trails in the mountain are better.

It's another Double Whammy Friday in blog land.

Does anyone like trails?! I hope you do because they're back in EVE as soon as Crucible hits!

CCP Mankiller is the man behind the new and improved trails. His new blog contains tons of pictures, a bunch of math and runs us through the history of his quest for the holy trail.

Check it out.

Very nice blog, thank you.

You are welcome! But Mankiller deserves all the glory :)

Looking good.
Will there be an option to turn off trails in my Client encase they may be causing lag?
The more stuff I have to draw client side the slower my video card will run.


Oh - Will there be a version later to let me add certain color to my engine trails - Would be willing to NEX that option for a ship.
Have a rainbow of engine trails. -

Will engine trails be an visual indicator of how fast the ship is going - at 2000m/s an engine trail will be so long, and I have have an idea of its transeversal as the angle vs the length of the trail?

You can turn off the trails in the options menu, if you want....

The length of the trail is directly proportional to the ship's speed.

And we'll see what else we can use this tech for: lasers? maybe...

+1 For a fantastic job.

Now we need those Shield Bubbles back... Or does the community wanted them erased in the first place? 'Cause right now the shields being on top of the ship's hull are horrible.

Hmm..... Me thinks you is a big show off!

Oh look how easy the math is!

On the other hand, looks very cool, smartypants

I like it.

But one question, how do the new trails will behave if a ship cloaks?

Do they show (at least for a short time) the point where the player hits cloak?

Of course there is always more. Some animation on the trails, adding light absorption, refraction, etc.

Awesome job +1




That's a nice question.. can a dev answer this pls?

Your trails just go away the exact moment your ship disappears. They are not fading out!

Thank you for the hard work on these trails but I'm afraid I have to disappoint. I hated engine trails as it made the game look like a cartoon and was glad when they went. As I seem to be the only one in EVE that thinks this way then I guess I can live with engine trails.

will missiles be included?

You can turn off the trails in the options menu, if you want....

The length of the trail is directly proportional to the ship's speed.

And we'll see what else we can use this tech for: lasers? maybe...

First investigate trails on drones, then missiles.

The length of a trail scales with speed, but the radius scales with the ship's size. Ah, and trails only kick in when you go faster than 150.... (Trails on slow capitals just doesn't make any sense)

First investigate trails on drones, then missiles.

The length of a trail scales with speed, but the radius scales with the ship's size. Ah, and trails only kick in when you go faster than 150.... (Trails on slow capitals just doesn't make any sense)

Thank you for the hard work on these trails but I'm afraid I have to disappoint. I hated engine trails as it made the game look like a cartoon and was glad when they went. As I seem to be the only one in EVE that thinks this way then I guess I can live with engine trails.

It's seeing math like that and the outcome of its application that makes me realise my degree is Comp Sci is near useless and I have a very very long way to go until I'll even be a mearly capable games programmer.

Very nice work CCP Mankiller. Do you have a bree (beer) fund? You deserve contributions!

You can turn off the trails in the options menu, if you want....

The length of the trail is directly proportional to the ship's speed.

And we'll see what else we can use this tech for: lasers? maybe...

One question...
is it possible to use this technique for some other effects in game???
so that strip miners and other "rays" don't look like 4 crossed planes...

Since trails doesn't make sense on slow moving capitals, what about an engine wake? Maybe something like a slow pulse effect around them? Something to make those giant engines seem more massive when a freighter flys by you.

Now increase the speed of ships while on grid and in warp. (this would have minimal if not zero effect on gameplay) The way ships move now while in warp feels weak and tame. Needs to be more like this http://youtu.be/sHyy6F_GgsM (tho I find that a little too fast)

Our collective beer fund can be found here:

https://secure.eveonline.com/

I only remember two things from when I started playing EVE, pleasure hubs and engine trails.

Pleased beyond reason to see them back, definitely would appreciate future improvements to their look and effect as they are a little bit plain right now. Never the less, awesome stuff!

i like all the changes you guys are making, but i do have one question.

What about, "The Door."? Are you guys still working on allowing chars to walk around the station or have you stopped that work?

First investigate trails on drones, then missiles.

The length of a trail scales with speed, but the radius scales with the ship's size. Ah, and trails only kick in when you go faster than 150.... (Trails on slow capitals just doesn't make any sense)

Agreed, and: yes please.


Indeed! I can agree that trails don't make sense for slow moving ships, but a gravimetric-wake effect (or something similar) would be appropriate and cool for massive ships and large engines... if feasible.

You can turn off the trails in the options menu, if you want....

The length of the trail is directly proportional to the ship's speed.

And we'll see what else we can use this tech for: lasers? maybe...

It's another Double Whammy Friday in blog land.

Does anyone like trails?! I hope you do because they're back in EVE as soon as Crucible hits!

CCP Mankiller is the man behind the new and improved trails. His new blog contains tons of pictures, a bunch of math and runs us through the history of his quest for the holy trail.

Check it out.

Do Missiles have Trails too ? can they have maybe a short one ?

Too much math made my head hurt.

Our collective beer fund can be found here:

https://secure.eveonline.com/

The length of a trail scales with speed, but the radius scales with the ship's size. Ah, and trails only kick in when you go faster than 150.... (Trails on slow capitals just doesn't make any sense)

I vote he gets the time to keep improving. Looking great so far

Need little more work: remove box-effect, then camera from ship; maybe little fix engine exhaust or remove start-render point litte back (not critial as box-effect), and then camera too far - trails become noise-effect


Anyway trails are awesome !!!oneoneoneone

So let CCP Mankiller completes all his ideas.

I agree with everything in this post.

Oh... no....
Well, if there is anything that I dislike more in a zero-gravity space than positioning everything according to a single flat plane (how stupid is that?), it is definitely the engine trails in vacuum.

I know EVE is just a game. I know. But, could it PLEASE as well be at least a little bit of a simulation?

I am really disappointed.

And I hope it will be possible to turn this abomination off.

Meh...

Oh... no....
Well, if there is anything that I dislike more in a zero-gravity space than positioning everything according to a single flat plane (how stupid is that?), it is definitely the engine trails in vacuum.

I know EVE is just a game. I know. But, could it PLEASE as well be at least a little bit of a simulation?

I am really disappointed.

And I hope it will be possible to turn this abomination off.

Thank you for the hard work on these trails but I'm afraid I have to disappoint. I hated engine trails as it made the game look like a cartoon and was glad when they went. As I seem to be the only one in EVE that thinks this way then I guess I can live with engine trails.

Now that i experienced the trails with a couple of ships i must say that, on fast ships the tip of the trail is rotating with the ship, and this is odd.

How to see it? Take a ceptor, make it orbit something, you will see the tip of the trail moving sideways as it turns....
What is odd about it? make a ceptor collide full speed with something and as it turns 180degrees the trail will also turn and will go trough the colided object...

BTW, i think trails should be a little longer on slow ships then it is now, and a little shorter on faster ships then are now...

Congratulations! The trails look very good.

However it would be nice it they were better vissible when zoomed out. The way they are now on SiSi you can hardly see them when you are zoomed out.

Why do I want to see them when zoomed out?

Simple; they would be very good indicators of speed and direction of everybody on grid.

I only just read the blog...

Er, it's a bit strange to deliver the maths hype when trails curved fine before. It looks kind of convenient that the 2 screenshots of the old trails don't show them curving. If they did, readers would wonder why the rest of the blog is really talking about it. On top of that, the flaws pointed to it the old trails - again as shown in the 2 screenshots - were both examples of warping and trails not working well together. Crucible turned that off completely anyway.

I'm glad they're back, I'm glad they're now client side as they should be, and I'm glad they render faster than before. These are the real things to celebrate. The points made in the blog about the maths of the curves and the flaws in warp... nothing done that the old trails didn't.

Anyway, don't mean to sound harsh but it was hard to make that point otherwise.

Meanwhile, if the maths is now client side, shouldn't they be more eligible to appear in warp? Was this just an art decision? Just curious, I'm fine either way, but it would be cool to see someone's trails streak across grid as they drop out of warp at insane speeds.

I hope you'll forgive my sharp opening because I would like to ask a few things:
-+ In the blog, this screenshot - http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/2954/3217/10.jpg - shows the trails being brighter near the engines. But this doesn't happen at all in game. Currently, if you use an AB to reach high speeds then the further away they are, the brighter they are. Somewhat anti-intuitive. Maybe that's unavoidable with the rendering method used but this is one of the bigger factors for upsetting their feel. Without any bright-to-faded, or reversed fading even, they really hit the player as bars of simple and plain colour more than engine trails. Is it not possible to throw some kind of cylinder brightness into the equation. Yeah I probably don't know what I'm talking about here.

-+ Continuing that however, since it's all a bunch of separate cylinders... can we get some stupidly novel tweaks? Yeah, Ima say it. Rainbow trails. There I said it. I don't mean each trail is a different colour like Nyan Cat, no. I mean each trail changes colour within itself. Or both. :D So many colour ideas. AB trails deepen their colour. MWD trails deepen further plus take on a red tinge. Maybe not good from an artistic point of view. Just suggestions.

-+ More seriously, introduce "Fuel Additives" that temporarily change the colour of our trails. :D They can work like boosters and hey, they're vanity. Chuck 'em in the Nex store. I'd be all over that. 500 AUR for something that lasts 1 hour on 1 ship. 7,000 AUR to buy the stuff that makes it permanent, for 1 ship. The significance this could add to the mind games; people using permanent coloured trails like poisonous fish, to show they they're pretty hot stuff. People using temporary coloured trails to make their bait look extra tasty. And the hijinx this could bring to scamming, since the only way to tell a ship has the new trails is to watch it fly. People would literally be trading via pod in space. Or instead of this issue and consumable items, rigs. Pure waste-a-rig-slot vanity rigs. Better yet, both. The temporary change is a consumable item. The permanent change is by using a rig. Perhaps the rig fitting doesn't show the colour of the trails, again allowing more scamming upsets and lols. The permanent aqua trails? They're cheap. But the red and black trails (yes black), they're expensive as hell and you watched him fly in space, you thought that was the ship you were getting when you traded back in station. Completely going off on a tangent here I know. But really, trails for Nex. Do it.

-+ Honestly, anything that can be done to get these trails further away from the plain bands of colour look they currently have would be hugely loved. Most important I think is making them feel more tangible by sorting out the brighter-near-the-jets issue.

If that is done, then I embrace practically any shiny tweak that can be added. The blog talks about animation and refraction... o_O Bring it on! I love the shiny.

Hm, but the point is: I HAD to go through all this math to make the trails render faster/perform better! There was no way I could've "just" made the old system faster...

And yes, you are right, the reason the trails fade out when you go into warp was an art decision. Maybe I will re-open that discussion. Also a good idea is changing the trail when you use MWD or AB.

...but do people really, really want "rainbow trails" ????

Hm, but the point is: I HAD to go through all this math to make the trails render faster/perform better! There was no way I could've "just" made the old system faster...

And yes, you are right, the reason the trails fade out when you go into warp was an art decision. Maybe I will re-open that discussion. Also a good idea is changing the trail when you use MWD or AB.

...but do people really, really want "rainbow trails" ????

How about trails that act as ejecta from the back of the ship instead of streamers attached to the ship? Right now it's like they're stapled there... you make a tight turn and the trail tries to follow you instead of remaining where you were. To have the effect look right, it should be a stream that's always shooting straight out of the back of the ship, even when you turn, and the particles of the stream will remain in space, spreading and fading out where they were.

Of course, this opens up the whole issue of something giving away your position when you cloak...

Ugh, can't really win in this.

I did have one wierd trail bug... while warping to my pos in a prophecy, I tabbed over to a different character for a bit then back to this one. The prophecy was parked at the pos with the engine trail sticking out of it's non-moving butt back in the direction I came from. Since the ship had "settled" by then that was a 45 degree angle up and behind it.

Was very odd looking.

[Hm, but the point is: I HAD to go through all this math to make the trails render faster/perform better! There was no way I could've "just" made the old system faster...

And yes, you are right, the reason the trails fade out when you go into warp was an art decision. Maybe I will re-open that discussion. Also a good idea is changing the trail when you use MWD or AB.

...but do people really, really want "rainbow trails" ????

...but do people really, really want "rainbow trails" ????

I don't think engine trails should persist through warp - that would make fleet warps look very messy. They could last a little longer before fading, with the intent that a non-warping observer would see the ships leave a streak as they warp on/off the grid.

Rainbow trails - I'd have to say I am interested. Color/pattern variations could be done tastefully without ruining aesthetics. Put them up on NeX and price point them similar to the upcoming ship paint-jobs - I will buy a few.

...but do people really, really want "rainbow trails" ????

It's another Double Whammy Friday in blog land.

Does anyone like trails?! I hope you do because they're back in EVE as soon as Crucible hits!

CCP Mankiller is the man behind the new and improved trails. His new blog contains tons of pictures, a bunch of math and runs us through the history of his quest for the holy trail.

Check it out.