Depth mode

[havenphillip]

I made this forcefield shader using the watermode depth buffer which works great. I replaced the Leadwerks water shader with this dummy shader:

//fragment

#version 400

//Uniforms
uniform sampler2D texture4;// depth

void main(void)
{    
    float depth = textureProj(texture4,vec3(1)).r;
}

//vertex

#version 400
#define MAX_INSTANCES 256

void main()
{

}

... and I used this script to turn on watermode and set the waterplane height:

function Script:Start()
    world = World:GetCurrent()
    world:SetWaterMode(true)
    world:SetWaterQuality(1)
end

function Script:UpdatePhysics()
    world:SetWaterHeight(3.0)
end

 

... everything works great and the shader works with post effects, which is something I couldn't get accomplished before, AND I'm getting excellent FPS. The problem is I lose the effect as soon as the water plane goes off camera. So I'm thinking if there is a way to create a "depth mode" which keeps the (invisible) water plane on camera at all times that would open up a nice little corner for using the depth buffer for things like a forcefield, water foam, water fog, ground fog, and soft particle falloff effects such as seen here:
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/04/Soft-Particles




 

[Marcousik]

Soft-Particles would be a must for clouds simulation colliding with mountains uns so much more.

(sorry no idea how to help)

[havenphillip]

That's ok, man. I got the soft particle thing and the forcefield working using this method. The problem I was having was because I had other shaders in my scene using texture4 for something other than depth. They work perfectly now. I don't know why Josh wouldn't just set up a "depth mode" as  a permanent thing so that people could use depth buffers for cool stuff.  Leadwerks' aversion to shaders is self-defeating, imo.

[Marcousik]

Quote

I don't know why Josh wouldn't just 

Because he is completely concentrated on coming forward with Ultra engine.

We all (are/have) missing a few thing in the actually LE that could made the editor just top, but well.

Do you think about publishing your soft-Particles shader or make a tuto on this ?

[havenphillip]

Yeah I'm just stockpiling right now. I have a bunch of shaders I'll put out in a while. I don't think it will matter that much since I think everyone's moved on from LE4. I get the benefit of having put in the effort, though.

[Marcousik]

There are still people (I am one of them ^^) who still work with LE4.6 and try to build something / finish what they began

I spent hours learning how to use it and I made progress in building a game, so that I want to finish it.

And there is the very positive argument that the actual version 4.6 works stable and it will need a looooong time until  the new baby Ultra keeps a way without updates required. 

So I enjoy working with 4.6