sprite overkill

I was thinking of usig sprites as volumetric fog type of thing... Simple ground area cloud cover... not a lot of sprites... maybe 1000???

But I begin to wonder

If I use spheres and texture them with a PNG mesh (you know alphaed) and roatat them randomly.

Which do y'all think would run slower???

-RZ

hah. I think in this situation sprites are the way to go. I've seen this technique in games before so it works if implemented right.

maybe better watch out for a single surface particles solution. Personally I prefere to use few big sprites with detailed gfx, scaling and rotating it.

I was looking at the toolbbox and I found this code under misc I think. It had an orange ball and you could move the ball around and disrupt the fog.

I started wondering if it would work in 3D. So I changed the code (it was public domain after all) and made a VERY SIMPLE pic for the fog sprite.

I made a Greyscale BMP with essentially 2 colors... 0,0,0 and 11,11,11 the 11,11,11 pattern was just sprayed in a cloud shape. (I love PS8!)

then I ran it... looks good.

The original code had a FPS limiter but I kind of hacked that out. Try it!

; ID: 265
; Author: Vorderman
; Date: 2002-03-12 03:53:52
; Title: Carve through the fog
; Description: Wispy fog that a moving entity can carve a trail through
; MODIFIED by Ralph Dunn to see if 3D is possible

AppTitle "Wispy Fog"
Graphics3D 800,600,32,2
SetBuffer BackBuffer()
Color 255,255,255
SeedRnd MilliSecs()
HidePointer


;-------------- CONSTANTS ---------------------------
;Const gameFPS 		= 50				;frame limiting
Const MAX_FOG		= 100
Const SPREAD#		= 10
Const GLOBAL_MUSH#  = 1.0


;-------------- GLOBALS -----------------------------
Global CAM_yaw#		= 0.0
Global CAM_zoom#	= 20
Global NULLPIVOT 	= CreatePivot()


;-------------- TYPES -------------------------------
Type TYPE_FOG
	Field x#,y#,z#
	Field xs#,zs#
	Field sprite
	Field ax#,az#
	Field mushiness#
End Type

Dim FOG.TYPE_FOG(MAX_FOG)
For a=1 To MAX_FOG
	FOG.TYPE_FOG(a) = New TYPE_FOG
	FOG(a)\sprite = LoadSprite("fog5.bmp",2) ;was 1
	ScaleSprite FOG(a)\sprite,3,3
	FOG(a)\x# = Rnd#(-SPREAD#,SPREAD#)
	FOG(a)\y# = 1
	FOG(a)\z# = Rnd#(-SPREAD#,SPREAD#)
	FOG(a)\xs# = 0.0
	FOG(a)\zs# = 0.0
	FOG(a)\ax# = FOG(a)\x#
	FOG(a)\az# = FOG(a)\z#
	PositionEntity FOG(a)\sprite,FOG(a)\x#,FOG(a)\y#,FOG(a)\z#
	FOG(a)\mushiness# = 0.25
Next


;-------------- ENTITIES ------------------------------
Global player = CreateSphere()
PositionEntity player,0,1.0,20
EntityColor player,255,100,0

Global camera=CreateCamera()
CameraViewport camera,0,0,800,600
;PositionEntity camera,0,20,-20
CameraClsColor camera,50,50,100
RotateEntity camera,45,0,0

AmbientLight 150,150,150
light1 = CreateLight(2)
PositionEntity light1,500,500,-500



;-------------- M A I N  L O O P ---------------------------
While Not KeyHit(1)

mxs#=MouseXSpeed()/4
mys#=MouseYSpeed()/4
xa#=(xa#-mxs#)Mod 360
ya#=(ya#+mys#)Mod 360  
	MoveMouse GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2
	RotateEntity camera,ya#,xa#,0
    
If KeyDown( 205 )=True Then TurnEntity camera,0,-.5,0
If KeyDown( 203 )=True Then TurnEntity camera,0,.5,0
If KeyDown( 208 )=True Then MoveEntity camera,0,0,-.5
If KeyDown( 200 )=True Then MoveEntity camera,0,0,.5


x#=EntityX(camera)
y#=EntityY(camera)
z#=EntityZ(camera)


; ---- HOW TO USE GRAVITY

;y#=y#-.4

; turned off gravity and took out loading a terrain plane stuff... flythrough for now!
PositionEntity camera,x#,y#,z#


	;game logic loop
    For frameLimit = 1 To frameTicks

		;frame limiting    
        If frameLimit = frameTicks Then CaptureWorld
        frameTime = frameTime + framePeriod

		;mouse to move blob
		MoveEntity player,(MouseXSpeed() / 10.0),0,-(MouseYSpeed() / 10.0)
		MoveMouse 400,300
		
		;update the fog
		FUNC_process_fog()

		;update game world logic
        UpdateWorld

    Next


	;render
	RenderWorld frameTween


	;on-screen FPS counter
	Color 255,255,255
	Text 700,10,"FPS:"+FPS
	Text 350,10,"WISPY FOG TEST"
	
	Text 290,550,"USE MOUSE TO MOVE ORANGE BLOB"
	Color 255,0,0
	Text 295,562,"MOVE SLOWLY FOR BEST RESULTS"
	
	;flip buffers	
	Flip

Wend

End


Function FUNC_process_fog()

	For f.TYPE_FOG = Each TYPE_FOG

		dist# = EntityDistance(f\sprite , player)
		PositionEntity NULLPIVOT,f\ax#,1.0,f\az#
		dist2# = EntityDistance(f\sprite , NULLPIVOT)
				
		EntityAlpha f\sprite,((1.0/2.0)*(1.0-(dist2#/2.0)))

		If ( dist# < 2.0 ) And (dist2# < 2.0)
				
			PointEntity f\sprite , player
			TurnEntity f\sprite,0,180,0
			MoveEntity f\sprite ,0,0,(dist# / 5.0);0.1
			f\x# = EntityX#(f\sprite)
			f\z# = EntityZ#(f\sprite)
		
			f\mushiness# = GLOBAL_MUSH#
		Else

			If (f\mushiness# =< 0.0)
				PointEntity f\sprite,NULLPIVOT
				dist# = EntityDistance(f\sprite , NULLPIVOT)
				MoveEntity f\sprite,0,0,(dist#/30.0)
			Else
				f\mushiness# = f\mushiness - 0.1
			EndIf

			f\x# = EntityX#(f\sprite)
			f\z# = EntityZ#(f\sprite)
	
		EndIf	
	Next
	
End Function

I only added my graphic and movement commands... it is a flythrough for now but the one I did with terrainmap works well... Now to try it without TWEEN ;)
-RZ