Anisotropic Filtering level, Offset Atmospherics, Dynamically Lit Particles, & Console Improvements
-WildCat-
Cape Town, South Africa Join Date: 2008-07-19 Member: 64664Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Cape Town, South Africa Join Date: 2008-07-19 Member: 64664Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Here are several technical-related suggestions that I've been meaning to post on here for some time now:
Contents
1. Allow users to select Anisotropic Filtering level
If I had to guess the level of Anisotropic Filtering (AF) featured in NS2, I'd say it's probably 4x AF. In my opinion, 8x AF is the sweet spot. With 8x AF, it's hard to notice any blurring on distant surfaces and 16x AF only improves the image quality very marginally over 8x AF.
If you're averse to the idea of adding that level of complexity to the in-game Options menu, that's fine. I only ask that you make it possible to customize this setting via the system_options.xml file. Currently, the only values for <anisotropic-filtering> appear to be "true" or "false". If you could change it so that it accepts an integer for the actual amount of AF to be applied, that would be great.
2. Fix or mitigate offset atmospherics effect
The atmospherics effect is one of my favorite visual effects in NS2 (and any game for that matter). The only other game I can think of that has a similar atmospherics effect is Alan Wake.
Unfortunately, NS2's atmospheric effect appears to be slightly offset downwards and to the right. Here are three screenshots with inset close-ups to show what I mean:
I'm guessing that this offsetting is a byproduct of the atmospherics effect being rendered at a lower resolution than the actual screen resolution and then being scaled up and added to the frame later.
When compositing the frame, would it be possible to shift the position of the atmospherics layer upwards and to the left to counteract this inherent offset?
Alternatively, would it be possible to add an "Ultra" quality setting that renders the atmospherics effect at a higher resolution to try and mitigate this issue? Once again, if it's only available via editing the system_options.xml file, that would be fine with me.
3. Allow particle systems to be lit
Have a look at this screenshot:
Wouldn't it be amazing if the leaking steam particles could be accurately lit based on the color of the lighting in the surrounding environment and receive shadows from the grating above?
Perhaps particle systems could also cast their own shadows based on the particles' alpha channel.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of transparent surfaces receiving natural lighting, I should probably mention glass. The nasty-looking glass surfaces currently look very out of place amongst all the other awesome graphics. Indeed, glass also needs to receive colored lighting and shadows.
4. Add auto-complete and help to console
The Spark Engine's console could use some improvements.
I don't play much COD4 but, on the occasions when I did play it, I noticed it had a particularly awesome console.
First of all, you can type something and it immediately shows a list of potential matches:
It doesn't only match the front of the command. It will find matching text anywhere within the commands' names:
Once you've typed enough to narrow it down to one command, it will show contextual help for that command and you can hit tab to auto-complete the command. The help includes a description of what the command does and, more importantly, what possible values can be assigned to it:
When you start typing a value, it will also provide auto-completion for the value:
Please consider implementing some of these ideas into Spark's console.
In case it's relevant, here are my system specs and settings:
Contents
- Allow users to select Anisotropic Filtering level
- Fix or mitigate offset atmospherics effect
- Allow particle systems to be lit
- Add auto-complete and help to console
1. Allow users to select Anisotropic Filtering level
If I had to guess the level of Anisotropic Filtering (AF) featured in NS2, I'd say it's probably 4x AF. In my opinion, 8x AF is the sweet spot. With 8x AF, it's hard to notice any blurring on distant surfaces and 16x AF only improves the image quality very marginally over 8x AF.
If you're averse to the idea of adding that level of complexity to the in-game Options menu, that's fine. I only ask that you make it possible to customize this setting via the system_options.xml file. Currently, the only values for <anisotropic-filtering> appear to be "true" or "false". If you could change it so that it accepts an integer for the actual amount of AF to be applied, that would be great.
2. Fix or mitigate offset atmospherics effect
The atmospherics effect is one of my favorite visual effects in NS2 (and any game for that matter). The only other game I can think of that has a similar atmospherics effect is Alan Wake.
Unfortunately, NS2's atmospheric effect appears to be slightly offset downwards and to the right. Here are three screenshots with inset close-ups to show what I mean:
I'm guessing that this offsetting is a byproduct of the atmospherics effect being rendered at a lower resolution than the actual screen resolution and then being scaled up and added to the frame later.
When compositing the frame, would it be possible to shift the position of the atmospherics layer upwards and to the left to counteract this inherent offset?
Alternatively, would it be possible to add an "Ultra" quality setting that renders the atmospherics effect at a higher resolution to try and mitigate this issue? Once again, if it's only available via editing the system_options.xml file, that would be fine with me.
3. Allow particle systems to be lit
Have a look at this screenshot:
Wouldn't it be amazing if the leaking steam particles could be accurately lit based on the color of the lighting in the surrounding environment and receive shadows from the grating above?
Perhaps particle systems could also cast their own shadows based on the particles' alpha channel.Oh, and while we're on the subject of transparent surfaces receiving natural lighting, I should probably mention glass. The nasty-looking glass surfaces currently look very out of place amongst all the other awesome graphics. Indeed, glass also needs to receive colored lighting and shadows.
4. Add auto-complete and help to console
The Spark Engine's console could use some improvements.
I don't play much COD4 but, on the occasions when I did play it, I noticed it had a particularly awesome console.
First of all, you can type something and it immediately shows a list of potential matches:
It doesn't only match the front of the command. It will find matching text anywhere within the commands' names:
Once you've typed enough to narrow it down to one command, it will show contextual help for that command and you can hit tab to auto-complete the command. The help includes a description of what the command does and, more importantly, what possible values can be assigned to it:
When you start typing a value, it will also provide auto-completion for the value:
Please consider implementing some of these ideas into Spark's console.
In case it's relevant, here are my system specs and settings:
- MSI Big Bang MPower Z77 Motherboard
- Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.5GHz
- Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB DDR3 1866Mhz RAM
- nVidia Geforce GTX 690
- nVidia driver version 310.70
- 1920 x 1080 in NS2 with all graphics settings maxed