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Flickering lights

Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 11:10 am
by Whoisthere
The function is already there, and for some reason I think it won't hog resources. So can we make lights randomly flicker for no reason but to be atmospheric?
Like, every light on the station has a 0.001 chance to flicker every tick, and 0.1% of lights are faulty and flicker ALL THE TIME.
And maybe add flickering with much higher frequency, high enough that the area essentially never stops being "lit" but nevertheless the flickering is noticeable.

Please it will be cozy I promise.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:12 pm
by oranges
for some reason I think it won't hog resources
Rethink it

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:29 pm
by Scott
It could be handled by a subsystem to not be costly.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 11:24 pm
by Reece
I'd rather not get a migraine from the virtual workplace I bumble around in thanks.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:41 am
by Whoisthere
Reece wrote:I'd rather not get a migraine from the virtual workplace I bumble around in thanks.
Why? It would be immersive.
oranges wrote:
for some reason I think it won't hog resources
Rethink it
Fine, I'll rewrite SS13 and make it not costly I am 100% committed to the project the first release is expected on 10/10/2016.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:40 am
by Sweaterkittens
If there was a resource-efficient way to do it, it'd be nice as something that ramps up as the station gets more damaged. I have seen admins fiddle with this sort of thing manually during events and it's very cool. It would definitely have to be clear flickering/on-and-off, not the shitty buzzing thing that real fluorescent lights do that gives you a migraine.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 3:29 am
by MisterPerson
I can think of some optimizations that would make this not as expensive as you might think if the flickering was just between a handful of static brightness levels. Not high on my priority list but maybe someone else could take a stab.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 3:51 am
by ABearInTheWoods
Server side it would actually be rather cheap.

Client side is the other issue. animate()ions tend to be costly for people on certain low end graphics cards.

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:53 am
by D&B
They could just download more RAM

Re: Flickering lights

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:49 am
by Whoisthere
Wait, SS13 actually requires a decent video card? I thought it could run smoothly on a potato. I should run it on a decent card then, maybe that'll get rid of lagspikes I am getting.