Friday Facts #185 - Progress report

[mattj256]

New night vision looks awesome!
(Although I probably still won't use it because I want to use armor slots for other things.)

Can't wait for those "100 minor features"!

[biliskner25]

I love the look of the new night vision, cant say I was too excited about the bright green transitions in FF#168 but this grey shader makes the lit areas stand out without making you feel like you overdosed on absinthe. I've got biter problems on my current map so I'm forcing myself to wear NV goggles even though I hate the green, but I think I might enjoy it in 0.15

[hitzu]

For those who are sceptical this is how modern night vision looks like

https://youtu.be/8bTgG2Ft4xQ

[Junion]

I'd like to put in a very simple 2 cents when it comes to the night vision stuff.

We are assuming technology equal to or better than what we currently have right?

Here is a video for a night vision camera (I think it captures to a screen), the video was released last year and was shot at night for the product...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bTgG2Ft4xQ


I would think maybe a slow stepup to something like this? Though I honestly feel modular armor does come a bit late <.<. But this shows what we can currently do at an expensive price now adays.

[Critical Jim]

Nightvision is looking GREAT! (Thanks for listening to the community's feedback on that!!!)

I'm so excited to see the new changes in 0.15 -- thank you, Devs, for all the hard work you are doing!

HEY! I love your videos! I'm realising now that making an account was more work than this post was worth. But keeep it up

[Mendel]

great mind thinks alike. That nightvision thing is unbelievable.

[bergi9]

the night vision looks nice, but there is an issue: in the night you dont have shadows.

[rolfl]

the night vision looks nice, but there is an issue: in the night you dont have shadows.

Full moon

[bergi9]

the night vision looks nice, but there is an issue: in the night you dont have shadows.

Full moon

then we wouldnt need the nightvision

[cpy]

Hype train departing?

[Marc90]

For those who are sceptical this is how modern night vision looks like

https://youtu.be/8bTgG2Ft4xQ

You sure that x27 is real? Because I'm not...

[pr0n]

For those who are sceptical this is how modern night vision looks like

https://youtu.be/8bTgG2Ft4xQ

You sure that x27 is real? Because I'm not...

Military has had it for quite a while, a quick google will show quite a few military vendors selling similar stuff.

[RaviorMetal]

Regarding this:



To be honest, when I first saw this image without reading the text beforehand, i thought you made the terrain look like died out (grey and just dead) where theres oily machinery nearby.

[BlackKnight]

Regarding this:
/ IMG
To be honest, when I first saw this image without reading the text beforehand, i thought you made the terrain look like died out (grey and just dead) where theres oily machinery nearby.

A Reactive Environment is certainly one step closer to more drastic variations in terrain -such as multiple levels, and something I have bee n thinking about a lot lately. I started using the scorched earth mod for this very reason (though its only teasing the potential of what could be featured in the game). Makes interactivity with the environment reactive - leaving behind more drastic permanent visual cues as your stay on the planet lengthens. As you would expect, the construction of a factory should cause more than just pollution in the air - the next step would be like you suggest: Dead soil, as well as dead trees etc. in the proximity of polluting equipment, changes to the land as its 'used'. Possibly altering the grass/trees etc initially to be greener - to give the impression of the effect of change as you build your imposing dirty/polluting factory on this clean planet.. -At least this is what I envision from Factorio - a game that's a lot of fun to explore/build/play, but also makes you consider the moral side of your actions (more than it currently does ie efficiency modules) -- (thinking towards the film Avatar - though to a lessor degree so the game is still fun).

I think that this reactive environment concept (at least it feels to me), would be a great/(comparatively easy?-since a lot of its just visuals) avenue to capitalize on in increasing the impressiveness of the game.

Cheers,
BK

[DOSorDIE]

Hi Devs ... here a little idea for the "Hardcore Mode"
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/blueblue/orechaos

The gamers want a challenge ... here the are.
But i would make the "Starter Ore" not like this ... but all are far away.

Its just an idea ...
DOSorDIE

[Elecen]

Just wanted to mention in your screenshot in the latest post it looks like the shadow of the big pole is wrong. Has wrong angle and should be bigger compared to small poles.

Looking forward to the update!

[Speadge]

Just wanted to mention in your screenshot in the latest post it looks like the shadow of the big pole is wrong. Has wrong angle and should be bigger compared to small poles.

good catch!

[BenSeidel]

Just wanted to mention in your screenshot in the latest post it looks like the shadow of the big pole is wrong. Has wrong angle and should be bigger compared to small poles.

good catch!

There are tons of examples of the shadows being in the wrong direction. My favourite is the underground belt. The underground belt always has the light source shining "into" the opening when facing north/south.

[daniel34]

Just wanted to mention in your screenshot in the latest post it looks like the shadow of the big pole is wrong. Has wrong angle and should be bigger compared to small poles.

good catch!

There are tons of examples of the shadows being in the wrong direction. My favourite is the underground belt. The underground belt always has the light source shining "into" the opening when facing north/south.

The shadows are the way they currently are because it's a limitation to the engine. Although the models are made in 3D, the sprites itself (what makes it into the game) are purely 2D. The shadows that big poles have are included into the image that Factorio draws within the game, there's no way to remove that shadow or change it in any way. The game just has a picture like

big-electric-pole.png (61.92 KiB) Viewed 8335 times

and will always place power poles in that manner, always drawing the shadow the same way, regardless of actual light sources.

Even if you placed lots of lights at the shadowed areas you would see the shadows, altough logically they should prohibit it (22644).

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=18617

This is not really a bug, the shadows are not dynamically calculated and it won't change until we use 3d, which might (or might not) happen in Factorio 2 or later, if it ever happen to exist

This is also the same reason you can't rotate the world view or certain buildings, Factorio just doesn't know what they look like from another side, it just has a picture of them from the front.

[BenSeidel]

The shadows are the way they currently are because it's a limitation to the engine.

It's more that the images were rendered using an inconsistent lightsource, not an issue with the engine.
If they split the shadows out from the base sprites (and had them rendered using a consistent angle, again nothing to do with the game engine) then they could stop the rendering (or give it a transparency) during night/dusk.

Also, from a law point of view, say that your are on a tidally locked planet, such that it should be always day, but you are orbiting a gas giant, so that night on the planet is actually the giant's shadow, and not true night. That would explain away the shadows always being the same angle AND the night mechanic.

And for those of you that are going to say "but a tidally locked moon would be locked facing the orbiting planet", what if the factorio world was only just picked up as a moon of the gas giant? previously being an orbiting planet around the sun?