Atmospheric Flight in WCSO?

[casperXJ]

I don't know much about WC editing, but I remember that UE had a simulator mission where you flew in a nebula.

I wonder, is it possible to create an atmospheric-looking background like that nebula background, with a lens-flared sun and a horizon in the distance that could simulate atmospheric flight in the Vision engine?

In addition, would it be possible to create a huge flat object to simulate the ground so you could crash into it if you got too low?

That would be pretty cool for any fan project.

Just an idea...

 

[Eder]

It's been tried, but didn't work too well. I mean, it worked, but I think it just felt cheap.

The attempt was to use a huge flat object to simulate the ground... background graphics would be tricky because:
a) the background graphics are tiled twice - this should be very noticeable when you have a planet's surface drawn on it (you'd clearly see that the north half of the surface looks exactly the same as the south half, and you'd probably see some big nasty texture distortion on the poles... like a whirlpool on the ground)
b) you'd never get any closer to the surface

 

[casperXJ]

the background graphics are tiled twice

What if you made each image half sky and half ground? It'd be sideways, but that would create two different halves. I think's it's worth a try if just to see how much distortion there is - maybe with a black-and-white test image?

Anyway, I didn't know about the background. It's really enjoyable to see other environments besides the usual stars-on-black, though.

I am curious: is there a way to put a really bright object far in the distance, if not on the background? In my opinion, the brightness of flying into the sun should be more apparent than it is.

 

[Quarto]

Terrain is possible if you import a large terrain mesh as a capship, but nobody's ever really bothered with it because it just doesn't work that well. With no altitude indicators, and extremely undetailed textures, you have no way of telling how far above the ground you are... and when you hit the ground, you just bounce off anyway.

We're always trying to 'innovate' and find weird roundabout ways of reintroducing into WCP things from previous WC games, but we prefer to focus on the stuff that can work out well.