New High-Res Hyperspace Effect

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New High-Res Hyperspace Effect

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:39 am

With the holiday season starting I haven't had much time lately for XWA; but I'm working on a new high-resolution Hyperspace effect. I'm trying to blend this effect with the current background so that it transitions nicely:
hyper5.jpg
hyper8.jpg
hyper6.jpg
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Rookie_One1
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Post by Rookie_One1 » Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:41 am

should be interesting
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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:42 am

hyper7.jpg
The effect is generated procedurally, so it scales up nicely with the current resolution. The individual animations can be previewed in Shadertoy:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/WdyXDm

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/WdyXDR

Coming soon!
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Phoenix Leader
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Post by Phoenix Leader » Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:58 am

Awesome! A transition from normal space to hyperspace starting from the given background still active would be an outstanding addition to the hyperspace journey.
Just 1 question: do you intend to set the transition so that it gives a completely white screen when your craft reaches 999+ MGLT speed?

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Mon Nov 25, 2019 2:02 pm

Looking good so far though is there a way to tweak the transition animation? Looking at it there‘s one distinct difference to the movie presentation:
In the pics and videos above you basically fly through the stars with them being only slightly elongated. In the process the lines in the center becomes longer and more dense while the edges show gaps.
In the movie version it‘s pretty much the opposite. Here the stars actually seem to be stretched into infinite lines, resulting in the center remaining as is, while the edges are stretched far more and as such appear brighter, creating a quasi ring effect.
Hope I‘m making any sense
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Rookie_One1
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Post by Rookie_One1 » Mon Nov 25, 2019 3:06 pm

Have to ask, is it possible to have 2 version ? One closer to Disney movies (like you did) and one closer to the older original trilogy ? (It was a bit darker in the older trilogy)
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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Mon Nov 25, 2019 5:20 pm

I'm synchronizing the effect with the "time in hyperspace" value in PlayerDataTable, not with the current speed. (I'm hoping these values are the same regardless of the mission).
So, the new hyperspace entry effect reaches whiteout when the original streaks also white out.

Yes, I can still tweak the effect. I think I understand your point, General_Trageton; but a few pictures would also help. I'm trying to copy the hyperspace entry we see in Solo and the exit sequence we see in Rogue One, in the final battle. Both are a bit different from the original trilogy, though. So yes, I think I can have two versions without too much problem.

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Post by Vince T » Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:38 pm

Just did a quick google and here's what I came up with. This pretty much shows what I was trying to say:
https://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=htt ... mrc&uact=8

In the pics and videos you shared the "camera" is moving forward very fast, as if accelerating massively in realspace while in the center there seems to be a zoom or push effect, while the edges of the screen remaine less impacted.

For the actual animation I've found a tutorial detailing the effect and showing what happens. He's using AfterEffects, but I think he gets the effect done quite right.
Basically what happens is this:
1. First the stars are stretched into streaks, sort-of exploding towards you and leaving trails
2. After that the camere moves forward.
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqwMvgNXpY

Had to edit my post several times as I went through the various "stages" of realization :D
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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:29 pm

I didn't think it would ever be possible to supplant the game's star-steak effects! Seconding GT's comments. But the tunnel preview looks great!

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Thu Nov 28, 2019 6:23 am

Thanks for your comments guys. Yes, that helps a lot, General Trageton. There are a few ways I can implement that -- just need to figure out what would be the most efficient one.

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AngeI
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Post by AngeI » Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:07 am

This looks amazing, along with your SSAO/DO stuff you're doing some fantastic work for such an old game good sir :)

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:21 am

Thanks AngeI! I'm working on a second version of the hyperspace entry, as requested by a few of you guys. I'm not finished yet; but this is how it looks so far:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/WdVXRV

What do you guys think? Closer to the effect in the original trilogy?

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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Wed Dec 04, 2019 8:38 am

I'm playing around with this. I've set trail size to 3.0, fade to 1.0 (i.e., zeroed-out the pow() function), and changed the 0.6 constant in simplexNoise() to 0.57. There is a noticeable "expanding horizon" of unchanging pixels upon jump, which would be a natural place to dovetail into the tunnel effect. I also crashed my display driver. Several times.

One key difference between the movie effect and what I see here is that in the movies, the stars appear to be drawn on a plane, which is moved towards the viewer to create streaks. (That's literally how they implemented the effect, I'm told). In this version the stars look more like they're drawn on the inside of a tube, which the camera moves through to create the streaks. I'm not sure what would need to be tweaked to get a more movie-like effect.

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Post by Rookie_One1 » Wed Dec 04, 2019 2:35 pm

@blue_max the trails look way better that way :) Looking forward to seeing the tunnel effect (we can see it both in ROTJ and ANH)

For the rest, Keiran is pretty much right on the critiscism
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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:12 pm

Hey Keiran, thanks for your help! I'm sorry the shader crashed your browser -- that's probably my fault: about 70% of the code in there is dead and that probably didn't help. I went ahead and added your suggestions to the code, except for the "fade" setting since that makes the tunnel at the end grow when the jump happens and I think I've seen something like that in the original trilogy (but I'll double-check, this is one of those things that I have to check frame-by-frame).

Also, the effect is currently only rendered in a tunnel. I'll try to get it to render in "full 3D", though.

Thanks for your comments too, Rookie One1. I'll post a video soon of how the effect looks like right now. The draft for version 1.0 is pretty much finished, just need to re-do the hyperspace trails to look more like the original trilogy.

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Post by blue_max » Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:37 am

This is what the effect looks like right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ZW5-K9YJI

I still need to update the hyperspace trails to match the style of the original trilogy; but I think it looks good enough for a preview.

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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:30 am

Cool. I'd recommend recentering the effect on the crosshairs, though, since that's your true direction of travel. I also prefer the RotJ version of the hyperspace exit, in which the near end of the streaks is at the stars' final position, and the far end starts in the distance and moves towards you, converging on the near end until the streaks resolve to the starfield. Just because I think it makes more physical sense. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ujKA5DRWA4) That said, the movies themselves are not consistent with the hyperspace exit, so you have some shelter there.

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Post by blue_max » Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:41 pm

Thanks Keiran. About recentering the effect, would you know if the aiming HUD is always at the same screen location regardless of what ship you're flying? I kind of remember that on the Falcon and other Corellian Transports the aiming HUD was off to the side? (Or maybe it was just that the cockpit is off to the side since that ship is not symmetric)

I was trying to imitate the following effect:

https://loiter.co/i/best-hyperspace-sce ... star-wars/

However, now that I've blended the effect properly with the game, it's going to be easier to focus on getting the look right to match the old trilogy. I did notice that the starfield trails go in the reverse direction when exiting hyperspace; but, as you said, there's variants in the movies themselves.

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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:39 pm

I'm pretty sure the crosshairs are always in the same place. But you're free to try out some different craft and see.

Also, it would be really super awesome if you could make it look correct in prologue mission 2, where they force you into the turret.

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Rookie_One1
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Post by Rookie_One1 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 9:09 pm

I have a heavy preference for how it look in return of the jedi for the return to realspace

https://youtu.be/f38a6pYL_jE?t=58
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ual002
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Post by ual002 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:49 pm

Holy heck Blue_Max that looks amazing.
Image Image Image Image Image

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Post by JeremyaFr » Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:06 am

It looks great. Good work :thumbs:

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:03 pm

Thanks for your comments guys. I'll re-center the effect to match the position of the crosshairs and I'll take a look at the Prologue mission too.

Here's what I've got so far for a ROTJ-like hyperspace jump:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/3l3Gz8

(Simpler, cleaner code and I added a few comments in case anyone wants to tinker with it a little bit).

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:39 pm

keiranhalcyon7 wrote:
Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:39 pm
Also, it would be really super awesome if you could make it look correct in prologue mission 2, where they force you into the turret.
I haven't played this mission yet; but let me guess... If we're in the turret maybe we see the hyperspace trails coming from one side (which would be correct); but then we see the hyperspace tunnel in front of us (which would be wrong). Is that the problem here?

Is there a way to tell when we're in the turret or in the regular cockpit? Something like a boolean or flag in XWA's memory?

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Post by Vince T » Fri Dec 06, 2019 8:03 pm

blue_max wrote:
Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:03 pm
Thanks for your comments guys. I'll re-center the effect to match the position of the crosshairs and I'll take a look at the Prologue mission too.

Here's what I've got so far for a ROTJ-like hyperspace jump:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/3l3Gz8

(Simpler, cleaner code and I added a few comments in case anyone wants to tinker with it a little bit).
Looking very promising already!
Your ship, Captain. I need a drink. - Vince Trageton
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