Distortion effect

[Kingz]

I don't know if i am posting this question in the right forum, if i missplaced the position of this thread please notify me.

How come i never saw any model with distortion effects on the THW?

Are distortion effects too much for WC3 to handle?
Or are they just hard to model?

In case someone has difficult about what i mean by distortion effect i could post a link to some game with it and how it looks.

I just found it strange since distortion always looks cool.

Also i might be wrong about my usage of the term distortion since i don't really know the modeling terms.

 

[MortAr]

How the heck 'distortion' models look like?

 

[chilla_killa]

Yes, wait I google it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_(optics)
I can't see any possibilty to create such an effect as a model.
Maybe a fade filter?

 

[Kingz]

A distortion effect would look like it is pulling and changing the time/space around it thus giving you a sort of feel that is deformated.

I can only try to explain you like this: It is an effect simmilar to terrain deformation on terrain but it deforms the model or should i say the image of the viewer making it look like the space there deformated for a bit.

The only refrence i can make is a Heroes of Newreth video, a skill in which a hero pulls out a riffle and shoots a creep, at the creeps position a minor shockwave is created which looks like it is distorting the space there.

I suggest you watch it in the highest resolution available and i might be wrong about the model but it sure does fool the eye if it isn't distorting the space around that creep:

Link

 

[MortAr]

Yes I've seen this many times, but I never figured its an separate effect.

Looks realy nice, and yes, I will be realy happy to see some of these, and probably might be usefull for project Im currently working on.

 

[Kingz]

I really wonder if anyone on THW actually knows to reproduce such effects

 

[D4RK_G4ND4LF]

I don't think it's possible since you don't have to change the model only but also the environment behind it

but afaik there is nothing in warcraft 3 capable of that
(there is some kind of transparency effect but it does not shift anything)

however in starcraft 2 the overlords explode with that kind of effect so i am positive that

edit:
the carrier at the beginning is another example for that kind of effect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqYUNhBuodQ

 

[Kingz]

Well i always thought it was model based with some transparent filters which trick the eye but you might be right!

 

[JetFangInferno]

The distortion effect is actually achieved by using particles that replicate exactly every single color "behind" it. For instance, if I wanted to create a distortion effect using the Shockwave10.blp texture and this particle happens to appear over some barren landscape ground, I would have to have a particle that constantly selects the colors of the barren landscape beneath it to create the illusion that there is a "distortion." The distortion effect is just our way of perceiving a certain texture glossing over any background. The only viable approach to distortions in Warcraft is to write a program that can constantly detect the colors around a particle and change that particle's colors but the engine does not support this. I'm sorry if my explanation is not very clear but I've tried other 3d modeling programs that support distortion and that is how it is achieved.

 

[Kingz]

Sounds pretty much like i thought it would, nice to know how it actually apears in some games.

Good thing that SC2 will probably have the ability to reproduce those effects.