Fur for Enkidukais!

[Yaniel]

I think Enkidukais would look much better if they had some 3D fur, which should be possible now PS supports shaders.

It could be done like explained here: http://www.xbdev.net/directx3dx/specialX/Fur/index.php
That shouldn't be too slow nor too complicated, but I think it would improve the looks of enkis a lot. Well, that's my opinion.

[Illysia]

It's cute but not for a MMORPG. This is good for animations and stills. Putting fur on game models would probably tank performance and make the game unplayable. But it would be cute though.

[Yaniel]

It might still be worth a try unless PS already draws max amount of polygons. Could someone with shader skills try it out? I can't because I am still a beginner with 3D graphics and have no practical experience with shaders. And even less with CS.

[Illysia]

All I have to say is try testing out the new release for EZPC and you will see how laggy it is. I wouldn't try it for awhile as the servers are pretty ticky as it is. 

[Akkaido Kivikar]

Your method would be a tank on resources, but there are other ways to make hair which are used in the gaming industry.

I personally would love a flowing grey mane for Akaiddo, with a beard at the front.

Dreams are free, but yeah, improved hair would be good for all races I think

[Yaniel]

Well..
1. a) The test client seems to be laggy only if there are particles to render. Otherwise it seems to be mostly okay.
          [EDIT: it seems that only fire causes the client to lag. the particles of the black crystal in DR didn't harm performance at all]
    b) This fur shader is not particle-based.
2. This is said to be an industry way to make fur and I can't figure out any faster way, at least not atm.
3. What the heck has a shader to do with the server?

[Akkaido Kivikar]

Well..
1. a) The test client seems to be laggy only if there are particles to render. Otherwise it seems to be mostly okay.
          [EDIT: it seems that only fire causes the client to lag. the particles of the black crystal in DR didn't harm performance at all]
    b) This fur shader is not particle-based.
2. This is said to be an industry way to make fur and I can't figure out any faster way, at least not atm.
3. What the heck has a shader to do with the server?

1. a) You need to remember that most players have substandard graphics cards and computers, which means the client is not as okay for all as it is for you.

    b) But it seems to have alot of operations per frame, drawing each hair... there are more resourceful techniques that draw planes, with alpha'd hair, and bend it using a shader for better animation.

2. One of many industry ways to make fur I guess. Not used in games much in my opinion, if you look at games they use a different method.

3. Not so much the shader but implementations of new features have unexpected effects on code elsewhere.

[Illysia]

Like I said, this stuff is good for animations and still but not games. Yes, industry standard, but games and say movies do function drastically different. With 100 characters in game with hair like that, the client wouldn't likely load for most people. Grass is a simple plane with a texture and yet the grass lags up people pretty bad. Anything more extensive is the kiss of death.

[weltall]

dao uses normal textures for fur. not even so much evident normal maps on them either.

[LigH]

I often heard that CrystalSpace would be able to use adaptive effects. So - fur for those who have Shader Level 2.0, plain textures for the rest?!

[peeg]

Someone (I think the guys over at Pergagro Tempus) already experimented with fur shaders in CrystalSpace some years ago.
No idea how fast/slow their implementation is, but it looked pretty neat back then

[Yaniel]

    b) But it seems to have alot of operations per frame, drawing each hair... there are more resourceful techniques that draw planes, with alpha'd hair, and bend it using a shader for better animation.

Did you even look at that page? The method explained there is to draw shells of the surface while applying a noise texture to it as an alpha mask. Nothing about separate hairs. And animation can be very well done in the same shader.

[Akkaido Kivikar]

I looked at the page, and it's still high-calculation compared to the simpler method I described.

[Boaal]

I think the only way you could make Enki fur is to bump map them. Adding real time fur would destroy the game. I don't know who the modellers are, but as far as I know, to bump map you could just port the original models into blender and use the sculpting tool to add the details. I forget how it works from there, but I've done a bit of 3D modelling, also been watching the overgrowth development blog and there's something about it on there, although admittedly they're using Mudbox to sculpt rather than blender. Still, with the new Crystal space engine update, if it's enabled, then this would be the way to add Enki fur.

[LigH]

Normal maps for the fur could possibly work; I already joked about the wooden glossy chestnut hair of e.g. Ylians or Stonebreakers, they could possibly use some wisps too.