Seamless fog transitions

Terawatt_99

<div class="IPBDescription">Just thought of it...</div>ok, here's my idea, you all know of how the valve team made the level transitions in HL, with the winding narrow corridors, well, you can do that for fog-to-no-fog zones, now here's where i'm gonna go a bit nuts on the rant:

ok: you have a room, with a corridor heading out for a little way, then, at the end of that corridor, there is a 90 degree turn, then, after a short distance, another 90 degree turn, going the opposite direction (so far: a room, a corridor, a 90 degree left/right turn, and a 90 degree right/left turn) ok, still with me? good. cause now it gets confusing: now, the whole room and the first section of the corridor contains the fog entity, then the fog entity goes around the corner, but only half-way of the next section of the corridor: but make sure the fog's distance is at least the distance from halfway down the second corridor to the farthest wall so that you can't see the fog in the second corridor, and have the third and last half of the second corridors empty…

when I get home, I'll make a demo bsp if this is too confusing...

edit: sorry about all that wierd jargon, i had to copy&paste from word, and it must have messed it up <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->

Terawatt_99

this might help:

Relic25

Makes perfect sense to me. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Muu

The fog will still disapear suddenly when you leave it won't it? because its not volumetric.

Terawatt_99

but, if the fog settings are correct, the min viewable distace, where the fog is first visible, will be <b>just</b> farther than the farhtest wall, making it look like you aren't in any fog, but you actually are, you just can't see it anywhere, because it's farhter away than you can see, and if the end of the fog zone is in this area, then it will look normal <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Jacius

I've been thinking about this too, and in addition to the twists and turns, you could have a particle system at the edges of the fog. so that it looks like you walk into the fog, and then when you are inside the particle system, it activates the env_fog, and tada -- you have a truly seamless fog transition.

-Jacius

Shuvit_Viper

can't you take more env_fog with different distances? the first one will be far away/outside walls, then slightly closer, the player walks in and watches the fog come closer... now i don't know how the env_fog works, but this could be just an idea.

Terawatt_99

i would <b>think</b> that the problem with doing that is that the fog would move in behind the player too fast, when i get home and make the bsp, i'll try to include all three methods, oops, gtg to class now, dang...

Shuvit_Viper

but the player does not know where the fog is coming from. The fog is just there. Once you are in a fog-cloud you can see fog in front/back/all sides of you. Therefore, if you would be moving the other way the fog is coming from, it just looks like it comes from the other way. The only problem i see is moving backwards, but its an alternative maybe if there is no space (gameplay) for a corridor...

Muu

If the fog effect works like you said thats very cleaver, I'm impressed terawatt. Ive given up on my pursuit fo realistic sprite fog - the half-life engine is just too simple and it would take a lot of work from flayra to fix the problem I found with the env_custom_particles. I do have a nice fog effect which works in areas less than 128*128*n and If I get the time I'll make an exaple map.

UnCritical

Nice idea, i tried the way viper was talking about, the making multiple env_fogs in a row, but you need a <i>lot</i> of entities to make a smooth trasition.

Terawatt_99

ok, this is it, sorry i didn't get all three of the methods in, but my comp is starting to #### me off with worldcraft freezing, so i got to this pont and just decioded i couldn't keep on restarting every 5 minutes, but anyways, here it is, bsp and rmf for you all to enjoy <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Yamazaki

Another method of doing a fog transition is to use more than one env_fog. Make several leading in to the center env_fog, and several leading out. Each of the outer env_fogs are set to fainter values than the central one, so you don't just 'pop' into the thick fog with one step. Slowly it builds up, and then slowly fades away as you walk.

This works for even complex areas, since the env_fog entity doesn't count as visible, so you can make them any size you wish without causing framerate drops.

Moleculor

Terawatt, I'm missing a crate.wad thing? (That's not it's full name, it's some sort of crate themed thing though.)

Terawatt_99

aw ######... i guess -nowadtextures didn't work... i'll recompile it without all the other textures tomorrow...

or you could just compile the rmf that <b>should</b> be in the zip (i hope...) anyways, i'll post the right one tomorrow, i don't have the time tonight... <!--emo&:(--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('><!--endemo-->

Moleculor

You mean -wadinclude, right?

Shuvit_Viper

<!--QuoteBegin--Yamazaki+Mar. 05 2002,03:06--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Yamazaki @ Mar. 05 2002,03:06)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Another method of doing a fog transition is to use more than one env_fog. Make several leading in to the center env_fog, and several leading out. Each of the outer env_fogs are set to fainter values than the central one, so you don't just 'pop' into the thick fog with one step. Slowly it builds up, and then slowly fades away as you walk.

This works for even complex areas, since the env_fog entity doesn't count as visible, so you can make them any size you wish without causing framerate drops.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
this is actually what im talking about...
but as uncritical said, this needs a lot of fog entitys. (i have no experience in mapping with env_fog, but i take it what he sais is true...)

UnCritical

Dont take what i said to be true <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> you could probably get it looking decent if you have entities spare to make about 20 entities leading in and another 20 leading (maybe more - i only tried it with about 5) out of the fog...it'll take time but with a bit of patience it could work.

Shuvit_Viper

damn me to trust you...
*turns away and looks suspicious to the world*
i think it would be nice... i think imma test it. but is the env_fog a brush entity?... ill figure out...

btw where are those damn mapping guidelines? can't find them anywhere in rr or ns.org ill try looking at ns world <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

MonsieurEvil

Mapping guidelines are <a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/MappingGuidelines.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.