Will nebulas from x2 come back maybe for x4?

Skeeter · Post by **Skeeter** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 14:34

I used to like the nebulas that u flew through (not the background ones but gameplay ones)

Do u think x4 will have em? Make multiple different ones if u used shaders like u did with planet shader system as a example.

-Dna- · Post by **-Dna-** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 14:37

Skeeter wrote:Do u think x4 will have em? Make multiple different ones if u used shaders like u did with planet shader system as a example.

The Teladi DLC of XR has such type of Nebula, so if they keep that features it's highly probable to have them in X4

Golden_Gonads · Post by **Golden_Gonads** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 14:47

Real life nebula's are apparently something like one part in a million 'pretty', so up close as we are in-game, we wouldn't even notice being in a nebula... That said I can see the game advantages of flying through one as opposed to your common everyday open space, so... I can take it or leave it.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 15:28

@ OP: Already asked and then addressed by a dev in the Q&A Sticky threads:

Q. Will there be treacherous space sectors like meteor showers/thick fog hard to see sectors?.
A. You'll have to explore and find out.

Vandragorax · Post by **Vandragorax** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 15:34

You'll have to explore and find out.

So yes then

(but not wanting to reveal spoilers)

Skeeter · Post by **Skeeter** » Tue, 5. Sep 17, 12:05

I doubt it but i hope they could be like the ones from freespace 2, remember the nebula level? That was and still is the best nebula done in a game imo. Also it would be nice to see some like from startrek, like the khan fight scene in the mutara nebula.

mr.WHO · Post by **mr.WHO** » Tue, 5. Sep 17, 21:48

My God! Freespace 2 stype nebulas would be amazing - how is that nearly 20 years old Freespace 2 have so amazing looking nebulas working, while more modern Egosoft nebulas are small and always cause significant FPS drop?

Egosoft please investigate Freespace 2 nebulas!

P.S I think another old game, Freelancer (what with "Free" in all the names back then?) also had nice looking performace-friendly nebulas.

Alith-Ahnar · Post by **Alith-Ahnar** » Wed, 13. Sep 17, 02:41

mr.WHO wrote:My God! Freespace 2 stype nebulas would be amazing - how is that nearly 20 years old Freespace 2 have so amazing looking nebulas working, while more modern Egosoft nebulas are small and always cause significant FPS drop?

Egosoft please investigate Freespace 2 nebulas!

P.S I think another old game, Freelancer (what with "Free" in all the names back then?) also had nice looking performace-friendly nebulas.

Because FreeSpace 2 and other games including X² did render a 2D nebula effect in front of the Cockpit more a kin to a curtain.

More recent games tend to go a different route where the Nebula effect has a 3D volume.

Both attempts have benefits and drawbacks while the older one does not demand as much compute it tends to show as soon as you throw in 3D Displays or VR.

The now more common has no such drawbacks does allow more complex reflections and refraction besides lots of other physical effects depending on how far the developer wants to push it.
All at the cost of more compute.

To say those old games have better nebula effects is like saying as soon as i wear shades it is night.
While in both instances it is Darker at Night several other things tend to change as well.

mr.WHO · Post by **mr.WHO** » Wed, 13. Sep 17, 16:39

Even if Freespace 2 nebulas are 2D curtain it still looks better when present "deep inside nebula" feeling. It looks better and it runs much better.

However now I think that Freespace nebulas woudn't support "go into / go outside" nebula, therfore X4 nebulas would have to be entire zone/sector specific and to "go oustide" you would have to jump out or use superhighway whre you can "turn off the curtain".

It seems Freelancer nebulas would be better because the game was more "open world" and supported free traversing in/out of nebula areas.

Alith-Ahnar · Post by **Alith-Ahnar** » Wed, 13. Sep 17, 18:11

mr.WHO wrote:However now I think that Freespace nebulas woudn't support "go into / go outside" nebula, therfore X4 nebulas would have to be entire zone/sector specific and to "go oustide" you would have to jump out or use superhighway whre you can "turn off the curtain".

You pointed out one of the reasons why developers did move to different solutions to rendering Nebula like effects.

Even X:R did use a comparable trick in regards to full screen color correction.

Still it is to early to ban any sort of more complex effect just because in previous games people tended to have a bad experience.

I can tell you with a straight face that those problems did not stem from to much GPU demand but rather from the CPU side.

Pretty much every single X Title after X² game did hit a point at wich the Universe throttle the CPU and dragging the GPU with it into the fiery pit of hell.
Flying through a system with 20% GPU load and 15% CPU load are the norm in old titles as those only load a single Core to 100% with the job to manage the Universe.

So instead of asking for less intense Nebulas if there are any you should ask EGOsoft to make sure the Universe scales well with Multi-core beyond in excess of 4 and more cores the more the better.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Will nebulas from x2 come back maybe for x4?

Will nebulas from x2 come back maybe for x4?

Re: Will nebulas from x2 come back maybe for x4?