Glow Effect In Ns
Windelkron
Join Date: 2002-04-11 Member: 419Members
Join Date: 2002-04-11 Member: 419Members
<div class="IPBDescription">if you didn't see it in beta disc.</div> <span style='color:white'>Update! Video and full screenshot archive available!!!!!</span>
There is a glow effect mod for Half-Life that makes the game look really, really good. There's a thread in Beta Discussion about it right now. A link to it is at the bottom of this post.
A few facts about this effect:
- Yes, it does lower fps, drastically in some cases. About a 20 fps drop from normal.
- However, the effects are controlled by the user. You can turn off the blur effects ingame if you want, or you can turn them to ultra-trippy mode. It's completely client-side (although the server must have matching dlls, for consistency)
- While it makes the outdoor maps of CS and other mods extremely glowy and hard to look at, NS maps, which are enclosed are great. The monitors and lights glow with a realistic look.
- Muzzleflashes and explosions look absolutely amazing.
- The muzzleflash on page 4 is big because the sprite is messed up on my computer. Repeat, the size of the muzzleflash is NOT due to the mod, it is due to my own modelling ineptitude!
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72930' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...showtopic=72930</a>
Screenshots start at the bottom of page 2.
<b><span style='color:yellow'>The video is here!!!!!</span></b>
<a href='http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Glowmod/The%20NSGlow%20Video/Glowmod%20Bink%20Video.exe' target='_blank'>Glowmod Bink Video.exe</a>
^ here's the video. It's a bink video, hence the .exe. Don't worry, it's not a virus, I wouldn't do something like that.
** During the video, I switch from no blur, to average blur, to excessive blur once or twice. This happens near the hologram machine. It's not a glitch in the video or the mod; this is me showing you what it looks like with and without the effects.
<b><span style='color:yellow'>Full screenshot archive!!!</span></b>
Now I can stop raping the forum's bandwidth by attaching images. Here you can find all ... uh, 160 or so pictures from a bunch of maps.
<a href='http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Glowmod/' target='_blank'>Screenshot archive</a>
<b><span style='color:white'><span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'>THANKS TO </span> (currently banned) <span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'> URANIUM 235 FOR THE HOSTING!!! </span>
<span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'>Also zazi hosts the hosting, so thank you too.</span></b></span>
Thanks to zazi and mouse for ns_widow and ns_hydrosity, respectively.
There is a glow effect mod for Half-Life that makes the game look really, really good. There's a thread in Beta Discussion about it right now. A link to it is at the bottom of this post.
A few facts about this effect:
- Yes, it does lower fps, drastically in some cases. About a 20 fps drop from normal.
- However, the effects are controlled by the user. You can turn off the blur effects ingame if you want, or you can turn them to ultra-trippy mode. It's completely client-side (although the server must have matching dlls, for consistency)
- While it makes the outdoor maps of CS and other mods extremely glowy and hard to look at, NS maps, which are enclosed are great. The monitors and lights glow with a realistic look.
- Muzzleflashes and explosions look absolutely amazing.
- The muzzleflash on page 4 is big because the sprite is messed up on my computer. Repeat, the size of the muzzleflash is NOT due to the mod, it is due to my own modelling ineptitude!
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72930' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...showtopic=72930</a>
Screenshots start at the bottom of page 2.
<b><span style='color:yellow'>The video is here!!!!!</span></b>
<a href='http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Glowmod/The%20NSGlow%20Video/Glowmod%20Bink%20Video.exe' target='_blank'>Glowmod Bink Video.exe</a>
^ here's the video. It's a bink video, hence the .exe. Don't worry, it's not a virus, I wouldn't do something like that.
** During the video, I switch from no blur, to average blur, to excessive blur once or twice. This happens near the hologram machine. It's not a glitch in the video or the mod; this is me showing you what it looks like with and without the effects.
<b><span style='color:yellow'>Full screenshot archive!!!</span></b>
Now I can stop raping the forum's bandwidth by attaching images. Here you can find all ... uh, 160 or so pictures from a bunch of maps.
<a href='http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Glowmod/' target='_blank'>Screenshot archive</a>
<b><span style='color:white'><span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'>THANKS TO </span> (currently banned) <span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'> URANIUM 235 FOR THE HOSTING!!! </span>
<span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'>Also zazi hosts the hosting, so thank you too.</span></b></span>
Thanks to zazi and mouse for ns_widow and ns_hydrosity, respectively.
Comments
This is awesome <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
looks like a lot of code xpcagey needs to add to its tools and nem to its compiler.
This and detail textures would bring NS much closer to today's graphical standards.
--Scythe--
<a href='http://www.terminus-discord.com/mouse/dtxglow.rar' target='_blank'>Mmmm</a>
ns_hydrosity0048.jpg for the win
It's a toggle effect, so it can probably just be set to 0 when commandermode is active.
The best effect is in the bast lava... as seen here:
<img src='http://mendasp.thezazi.net/mapas/cgeffect/ns_bast_remake0000.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Last night i gave all the ns and co maps a try in that glow minimod, and i have to admit it makes NS sexy as hell, if detail textures still existed, they would make NS look extremely nice.
I must say that ns_origin has the sexiest lava effects, the lava streams outside furnace, too sexy.
Unfortunately due to awful Steam support, my Radeon 9600 hacks along at ~30fps with cg_steps at 4, and that's without a number of NS entities, all buildings, weapons, other players etc etc. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
EDIT:
The darkness the maps get with this plugin is great. This is how NS are supposed to look in my world. Dark, atmospheric maps. Great <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Though i dont really care, i play NS with 800x600 and maitain a constant 40fps. On my other comp i have a better one...ill have to dl it and test it out,
btw can someone get a shot of the hera reception screen. it's already been made blurry so i'm wondering if this will make it unreadable now.
Cant wait to try it out tonight... just wondering, does it make it any harder to hit aliens ie skulks?Could we get a few pics with action/ fighting/buildings in them so as to see how it looks like, and is there a way of toggeling how bright/strong the glow is??
I'll definitely be taking a look at this, give it a try.
O.T /me waves, been hiding under a rock, sorry.
- Shockeh
No, it doesn't make anything harder.
If you're playing on de_dust with this one, the sand glows like the earth is on fire, so in that case it might be hard to focus on an enemy. But in NS, where there's little brightness, other entities will show up just fine.
All the bright things on models will also be brighter, so actually, in some cases, enemies running under lights will be easier to see because the bright parts of their models will be glowing a bit more. Also, muzzleflashes are easy to spot (and they look incredible).
Edit: Re-read original post, that's a pretty hefty price to pay =[
0) yes, step zero. Make sure you have the hardware. We know the effect works on Geforce4 Ti4200 cards and the equivelant radeons. We know the effect does not work on Radeon 9200s. We don't know an exact list of cards that work, but everything higher than a Ti4200 should work. I'm not sure how much lower it goes. Plus, you have to be running OpenGL, which shouldn't be a problem for most. As for my card, I'm running a Radeon 9600XT, which may be an important fact later when I make some FPS references.
1) Download <a href='http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jamesleece/store/newtest.zip' target='_blank'>this minimod</a> (basically, the bare necessities. It has the important DLLs, so you can run it, but only on half-life maps). Thanks, RedDragonGecko for the link!
2) Take a peek at the contents of the .zip. cg.dll and cggl.dll go into <span style='color:yellow'>C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\</span>
Don't worry, this won't wreck your system. You don't have to overwrite anything important.
3) Create a folder in your <span style='color:yellow'>C:\Program Files\steam\SteamApps\email@email\half-life\</span> directory, like a mod directory. Throw liblist.gam as well as the three folders (which is everything else but the ones now in your system directory) into your new mod directory.
4) Okay, so you have the minimod working, I hope. It will be listed under steam's third-party game list (or for WON, just another mod on the mod list) as Tron 2.0 glow, or something to the effect.
5) But don't you want to see NS maps in action? Well, that's easy. Just take your gfx, maps, models, sounds, and sprites folders from ns and copy them to your new glow folder. Make sure you don't cut and paste; you want to COPY and paste, as to not wreck your copy of NS. You also are going to need all the .wad files from the NS folder to be put in your new mod folder (otherwise your maps have no textures to run off of). Thanks Bob, I forgot to mention the environment folder. I saw the Black Mesa scenery out of ns_eclipse's skylights and completely forgot to mention that here.
6) Load up the tron 2.0 glow mod. Once you're staring at Gordon Freeman, bring up the console and type <span style='color:red'>map ***</span> . Type in a map of your choosing for those stars, though I reccommend either typing <span style='color:red'>map ns_bast</span> or <span style='color:red'>map ns_origin</span> .
7) Okay, you're in the map's readyroom. But remember, the jointeam entities won't work because their function isn't defined in your new little minimod. Well, it's noclip time. Noclip on down to the map (in ns_maps, the readyroom is going to be above the map, but it is probably different in co_maps). And look around.
8) Wait! This is an important step. To change the level of blur, the console command is <span style='color:red'>cg_blur_steps</span> .
For NO BLUR (and good FPS), type <span style='color:red'>cg_blur_steps 0</span> in the console.
For SOME BLUR (and 30-40 FPS for me) type <span style='color:red'>cg_blur_steps 4</span> in the console.
For A LOT OF BLUR (and 15-20 FPS for me) type <span style='color:red'>cg_blue_steps 10</span> in the console.
What I would do is bind a key to no blur, another key to some blur, and another key to turn noclip on and off. Bast and origin in particular look beautiful with these effects on.
PM me with any questions or problems.
I took a screenshot of this on page 6 of the Beta discussion <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72930&st=75' target='_blank'>thread</a>, although it lacked detail textures. Remember, that screenshot is only at cg_blur_steps 1, not 4. Here are some performance tests that I just did:
Max Settings (AA@6X, AF@16X, Max Texture Quality)
0 - 254 fps (100% of control)
1 - 76 fps (30% of control)
2 - 57 fps (22% of control)
3 - 46 fps (18% of control)
4 - 38 fps (15% of control)
Min Settings (AA off, AF off, Min Texture Quality):
0 - 271 fps (100% of control)
1 - 157 fps (58% of control)
2 - 113 fps (42% of control)
3 - 90 fps (33% of control)
4 - 74 fps (27% of control)
Personally, it seems worthwhile to leave the cg_blur_steps setting at 1, since the effect isn't enhanced much, compared to the large frame rate hit.