Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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King of Worms
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Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by King of Worms »

When I say player sprites, I mean things like :
  • Hand held weapons, horse, card, caster hands etc...
They have the same brightness all the time.
Your dagger looks the same at the middle of the day, or deep down in a dungeon.
Same as your horse, it looks the same at the midnight and at the mid day.
Those things should be dark when you are at the darkness and vice versa.
They should also receive light from a light sources like a torches.
  • Also, the HUD..
Can we get it to have a transparency settings? So the HUD does adjust to its surrounding a bit? I guess something like 75% opacity would do the trick. By HUD I mean the Compass & the HP/STAMINA/MANA bars. Basically things which are always visible.
  • The light emitted by the player itself
I think it would be nice to call it a Torch. Change the color from a generic white LED to a slightly pulsating fire with orange/yellow-ish color and add a key-bind to it. So if you press for ex "TAB" you will turn the torch on, and when you press again, it will be turned off... And maybe a very subtle fire sound to it? Make it cast shadows around you?

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Interkarma
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by Interkarma »

I'll add a quick note for each of these:

Lights on weapons, horse, caster hands, etc. is a bit difficult as these don't exist inside the world in any way. They're just a 2D overlay at the UI level. They technically exist as part of the GUI system. It is possible, but would involve a lot of additional work (e.g. painting a normal map for each weapon image) and some code to support it. It might be possible to implement a basic setup with a special light probe and just make the overlay brighter-darker based on average surrounding light. Wouldn't look as good as having a normal map though. Ideally, someone will create a true 3D weapons mod one day. This would also help IC's VR mod.

HUD transparency is definitely possible. The elements weren't designed with transparency in mind, but this is something that could be put in later.

Making the player light more torch-like is an excellent idea. I also like the idea of being able to the toggle the torch on and off with a subtle fire sound, very nice. The mod could even take this to the next level and make torches an item the player must carry and burn, with each torch having a finite duration.

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King of Worms
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by King of Worms »

Thanks for input!

So 2 out of 3 are quite doable. 1st one is harder to achieve. Aint that bad :)
I think the lights on weapons, horses etc, could be done in that simple way you described with a light probe. At least something.

I think the default player emited light is quite bad honestly, it looks like you have a LED lamp over your shoulder, it messes with the textures when you approach them closely etc... Just give it a tint of orange/yellow and it will be much better. Same as when AlexanderSig changed the light on torches from white to yellow. Results were great.

Just a idea :)

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LorrMaster42
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by LorrMaster42 »

I watched a video about this at some point. Can't remember how good it was, but here it is:


ifkopifko
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by ifkopifko »

King of Worms wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:15 am I think the lights on weapons, horses etc, could be done in that simple way you described with a light probe. At least something.
A little problem would arise with magical weapons (and magic casting hands) as those should be light emitting. Maybe just excluding those sprites from the "darkening" would suffice.

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Nystul
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by Nystul »

LorrMaster42 wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:03 pm I watched a video about this at some point. Can't remember how good it was, but here it is:

this is really nice ;)

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King of Worms
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by King of Worms »

Guys, how hard is to make the player light have a slight yellow tint (and maybe pulsate a bit) and bind it to some key? I think that it would benefit the game a lot and it might be relatively easy to do?

Or make it automatic, that might be even better. Disable at the day and outside, enable in dungeons and interriors?

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Nystul
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Re: Player sprites receive light / HUD Transparency / Torch

Post by Nystul »

should not be that hard. Ideally there could be a mod that makes player light dependent on equipped light source (candles, torches, lanterns etc.)

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