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u/uuqstrings

r/GraphicsProgramming r/CityBuilders r/indiegames r/dnbproduction
▲ 26 r/GraphicsProgramming

I used a Julia fractal for a gameplay data overlay, with near-zero runtime cost

I baked a beatmatched Julia set overlay for my city sim's representation of "negative aura" (aka pollution). Instead of a flat tint, per-cell alpha controls visibility into a fractal texture that spans the whole map.

It's a pre-rendered flipbook loaded into VRAM, so all the fractal math is baked offline. Runtime is a texture fetch plus a cheap shader (mix() between adjacent frames for smooth motion, two-color ramp). The flipbook also makes it easy to phase-lock the animation cycle to the beat.

Curious if anyone has thoughts on visual tweaking, especially how to get more variety and interest in areas that tend to stay dark.

u/uuqstrings — 12 days ago
▲ 4 r/GraphicsProgramming

Experimented with additive blending for my citybuilder today, inspired by the neon effects of Tempest 4000. It conveys more information because you can see through buildings like shards of glass, but ultimately I think it's just too busy

Additive blending is a technique where overlapping colors add their light instead of painting over each other; it creates glassy neon effects, but kind of subverts how you normally expect to interpret 3D shapes.

Couple of things I tried to make it legible:

  1. Made the top square the brightest
  2. Top lit vertical gradient on the side faces
  3. Per face hue shift
u/uuqstrings — 1 month ago
▲ 15 r/CityBuilders+1 crossposts

Every entity in my city sim pathfinds individually, and the whole grid reroutes every four bars in time with the soundtrack. Sat my dad down to playtest it and he forgot his tea existed.

(sound on)

u/uuqstrings — 1 month ago