Okay, i totally scrapped my last game. The plot got so wrapped up that even i didnt know what was happening. So i killed off the whole plot, and backstory, after conferring with my co-writer. So now, i have a problem. In the new one, i have a character who can have these "Premonitions" which i have tyed in with the summoning ability in my game in a totally cool way, but thats beside the point. In her premonitions, all of the people near her (like with 10 ft) can see the premontions. Now, the problem is everyway i look at it, i cant figure out how to make it so that you can tell that it is a premonition, and cant work it out. If i go greyscale, it just looks bad. (i also tried other color schemes, but they just look awful) Motion blurs look bad, and i dont know what to do. Any help would be appreciated

System Shock 2 used transparancy for their ghosts (animated models activating once first time the player got near). It looked kind of good. They were ofcourse textured bleakly in a lab environment, if you''re in Burger King seeing a vampire á la Hunter X something else might be needed. But as said, transparancy is a really easy thing, perhaps you could add particle effects (bleak magic fountain-ish) around the area where the promonitions show? Or negative light is also an option.

/Apoztel

one effect i''ve used is actually a combination of a few..
i used a motion blur on the ''ghost'' image.. then alphablitted
the ghost image on top of that.. kinda gives it a hazy aura
that sweeps around. that looked good in greyscale and drab
colors, feel free to experiment with it..
one thing you might do, is try to put some ''fog'' near/around
where the apparition will appear. i put it around the
feet area but that''s just me.
of course, the game i used this technique on was 2d, so
if you''re doing something in 3d it could take some playing with.


-eldee
;another space monkey;
[ Forced Evolution Studios ]

That sounds kind of cool, but I''m not too sure what you''re saying. Are you saying that you don''t know how to make the game work so that NPC''s don''t see the apparitions? I have an idea if that is the case. Make the apparitions translucent, ala kind of transparent. Set to transparency to around 50%. Then, make sure they have no collision detection for the NPC''s. Allow them to be able to walk right through one''s that aren''t essential to why they''re there, like civilians. And make sure the civilians don''t do anything. That way, the people can just keep strolling by while you have a huge demon you''re envisioning stomping around the place. You can ask them "Don''t you see it?! Don''t you see it?!" and they''ll be like, "What the hell are you talking about kid?!" Then you can have a cool FMV sequence where you''re not looking from the main character''s point of view. Just from, like, a street camera. Suddenly, a NPC gets their head ripped off. People start running around wondering what the hell is happening. Suddenly, the camera points toward the main character and does sort of a hyper space zoom thing into her eyes and you see the whole thing happen again, this time seeing the apparition and the game picks up from there. Whoops. My imagination got the best of me again. Think about it.

Eternity is relentless

no, thats not it. I just dont know how to make it not look like crap.

Also, a way to describe how exactly the others see the premonitions, well its sort of like a trance almost.

They just stand there in the real world, but are free to move in the premontion until it ends. Its almost like a joining of minds, but everyone can see the premonition from their own point of veiw.

But the problem is that the premonitions, no matter how i slice it, look damned ugly.

If you''re looking for a cheap way out, muffle the audio. The change will notify people that something''s up.

If you''re looking for a "hack at the art algorithm" try alpha blending SLIGHTLY towards a dark blue grey. Try lots of stuff involving Alpha Blending.

If you''ve got palletized art, you can try swapping entries (or have your artist do it instead). Additionally, you could attempt to ask your artist what he/she thinks the scene would look like, and make some art for that.

Hope that helped

actually, i found a way to do it.

Its kind of weird thou.

First, i tinted the screen into this yellow brownish colour i was using for flashbacks in my last game.
That was easy enough. Now i added a motion blur to everything but the Player Characters.

Now the cool part. To show where the climax of the premonition is, there is a white arua that eminates from it if it is good, but when something bad is going to happen, that part of the premonition turns to a black aura, and the cancels out the white one as the action takes place. Well... its more of something you''ll haveto see, but the effect right now is cool.

Oh, and thoughtbubble, i sort of did take A cheap way out. Instead though, i used a paper towel roll to create a cavernous whooshing noise and have this sort of slow uneasy music that i stole playng instead of the regualar score, which doesnt really exist (no music deparment)

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

Actually, I think it''d be a very interesting effect if the premonitions were made indistinguishable from "reality". Then theres a whole ''is it or isn''t it happening'' factor in the story line. Could add a compelling dimension to the story.

Sounds like you''ve got quite a bit of the game already done. Any guesses as to how long it''ll take you to complete it once the story is worked out?