Rain environmental effects

[TraderDan]

As luck would have it I was testing a custom mesh to change the landing stilts that come stock with the game so I couldn't help notice Vice put out a new update that allows placing an energy field under the ship so naturally I couldn't download the update fast enough.

It just so happened I was on the surface of a windy and rainy planet and I thought it would be cool if there was a way to give the effect of rain hitting the windshield? Maybe an if/then whenever rain is shown then it could cycle a few frames of transparent filters that would cycle on screen over the windscreen mesh to give the sensation of animated rain effects - I thought it would really add to the immersion. I'd be excited to work on said filters if the Evochron gods saw fit lol

[Vice]

I have pondered such an effect just for the cool factor, but I probably won't endeavor for such an effect at this point (cost of an additional render being a key factor). I additionally consider that in the future, between shields and possible tech like ultrasonic transducer 'windshield wipers', rain may never touch a spaceship's cockpit glass in the future anyway.

[TraderDan]

Cost of an additional render? Like performance cost?

[TraderDan]

I thought about future ships not needing windshield wipers as well, on net though I think the coolness of it might override players desires to be scientifically accurate. I can't speak as an expert though because I'm sure you get bombarded with feature requests all the time, many of which I bet border on the absurd.

[Vice]

Cost of an additional render? Like performance cost?

Yes, exactly. I will generally try to avoid piling more performance hinderances into the mix at this point since things are more finalized at this stage and I may actually try to instead, improve performance further using the existing level of renders, effects, routines, etc.

[TraderDan]

That makes sense, well if you ever think about us "pro windshield" effects players and want to leave the back door open for modding.... Maybe we can form a rival Evochron faction except our side would always lose since we can't see where we're going

[Marvin]

A long time ago I asked what would happen if you pulled all the energy out of the shields and Vice's answer was that there would still be some residual shielding (or something like that, anyway). It wouldn't be enough to deflect weapons fire but, evidently, it would be enough to protect the ship while entering a planet's atmosphere. Unless, of course, your speed is excessive and flames start erupting across the windscreen ... forcing you to put all your energy into the forward shield. So I would image that, if there's enough residual energy to protect a ship from an atmosphere, then there would be enough to protect it from rain.

Besides, if you added a "splash and evaporation" FX from rain to the windscreen, you'd really need to add a similar FX whenever the ship is hit by weapons fire ... and also an FX when the ship runs into a bird (splat).