Thick Boiling Fog in UDK?

Trithilon

Hello,
I am new here and I have been working on a FPS puzzle game in UDK.
I needed to make a Boiling fog effect (either using cascade or materials) to fill the empty spaces as a requirement of our game.

The reference for those would be :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEiYWHcgNqE (Refer to the center part of it at 0:11)
And
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNQojR16ZfI"]boiling fog - YouTube[/ame]

Here is a screen shot to show you the kind of fog we have (kind of like the one you get from a freezer).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ralc8f3inv6wte9/UDK%202012-05-11%2016-29-39-40.jpg

However, that is not something I can use for huge spaces like these :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/evnuh2xp3rkrb9p/UDK%202012-05-11%2016-01-58-28.jpg

or

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzqanjn365sqjko/UDK%202012-05-11%2015-59-57-94.jpg

or

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhnasf3iecii0vs/UDK%202012-05-11%2015-59-07-97.jpg

So...
How should I go about this?
I would Ideally want it to be a interactive (has more activity upon collision) and gets illuminated by light... if that isn't too expensive.
It should have perceivable depth and volume and should play will with geometry and camera angles.
I have already referred to this (www.chrisalbeluhn.com/UDK_Mist_Fog_Tutorial.html) tutorial, but the result is pixelated and isn't nearly near the level of activity I would want.

This is how my material and fog plane turn out to be...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sr6khp66hnnw2f1/Material%20screenshot.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/weo6r915tto2keo/Pixellation.png
Thanks

LoTekK

First, your dropbox links aren't working. Some are 404 links, others are 403 (no permissions... are you sure you're using the "Copy public link" function?).

the result is pixelated and isn't nearly near the level of activity I would want

If the result is pixellated, wouldn't you just use a larger texture? The fog tutorial should do you pretty well, though if you want it to be volumetric, then you might try stacking a few planes at various levels of opacity. Alternately, you could use a similar effect on a particle system in cascade, if you're looking for something more volumetric (and interactive).

You could still get some interactivity with a plane, but you'd need to get quite a bit more in-depth with the material and kismet to get player position, etc, composite a faded circle, for example, onto that position in order to affect the UVs locally.

Once you've fixed your image links, though, it'd help in determining what might or might not work.

Trithilon

Hi,
I have fixed the links.
I have my textures at 1024x1024. For some reason, I feel its the way the nodes are processing the clouds to get random noise that makes it become pixelated.
I will try at 4096x4096 - but I am not confident if it will work or not (or if it would be over kill).

This is how my material and fog plane turn out to be...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sr6khp66hnnw2f1/Material%20screenshot.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/weo6r915tto2keo/Pixellation.png

Swizzle

It looks like the map you're using as a basis for distortion is getting highly compressed if it's giving you shapes like that. I'd suggest checking what compression algorithm it uses when importing. Normal maps often get pretty highly compressed, so be sure to check that.

Ace-Angel

If you want non-compressed texture, import the texture and Thick the box 'Defer Compression', afterwards, got to the properties of the texture and set it to 'VectorDisplacment'.

Trithilon

@Swizzle, it seems you are right!
Ace_Angel's method worked! It doesn't lose quality even at high scaling values.

The only part left would be interactivity with Light and Collision.
For collision, it could be similar to how fluid surface actors behave maybe. We have floating cubes that can move in the game. Would really like to have some activity & motion depending on how the cube dips itself into the fog.
May have some strands & traces of fog coming out and fading into the air?

Since our Projectiles have a dynamic light attached to them - would be cool to have the purple tint of that light fall on the fog. However, changing the material's lighting model from Unlit to Phong didn't help.

Thanks again!

Habboi

I needed something similar a while back, maybe my thread will help a little?

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89419

Trithilon

@Habboi :
Hey I just saw your thread.

I layered 3 of those actors & I am getting very impressive results already for a material based solution.

The problems I am facing right now are:

1- The material doesn't seem to be 2 Sided (even if enabled) - so if the camera is cutting through it, it just goes invisible and kills the smokiness of the level. :S

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nq1v7389dovbyb4/Camera%20Intersection.png

I'll try a Fog volume to mitigate it in such areas of low camera height.
A last & wasteful option would be to invert another copy facing downwards.



2- I just need to get those hard edges out of the line of sight.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqh8t8rqexil9sf/Basic%20Result.png

Maybe I'll ask my 3D artist to model something bumpy, circular & curvy towards the end if a circular opacity map doesn't cut it.
- Maybe a smaller skybox that collides with the big plane and clips the edges out

3- Its getting painted with decals.

I am also looking to make a custom actor with "bAcceptDecals=false" in the default properties.


4- No interactivity - yet (Inspiration from Fluidsurfaceactor maybe?)