I posted this in sm40, but I need 1-2 testers for my sm40 map before I ship it off to RPG for completion. I probably won't change too much, but I'd like some feedback and any bugs people find. So lemme know if you'd like to test, thx. 

http://img53.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img53&image=quakesands6ih.jpg

Not my map, but I thought this shot made Quake look like Prince of Persia: Sands of time. You know, when time goes back and its all glooooowwwwwyyy. 

when time goes back and its all glooooowwwwwyyy.

Coming soon to a bloated custom engine near you! 

We've been discussing this in #tf some these past couple days, but this shot is just another example of a graphics feature getting out of control. Light blooming, when done correctly can add to a games experience and atmosphere. When done as above, it detracts from the experience and only hampers the players eye sight. That shot would look much much better had the bloom been reduced to near nothing. It should be used to accent certain features within the gamespace, not washout the playing field. Guild Wars seems to be another huge offender when it comes to the bloom effect. This feature seems to originated from graphics focused consoles, where every wiz-bang feature is needed to set a game apart from another. However, it would seem some console developers have gotten a grasp on how to utilize it properly. Examples of bloom done right include the Splinter Cell series, Rainbox Six, and more recently Burnout 3 on the road surface in the far distance because of the sun. Tenebrae used the bloom effect pretty well, I was suprised that we didn't see it in Doom 3. Regardless, people need to see that this is a graphics gimmick, just as the sun glare was years ago when it appeared in ever PSOne title.
/Rant Off 

while you exhibit no lense flare of your own, you are positively incandescent :) 

heh, should have mentioned that the shot was produced by me messing with settings, and actually looks fucking amazing when you run around with that on. Obviously that would only be used for a dream sequence, or using the dagger of time.

I took the time to take pics of the bloom effect being used more moderately. Before and after pics at:

http://www.planetquake.com/starbuck/bloom/ 

those first 2 shots are my map :] 

DarkPlaces I'm guessing, yeah? 

For an engine mod visual gimmick, that doesn't look half bad. 

It kills the illusion of depth. Where the light effect shines on the textures, they only appear flat or painted on. 

in monomaterial geocomps pretty well though. For it to be effective here, you would have to account for the individual darkness/contrast of the pixels to sustain the depth, and there you go: per pixel shading! 

Yeah, what Kinn said--what engine?

I might have to use that for gimmicky shots of my maps on a future design of my site. 

That's the latest beta of Darkplaces. AFAIK, it's not avaible on DP site yet, so ask LordHavoc for the download URL. 

headthump: dude, huh?
the shots with bloom on are the 1st, 3rd, 5th...
It just gives a blurry glow around light stuff in the engine, like a lens flare (ish). Doesn't 'kill the illusion of depth' at all. 

how does it know why textures should be bloomed?
does it go by contrast or are there texture settings? 

why = which 

i think it works it out itself, don't ask me how. Just seems that a fair bit of light on a really light surface will cause it. 

Take a screenshot into photoshop. Duplicate it to make two layers. In the top layer, use levels to cut out the dark parts, blur it, and change the blend to "screen"[*].

That's roughly how bloom works in most engines... and your eyes.

[*] At least, that's what jherax assures me. 

A bloom alogrithm takes takes pixel information from around a light source, and saturatuates the light onto the pixel and so many pixel around it. At least thats what I'm guessing. For lighter colored textures, you'll see the light and texture bleed together. I think. I'm just guess it's through a pixel shader type thing, more specficly a opengl fragment program (or fragment shader or whatever they are called). 

I should have been more specific. The results on the Ikbase are pretty subdued, so no harm done and could be counted as a visual improvement, but the Slipgate Complex, well . . . maybe it is a judgement call but it appears to me the contrasting materials on the walls and the rivet supports bleed into one another. 

take a look at the wall furtherest to the left on the slipgate shots with the rivets close by you. There is not much illusion of depth built into that texture in the first place ;) 

think i see what you mean, on the ceiling, right?
pretty minor to be honest... not something i'd notice ingame. You can also change the amount it blurs and the opacity of the effect so you could adjust the effect till it suited you. 

the trade off is only a slight one. What I said before was overkill.

Does the new Dark Places beta support pixel shaders as ProdigyXL mentions above? 

another empty post in the Arcane Wizard thread... 

wrong thread