Hull Paint Jobs: Glossy vs. Flat

[seekeronos]

Went to change my paint job, and selected a totally non-glossy finish.

Logged out/logged back in to see if my new colour scheme took... which it did, but everything is still glossy (i.e. reflects in interesting ways that obscures the colours I wanted.

Is this a client-side bug?

[Allia]

I was told that non glossy paint was not in game because it caused video cards to crash, thus is currently not available. Something about the drivers....

Considering how today's video cards are much better than when the game was originally out, I have to wonder, but the game working is enough for me.

I don't believe its a client side bug becuase it did work in live. My JD was flat black with shiny yellow...the yellow would reflect and black would not.

[Choco]

Went to change my paint job, and selected a totally non-glossy finish.

Logged out/logged back in to see if my new colour scheme took... which it did, but everything is still glossy (i.e. reflects in interesting ways that obscures the colours I wanted.

Is this a client-side bug?

I notice this as well. An interesting note to it as well, it seems to change depending on what sector you're in, not sure why. For me I have always chosen flat colours, even back in Live. Not sure if certain sectors use different coloured lighting or whatever, but you can see for yourself. If you choose a flat paint job, go to Swooping Eagle or Xipe Totec sectors, there you will see your flat paint in it's more "natural" lighting. Then go to almost any other sector and you'll notice that for whatever reason it becomes a lot more glossy and shiny. Not sure if this is intentional or not, again it could be related to the ambient lighting of the sector, but it's interesting to note. Maybe a dev can comment more about this.

[Allia]

I notice this as well. An interesting note to it as well, it seems to change depending on what sector you're in, not sure why. For me I have always chosen flat colours, even back in Live. Not sure if certain sectors use different coloured lighting or whatever, but you can see for yourself. If you choose a flat paint job, go to Swooping Eagle or Xipe Totec sectors, there you will see your flat paint in it's more "natural" lighting. Then go to almost any other sector and you'll notice that for whatever reason it becomes a lot more glossy and shiny. Not sure if this is intentional or not, again it could be related to the ambient lighting of the sector, but it's interesting to note. Maybe a dev can comment more about this.

This is indeed becuase of lighting differences, stars are different colors after all. Zones lighted by a 'blue dwarf' star will have 'blue' reflections on your shiny parts of ship. Since all ships are made shinny (even if flat is chosen), this means your whole ships is doing color change. In live if you had a flat color part it wouldn't change colors based on lighting because it wasn't reflective (maybe that's where the graphical issue is).

Here's some info on star types if you feel like reading (Star Classifications)and a picture for those of you who don't like to read (Star Types)...honestly I think its kinda neat that EnB bothered to have different lighting types for zones based off stars/planets nearby. Gives more of a feeling of being in the zone.

Edited June 10, 2010 by Raptorred

[C Del[IS]]

I think this is a problem with the client from the Westwood/EA days, so unfortunately we just don't have the access to the client's source code that would be necessary to re-enable flat paint. It actually really ticks me off because I always liked the look of the flat paints.

[ghent96]

It's do-able, because it worked in live, but there's some bug we haven't figured out yet with how colors are translated/stored from the client to the server & back. Plus, some of the lighting files may not be made correctly. Certain materials (textures), especially metals, and some of the clothing too, has always been problematic.

[Tienbau]

yeah I think a bit of poking around ought to get this working again... It's not urgent though I guess.

[C Del[IS]]

It's do-able, because it worked in live, but there's some bug we haven't figured out yet with how colors are translated/stored from the client to the server & back. Plus, some of the lighting files may not be made correctly. Certain materials (textures), especially metals, and some of the clothing too, has always been problematic.

yeah I think a bit of poking around ought to get this working again... It's not urgent though I guess.

Great news, I miss my flat hull paint. =)

[Terrell [BT]]

It's do-able, because it worked in live, but there's some bug we haven't figured out yet with how colors are translated/stored from the client to the server & back. Plus, some of the lighting files may not be made correctly. Certain materials (textures), especially metals, and some of the clothing too, has always been problematic.

I've noticed that with my Jenquai toons' clothing. None of my Jenquai toons clothing is the same color in the game as they are in the Char & Starship creator & the Character selection screen. My Terran & Progen toons, however are exactly the same in all 3. This was the case in Live as well.

My JE/JW/JT all wear Blue and grey clothing, however in the game my JE/JW clothing is more reddish, and my JT's clothing is a bit more purple (JT's clothes are closest to how they should look between the 3 toons). No metal color cubes clicked on in the creation of any of my chars, regardless of race. No issues with any of my toons' ships.

Edited June 21, 2010 by Terrell

[Allia]

Another thing I've noticed is your guns seem to take on your primary color (my TT ended up with hot pin oguns this way). If your primary color is a medal...your guns look nasty gray/white. This is probably default color, but I'm unsure if they actually would become medal tone in live. However, my ships have the same color schemes they did in live and I sure don't remember nasty white/light gray guns so I'm thinking the default color tone was something that would blend in better (maybe black).