Simple fog creation

[vklymenko]

hi there, im trying to make atmosphere similar to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA66hrmA1pc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Eqnwno60c (from 2:50)
for iOS.
Im trying to create fog now, but not much luck, i guess i missing something to turn on? can someone please advice me little bit in right direction? I've already checked contrast/monochrome/bloom effects and got them working. So just to start - how to get fog working - how about perfomance for iOS ?

[broozar]

hi vklymenko,

did you know there was a "fog" setting in the "general" tab of the ambience editor? http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/editor/modules/ambienceeditor
bloom, monochrome etc. should not be able to help you much with fog...

fog should be available on iOS devices even in openGLES 1.1 mode without restrictions: http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/wiki/index.php?title=OpenGLES#Environment

[vklymenko]

hi, thanks,
yeap I started from this, but with any settings Im using for fog I have only this:


a large plane, trees as billboards, but no fog at all : (

[broozar]

also in the editor on your PC, or only on your iOS device?
do the materials have "receive fog" enabled? just checking the basics.. do not be offended please.

[vklymenko]

nope, I didn't : ) as you know im nooby with 3d stuff, was playing much with HUDs only : ) how I can turn it on (for runtime created objects) and what about models imported from 3dsmax ?

[vklymenko]

oh, thanks very much - just founded in material editor lol : )

[vklymenko]

just figured out it works better for fps when using 3d objects instead billboards
is it because more calculations for a flat image that facing to camera (like then a low poly model?

[broozar]

hardly. my bet would be that the alpha you need for the billboards drains the performance.

[vklymenko]

hey, what about visibility distance setting? e.g. I want to have everything visible not more far then 10 units around ? : )

[broozar]

the fog api pages were just updated: http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/api/scene-setDistanceFogStart etc.

you can define a fog-free space between the camera and FogStart. the thickness increase is determined by http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/api/scene-setFogDensity. choose a high density if you want to make objects disappear completely.

the best illusion can be achieved if you are using fog in combination with a skybox that has the same color as the fog on its horizon.

to clip a scene completely after 10m, use http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/api/camera-setMaxViewDistance

[vklymenko]

hi there,

huh, still playing with it, not that easy : )

so I decided to not use fog as is, but to try with transparent white billboards. E.g. to place 10 of them with 0.1-1 opacity far away, and its making good illusion of fog.

But the problem is that its causing big perfomance hit - using the transparency.
I founded this game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA66hrmA1pc
also using such planes and fading the objects, but there are very few objects and are very simple, and I have tens of objects at time to fade, which are about 40-300 polygons each.