Cameras possible

[Erek]

Is there a chance cameras in combination with LCD or consoles are comming?
A cockpit 2 with some console blocks showing views from outside cameras in a controllroom from battlesteel without any windows would be cool.
Is there any chance we get something like that?
Even in PvE i would like such a bridge for my spaceship going wher no earthling has gone before.

[Lee_3po]

Cams would be neat. You could have it setup like real world surveillance rooms with screens everywhere able to see all angles of your CV or BA in one room.

[times05]

Would be cool if you could switch view to turrets and pilot ship at same time. That way turret = camera. Switch view to more convenient one when landing/docking, rotate/shoot it while maneuvering. Especially useful for mining turrets when piloting CV by yourself.

I mean you don't really use WASD C Spacebar while in turret anyway, those are the keys you need to fly ship, while mouse used for rotating view and shooting turret.

This would be a very elegant solution. LCD screens that show realtime view on other hand from fixed point is a huge CPU sink, would make game unplayable for most.

Outside view is cool and all, but fixed point like that would be very nice.

[zaphodikus]

You can get an outside view if you get a mate to pilot, and you occupy a turret.

[piddlefoot]

We probably will see them eventually, but camaras come with an inherent problem, they can cause alot of lag.
Multiple camaras in a MP server, with multiple people viewing them from different locations, man the servers now pumping out the packets to multiple clients, really easy to get internal game latency at this point, SE suffers from it, so will this game if its not regulated closely , how many players can have them, how many can be active at once, how many a playfield can even handle, all these things need to be tested.

Camaeras usually lead to remote blocks, like in SE where you can remote pilot ships etc, so it will be cool to have them yes, but it really needs to be done right or performance is going to plumet.

[Gordholm]

i recently saw a camera block in the creative menu but then it turned in to a CV spotlight :O

[Sniffles]

Those saying its CPU intensive and will lag a server, why? The information is already sent to the client. Client software has all the information to generate whatever view of the world around the player the game code calls for right now, 3rd person view panning does not change the set of packets as one turns the camera, the information is already sent.

Its on the client to keep up while displaying multiple views, not really all that hard for modern CPU and GPU, its all on the game code that Empyrion uses. Many games have this kind of feature without issue. Saying its impossible, in 2017, when it was possible in 2007, huh?

[Winterfalke]

Duke Nukem 3D had functioning video cameras, don't tell me we can't have cameras in game without breaking the engine.

[infernaldragon5]

As long as you limit cameras to about 4 per vehicle it should be fine performance wise.

[Winterfalke]

A better way would be to only let non active cameras have access to extra clock cycles. When the system is struggling under load, any cameras not currently being actively used can drop in frame rates. They don't need to have a high resolution anyways, or show shadows or reflections, so raytracing is not necessary. Putting LCD displays on a proximity based, and focus based framerate cap and resolution would also help, so they are only showing high fps and resolution when they are on screen, you are near by, and you are pointing the crosshairs at them.

[Major_Dilemma]

I just wanna know where I'm supposed to plug my console in. My Atari collection ain't gonna play itself!

[times05]

Originally posted by aholaloha:

Those saying its CPU intensive and will lag a server, why? The information is already sent to the client. Client software has all the information to generate whatever view of the world around the player the game code calls for right now, 3rd person view panning does not change the set of packets as one turns the camera, the information is already sent.

Its on the client to keep up while displaying multiple views, not really all that hard for modern CPU and GPU, its all on the game code that Empyrion uses. Many games have this kind of feature without issue. Saying its impossible, in 2017, when it was possible in 2007, huh?

Seriously? You're processing one view, and inside it you want it to process ANOTHER one. From a different point of view. Scaled down. Realtime. Being constantly adjusted for movement of viewing point and viewer (screen looks different under different angles/from different distance as your character moves around it or away/closer). But wait, you also want multiple screens at the same time!!!

That doesn't strike you as taking more clock cycles? You know how a lot of lights can slow down your framerate? This is 100 times worse.

As for duke nukem doing it, it did a tiny loop of several frames on a loop, that had nothing to do with showing anything realtime. There are tricks you can use, like maybe superimpose a low res character model on that static loop with simple coordinate scheme like character moving accross the screen. That's not even close to being the same thing suggested.

[infernaldragon5]

The application for this is mostly just going to be for ships with closed clockpits with no windows. The camera would be very neutered in their detail so as not to destroy performance, and as I said a limit of 4 cameras per vehicle should do the trick. When they aren't being looked at they won't do anything.

Maybe give a fullscreen view option for cameras that you can activate from any cockpit or passenger seat. Maybe give the option for rear view camera too that would appear in some display portion of your cockpit.

[times05]

See it's not that simple. If they could turn on and off that kind of stuff on demand instantly then lights slowing down frame rates would have been solved quicker than anyone could notice. After all if you're not seeing lights, they're not being processed right? Well obviously that's not the case....

Also it's a matter of what the engine supports. Devs can't rewrite the engine. If you notice some games based on some engines have very nice way of showing mirrors for example. Your character walks by it and you see a very nice looking reflection. In others mirrors are much simpler. That depends on if it's built into the engine or not.

[Sniffles]

Unity KSP cameras, nuff said. The excuses are lame, if its not high priority fine but acting like its impossible is rediculous.

[Winterfalke]

Originally posted by times05:

Originally posted by aholaloha:

Those saying its CPU intensive and will lag a server, why? The information is already sent to the client. Client software has all the information to generate whatever view of the world around the player the game code calls for right now, 3rd person view panning does not change the set of packets as one turns the camera, the information is already sent.

Its on the client to keep up while displaying multiple views, not really all that hard for modern CPU and GPU, its all on the game code that Empyrion uses. Many games have this kind of feature without issue. Saying its impossible, in 2017, when it was possible in 2007, huh?

Seriously? You're processing one view, and inside it you want it to process ANOTHER one. From a different point of view. Scaled down. Realtime. Being constantly adjusted for movement of viewing point and viewer (screen looks different under different angles/from different distance as your character moves around it or away/closer). But wait, you also want multiple screens at the same time!!!

That doesn't strike you as taking more clock cycles? You know how a lot of lights can slow down your framerate? This is 100 times worse.

As for duke nukem doing it, it did a tiny loop of several frames on a loop, that had nothing to do with showing anything realtime. There are tricks you can use, like maybe superimpose a low res character model on that static loop with simple coordinate scheme like character moving accross the screen. That's not even close to being the same thing suggested.

You act like we're asking teh game to do something new and scary, but realistically it is just a basic scaled down function that is built into the games very core framework. Many video games have active monitors that show in real time waht is going on in other areas, it's not new or special or complicated. It's just a bit more math. The game is already doing a lot of math to determine the state of non-local entities such as drones and NPCs and auto miners, not to mention other players on PVP servers, so most of the math is already taking place. The rendering aspect is trivial, you would literally be rendering teh same amount of pixels if you put windows in. To the GPU, what view it is processing is irrelevent.