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[JLJac]

Lol you guys hold me to high standards  Thanks for pushing through until it's good though, instead of just accepting any old animation I throw at you!

I sort of agree with this, I'm looking into solutions for making it more like that. I think making the first tail segments very rigid and then have it taper off might achieve something like it.

For the poop propulsion and general grossness, that was actually sort of what I was going for...

[ProgramGamer]

Lol you guys hold me to high standards  Thanks for pushing through until it's good though, instead of just accepting any old animation I throw at you!

We don't want you to end up like the George Lucas of games.

[JLJac]

Update 442

Further work on the fish creature. I've also stared on some water splashes, which I know are not really all the way there. It should probably have some sort of highlights on it making it appear less dark - but that is difficult without making the individual sprites more obvious. It's supposed to look like a unified mass of water rather than sprites, and if I add some kind of specular effect in the shader the shader would still only know about the specific sprite it handles, so it would be difficult to keep it unified.



Suggestions?

[adge]

Hmmm i think the repulsion splashes still look a bit weird because they are segmented. If they are segmented the fishes acceleration would not be continuous.

Maybe change it to a continuous water jet which would then also justify the smooth acceleration. Moreover it seems like a massive amount of water they can store in their "lifting engine".
Maybe use a particle system?

[Teod]

Update 442

Further work on the fish creature. I've also stared on some water splashes, which I know are not really all the way there. It should probably have some sort of highlights on it making it appear less dark - but that is difficult without making the individual sprites more obvious. It's supposed to look like a unified mass of water rather than sprites, and if I add some kind of specular effect in the shader the shader would still only know about the specific sprite it handles, so it would be difficult to keep it unified.

Suggestions?

Then don't make it out of sprites. You need something like this, but thin and flexible so you can attach it to the creature like a tail.

[oldblood]

Anyone who says they dont hear "fart sounds" when they watch this GIF is lying through their teeth...

...Or if you didn't, you probably do now.

[Rojom]

Update 442

Further work on the fish creature. I've also stared on some water splashes, which I know are not really all the way there. It should probably have some sort of highlights on it making it appear less dark - but that is difficult without making the individual sprites more obvious. It's supposed to look like a unified mass of water rather than sprites, and if I add some kind of specular effect in the shader the shader would still only know about the specific sprite it handles, so it would be difficult to keep it unified.

Suggestions?

Then don't make it out of sprites. You need something like this, but thin and flexible so you can attach it to the creature like a tail.

I agree. I think having an initial continuous stream which breaks up into the globules of water that you have now would be a good blend.

[JLJac]

Poop fish gonna wreck ya!

Yup, the segmentation is the main problem. Just don't really know how to make a continuous flow that's also flexible. Is this better?

[adge]

Technically water consists out of mulecules which can be considered as segments. They are just extremely small. Maybe more smaller segments would do it but then you could also use particles i guess..?

[Forstride]

Yeah, maybe making it look more like a spray than having big blobs of water would look better.

[gimymblert]

about the highlight there is this very old hack, render all specular sprite on top of all water sprite together, as if they were on another layer. Modern particle system still work kinda that way, they render all particle in their own image buffer, process them, then composite the final image back in the scene.

[tortoiseandcrow]

I think the impact water splashes work best when they are relatively closely confined to the surface of the water. They become more obviously sprite-like when they become separated from the rest of the splash.

For the stream, can you keep the flexibility, but just increase the density of sprites emitted so that they look like a continuous stream for a short distance?

Is that slugcat driving the poop fish?

[Crispy75]

poop fish

I think that one's going to stick...

[tortoiseandcrow]

Joar said it first!

[theEasternDragon]

These remind me of frogs. And yes, poop fish!

[Crispy75]

Just don't really know how to make a continuous flow that's also flexible.

• Spawn particles like you're doing, but instead of rendering a particle at each point, put two vertices, offset to the side of the motion vector.
• Make that "flow width" offset increase slowly over time
• Tie all the vertices together with triangles.
• Apply a simple "flow" texture to each quad. It could even be animated.
• If the distance between two points is greater than some threshold, OR, the "flow width" reaches a certain maximum then despawn all downstream vertices and spawn "spray" particles in their place

This should get you a "hose" of coherent flow like a hosepipe, that obeys gravity + inertia, that scatters into spray at its end, or during violent manoeuvres.

EDIT: There's that technique, I forget its name cos I'm not a programmer, but you use it in shoot-em-ups to avoid creating and destroying thousands of objects for projectiles, where you just recycle the IDs of old bullets to make new ones. THat would be applicable here, but I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs

[Zorg]

Suggestions?

I don't think these fishes need a water stream system to be fast at all, they already have two excellent long fins. And the resulting frog pose (and poop) in air does not look very charming. These crab-like claws look great, but you could place them at the tip of the head, because they look like small t-rex arms in the center of the body.

[tortoiseandcrow]

I rather like Zorg's suggestion. They look really gorgeous in the water, and would be plenty interesting if they just leapt out of the water at you, rather than rocketing.

[gimymblert]

Wait did they have infinite supplies of poop for propulsion?

[adge]

Suggestions?

I don't think these fishes need a water stream system to be fast at all, they already have two excellent long fins. And the resulting frog pose (and poop) in air does not look very charming. These crab-like claws look great, but you could place them at the tip of the head, because they look like small t-rex arms in the center of the body.

Well I like that idea too. Like sharks, they accelerate under water and then just use the momentum to "jet off".
You could also use the "poop mechanic" underwater like jellyfish do with ink, to protect themselves against predators.