Torque Game Engine Lens Flares

#1 Nope. :)

#2 Ah... some incentive to buy the source code. ^^

#3 .......It is going to take me two years of allowance to afford this...and either way im no master at pure c++. only torque script.

I do know:

Game Maker Language (a special code associated with a different game dev program)

Torque Script

QuickBasic

And i do doubt that quickbasic will help me at all!

#4 This is semi off topic, but I'm curious.

What is with the fascination with lens flares in games?

Lens flare is a result of imperfections in a camera lens - you don't see lens flare with your eyes.

I can sorta understand this in third person games, but I see a disturbing amount of lens flare in first person games, which forces me to assume that I'm playing some kind of cyborg with cameras instead of eyes!

#5 Mostly its because of jsut the visual effect with it. If you do a lens flare well and at the right places it really adds to the visual appeal wich out-weighs the realism.

#6 Same reason some of the old "spaghetti westerns" went out of their way to actually GET that effect - adds to the "feel" and ambience if you use it in the right places. ;-) (They were usually trying to convey a sense of heat and desolation.)

#7 There is a ressource to make lens flare for torque game engine.

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2210

That's old but may help you a bit...
PS : sorry for my english !!!

#8 >It is going to take me two years of allowance to afford this.

Worse case scenario: mow one lawn 10 times. 10 weeks max at 10 dollars a pop.

#9 @Mark: I agree with you on the whole lens flares thing. I was commenting to people that games go too far to get those little things in there that don't happen to my eyes. When I run, the image doesn't bob... but in a game it does. When I drive, the image doesn't vibrate at high rates... but in a game it does. When I look out into the world, I don't see soft glows around everything... but in a game it does. And on, and on...

One of these days, people will realize that it's not the lens flares, glows, bumpmaps, normal maps, reflection and refraction, and shaky cams that make up a good game -- it's the gameplay. Everything else is just icing.

- Brett

#10 Make sure you grab the engine when you can afford it!!

But, here's a trick you can use.

Dave's "Instant Lensflare Recipe"
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1.) Create a lens-flare graphic in a program such as Photoshop, and have the background be transparent (just like you would do anyway in making a lens-flare graphic), and save this as a .PNG file. IMPORTANT: Make COMPLETLY SURE that the lens-flare does NOT go beyond the edges of the graphic, or you won't like the results!!

2.) In Milkshape 3D or similar modeling program, create a 2-polygon plane, and use the texture you just made above.

3.) Set the transparency on the texture to use the .PNG files' alpha channel.

4.) Set the XYZ rotation of this model to create a BillBoard Mesh. (The 'how' to do this will be different for each 3D program, but in 3D Studio Max you just begin the mesh's name with "BBZ::".

5.) Import as a .DTS into torque and place where needed.

6.) Enjoy nature's imperfections at its finest!

Hope this helps... lemme know if I can be of any other assistance!

-Dave C.

#11 @Brett: You couldn't be more correct. While visuals and audio cues certainly add to games, it all boils down to the perfection of gameplay that makes a game truly stand out. The visuals are just - as you so perfectly implied - icing on the proverbial cake.

#12 Dave, nice method. Id better try that sometime...

#13 In my Unreal mapping days we all called them 'lens flares' but they are actually a "corona" effect that we used on light sources. This can be seen, especially on foggy nights which is caused by diffraction produced from water in the surrounding air. I agree "corona's" can add greatly to the lighting of an enviroment but the actual use of "lens flares" do more distracting than enhancing.

Tim Sweeney I believe was the first to do that effect in Unreal. He was walking down a boat dock one night and saw the effect and thought... "I can do that in the game"...

#14 I think it is effective in racing games, where you have the after-race footage and the cameras follow the cars and you can see the lens-flare/corona effect.

@Dave, that's a great tip... as for the billboard setting, I think that has to be done in the Torque editor(?) ...of course, this would only help to create the graphical elements of this effect; not the actual effect itself.

#15 @Will: Billboard settings are all set in the modeling programs, from what I have worked with so far at least. As for the graphical element for the effect, that is correct - but with proper useage, you can get away with JUST this. Great for lights that are high above, but not good for anything you can get up close to as the effect just looks weird staying that large!

#16 Hey, dave. I have a question. Let's say im using a streetlight, that the camera can swivel around. How do you get it to rotate along a light source?

Im trying not to be such a critic. Rather, im wondering.

#17 Technically, as long as you have the XYZ of the billboard set to ALWAYS face the player, it should be handled automatically. If you're finding different results, lemme know and I'll help you work on it.

NP With questions... it takes a critic to improve things! =)

#18 Alright. When i buy milkshape 3d and paint shop pro i will try it out.