Holograms

Makkyo · Jan 2013

Just wondering, im about to create some holographic posters for my scifi scene, do you think creating the animation in photoshop + after effects and then importing it as a video texture is a good idea?

or is it better to try and somehow work 100% with the material editor within cryengine, i understand udk is quite good with this stuff but not sure about cryengine.

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

CryEngine has also it's good parts :P

You could achieve an holographic effect by a simple texture that contains a screenshot of an hologram-effect (so some blue-ish lines on a transparent background) and you can move those lines and give them a glow within the material editor.

Or you can use a animated texture for it, I guess that's a better idea instead of using a video file for it (saves time and performance)

Read this for more help:
http://freesdk.crydev.net/display/SDKDOC2/Texture+Maps

Makkyo · Jan 2013

Thanks for the reply Slyripper, I'm beginning to think its just you and i in this sub section.

Thanks for the breakdown, i didn't know video textures would be harder on performance, looks like i have got yet more studying to do, going of this link it looks like i can pretty much create all the needed effects within the engine, which is good news.

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

Well, it was just my guess that it uses more performance, because the file itself would be larger and therefore takes longer to load. Also if it replays over and over again, it will still be in use. I don't know how much this counts, but I assume that normal materials/textures with just enough maps on it to make it work, will do better

And yea.. seems we're the two only active ones ^^. Sadly not so much people replying on CryEngine stuff, although I think it's way cooler/better than UDK. I like the real-time stuff, it's annoying to bake lightmaps and pre-load everything just to test and see your level. CE shows it immediately, also in the editor.. and has some other cool stuff

Let's hope we get some backup soon in here

e-freak · Jan 2013

there is a hologram shader in cryengine (or should be) that renders your object transparent and adds a glow based on the fresnel term, interlacing lines and shimerring based on your setup. Try it out with any mesh and see if it's what you need

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

But I guess this needs a normal model, that just gets rendered transparent with glowing borders, etc.

I guess Makkyo just wanted a plane hologram (posters), this would be harder to do with model files I guess. Btw I just found out that Flash files work without problems so you could easily add a flash movie file and display it on a texture.

Makkyo · Jan 2013

Interesting you mention the hologram shader, there is atleast one 3d object in the scene that will be a hologram also, but for the most part, like sly ripper said i need it mainly for 2d things like posters, glass screens etc.

I'm glad to hear flash works quite well with the engine, i used to use it religiously a while back and so it is definitely an option I'm considering, would you say i should go with flash? i feel as though i will do a better job as my skills in the software allow for greater creative flexibility than in CE3?

It'll be a few days more before i get working on textures, if i get stuck i will re post here.

Thanks for the advice.

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

Well if you can use the swf files then it would be easier with flash I guess, and also the filesize that gets loaded is small.

On the other side, it depends on how much time you wanna spent on it and how visable the hologram is, like a main feature or just a side effect for a level. It's also easy and fast to just do the hologram lines as Glow Texture, use alpha to make it transparent and use oscillator effect to move the glow. You can also add a flickering effect to it. done

Give feedback what you've used and how it works

AlexCatMasterSupreme · Jan 2013

You can use the hologram shader too, it's adjustable for a lot of things. This is something I made awhile back with it.

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

Looks cool, used simple planes with texture for it? or modelled the shapes? And the shader just makes the glow?

How about animating parts of that? Like the pillars on the right hologram. Easy to make them move a bit up and down?

Brygelsmack · Jan 2013

I'm guessing a texture on a simple plane, with alpha for transparency. Alpha could be used as glow map as well I suppose.

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

That's my guess, too. But why should we use the HologramShader for this, I could achieve this with the normal illum shader. Just thought there's something special about this ^^

e-freak · Jan 2013

hologram has the nice effects based on viewing angle and interlacing. technically - yes, you could do the same thing with the illum shader.

AlexCatMasterSupreme · Jan 2013

You don't need a glow map, at all in fact, use the glow slider, it will illuminate anything, you can pick colors and you could animate it if you set up the animations in max I bet. With individual planes sharing the same texture.

Here's my material setup.
I guess i was using illum not the hologram shader. The hologram shader just adds a few effects really. You can use both for geo. You could easily make something that moves though.

I made a quick test too, you can also use the options in each material setting to rotate, move and distort your texture and geometry.
Then you can use a light with animation settings in the lights, and slow the anim speed to make it look that much better.
Sorry for the poor video and crap test asset but it gets the point across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RnR42w3Ig&feature=youtu.be

SlyRipper · Jan 2013

Looks cool. Have you used two meshes? One for the constant movement and the other with the spiral glow thingy??

Have you used the Oscillator for that and used the "constant moving" setup?? What've you done? I try to make it work, but the glow just disappears on my model. I can't simply create a light-line/beam that follows a path (via alpha) but it won't work for me.. (used decal for glow and oscillator on decal slot) Any help?

AlexCatMasterSupreme · Jan 2013

SlyRipper wrote: »

Looks cool. Have you used two meshes? One for the constant movement and the other with the spiral glow thingy??

Have you used the Oscillator for that and used the "constant moving" setup?? What've you done? I try to make it work, but the glow just disappears on my model. I can't simply create a light-line/beam that follows a path (via alpha) but it won't work for me.. (used decal for glow and oscillator on decal slot) Any help?

Basically yes, that's what I did, here is my material setup, mesh, and max file. Ignore my vertex painting I did, I was just testing something and it has no effect on the final result.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/82963315/Holotest.zip

Holograms

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