Fog like in Silent Hill 2!!!

Hi All,

Just wanted to see if anybody out there in the Blitz3D
community has ever managed to create a fogging system
similar to that found in "Silent Hill 2" ???
I know that they are using a particle effect for their fog!
I would like to create a fog effect just like that for my
RF86 project! Can anybody recommend any good particle
editors and/or particle functions available???

P.S. If anybody has made something similar to what I was talking about above... Post me a link so I can check it out ok?!

Thank's All...

hmmm, don't know how the fog look exactly in SH 2 ... but i think its something like this (see below)
I've wrote that for snow and modified it
The problem here is the loss of depth through the entityOrder of the fog particles ... but that remove those edges through the objects (cause of the clipping or z buffer ? ... well, look by yourself)
It looks a bit like the fog is slower then youve been moving through .. maybe this can be tweaked somehow

well, have a look .. if you get some results better results out of this code then it would be nice to release them here.

Graphics3D 800,600,32,2
SetBuffer(BackBuffer())

;------ camera stuff
Global ML_cam_pivot = CreatePivot()
Global ML_cam_pivot2 = CreatePivot(ML_cam_pivot)
Global ML_camera = CreateCamera(ML_cam_pivot2)

CameraClsColor ml_camera,100,100,100
CameraFogColor ml_camera,100,100,100
CameraFogMode ml_camera,1
CameraFogRange ml_camera,-10,40

;cameracone for the topview
cone = CreateCone(12,1,ml_camera)
EntityColor(cone,255,0,0)
TurnEntity cone,-90,0,0

Global x_speed#,y_speed#,z_speed#

;------ load the snowflake
extractdata("snow.jpg")
Global snow = LoadSprite("snow.jpg",2)
ScaleSprite(snow,0.4,0.4)
ScaleSprite(snow,16,16)
EntityAlpha snow,0.2
DeleteFile("snow.jpg")
HideEntity(snow)
;SpriteViewMode(snow,4)

;----- the particle type
Type snow
	Field entity
	Field x#,y#,z#
	Field vx#,vy#,vz#
End Type

;----- particles must only be created once on startup ... they will be recycled

;topview camera
topview = CreateCamera(ml_cam_pivot)
CameraViewport topview,10,10,320,240
CameraProjMode(topview,2)
CameraZoom(topview,0.01)
MoveEntity(topview,0,10,10)
TurnEntity(topview,90,0,0)
HideEntity topview

;----- the dimension of the weather box
Global weather_x# = 40
Global weather_y# = 35
Global weather_z# = 50
Global weather_nearfade = 10
createSnow(40)

;a plane
plane = CreateCube()
MoveEntity(plane,0,-5,0)
EntityColor(plane,30,30,30)
ScaleMesh plane,20,1,20


For i=1 To 20
	c = CreateCube()
	EntityColor(c,30,30,30)
	ScaleMesh c,1,5,1
	PositionEntity c,Rnd(-20,20),0,Rnd(-20,20)
Next

timer = CreateTimer(30)
;main loop
While Not KeyHit(1)
	WaitTimer(timer)
	begin=MilliSecs()
	mousemove()
	mouselook()
	doSnow()

	RenderWorld()
	
	;border for topview
	;Color 255,255,255
	;Rect 10,10,320,240,0
	fps_b = fps_b + (MilliSecs()-begin)
	count = count + 1
	If count = 25
		fps = 1000 / (fps_b / 25.0 )
		fps_b = 0
		count = 0
	EndIf
	Text 10,10,fps
	Flip()
Wend
End

Function doSnow()
	For s.snow = Each snow
		
		;this is just the tumbling of the flakes ...
		;all movements should be applied To the virtual position
		max_move# = 0.05
		s\vx = s\vx + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vx > max_move#
			s\vx = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vx < 0.3;-max_move#
			s\vx = 0.3;- max_move#
		EndIf
		
		s\vz = s\vz + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vz > max_move#
			s\vz = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vz < -max_move#
			s\vz = - max_move#
		EndIf

		s\vy = s\vy + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vy > max_move#
			s\vy = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vy < -max_move#
			s\vy = - max_move#
		EndIf
		
		;---- now lets correct the position of the flake 
		PositionEntity s\entity,s\x,s\y,s\z,1
		
		;---- if the flake leaves the weatherbox ... move them to the other side of the box
		If EntityX(s\entity) < -weather_x
			TranslateEntity s\entity,weather_x*2,0,0
		ElseIf EntityX(s\entity) > weather_x
			TranslateEntity s\entity,-weather_x*2,0,0
		EndIf

		If EntityY(s\entity) < -weather_y
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,weather_y*2,0
		ElseIf EntityY(s\entity) > weather_y
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,-weather_y*2,0
		EndIf

		If EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,0,weather_z-weather_nearfade
		ElseIf EntityZ(s\entity) > weather_z
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,0,weather_nearfade-weather_z
		EndIf
		
		;---- now correct the virtual position of the flake and aplly the movements
		s\x = EntityX(s\entity,1) + s\vx
		s\y = EntityY(s\entity,1) + s\vy
		s\z = EntityZ(s\entity,1) + s\vz
		
		If EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,0)
		ElseIf EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade + 10
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,((EntityZ(s\entity)-weather_nearfade)/10) * 0.3)
		Else
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,0.3)
		EndIf
	Next
End Function

Function createSnow(amount)
	For i=1 To amount
		s.snow = New snow
		
		;the snow must be parented to the camera
		s\entity = CopyEntity(snow,ML_camera)
		
		s\x = Rnd(-weather_x,weather_x)
		s\y = Rnd(-weather_y,weather_y)
		s\z = Rnd(weather_nearfade,weather_z)
		
		s\vx = Rnd(-0.05,0.05)
		s\vy = Rnd(-0.03,0.03)
		s\vz = Rnd(-0.03,0.03)
		
		PositionEntity(s\entity,s\x,s\y,s\z)
		EntityAutoFade(s\entity,weather_z*0.8,weather_z)
		EntityOrder(s\entity,-2)
		RotateSprite(s\entity,Rnd(0,360))
	Next
End Function

;----------------- navigation
Function mouselook()
	x_speed# = x_speed * 0.3 + MouseXSpeed() * 0.3 
	y_speed# = y_speed * 0.3 + MouseYSpeed() * 0.3 
	z_speed# = z_speed * 0.3 + MouseZSpeed() * 0.3

	MoveMouse GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2
		
	TurnEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,-x_speed,0	;turn player left/right
	TurnEntity ML_cam_pivot2,y_speed,0,0	;tilt camera
End Function

Function mousemove()
	If KeyDown(200) ;forward
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0,0.5
	End If
	If KeyDown(208) ;backward
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0,-0.5
	End If
	If KeyDown(203) ;left
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,-0.5,0,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(205) ;right
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0.5,0,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(30) ;UP
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0.5,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(44) ;DOWN
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,-0.5,0
	End If
End Function

;--------- the data for the snowflake
Function extractdata(filename$)
	file = WriteFile(filename)
	d = True
	While d > -1
		Read d
		WriteByte(file,d)
	Wend
	CloseFile(file)
End Function

.snowData
Data 255,216,255,224,0,16,74,70,73,70,0,1,2,0,0,100,0,100,0,0,255
Data 236,0,17,68,117,99,107,121,0,1,0,4,0,0,0,50,0,0,255,238,0,33
Data 65,100,111,98,101,0,100,192,0,0,0,1,3,0,16,3,3,6,9,0,0,1,235
Data 0,0,2,53,0,0,2,140,255,219,0,132,0,8,6,6,6,6,6,8,6,6,8,12,8
Data 7,8,12,14,10,8,8,10,14,16,13,13,14,13,13,16,17,12,14,13,13
Data 14,12,17,15,18,19,20,19,18,15,24,24,26,26,24,24,35,34,34,34
Data 35,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,1,9,8,8,9,10,9,11,9,9,11,14
Data 11,13,11,14,17,14,14,14,14,17,19,13,13,14,13,13,19,24,17,15
Data 15,15,15,17,24,22,23,20,20,20,23,22,26,26,24,24,26,26,33,33
Data 32,33,33,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,255,194,0,17,8,0,32
Data 0,32,3,1,34,0,2,17,1,3,17,1,255,196,0,141,0,1,0,3,1,0,0,0,0
Data 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,8,4,6,7,5,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Data 0,16,0,2,2,2,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,3,4,1,2,5,6,0,32,17,18
Data 17,0,2,2,2,2,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,17,2,18,3,33,49,65,81
Data 97,34,18,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,32,19,1,1,1,1,0,3
Data 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,17,0,33,32,49,65,97,255,218,0,12,3,1
Data 0,2,17,3,17,0,0,0,194,111,18,17,65,206,130,214,47,28,37,88
Data 214,244,111,199,168,149,99,255,218,0,8,1,2,0,1,5,1,233,255
Data 218,0,8,1,3,0,1,5,1,233,255,218,0,8,1,1,0,1,5,1,10,229,61,177
Data 250,237,152,171,122,193,71,7,5,215,190,164,64,85,165,214,23
Data 133,24,190,54,129,64,220,195,22,4,240,93,164,137,220,152,151
Data 30,125,218,56,90,218,107,40,236,37,90,175,230,8,228,204,204
Data 243,255,218,0,8,1,2,2,6,63,1,31,255,218,0,8,1,3,2,6,63,1,31
Data 255,218,0,8,1,1,1,6,63,1,199,85,114,102,91,83,79,209,58,211
Data 29,46,161,142,187,123,125,18,171,8,106,11,66,225,154,219,234
Data 74,226,252,13,221,153,208,149,217,141,255,0,71,195,147,255
Data 218,0,8,1,2,3,1,63,16,240,255,218,0,8,1,3,3,1,63,16,240,255
Data 218,0,8,1,1,3,1,63,16,178,30,196,59,157,254,12,153,115,192
Data 105,210,31,184,165,17,149,162,153,59,132,130,243,57,65,20,153
Data 215,144,174,25,39,143,88,130,217,234,226,169,123,220,77,224
Data -1

Nice demo klaas! I moved too far away from the island with the pillars and got lost in the fog... help! :)

It's little example like this from Blitz3D users that constantly astound me -- nice demo.

Nice one. That looks quite a lot like the Silent Hill fog if I'm not mistaken. In a third person game you could maybe link the alpha to the distance of the sprite to your character so the fog gets denser the further it's away from him....

Klaas,

your fog demo lives up to your name - class!

IPete2.

VERY..VERY.. Impressive Klass!!! That's exactly what I was looking for, For my RF86 project...
Im' going to speed up the particle flow just a bit, But a many thanks for this code! YOUR THE MAN!!!!

OMG! That's gorrrrgeous...

@Klaas nice demo///
@All the name "KLAAS" not Klass ..

yep, your right @darklordz ... but i'm not dutch :-) ... but many thanks for your notice

heh i stand corrected

wow, great demo klaas. I'm going to use that for some nebulas in my project I think. Or something... Is there a way to change the colour of those clouds moving across the screen? I'm thinking of experimenting with solid black on dark blue.

Awesome demo, Klaas! can I use it in my role-playing game?

This is fantastic stuff, the best fog I've seen outside of Silent Hill 2 itself. Very cool. ^_^

The fog. Does it move with the camera?

Very impressive :)

@dillpickle79: you can easily change the color ... those clouds are just simple sprites ... take a look where and how they've been created. Entity color can do that. You can even change the color according to there position on the screen or by deepth in the doSnow() function.

@electronin: its free to use for everyone

@Ross C: yes, it does ... but the entity order thing just gave the impression that it doesn't ... due to the loss of depth. This isn't that worse if you do something like SH2 (3rd'person) or games with fixed cameras, but in 1st person it looks some kind of "unrealistic".

well, since this example is so simple, i'm amazed that you all like it so much. This brings me to think that all this technical stuff isnt that important ... desgin and atmosphere(the right mood) is so much more important for a good game.

Never underestimate the powerful effects of ambience...

I like it that it's fast. Usually when you blow up sprites that big, the framerate drops pretty quickly. Very elegant.

Oh wow!
Look at this nice effect I did with it!
I just changed the particles to black (or almost black), and played with the camera clscolor and cameraforgcolor a bit and I got a lovely reddish nebula effect. Here it is:

Graphics3D 800,600,32,2
SetBuffer(BackBuffer())

;------ camera stuff
Global ML_cam_pivot = CreatePivot()
Global ML_cam_pivot2 = CreatePivot(ML_cam_pivot)
Global ML_camera = CreateCamera(ML_cam_pivot2)

CameraClsColor ml_camera,100,10,10
CameraFogColor ml_camera,0,0,0
CameraFogMode ml_camera,1
CameraFogRange ml_camera,-10,40

;cameracone for the topview
cone = CreateCone(12,1,ml_camera)
EntityColor(cone,255,0,0)
TurnEntity cone,-90,0,0

Global x_speed#,y_speed#,z_speed#

;------ load the snowflake
extractdata("snow.jpg")
Global snow = LoadSprite("snow.jpg",2)
ScaleSprite(snow,0.4,0.4)
ScaleSprite(snow,16,16)
EntityColor(snow,10,10,10)
EntityAlpha snow,0.2
DeleteFile("snow.jpg")
HideEntity(snow)
;SpriteViewMode(snow,4)

;----- the particle type
Type snow
	Field entity
	Field x#,y#,z#
	Field vx#,vy#,vz#
End Type

;----- particles must only be created once on startup ... they will be recycled

;topview camera
topview = CreateCamera(ml_cam_pivot)
CameraViewport topview,10,10,320,240
CameraProjMode(topview,2)
CameraZoom(topview,0.01)
MoveEntity(topview,0,10,10)
TurnEntity(topview,90,0,0)
HideEntity topview

;----- the dimension of the weather box
Global weather_x# = 40
Global weather_y# = 35
Global weather_z# = 50
Global weather_nearfade = 10
createSnow(40)

;a plane
plane = CreateCube()
MoveEntity(plane,0,-5,0)
EntityColor(plane,30,30,30)
ScaleMesh plane,20,1,20


For i=1 To 20
	c = CreateCube()
	EntityColor(c,30,30,30)
	ScaleMesh c,1,5,1
	PositionEntity c,Rnd(-20,20),0,Rnd(-20,20)
Next

timer = CreateTimer(30)
;main loop
While Not KeyHit(1)
	WaitTimer(timer)
	begin=MilliSecs()
	mousemove()
	mouselook()
	doSnow()

	RenderWorld()
	
	;border for topview
	;Color 255,255,255
	;Rect 10,10,320,240,0
	fps_b = fps_b + (MilliSecs()-begin)
	count = count + 1
	If count = 25
		fps = 1000 / (fps_b / 25.0 )
		fps_b = 0
		count = 0
	EndIf
	Text 10,10,fps
	Flip()
Wend
End

Function doSnow()
	For s.snow = Each snow
		
		;this is just the tumbling of the flakes ...
		;all movements should be applied To the virtual position
		max_move# = 0.05
		s\vx = s\vx + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vx > max_move#
			s\vx = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vx < 0.3;-max_move#
			s\vx = 0.3;- max_move#
		EndIf
		
		s\vz = s\vz + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vz > max_move#
			s\vz = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vz < -max_move#
			s\vz = - max_move#
		EndIf

		s\vy = s\vy + Rnd(-0.001,0.001)
		If s\vy > max_move#
			s\vy = max_move#
		ElseIf s\vy < -max_move#
			s\vy = - max_move#
		EndIf
		
		;---- now lets correct the position of the flake 
		PositionEntity s\entity,s\x,s\y,s\z,1
		
		;---- if the flake leaves the weatherbox ... move them to the other side of the box
		If EntityX(s\entity) < -weather_x
			TranslateEntity s\entity,weather_x*2,0,0
		ElseIf EntityX(s\entity) > weather_x
			TranslateEntity s\entity,-weather_x*2,0,0
		EndIf

		If EntityY(s\entity) < -weather_y
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,weather_y*2,0
		ElseIf EntityY(s\entity) > weather_y
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,-weather_y*2,0
		EndIf

		If EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,0,weather_z-weather_nearfade
		ElseIf EntityZ(s\entity) > weather_z
			TranslateEntity s\entity,0,0,weather_nearfade-weather_z
		EndIf
		
		;---- now correct the virtual position of the flake and aplly the movements
		s\x = EntityX(s\entity,1) + s\vx
		s\y = EntityY(s\entity,1) + s\vy
		s\z = EntityZ(s\entity,1) + s\vz
		
		If EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,0)
		ElseIf EntityZ(s\entity) < weather_nearfade + 10
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,((EntityZ(s\entity)-weather_nearfade)/10) * 0.3)
		Else
			EntityAlpha(s\entity,0.3)
		EndIf
	Next
End Function

Function createSnow(amount)
	For i=1 To amount
		s.snow = New snow
		
		;the snow must be parented to the camera
		s\entity = CopyEntity(snow,ML_camera)
		
		s\x = Rnd(-weather_x,weather_x)
		s\y = Rnd(-weather_y,weather_y)
		s\z = Rnd(weather_nearfade,weather_z)
		
		s\vx = Rnd(-0.05,0.05)
		s\vy = Rnd(-0.03,0.03)
		s\vz = Rnd(-0.03,0.03)
		
		PositionEntity(s\entity,s\x,s\y,s\z)
		EntityAutoFade(s\entity,weather_z*0.8,weather_z)
		EntityOrder(s\entity,-2)
		RotateSprite(s\entity,Rnd(0,360))
	Next
End Function

;----------------- navigation
Function mouselook()
	x_speed# = x_speed * 0.3 + MouseXSpeed() * 0.3 
	y_speed# = y_speed * 0.3 + MouseYSpeed() * 0.3 
	z_speed# = z_speed * 0.3 + MouseZSpeed() * 0.3

	MoveMouse GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2
		
	TurnEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,-x_speed,0	;turn player left/right
	TurnEntity ML_cam_pivot2,y_speed,0,0	;tilt camera
End Function

Function mousemove()
	If KeyDown(200) ;forward
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0,0.5
	End If
	If KeyDown(208) ;backward
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0,-0.5
	End If
	If KeyDown(203) ;left
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,-0.5,0,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(205) ;right
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0.5,0,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(30) ;UP
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,0.5,0
	End If
	If KeyDown(44) ;DOWN
		MoveEntity ML_cam_pivot,0,-0.5,0
	End If
End Function

;--------- the data for the snowflake
Function extractdata(FileName$)
	file = WriteFile(FileName)
	d = True
	While d > -1
		Read d
		WriteByte(file,d)
	Wend
	CloseFile(file)
End Function

.snowData
Data 255,216,255,224,0,16,74,70,73,70,0,1,2,0,0,100,0,100,0,0,255
Data 236,0,17,68,117,99,107,121,0,1,0,4,0,0,0,50,0,0,255,238,0,33
Data 65,100,111,98,101,0,100,192,0,0,0,1,3,0,16,3,3,6,9,0,0,1,235
Data 0,0,2,53,0,0,2,140,255,219,0,132,0,8,6,6,6,6,6,8,6,6,8,12,8
Data 7,8,12,14,10,8,8,10,14,16,13,13,14,13,13,16,17,12,14,13,13
Data 14,12,17,15,18,19,20,19,18,15,24,24,26,26,24,24,35,34,34,34
Data 35,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,1,9,8,8,9,10,9,11,9,9,11,14
Data 11,13,11,14,17,14,14,14,14,17,19,13,13,14,13,13,19,24,17,15
Data 15,15,15,17,24,22,23,20,20,20,23,22,26,26,24,24,26,26,33,33
Data 32,33,33,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,39,255,194,0,17,8,0,32
Data 0,32,3,1,34,0,2,17,1,3,17,1,255,196,0,141,0,1,0,3,1,0,0,0,0
Data 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,8,4,6,7,5,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Data 0,16,0,2,2,2,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,3,4,1,2,5,6,0,32,17,18
Data 17,0,2,2,2,2,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,17,2,18,3,33,49,65,81
Data 97,34,18,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,32,19,1,1,1,1,0,3
Data 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,17,0,33,32,49,65,97,255,218,0,12,3,1
Data 0,2,17,3,17,0,0,0,194,111,18,17,65,206,130,214,47,28,37,88
Data 214,244,111,199,168,149,99,255,218,0,8,1,2,0,1,5,1,233,255
Data 218,0,8,1,3,0,1,5,1,233,255,218,0,8,1,1,0,1,5,1,10,229,61,177
Data 250,237,152,171,122,193,71,7,5,215,190,164,64,85,165,214,23
Data 133,24,190,54,129,64,220,195,22,4,240,93,164,137,220,152,151
Data 30,125,218,56,90,218,107,40,236,37,90,175,230,8,228,204,204
Data 243,255,218,0,8,1,2,2,6,63,1,31,255,218,0,8,1,3,2,6,63,1,31
Data 255,218,0,8,1,1,1,6,63,1,199,85,114,102,91,83,79,209,58,211
Data 29,46,161,142,187,123,125,18,171,8,106,11,66,225,154,219,234
Data 74,226,252,13,221,153,208,149,217,141,255,0,71,195,147,255
Data 218,0,8,1,2,3,1,63,16,240,255,218,0,8,1,3,3,1,63,16,240,255
Data 218,0,8,1,1,3,1,63,16,178,30,196,59,157,254,12,153,115,192
Data 105,210,31,184,165,17,149,162,153,59,132,130,243,57,65,20,153
Data 215,144,174,25,39,143,88,130,217,234,226,169,123,220,77,224
Data -1