Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Discuss Daggerfall Unity and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.
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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by LypyL »

For the EnhancedSky, there is a bool on the SkyManager class. So just do something like Skymanager.instance.enhancedSkyToggle to set it. The skymanager takes care of everything else.

Songplayer - SongManager.TogglePlay(); SongManager is a component of the Songplayer, which is a child of the player object.

High run speed is 240, and can found in the explorer mode script (it's not public though). Walk & regular run speeds are in the PlayerMotor class, and both are public.

Toggle debug text - there's a bool for this in the explorermode script, but unfortunately it isn't public. However you can do what it does easily:

Code: Select all

showDebugStrings = !showDebugStrings;
if (dfUnity) dfUnity.WorldTime.ShowDebugString = showDebugStrings;
if (streamingWorld) streamingWorld.ShowDebugString = showDebugStrings;
if (SongManager) SongManager.SongPlayer.ShowDebugString = showDebugStrings;
Where showDebugStrings would be a bool you used to keep track of whether the debug strings were showing.

ifkopifko
Posts: 195
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:03 am

Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by ifkopifko »

Hi there,
the new demo is pure awesomeness! The sky, the birds, the grass... and I am especially impressed by the terrain. Cool stuff.

I have noticed a bug, probably somehow linked to the Jet Fighter, because I have only been able to reproduce it if I have used the Jet during the session. When walking around, sometimes I get "teleported" a small distance, kind of an abrupt jump. Walking back and forth on the spot still triggers it. In some places, it even teleports me high into the air.

Other thing I have noticed is, that the moon texture looks to be semi-transparent during daylight, and even more noticeable is, that it's in front of the distant terrain.

Somethig that probably is not a bug, but has a technical reason: There is significant color banding, especially noticeable on the new sky. Nothing major, I was just wondering whether the reason is performance or something else.


First of my thoughts: The sun light source traveling strictly the east-west axis is not the best soulution in my opinion. Since almost all the architecture is rectangular and aligned to east-west and north-south axis, the shadows are cast in a weird way.

Second of my thoughts: All the sprites of trees seem to be too dark when not facing the sun directly. Is it possible to do something about it in the future?

And the last one: I am sure it is in your plans, but could you perhaps incorporate mouse sensitivity adjustment in the future?

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Nystul
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Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by Nystul »

ifkopifko wrote:Hi there,
the new demo is pure awesomeness! The sky, the birds, the grass... and I am especially impressed by the terrain. Cool stuff.
glad you like it ;)
ifkopifko wrote: I have noticed a bug, probably somehow linked to the Jet Fighter, because I have only been able to reproduce it if I have used the Jet during the session. When walking around, sometimes I get "teleported" a small distance, kind of an abrupt jump. Walking back and forth on the spot still triggers it. In some places, it even teleports me high into the air.
I also experience this in the demo. for me it is a demo-only bug, since when compiling my version in unity I do not experience this issue - though I am not 100% up to date with the git hub
It might be a small error in the setup with floating origin/position update script (maybe in conjunction with my increased terrain distance mod).
I am sure we will be able to iron it out in future demos
One can easily reproduce the "abrupt jump" bug when entering high speed mode (key press "h") and running straight into an arbitrary direction. after a short time you will get kicked in the air - or even more precise the terrain will lower itself
ifkopifko wrote: Other thing I have noticed is, that the moon texture looks to be semi-transparent during daylight, and even more noticeable is, that it's in front of the distant terrain.
this might be coming from my increased terrain distance mod as well. The far terrain is blended into the skybox - this is intended but it leads to minor problems like objects in the sky layer that are behind the far terrain will be visible through the far terrain. I am planning to invest some time into this issue but I don't know when I will have time again to work on the next version of my script ;)
ifkopifko wrote: First of my thoughts: The sun light source traveling strictly the east-west axis is not the best soulution in my opinion. Since almost all the architecture is rectangular and aligned to east-west and north-south axis, the shadows are cast in a weird way.
never thought of this, but a slight rotation would indeed be a nice thing to try out
ifkopifko wrote: Second of my thoughts: All the sprites of trees seem to be too dark when not facing the sun directly. Is it possible to do something about it in the future?
good one as well, never realized this by myself, but now as i think of it, it definitely needs to be considered...

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LypyL
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Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by LypyL »

Thanks for the feedback ifkopifko, and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the demo! :D
I have noticed a bug, probably somehow linked to the Jet Fighter, because I have only been able to reproduce it if I have used the Jet during the session. When walking around, sometimes I get "teleported" a small distance, kind of an abrupt jump. Walking back and forth on the spot still triggers it. In some places, it even teleports me high into the air.
Teleporting bugs have definitely been an ongoing battle for me :D Everytime I think I have it ironed out it comes back. Thanks for letting me know, I'll have to look at it again.
Other thing I have noticed is, that the moon texture looks to be semi-transparent during daylight, and even more noticeable is, that it's in front of the distant terrain.
The moon transparency is on purpose, as having fully opaque moons in the sky during day looked terrible, so I made them fade out towards dawn. Nystul already explained the distant terrain issue, hopefully we'll find a solution to that.
First of my thoughts: The sun light source traveling strictly the east-west axis is not the best soulution in my opinion. Since almost all the architecture is rectangular and aligned to east-west and north-south axis, the shadows are cast in a weird way.
Agreed! For the Enhanced Sky I've been planning on making the Sunrise/sunsets more interesting by changing up the direction & time so it's not always straight east to west at the exact same time. But that's going to be a project in itself and will probably be a while before I get to it.

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Interkarma
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Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by Interkarma »

LypyL wrote: The moon transparency is on purpose, as having fully opaque moons in the sky during day looked terrible, so I made them fade out towards dawn. Nystul already explained the distant terrain issue, hopefully we'll find a solution to that.
The semi-transparent moon at dawn is one of my favourite things about the enhanced sky. I agree it's a touch odd how it seems to be in front of the far terrain. I just tell myself it's an atmospheric illusion, like a fata morgana. I'm sure the guys will be able to fix it. :)
First of my thoughts: The sun light source traveling strictly the east-west axis is not the best solution in my opinion. Since almost all the architecture is rectangular and aligned to east-west and north-south axis, the shadows are cast in a weird way.
An easy cheat would be to interpolate angle of sun between two points at either equinox to simulate how the sun angle drifts slightly north/south between winter and summer. I almost put this into my sunlight manager, but it was too much trouble considering the vanilla backgrounds have the sun "painted on" in a strict east-west orientation.
Second of my thoughts: All the sprites of trees seem to be too dark when not facing the sun directly. Is it possible to do something about it in the future?
This is technically correct, but the effect is exaggerated due to the flatness of the sprites and how our brains process them (nothing like them exist in nature). Just use Google Image search to look up "sunset images" and note how objects between sun and camera are in silhouette (provided there are no other light sources or reflectors). I get around this in my default sunlight setup by using a three-point lighting rig. This fills in the colour of the sprites at more angles to loosely simulate reflected/scattered light. LypyL's enhanced sky does this one better by using Unity's sky lighting system. Possibly a cheap directional fill light of low intensity would help minimise the unpleasant effect.

ifkopifko
Posts: 195
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:03 am

Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by ifkopifko »

Thank's for your answers. Just to make it clear:

1. The sun trajectory "problem"... I only wanted to get rid of the shadows which are always cast precisely alongside walls of almost all the architecture. I did not have "absolute realism" in mind (like trajectory change with the time of the year), even though it sounds very interesting.

2. The sprite lighting "problem"... I understand that it is technically correct because of the flatness, however, the sprites are there to represent "real 3D trees". And I do not have a problem with it during sunset/sunrise, but more like at midday (like 13 - 14 o'clock). In the starting location on snowy land I think it's very visible during that time, despite the fact, that the sun is high up in the sky.
I know nothing about how lighting in a game engine works, but maybe something like adding a component, that would depend on how much light from the sun source the ground receives. With the ground I mean the polygon on which the tree stands, or just horizontal plane perhaps for simplicity, the difference could be minimal except for steep slopes. And maybe it's not such a good idea... :D

And one more thing that occured to me. The moons are quite dominant on the sky and have a very distinct colour, so perhaps the moonlight should affect the lighting during nights. Could be interesting once the moon phases are put into action. But shadows are not necessary in my opinion.

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Uncanny_Valley
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Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by Uncanny_Valley »

Here is the demo menu with all the options available. Just add it anywhere in the scene and drag the necessary components into it. The menu is set to open using the "Tab" button.
Attachments
Demo_menu.zip
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Interkarma
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Re: Contributor Demo1 - RC2

Post by Interkarma »

Thank you, sir! :) I will update the demo build when I can to get in this and some other fixes.

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