Hi guys, is there a way to out-line a model in GG with script or a shader of some sort or even a decals / light source that can follow a entity?

What I mean is; In a few games today and some in the past you could see an out-line of a Tank, Enemy and or buildings if they have been targeted or when you focus your sight on them for a period of time. You also see this a lot in stealth games like Hitman, etc.

Thanks guys, any help will be great.

If you look at the GemWorld demo in GameGuru you will notice a particular artistic trick to outline the graphics in black. You can use the same technique to outline them and combined with a custom shader, create a glow around your game object. As to the specifics, that must fall within the realm of 3D modeling, shader writing and a good deal of trial and error, but the effect should be great to look at!

If there was a way of passing user variables between lua and shaders (get/set) then this could open up a range of game/user controlled shader effects. Think there are some unused user shader variables already in the majority of the stock shaders -could these be attached to lua commands easily?

Cheers.

I like the idea of a few LUA commands that can send values directly to the shader, but per-entity shader changes are tricky things and 'would' hit performance slightly if you are willing to take that hit. How many and what type of variables are you thinking about? The easiest would be a single FLOAT4 constant (gives you four floats to play with) which can be encoded with each entity and the common shader (i.e. entity_basic.fx) would be given the unique entity float4 constant, which the LUA (and perhaps entity properties) can change both at level creation time and during the game. Something like this?

Exactly like that . I've already hacked this type of thing using the fog settings and can get some cool effects going (e.g can use the spare AO texture as an alt texture on damage). Could also be used for what the OP asking highlighting the entity with a glow when being looked at etc. But of course using the fog settings for this means fog then tricky to control so I just did it as a proof of concept

EDIT might be pushing luck a bit but if a float could be pushed to post process shaders too then some nice dynamic effects could happen here when player health low or coming out of water, dizzy etc. Hacked this too using the vignette radius lua to post shader and it works but would be great with a variable purely for user use

Cheers.

Wow, sounds like you've been hammering at the rigid walls of GameGuru for some time to take shaders to the next level I have added your suggestion to my immediate task list, and during a 'core' update I should be able to add these in for both in-game shaders and the post-process shaders. For right now I am focusing on finishing EBE, and then absorbing myself with AI, but after that, I think a nice core update would be welcome!

Great! Thanks Lee.

Thanks guys, this looks like it will be a good development for shaders in the near future.
Thanks for the info.

Really don't mean to hijack your thread gd . Just think the video below is relevant and might help demo that this type of effect is almost there without, errr, innovative methods being needed (just need a little sprinkling of Lee magic).

Shows lua controlling entity alternative textures and post process effects.

Cheers.

wicked! brilliant stuff

That's Excellent !!

Love them guys,something new to see.great looking to,the ball is very cool .

Dave

Jeeves with attitude! I Like It!!

Very nice. Wonderful effect.

Really nice cybernescence, thinking out the box, I like it.

3com