Horizon Heat Wobble?

[leedsfuzz]

Wouldn't some kind of horizon heat wobble be really awesome? Depth of field and horizon blur are both great don't get me wrong, but in my opinion neither quite cut it.

I haven't seen anything like this, and if I've missed it then my apologies. Perhaps this would be more suited to something like "The Imaginator", as a new visual effect.

 

Edit 1: Cleaned up my words, they were messy.

Edited August 12, 2011 by leedsfuzz

[chronosmagus]

Totally agree! I think such an effect would suit the setting brilliantly well. Thus far I have never really felt like being in a scorching hot desert, so this could increase the immersion quite a bit.

 

Perhaps the gas-cloud effect could help as a resource, my modding skills are probably too limited at this point for such a mod sadly.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

The heat wobble would really only make sense on roads, or over water, possibly rocks. As far as I know, something like that isn't possible without violating the EULA for New Vegas, which is definitely not cool, because of what it opens the door to.

 

chronosmagus, that's actually an interesting idea, though it would mean you could walk right up to spots with the effect, and still see an odd shimmering cloud, assuming it was used as a created object. Maybe NVSE has the capabilities to make it disappear at a certain range, but either way, it would require a pretty strong PC to keep creating and/or removing the effects, not to mention the conflicts it could bring with weather mods, or any other mod, really.

Edited August 12, 2011 by FlyingHigh10000000

[leedsfuzz]

walk right up to spots with the effect, and still see an odd shimmering cloud, assuming it was used as a created object. Maybe NVSE has the capabilities to make it disappear at a certain range

 

That would seem to be a less CPU intensive alternative to what I suggested, but why do you say only on roads or on rocks? Out in the desert, the sand can definitely get hot enough to visibly distort the air, buildings and structures would as well.

 

Also, I'm not sure quite what you're talking about when you say a mere visual effect could violate the EULA, care to explain?

[FlyingHigh10000000]

There was another mod out there that wasn't released, because to achieve half of the effects(Static when hit, instead of blood, different shaders, etc) the creator had to edit the code in the game executable itself.(A violation of the EULA that would have possibly given Bethesda reason to draw a C&D order.) Probably not something we have to worry about here, if the gas effect were used with NVSE, since none of that changes the exe or even really touches it. That said, it might be worth a shot. I'm new to modding, aside from normal stuff like NPCs, unique items, etc. but would definitely be willing to look into exactly what kind of difference getting together a script that spawns and despawns the heat effect from a certain distance onward, or better yet, modifies the horizon blur, similiar to, as you mentioned, The Imaginator, or Nevada Skies. With rain, snow, dust, and radstorms possible, without any real hit to performance, I'm thinking some heatwaves on the horizon wouldn't be much.

[grishnakah]

There was another mod out there that wasn't released, because to achieve half of the effects(Static when hit, instead of blood, different shaders, etc) the creator had to edit the code in the game executable itself.(A violation of the EULA that would have possibly given Bethesda reason to draw a C&D order.) Probably not something we have to worry about here, if the gas effect were used with NVSE, since none of that changes the exe or even really touches it. That said, it might be worth a shot. I'm new to modding, aside from normal stuff like NPCs, unique items, etc. but would definitely be willing to look into exactly what kind of difference getting together a script that spawns and despawns the heat effect from a certain distance onward, or better yet, modifies the horizon blur, similiar to, as you mentioned, The Imaginator, or Nevada Skies. With rain, snow, dust, and radstorms possible, without any real hit to performance, I'm thinking some heatwaves on the horizon wouldn't be much.

 

If I were you, I'd query Obsidian first before saying it's impossible. Obsidian, being a subsection of Bethesda whre most of the members started out as modders, would probably be willing to accept this. Could give someone a job opportunity too.

And I say Obsidian because although the engine was by Bethesda, Obsidian are the devs of the game, and they technically have more rights over Bethesda for it. If they wanted to, Obsidian could do to Bethesda what Bethesda has doen to Interplay.