Projective texture shader :

Well , i don't know if it has been delivered or not :
i juts have my A6 commercial not A7 !

Well this sort of shader to apply to any plane model and it's
(animated) texture :
very usefull to simulate shadows at no cost or simulate clouds on a scene ,
or light beams on a scene or underwater.

Well don't know if it will be in the A7 package ??

It's possible in A6... I've already written 2

I don't mean coding or twicking

i mean like some other tools : no code to import or other :
you run 3DGS the shader is ready to use.

I meaned packaged on 3DGS.

People should understand what is a tool ready to use like Maya SDK for Nebula ,
or old KJAPI that had a 3DSMAX exporter that could export normal,specular,
emissive glow maps ....

Ready to Use , packaged , i think in terms of 3D artists.

Well just a suggestion
Perhaps another forecast page special for shaders should be done
i laught , caus 3DGS have lot of things to do , and i don't see them full on shaders ... it's a hard part ...

shaders are easy to implement.... you don't need but very little c-script knowledge.

However, it would be cool if us programmers could add interfaces to our shaders...

Projected textures would be a great add-on indeed. We could fake light coming through grates, protected lamps, windows maybe even animated shadows coming from ventilators or swinging trees.

This could add alot to every level.

It could be a flat projection or bended similar to the decal-projection and it could be a cubic projection. The last method could also be used to create static shadows via shader. I saw this often in modern games.

....hmmm

We might be talking about different "projective texturing".


Frank's talking about shadowmapping (sort of). (I know what you mean). This is already posssible, and I've been thinking of looking into it...

I was talking about mapping a background image over models onto the screen (like for my 2.5D game)...

Though, I guess they might use the same technique, but I'm not sure...

If I find time I'll look into it.

What Frank is describing is what projective texturing is. The 3rd Thief game and Splinter Cell games used it as do many more modern and semi-modern games. It simulates complex shadow situations by projecting a sprite (or whatever) onto a surface (like a light shining through a complex fence or stain glass windows). It looks like the dynamic lights are causing all of these cool looking shadows but in reality it's just a texture being projected....in other words a faked shadow.

Matt created a projective texture shader years ago, but it's old and slow, and he's supposedly working on a new one and probably for Sphere 3.

Maybe, it is all the same thing, though.

Well, I guess I'll give it a try, but again, time is a pressing issue. I'm working 16 hours a day (both real job and paid programming online)...

...I'll try, but no promises.

I appreciate your braveness and strong will, xXxGuitar. Even despite your limited time you always try to help. You are a good one!

What about the projection shader on the wiki? I've never tried it, so I have no idea whether it works at all...

That's Matt's old directx 8 version. It's out of date and slow, and he recently said he's replacing it. I'm betting it will be for Sphere 3 since he also said he's working on a new version of Sphere.

When the shadowmapping on the forecast is out, you'll have a projection shader as well. Shadowmapping works like this: first a depthmap is rendered from the light position. When rendering a pixel, this depthmap is projected onto the scene so it is possible to check if the pixels' distance to the light is greater than the distance in the depth map (in which case it should be shadowed).

I once made such a shader (you can still find shots in showcase I), but I'm afraid I've lost it. I'll see if I can find it in my backups. If I do, I'll release the shadowmapping shader and projection shader. I'll search for it this weekend, after my university introduction.

If GS comes out with a projective decal system (target selection, spell effects, etc.) that bend around angles, and has a user interface I will personally drive to Germany and do ALL of jcl's Laundry, LOL you can quote me on that!