Fade Filters, not only for Single Player?

Ok, it's been a while since I've created a thread, none the less, I wanted to share something. Now we all know that fade filters can't be used in multiplayer because you can't show it to just one player(unless someone fixed that) but anyway, I realised, ok so you can't have an rpg where one thing appears for that player, but why not have it more of an announcement? for all players to hear. Here are two examples I've put it to use for...

While playing your average Open Rpg (and yes, one of the ones without quests, which I hate btw...makes me wonder why I was playing it anyway...) I played along and was told I could ascend, upon ascending to some cosmic godlike heavenly demigod warrior god thing, my fabled ascention was told to all players which I thought was neat. But wouldn't it be even neater if for that second, an image of some really cool looking god like illuminated figure was flashed onto the screen while it said I'd ascended? So players were more, astonished or scared by my new power? Here is a place I believe fade filters can be used in multiplayer for a really great atmosphere.

Secondly, I've been working on a hero defense map, named Maburaho(a japanese anime that I've started to follow) and I realised, wouldn't it be great, if when playing 'Yuuna' (one of the hero's) it flashed an image of her from the actual manga when she cast, say her ultimate? So I fiddle around, find an image of Yuuna casting a spell from the anime, turn it to .blp and so forth, and bam, when Yuuna casts her ultimate in the game, everyone for a second sees an image of her casting it, in the authentic manga style! Trust me, it looks cool. So yes, Here are 2 ways I think fade filters can still be used to great effect in a multiplayer map.

One issue you're probably thinking, is filesize, now I must admit, the file is around 500kb (that one image) and having 8 for each hero's ultimate is an extra 4 meg...but I lowered the quality to around a half and found it reduced it's size by about a 5th. Allowing for around 8 image coming in at only 800kb in extra space, you can lower it even further without much more damage to the quality and get it to around 80kb, which comes to 640kb. Yes the quality is lower, but since it's only flashed for 2 seconds or so with transperancy as well, it's not noticable at all. Ok? so I wanted to share that with everyone as information on how fade filters can be used, and secondly, to ask if anyone can think of any other methods? I've thought of images of towns you visit to be displayed in a faded fashion, maybe tinted to look like a map, while you're in an area, say you enter the forest of despair or the town of morello and an drawn image fades in while you're there. However that's more of a singleplayer use, another thought, which is still multiplayer, is a faded map of the world your rpg takes place in, with labels for towns etc, maybe 80% transparent, I think it would add a lot of atmosphere to the map. So those are my thoughts, please give your reactions :gsmile: am I crazy? is it a great idea? etc

Heh, i'm happy to announce to you, that it's very possible to show a fade filter to a single player in multiplayer :D,

You just need UMSWE or to know Jass :P

You simply need to test for local player, and display the fade filter just for local player. It works (i've tested it myself).

Cubasis

Ooh cool, well that's great, but I think everything I listed is still valid. So tell me what you thought of my applications of the filters?

That sounds real neat, Bal! I'm not sure what use just showing a filter to a single player would be, though - most maps show cinematics along with filters, so getting the local player would desynch once the cinematic started anyway. For Yuuna's spell, everybody would need to see it anyway, since it's apparently important enough to flash up - that would filter it for all players, not just one.

Still, using them like a chapter breakpoint ("Chapter 2: The Forest of Despair") WOULD be real cool for a linear style RPG. Or for making Max Payne in Warcraft.
:ggani:

Lol,

I firstly wanna add that fade filters are a great tool for many things, and I (as apart of Crimson Creations projects) use these many times, especially cool is to have a alphaed out filter with a nice font displaying like; "Emerald Forest" at the bottom of the filter, with vines and stuff in the text.. And have this display in a showcase of a new environment in a OpenRPG, which brings me to the next subject

ofcourse you don't need to show a fade filter to just 1 player in a big cinematic, that's just silly assumption, what I am using this for is to display completely "local" cinematics.... f.ex. in a OpenRPG, where you walk up to some guy, and he gives "YOU" a quest in a cinematic, while the others keep wandering around. These personal cinematics are really cool, and they can be added at many places, ... f.ex. the example above... a new-region showcase when you enter a forest.

The possibilities are ENDLESS :D,

*cough*, *cough*, i shouldn't get so excited like this, sigh, anyhow

Cubasis