[ 2.10 ] New Frob Shader

[snatcher]

2 hours ago, wesp5 said:

Hm, so maybe the loot willl blink and the rest will not. Wasn't this the case in the latest official Thief game?

I didn't play 3 nor 4!

Anyway, you can now see it in action and judge it for yourself.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by snatcher

[wesp5]

53 minutes ago, snatcher said:

Anyway, you can now see it in action and judge it for yourself.

I really love it, great job ! It also works fine with my favorite black frob outline, so I am tempted to add it to my patch if you allow it. And it's nothing like the sparkling of the last Thief game loot if I remember correctly...

Edited July 18, 2023 by wesp5

[snatcher]

Glad you like it!

1 hour ago, wesp5 said:

[...] It also works fine with my favorite black frob outline, so I am tempted to add it to my patch if you allow it. [...]

Do with it what you please. Have fun!

[wesp5]

2 hours ago, snatcher said:

Glad you like it!

Do with it what you please. Have fun!

Thanks, and done! Maybe others could take a look so that we can discuss whether to add it to the core game?

[SeriousToni]

2 hours ago, wesp5 said:

Thanks, and done! Maybe others could take a look so that we can discuss whether to add it to the core game?

Maybe a short video preview would make things easier for everyone

[snatcher]

How about opinions based on first hand experiences?

If you stick to the install instructions it takes 10 minutes to download the package and check it for yourself (20 minutes if you aren't familiar with the Modpack). It takes 5 minutes to delete everything.

[STiFU]

Distinguishing loot from junk can sometimes be tricky. I just tried to remedy this situation by allowing a different froboutline color for inventory items. I've set up an extremely subtle grey-blueish outline for junk, but a rather strong yellow outline for inv / loot. I think it works quite well...

[Amadeus]

That looks pretty sharp! Has this been committed? I'd be down to try it out

[Wellingtoncrab]

Yeah it looks really great imo - combining and balancing the effect of the highlight and the outline as you have also removes some of the edge cases where the outline didn’t read as well.

I was always thought it was a huge shame the outline got kind of killed by the committee here instead of just getting refined. 

[STiFU]

1 hour ago, Amadeus said:

That looks pretty sharp! Has this been committed? I'd be down to try it out

I commited it just now for you to try, at revision 11138, no asset changes involved. Separate inventory item frob outline is enabled via r_frobOutlineInv. Then you can configure the separate froboutline via r_fobOutlineColorInv*. Here are my current settings.

r_frobOutlineExtrusion = "-2"                                                                                              
r_frobOutlineColorInvA = "1"                                                                                               
r_frobOutlineColorInvB = "0"                                                                                               
r_frobOutlineColorInvG = ".6"                                                                                              
r_frobOutlineColorInvR = "1"                                                                                               
r_frobOutlineColorA = "1"                                                                                                  
r_frobOutlineColorB = ".2"                                                                                                 
r_frobOutlineColorG = ".2"                                                                                                 
r_frobOutlineColorR = ".2"                                                                                                 
r_frobOutlineInv = "1"                                                                                                     
r_frobOutline = "2"                                                                                                        
 

[STiFU]

By the way, you can also set it to only show frob outline on inventory items, by setting r_frobOutlineColorA 0.0.

[Amadeus]

Yeah, I like it, which is surprising because I'm normally pretty grumpy about changes like these, lol.  I really appreciate that it doesn't bleed through geometry. (I changed my outline color to orange). It's also kind of amusing that Eye on the Prize has turned out to be the perfect testing ground for this. It's got loot, junk, playertools, all in one place!

[Arcturus]

How about giving a different outline for valuables and non-valuables?

[STiFU]

5 hours ago, Arcturus said:

How about giving a different outline for valuables and non-valuables?

Are you suggesting to have a third color configurable to distinguish regular inventory items from loot? That would be a bit too much, I think. The current implementation also allows the player to distinguish junk from inventory items. That should suffice.

[datiswous]

3 hours ago, STiFU said:

Are you suggesting to have a third color configurable to distinguish regular inventory items from loot?

I think it's usually not necesary for inventory items. Only for loot. also because for inventory items it's nice to really spot it yourself, because it's a special thing. This might also change how things are intended in a mission. Objective: "Search for an item" becomes: "Look around for an item".

I think the real fix for loot is better loot textures though. But until then it's a good idea.

Edited February 7 by datiswous

[Baal]

I am still not a fan of the outline. Especially if it is bright yellow. It does not have the simplicity and elegance of the original (the way Thief did it), and looks very out of place to my eyes (and taste). But I also understand that that doesn't always work as well with TDM lighting. 

I can't think of a better solution at the moment.

[stgatilov]

13 hours ago, STiFU said:

I commited it just now for you to try, at revision 11138, no asset changes involved. Separate inventory item frob outline is enabled via r_frobOutlineInv. Then you can configure the separate froboutline via r_fobOutlineColorInv*. Here are my current settings.

This has to be fixed.

You cannot access game state from renderer backend because they are on different threads.
Aside from that, you should not access game state even from render frontend, because it breaks incapsulation. Renderer has its public API though which all the information is passed.

[wesp5]

1 hour ago, Baal said:

I am still not a fan of the outline. Especially if it is bright yellow.

I am using a black outline in my Unofficial Patch and this works fine IMHO.

[Baal]

4 minutes ago, wesp5 said:

I am using a black outline in my Unofficial Patch and this works fine IMHO.

I don`t mind the white outline either. Could you share a screenshot? I haven`t seen the patch in action yet.

[STiFU]

1 hour ago, stgatilov said:

This has to be fixed.

You cannot access game state from renderer backend because they are on different threads.
Aside from that, you should not access game state even from render frontend, because it breaks incapsulation. Renderer has its public API though which all the information is passed.

Understood, I'll look into fixing that.That's the problem with all those globals and public members, it is easy to do it wrong simply because the code allows you to do it. Proper encapsulation would have prevented that.

That being said, it's just a boolean that is accessed and the information is non-critical, so there won't be any actual multithreading issues.

[wesp5]

1 hour ago, Baal said:

I don`t mind the white outline either. Could you share a screenshot? I haven`t seen the patch in action yet.

You should be able to activate the frob outline in the current TDM version. Open the console and type:

r_frobOutline 1 and then r_frobOutlinePreset 6 (5 is another black variation).

[STiFU]

23 hours ago, stgatilov said:

This has to be fixed.

You cannot access game state from renderer backend because they are on different threads.
Aside from that, you should not access game state even from render frontend, because it breaks incapsulation. Renderer has its public API though which all the information is passed.

Fixed at Rev. 11144.

@Amadeus, @Wellingtoncrab, just a heads up: I renamed the cvars to something more meaningful: r_frobOutlineValuables, r_frobOutlineValuablesColor*. I have also added two new presets 7 and 8 to r_frobOutlinePreset:
7 - geometric, yellow for valuables, grey for junk (STiFU)
8 - geometric, yellow valuables, none for junk (STiFU)

[Amadeus]

Thanks, I'll make the changes and keep messing around. So far, I think this is behaving really well. Even in foggy missions

[wesp5]

5 hours ago, STiFU said:

Fixed at Rev. 11144.

@Amadeus, @Wellingtoncrab, just a heads up: I renamed the cvars to something more meaningful: r_frobOutlineValuables, r_frobOutlineValuablesColor*. I have also added two new presets 7 and 8 to r_frobOutlinePreset:
7 - geometric, yellow for valuables, grey for junk (STiFU)
8 - geometric, yellow valuables, none for junk (STiFU)

Will this end up in 2.15 or is this already hidden in 2.14? I will have to update my patch if this looks good ;).

[STiFU]

1 hour ago, wesp5 said:

Will this end up in 2.15 or is this already hidden in 2.14? I will have to update my patch if this looks good ;).

Right now, the change is only on trunk. @stgatilov is preparing the next beta build at the moment. Since we usually don't allow new developments to go in during beta, I let him decide whether to include it or not.