets, and maybe the new feature at the end of the year are extra planets, but they aren't going to change existing ones to make people happy, that's pretty certain.

 

[Ameeleean2]

I do not mind better graphics as long as it is optional, not mandatory. Game for me is simply interface for world I'm making in my mind- I care more about features (in other words things I can do in the game). What I miss the most on planets right now are two features- caves and liquid.

 

[varonica]

I do not mind better graphics as long as it is optional, not mandatory. Game for me is simply interface for world I'm making in my mind- I care more about features (in other words things I can do in the game). What I miss the most on planets right now are two features- caves and liquid.

Yeah both would be nice, but caves are hard with the current was the planets are generated, we can't even have overhangs and vertical faces, liquids should be easier, lava would be nice, we could land on all those lava worlds, that would be fun.

 

[CMDR Lefty Jackson]

but caves are hard with the current was the planets are generated, we can't even have overhangs and vertical faces

Yeah, caves and overhangs are a problem in general with game terrains. The only way they have been able to deal with it is voxel game engines (think Minecraft). Traditional game engines aren't capable of caves due to the way terrains are coded. Terrain is designed to be the "bottom" surface and go no further.

The only option is to make a static model and place it on the terrain, basically like a building. Some games have tried it with mostly poor results because such static models are large and can take up a lot of processing power.

New game tech, such as "Nanite" in Unreal Engine, have made huge improvements so that high resolution models and terrain is possible, but it still is a huge processing strain. These days a 3d modeler needs a Cray Supercomputer to handle higher resolution assets and levels.

I remember a time back when a 20-30K poly character was considered "high poly"!

That poly number actually overall hasn't increased much over the years. Most are still well under 100k. So, modeling terrain elements is very limited. Caves? Uh, no.

Game tech and hardware just aren't there...yet.

 

[Elliot Coleman]

I would do more exploring if there were actually something to look at.