Moss Arrows

[DopeFishhh]

The particle effect for the spawning of the moss looks a little fast compared to the rate of moss growth.

 

But really I never liked the moss growth animation in thief, I always thought the best growth effect would be where moss slowly expands out from the impact site along the surface. Taking a bit of inspiration from thief cut scenes it'd be cool if little flowers or similar grew as well as moss.

[plasticman]

Now look at this. Dopefish wants to grow plants.

 

 

...can I have Dope-Arrows then? Like when you hit them guards in tha lung them all git reel mellow? smooth???

 

[DopeFishhh]

It would be quite fitting for the setting, the moss arrow is a pagan based/associated item AFAIK. And movies featuring them frequently showed similar effects happening.

 

Oh and in deadly shadows when you hit people with moss arrows they were temporarily stunned and made sounds like they had been gagged.

Edited October 21, 2009 by DopeFishhh

[BlueSkyBullet]

I never used these much (or noise arrows for that matter either) but have had occasion to -- and especially, just lately, in the excellent "Rightful Property".

 

I agree that the animation and result should be improved over the somewhat (very!) comical/comic-bookish hoppin'-globs. It's a real unnecessary immersion breaker no matter how suspention-of-disbelief you look at it. And if a guard is "looking at it", btw, whilst it is popping and hopping it's even more ridiculous, to put it bluntly.

 

Now I know that there is a sentimental tendency to replicate Thief stuff as much as possible, but, honestly not everything should be harkened back to. TDM is an improvement (oh how those who don't know don't know!) and this is another instance where something, I believe, can be made to look and feel better.

 

Has there been, was there along the way, can there be any more discussion about this?

 

Thanks.

[Springheel]

We're not going to be replacing the moss arrow, but I've never been a big fan of the blobs or the particle effect either. I'd be happy to look at an alternative if someone comes up with one.

[BlueSkyBullet]

Yeah, I'm certainly not suggesting losing the moss arrows. I may not use them much but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the idea of them and the gameplay they afford. It's just, as suggested, improving them by toning the visual effects way down.

 

Isn't there a vine arrow thing coming very soon (1.08?)?

 

From what I vaguely recall about the announcement/description it may be a good place to start. I think it's supposed to be kind of what could be imagined as a better moss arrow animation -- a creeping growth -- and a better result -- a more congruous, spread out, and much more subtle patch.

 

If so, if the vine arrow is ready, just waiting for the rest of 1.08 to be completed, can we maybe get a vid of the deployment of one?

[Tels]

Vine arrows work since v1.07, but I am not aware of any maps that use it yet:

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=What%27s_new_in_TDM_1.07#Coding

[Springheel]

You can see one at work at 2:09 in this vid:

[BlueSkyBullet]

Excellent. Thanks, to both of you.

 

And, as for the link to the Wiki, it got me to looking into 1.08's promises. I especially like this: "Went through all our nearly 500 movable entities and added at least 200 new sound files to improve the impact sounds...". Can't wait for tomorrow!

 

(I did read that it was coming out tomorrow somewhere around here, right?)

[Mortem Desino]

(I did read that it was coming out tomorrow somewhere around here, right?)

You wish.

[BlueSkyBullet]

I did. I even sacrificed a goat.

 

To no avail.

 

Tonight I'll kill a whale and toss a pair of very expensive sunglasses into the brack.

[Midnight]

When I first played the thief dark project demo and read about how moss arrows could be used to create a carpet of moss, my initial thought was that as the arrow flew, moss spores would be released along the arrows trajectory, creating a long even carpet of moss. I was a little disappointed by the actual moss arrows not being done this way (the blobs of moss always seemed like an unrefined implementation. Whether or not what I had in mind would be any good, I have no idea, just thought I'd offer a possible alternative for those who also found the moss blobs a little weird.

[BlueSkyBullet]

Did some google-image searching for some examples of what I would like to see as the end result of a moss arrow deployment. There was lots of stuff of course. I'll just post one now:

 

Say you shoot a Moss Arrow at a bed (or maybe a couch, settee, etc).

 

...

 

I do honestly like the idea posed above about leaving a nice trail along the arrows path.

[Diego]

I don't think anyone really likes the moss effect, but it's a technical challenge. I certainly don't have any suggestions

[rich_is_bored]

Doom 3 uses a dissolve effect on corpses. It's basically an animated form of alpha test transparency. You start with an alpha channel like this (this was extracted from the imp's textures)...

 

 

... and animate the alpha test value. In Doom 3's case the value increases with time so the dark parts of this image disappear first and the white parts last. The same technique could be applied in reverse to have something materialize. Blood running down walls anyone?

 

Writing the material shader is cake. The trouble is in creating a suitable alpha map. It's very much like pallet cycling where the entire animation must be captured in a single image. Then you have to consider what kind of geometry you want to apply it to. That's going to play a role in how you texture it.

 

It's an interesting thought experiment. If anything ever comes of it I'll be sure to share my findings.

[Xarg]

I predict what you just suggested rising on the list of things to do for everyone intending to make a Halloween map this year...