Hello,

Some guys a semester below me at my university just finished this for a little sideproject
Starry Sky
The fog is basically just a continuous stream of circles, coloured according to a certain scheme, getting larger and more transparent with time until they disappear. If you're really interested in implementation, I could get you their email-adresses, but for now, maybe it's just good for a little inspiration.

bw,
Tobl

Hi,

A few space stations or outposts would be cool and add depth perception, I feel. How about an asteroid belt for positional reference? Real outer space has some bright objects like red giant stars, nebulae, novas, and super novas. These could be made sprites or stationary textures and would look okay if the wall of the skybox is far enough from the viewer.


Clinton

Many space games seem to have static "stardust" that doesnt move so the player has a sense of his motion. But I can't spawn millions of particles all over space, and generating them around the player seems costly too.

I actually think this could be a good solution to create the illusion of movement as your travel through it. You certainly don't need millions - a few thousand should do, and be cheap performance-wise.

You can use an infinitely repeating cube of particles that "scrolls" with the camera like is commonly done for precipitation (see "Dynamic Weather Effects" in Shader X7 for an example of this).

You could also add some "virtual" information added by some ship computer which could approximate distances, directions and velocities with transparent lines/grids/whatever looks cool

Like if you are traveling fast it might make it look like you are going in a tube of sparsely placed virtual circles (the aster they come the higher speed)

lack of visual orientation cues (which way am i headed, and which way is up?) are your problem.

been there - done that.

i've done both faster-than-light and sub-light flight simulators. the best method will depend on the speed of the ships, but for both methods:

1. fog:
lose the fog. there's no fog in space, and fog is cheating. it should be possible to draw everything to scale all the way down to one pixel in size before you hit the far plane (except maybe the skybox). as i recall, the solution there is to do a first pass where you draw the skybox, then a second pass where you draw everything that's supposed to be inside it. that way the skybox is always in back, and the ships, planets, etc are in front of it. as i recall, a very large far clip plane was required for both games, perhaps something on the order of 10000 units, vs the more typical 1000 (assuming a near plane of 1). once you're done, you might toss in some fog or AA to soften it a bit. but higher rez sharper graphics with dramatic lighting are what you really want in a space sim. hi rez realtime raytracing is the holy grail of space sim graphics.

2. skybox:
put stars on the skybox. animated skybox textures can be used to make all the stars in the sky twinkle.


3. visual orientation cues:
to aid in orienting the player (very important in a space fighter sim), draw distant galaxies just inside the skybox in the 6 cardinal directions (up, dn, left, rt, fwd, back). you can also add additional distant galaxy graphics to "fill out" empty areas of the sky. (warning: distant galaxy graphics are cool and addictive, its easy to go overboard). you can also use animated textures to do distant sparkling stars etc, instead of distant galaxies. each of these unique stationary distant objects acts as a landmark to help the player get their bearings. if the battle occurs near a spaceport, planet, asteroid belt or other "terrain object" in space, draw that too.

4. lighting and shadows:
don't forget lighting. lighting is everything in a space scene. lots of diffuse, very little ambient. lots of well defined shadows. its should look sharp, and harsh, and stark, not soft, fuzzy, and foggy. although difficult to do, realistic shadows will do wonders to provide visual orientation cues.

5. if your ships are supposed to be travelling faster than light:
use a particle system of streaming stars around the ship. 100 particles in a box area in front of the camera should do it. this gives you the star trek streaming stars effect. i used this method to good effect in my star trek flight simulator (SIMTrek / SIMSpace). the particles are actually lines with a head and a tail, whose length is a function of the light speed (faster = longer tail). put stars on the skybox. the motion of the stars as you move and turn gives an excellent sensation of movement.

6. if your ships are travelling at sub-light speed:
throw in the odd streaming small asteroid (al la wing commander) to enhance the feel of forward motion. this again is a particle system, but maybe only 10 or 20 particles, drawn as asteroid billboards or models. i used this method (skybox, distant galaxies, starbases, planets, etc - but no animated textures) to good effect in my space fighter simulator (Gamma Wing).

once you have all that you can add nebulous clouds etc with translucency, either as an inner skybox layer (moves with the camera) or as objects that you fly past / though.

as mentioned in other replies, a HUD helps for those players comfortable flying on "Instrument Flight Reference".

as you've also noticed by now, those flames coming out the engine cones help a lot. don't forget to animate them! <g>

Good luck, keep at it, looks cool.

Norm Barrows
Rockland Software Productions

fog:
lose the fog. there's no fog in space, and fog is cheating.
[color=#800000]I agree totally.


2. skybox:
put stars on the skybox. animated skybox textures can be used to make all the stars in the sky twinkle.
[color=#800000]I disagree totally with the twinkling. Stars only twinkle if there is atmosphere or maybe a "space dust" cloud dense enough to cause it when the ship is moving.

Clinton