Some time has passed since the last entry and so a lot has happened in the world of Empires and Tribes. Most of the time has probably gone into the terrain and weather effects, so let's see what exactly has changed. On the one hand, the rather static sky has now been extended by a dynamically changing cloud system. A cloud dome is set over the entire world map, which moves at different speeds depending on the wind speed, the time of day and the weather and creates transitions between different cloud formations. In order to enhance the different moods of the day, it was also necessary to dive into Unity's Particle system. The Particle system allows effects such as semi-transparent moving fog to be created relatively easily. A black and white noise texture, a few adjustments to the shape and direction of movement and the fog prototype is ready. Scripts only determine the color at different times of the day, the transparency settings when the fog appears and disappears, and the location. And since I was busy with it once anyway, I gathered everything I could think of about buzzing objects and built some more particle systems: morning fog, dandelion blossoms, evening fog, fireflies, fog in the forest, shooting stars and... yes...fog during heavy rain. Speaking of heavy rain: the rain that has been dripping so far couldn't hurt a fly. Therefore there is now the chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms when certain random mechanisms take effect. The line renderer was a great help to draw the jagged line of the lightning in the sky. Now the impact place had to be determined and a very strong light source with very short strongly different amplitudes had to be provided at this for short time. A little more rumbling, depending on the distance to the impact location, and done. Finally I decided to recreate the trees according to more realistic aspects. To get a realistic picture it is very important to subdivide the trees into free-standing and forest-standing trees. Some trees have, due to the availability of sun and nutrients, a much more closed and larger treetop, whereas forests are characterized by a dense canopy of leaves far above eye level. In combination with a densely populated undergrowth of ferns and bushes, this results in a much more closed picture. At least, I hope so. Just have a look at the pictures, I think, Caspar David Friedrich would like it.
- teutonicstudios