Hi, I am working on multiplayer remake of scorched earth and trying to make some graphical improvements. I am wondering if one has to have/make images in order to achieve good visual effects (since all the developers available lack the artistic abilities altogether). After an extensive research online I have been able to find an algorythm of real time fire but that''s about it. I was quite exited when I found gamedev.net, but the graphical tutorial section seems lacking and half the links are quite dead (including the fire tutorial which I wanted to see, since my fire could really use some optimization). Therefore I ask if it is possible to code special effects such as explosions/lightnings/lasers without ready made images, by some sort of algorythm similar to fire algorythm. And if it is, where would one find examples and/or tutorials on the subjects. Also, on a different note, is there anyone out there, who would be interested in helping with graphics design in a game me and my friend are considering writing now. We are considering something along the lines of Archon (chess like, fantasy based game - 3d figures a chess board, top view 2d fight over a magnified square once figures run into each other). We wouldn''t be able to pay for it, but will split the profits if any, and it wouldn''t be a bad thing to have in the portfolio when it''s functional. Please email me at alexr@brandeis.edu, if you''re at least vaguely interested. Thank you very much, Alex

The thing you are looking for is not a fire effect (which is purely graphic) but rather a "Particle system".
I dunno if there are any nice beginner tutorials here, but there must be somewhere, it''s a quite popualr topic those days.
With it you can do eplosions, fire, water, smoke etc etc.

The idea is to have a system that modelise the movement and life cycle of particles. Say you have an explosion, the sys would move all the bits and pieces from the explosion origin, according to gravity constraints and original speed, eventually changing the appearance of the particles from a burning white hot to a cold black piece of junk.

This is very much coder work.

youpla :-P

I recall that Gamasutra had a partical system feature... You should search the feature section for it... I have a copy of it somewhere on my disk


-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)

Theres a nice particle tutorial at NeHe''s site as well, if your using OpenGL. If your not using OpenGL then you could still read through the explanation of how a particle system works and get a better understanding of it at the very least.

------------
- outRider -

You need an algorithm for lasers?? Surely you can figure that one out!

Lightning should be easy too. If you just want background effects, you can use some simple random branching code to plot the path, and use line thickness that starts off thick and dim and ends thin and bright layered over each other to get the glow.

What kind of explosions are you talking about? Fire ball, electical sphere of energy, concussion blast, (like you''d see in arial shots of bombs exploding from WWII) ring of fire, etc.

Some explosions (gas especially) are easily done with multiple small, randomly changing mini-explosion graphics moving away from a center location. For a totally rendered explosion, you can have something that looks like a partial sphere (remove top and bottom 1/3) expanding outward from a center point.

E:cb woof!

Hi there,

As mentioned a particle system would be a good thing for flames/smoke fx, try www.3dcafe.com for plenty of tutorials on just about any topic (oh, and hardly any broken links)

Just a pointer, but if the tutorial is located on www.3dpalette.com, this site is currently down...go to www.www.3dpalette.org
for the temporary site.

Hope this helps.


www.stephen-hawes.co.uk