http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCcdbf2wLPc;hd=1

Showing the latest in 3d aiming and tracking of plasmas and lasers, featuring a trick shot that goes around an obstacle that was blocking the mag cannon plasma and finds the acme combat drone sitting above a planet.

In Star Sonata 2, you control your ship and aim in 2 dimensions. Your Z-position, and that of other ships are calculated automatically based on what they are flying over. Projectiles fly in 3 dimensions and collide in 3 dimensions, and the game automatically aims in the z-dimension for you, based on what you're firing at.

Note: this is not the final graphic for the Acme Combat Drone, just the lower half of it.

Not shown in the movie, but I've also been working on auto-aiming in the z-dimension when you have no target selected, like after the target you previously had selected blows. I've made it so your ship will look at what's in front of you, and if there are any targets in front of you, it will pick the closest one in your forward facing direction and auto-aim in the z dimension as if you were targeting that. If gives you a good chance that your shots that you are spamming all over the place will find a hostile target.

This movie shows how in Star Sonata 2, you'll be able to shoot objects sitting above planets and suns from below, and from above a planet or sun, you can shoot down on things around you, but you can't shoot at things on the opposite side of a planet or sun, since you're projectiles and lasers will collide with it. This is a bit more realistic than the way weapons work in SS1.

Will the drones all be that big?

That means things like Ancient Defense will take up your screen

Haven't really spent any time on how drones look in C2 yet. Just that they show up and work.

I like what you've done with the laser.

Well, it all certainly looks good, and the updates are always appreciated. Thanks Jeff.

This basically means that you can't sit on an object to fight enemies with no/weak ethereal weapons though. Interesting.

Right, you have to dodge around the planet so it will be a little more active.

That's a big change! I lived by sitting on planets back in my low level droner days. Remember when low level droners liked to power level in C7 because they could sit on a gate, but they hated C6 because the AI had eth lasers? Those days are gone.

Also won't be able to kill Rumble at a low level by speeding toward the sun and deploying magic attacks so they slide onto it.

Very cool changes.

For your next video: I remember something from awhile back about being able to watch your squad members in multiple boxes across the top to monitor their health and energy. Is that feature ready to show off in a video yet?

EDIT: Also won't need eth weps to kill the drone in Olympus!

Looks great, it's really coming on well.

I particularly like the 'impact' effect on objects. I have got a bit of a suggestion though. I noticed that when you fire a projectile based weapon, it lights up nearby objects. Is it possible to create a brief light on impact that lights up the planet/object?

Although it's a very minor detail, it would add the the whole realism of the game effects.

Other than that, it's looking good.

I like the particle effect you have for the laser weapon. It makes sense that a laser would light up particles instead of being a visible beam. That's exactly what makes a laser show; you can't see the lasers without dust in the air.

With that effect you could state that the different damage types will refract a different color light off certain space particles (solar radiation?), thus displaying their damage type. Sure, it's pseudo science; but it's the same reason the sky is blue.

Damn, I wish I could wish this video on my iPhone.

what damage type is the sky?

It's actually radiation-typed...

I can watch all these videos on my iPhone and it's a 3G old one.

Youtube has to H264 encode videos so they can be played on the iphone. Usually it's done pretty quickly after you upload the video but if you try to play it right when its uploaded it may not always be available.