For the record (SOM "billboards")

[Holy_Diver]

I was just pondering the requirements for remaking KF3.... the "billboard" trees caught my attention. A billboard is basically a flat graphic that always faces the player. KF3 (aka KFII) uses these to really pad the countryside with trees.

Well in case anyone has ever wanted a "billboard" ...I just realized SOM does indeed have this feature hidden inside of it. And how I know this is there is an item turned object (I think Tom made these by copying all the items into the object folder) which exhibits this billboard quality. It's the golden short sword, and it's probably not the only one of its kind. This used to annoy me because I needed to use it as an object, but when I did so it would always be facing the player billboard style. I suppose I did not realize it at the time, what was an annoyance, was actually pointing to an actual feature.

So I invite anyone to try this in there game. And then try to figure out what about that file seems to make it behave that way.

Btw, if no one wants billboards in their game atm / is in the mood to be the first to isolate this feature, there's a more than better chance I will figure out what's going on when I start documenting the file formats sometime here shortly.


PS: I think the sword object I mentioned only faces the player about the vertical plane. Which is probably a good thing at least in the case of trees which would otherwise appear to lay down when seen from above. I think full on billboards are probably also available, because I'd expect some magic particles to work this way. The flames in lamps may do the same.

EDITED: Is there a chance the x files or whatever you guys use to export models into Som can be exported to act this way? Maybe we already know how to do this??

[dmpdesign]

I dont know of any feature in the toolset that sets a flag for this in the .prf file.

I wish I knew which golden sword you were referring to, if Tom pops on here and can tell me which object or item or whatever it is that is doing that, I would be happy to find the flag in SOM that handles the billboard effect.

[Holy_Diver]

There are only like two short swords afaik. One is golden. It was Sonnellion's Sword in DoM if that helps jog your memory. Elven Sword in DD I think.

EDITED: I'd guess it might be in the model files themselves, except for the fact that the object .prf probably references the same model files as the item .prf. In which case from what I know about this stuff at this point the difference would have to be in the .prf file.

It's worth noting that the object .prf is probably not a well formed object .prf file, since most likely it was just copied from the item folder. It's funny Som even attempts to use the .prf file copied over.... I'd hope you could tell the difference between an item and object .prf somehow other than just assuming the format versus the folder name you found the file in... but who knows (maybe you guys do)

[Madison Lastrega]

It's funny that you mention "Billboards" Thay actully work pretty well for som. I'll TRY to make this quick, I made some low poly cornstalks in 3d format, look great but after about 36 of them it's starts to slow you down. BAD... So I had thought of KF2 and how the country side was riddle with billbord trrs and bushes, only problem was, in KF2 memory was an even bigger issue than it is for SoM. so there were very sucky and were only two planes, so you got that flat look if you strafed to the left or right... So keeping with BLACK= transparent, I took the RENDERED image of my 3d corn and made a nice looking 2d illusion... only problem is you can see slight pixal blur, but at a small price, now I have one object that has 9 stlaks on it @ only 22K....:) meaning you can make a HUGE corn field that looks amzingly, 3d even though the corn is a 2d illusion....... So yes we should use this knowledge in forrest building:).. You could make the trunk perfectly 3d but the leaves and branches could be billboards..... so thanks holy for pointing them out......... Neat how I was making my new 2d corn when, ‎  you were ‎  writing your first post about them, huh?.............. PS never mind the cow, Something new I am working on focus on the corn in the back ground:).............ML

[Verdite]

Nice udders joe! ‎ 

[dmpdesign]

I wonder what the cow would like in classic KF style with no eyes!

[Holy_Diver]

This is not a technique I've ever employed, so I don't really know specifics (I bet Wikipedia does) but I think technically the term means a sprite that always faces the player (versus the technique of stitching together flat polygons... games deploy both) ...I guess I will look it up later.

Billboards are actually more interesting / closer in metaphor when they are generated on the fly as seen from far distances / low LOD. With trees on the far horizon for example you can render a hundred branches to a flat sprite then update rendering again when the view angle or LOD changes.