How would you make a ghost?

[JimboUK]

If I remember correctly Point Lookout had a ghost, I want to make a semi transparent NPC but I can't for the life of me figure out how.

[Ironman5000]

I thought I would give it a go after reading this with a creature and it worked well enough, is this the kind of thing you are after?

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3250/screenshot213y.jpg

I am working on adding special effects to creatures at the moment too so maybe there is a kind of mist effect to use that can be scripted on. I imagine doing the same on NPC actors would be pretty much the same way?

 

EDIT: I've attached a ghostly mist effect to this one, if want to see how I did it I can upload the files here for you to look at?

Edited January 26, 2013 by Ironman5000

[JimboUK]

If you could that would be great, that is exactly the sort of thing I'm after.

[Ironman5000]

OK here it is,

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?55zy52xi3r199cf

 

If you want to use the effects for your own ghost feel free, and let me know if you need any help with any of it :thumbsup:

 

EDIT: Download this one instead, one of the actor effects wasn't assigned.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?k1uf8wq3htefmt2

 

Oh yeah and all the IDs have the prefix I5K to find them quickly

Edited January 26, 2013 by Ironman5000

[JimboUK]

Ah thank you, I'll have a play with this and see what I can do with it.

[JimboUK]

I've not had a lot of luck with this, the blue mist works when added as an actor effect on an NPC but the ghost effect doesn't.

 

http://i.imgur.com/tZUcZuW.jpg

[Ironman5000]

The transparency was done using an edited mesh and texture and the mist effect was like an extra to simulate ectoplasm (kinda), so to get it working on NPCs you would just have to do the same with them with new bodies by making a new 'ghost' race.

[JimboUK]

Thank you, then that's what I'll do. :thumbsup:

[Ironman5000]

Just an fyi I decided to try this theory out and it does work,

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/1720/screenshot221d.jpg

 

I don't have much experience in making new races but I will point out that I found no option to apply the shader effects directly to the race, so if you wanted to make it playable the effects wouldn't show unless it can be done via another script. I couldn't seem to be able to do any facegen either which is either because I had to use a new head mesh or I just missed something.

 

Another problem is transparency itself,

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/4742/screenshot223u.jpg

 

Not sure how to avoid this personally but maybe there is a way to resolve this or just live with it, depends on how much it bothers you. It's not as much a big deal with creatures because they use one or few meshes where NPCs have about 10.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Ironman5000

[JimboUK]

That's going to be an issue, I think this is way too much messing about for want I wanted it for, a new character for those comic strips. I think I'll just shop the character in, it won't look as good but it'll do the job. Thanks for all the help, it's appreciated.