New material system?
Machinaster
Join Date: 2007-05-31 Member: 61074Members
Join Date: 2007-05-31 Member: 61074Members
Comments
It's what turns a bunch of bitmaps into a complex multi-shadered material which looks good in game.
lol
As far as I know they currently hack transparency in using some other system, if the new system can handle it properly, might mean a performance increase.
Or it might mean a reduction due to the system being new and needing more testing and tweaking until it works properly.
Basically it doesn't mean either for definite.
*hides in a corner*
SparkE performance has increased a whole bunch in the internal build. And you can now see lighting as ingame, it will only get faster, so says the Max!
It will prob increase the gfx overhead but as performance is currently cpu limited i wouldn't worry too much about the perf hit.
"This could be huge!"
...water?
It's what turns a bunch of bitmaps into a complex multi-shadered material which looks good in game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks!
No. The transparency you see there is just sorta a mistake. That is why the triangles are not being rendered in the correct depth (popping eyes, woah).
We may take advantage of this mistake for ghost structure placement in the short term but proper transparency is still a bit off. The new material system will be featured in the new temporary nano shield effect that will be in the next patch.
As others have said, it will simply allow us to have new visual effects in the game. Mostly on structures and players. It should not impact the performance negatively although there may be some small issues in the next patch or two while we work out the details with specific graphics cards.
Quick example of the <a href="http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/UE3-11-MaterialBasics.htm" target="_blank">Unreal Engine 3 material editor</a>.
I guess since you just started working on the new system you will be working on the technical aspect, the render pipeline and buffer integration, exclusively – but are there plans for an advanced material editor inside spark at a later point?
Thanks.
Quick example of the <a href="http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/UE3-11-MaterialBasics.htm" target="_blank">Unreal Engine 3 material editor</a>.
I guess since you just started working on the new system you will be working on the technical aspect, the render pipeline and buffer integration, exclusively – but are there plans for an advanced material editor inside spark at a later point?
Thanks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Maybe. The underlying system is very similar to the Unreal one, but there isn't a tool front end to it. Someone in the community could build one though, if they felt motivated.
A visual frontend is nice, but I would imagine once you know how the materials work you could make do without one easily enough.
Very nice, thanks for the reply. If the Spark editor can be modded like the game then this sounds like a good opportunity to finally get into Lua.
I have a few shaders I'm going to make for PAX. I'm planning on doing a livestream when I do it, so you can see how it works.
No MAX at PAX?
I do not like No MAX at PAX.
i am psyched about new material system though.
Nice! I'd like to see that
No MAX at PAX?
I do not like No MAX at PAX.
i am psyched about new material system though.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Max will most definitely be at PAX. He is our main attraction. Our booth basically consists of Max standing on a table, with the crowds bowing down before him.
Transparency in a deferred renderer is kind of hacky; especially if you are limited to DX9. Depending on how you implement it, it is not inconcievable that it could use quite a bit of CPU.
E.g. one way you could do it is to render all opaque objects with the deferred renderer, then guess maybe 4 of the most contributing light sources for each transparent object and render them with forward rendering using the chosen lights.
Please do this, and encode it for Youtube. I'm very interested in this!