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It would just give a fairly large graphical beef-up to characters and aid customisation, all while using existing code.
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Aside, of course, from the updates requied to the costume editor and the changes required to put this into effect on character models, which aren't the same as NPC models.
i.e. If it's a change then it isn't 'using existing code,' is it..?
(Note: not saying it's a bad idea, you're just making assumptions that I don't see as backed up by reality.)
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
*Wants*... As simple as that!
/Signed 
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Kalis Elfling - Inv/Axe Tanker. [i]Kevin is watching... Always[/i]
Proud member of [url="http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/"]Honourable United[/url]
@Tellis - I reserve the right to be ridiculous![/center]
Would be very nice, but i See RW's point that we have heard time and again that NPC models do not equal player models, so just because something can be implemented on them, does not mean we can get it at the drop of a hat.
Stop drooling you idiot! Glowmaps are not yet available.
/Wanna have
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It would just give a fairly large graphical beef-up to characters and aid customisation, all while using existing code.
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Aside, of course, from the updates requied to the costume editor and the changes required to put this into effect on character models, which aren't the same as NPC models.
i.e. If it's a change then it isn't 'using existing code,' is it..?
(Note: not saying it's a bad idea, you're just making assumptions that I don't see as backed up by reality.)
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By "existing code" I mean glowmaps themselves. If the engine didn't have the ability to do this already, adding it in would mean writing up a whole new shader for it, or else changing how the diffuse shader works. But that isn't needed.
And like I said, the hard part isn't getting it to work in the costume editor; it seems to be more flexible than we give it credit. I don't think either of us can say how feasible or infeasible changing the editor to work with glowmaps is, but I suspect the only change would be adding a new option in the UI to enable or disable glow. The difficult part, and the main hurdle, is implementing exactly what this 'glow' is.
No, the work would be getting the existing glow code to play nice with players and their patterns, which I can't comment on, as I have no knowledge on the particulars of their systems.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
/Signed
Very much in wanting XD
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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/signed
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I would love to see this implemented as I could make my powered armour using main look even more powered
/signed 
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I like it, it's nice. I'd also like more metallic (shiney) options on existing pieces, but that's another matter altogether: "That's another matter".
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I have another use for it. Magical tattoos. In fact, a lot of magical things can be done with glowmaps. Maybe you could put one of the many bracers onto your wrist and set them to glow; magical bracers, giving you enhanced strength/reflexes/whatever?
So the Science types can use it, as can Tech and Magic. That leaves Mutants who well, are a diverse bunch. Let's say you were a mutant who possessed radiation emission... what about putting a vein-pattern glowmap on your skin, for irradiated blood vessels glowing like uranium?
Naturals, well, perhaps you could use it on incidental technology like night-vision goggles.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
they could use glowmaps to add time-cheap but cool looking techy/magical mini-patterns to your costume. Perhaps they could be earnt via badges or an addition you get to add as the level 40 costume improvement (which seems to be missing atm).
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
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they could use glowmaps to add a time-cheap but cool looking techy/magical mini-patterns to your costume. Perhaps they could be earnt via badges or an addition you get to add as the level 40 costume improvement (which seems to be missing atm).
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Well, I could settle for that I suppose. But I was talking about applying them to existing costume pieces and patterns. We already have bracers and tattoo patterns in the game, and if player-glowmaps were added it'd be a doddle for players to make whatever they wanted to look like a neon sign.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
This would put a whole new shine on CoH for me...
[url=http://vox-doom.deviantart.com]Take A Gander At This.[/url]
I like this idea
/signed /signed and /signed some more
Nice idea gets my vote /signed
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No, the work would be getting the existing glow code to play nice with players and their patterns, which I can't comment on, as I have no knowledge on the particulars of their systems.
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The comment was, purely, that the assumption that something is easy because you can see it being used somewhere makes it easy to implement elsewhere. It doesn't. The only thing I can say for certain is that the existance of glowmaps in the static NPC models doesn't make them instantly employable in the dynamic player models.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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No, the work would be getting the existing glow code to play nice with players and their patterns, which I can't comment on, as I have no knowledge on the particulars of their systems.
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The comment was, purely, that the assumption that something is easy because you can see it being used somewhere makes it easy to implement elsewhere. It doesn't. The only thing I can say for certain is that the existance of glowmaps in the static NPC models doesn't make them instantly employable in the dynamic player models.
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And... on that, we are agreed. But neither of us truly know how easy or hard it is to perform this feat. It seems like a relatively small amount of work for a fairly large outcome; I'm not asking for full power customisation here. I genuinely believe that this would take less effort than creating the animated combat auras did. That took a fair amount of new code, as auras and combat states had never crossed paths before.
But if we don't suggest ideas because they aren't guaranteed to be instantly doable in the engine, this section of the boards would be a bit dull.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
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It seems like a relatively small amount of work for a fairly large outcome
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I disagree, on the second part, but there you go. 
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But if we don't suggest ideas because they aren't guaranteed to be instantly doable in the engine, this section of the boards would be a bit dull.
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I don't object to suggestions due to them being hard or undoable. I object to people stating that it would be simple when they don't know. Why bother writing it down?
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
/signed
mmm, neon eyes would be just the finishing touch to my brute/super strength.
/signed
Another point to make is that glowmaps don't take any GPU power to do. A glowmap just tells the engine "don't put lighting and shadows on this, show it as-is". But because you have shadows on your body even while in broad daylight, the effect is always noticeable and striking. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, depending on how much work it would be to port this to players.
I had another thought on what you could do with glowmaps. It's a bit... retro, but I believe y'all will appreciate it. You could make yourself look like you're out of Tron.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
I approve of this suggestion.
I do not suffer from altitis, I enjoy every character of it.
M'ye-es, this would be quite nice. Could be useful on the Electron Costume set with the Circuitry Pattern.
/signed
/signed
city of tron FTW!
I know what you're thinking. New kinds of graphics aren't needed, they're time intensive, CoH looks fine as it is. These are all good arguments. In fact, if what I'm proposing wasn't as simple as it is, I wouldn't have made this thread.
CoH has the ability to use glowmaps. A glow map is like a texture, but it lets you define areas on a model that you want to be bright. Instead of being affected by lights and shadows, you can make things ignore the environment and just stay a solid colour. This might not sound like much, but it has a whole bunch of uses.
"But the devs would have to work hard to get that in!" I hear you cry. Not quite. I don't know the full extent, but glow maps are already used in CoH. The best example is in the new Rikti armour. All these effects? Done by glowmaps. The code already exists in the engine to do this.
What I propose is allowing players to add glowmaps to their character. In some ways this is simple, as a glowmap is a black-and-white texture, with black not changing you and white being uber-neon. Luckily, all the patterns that are available to you are black-and-white textures. The proper word for it is a 'mask'.
To try and put it in a simpler way, let me try this. Right now you can slap a pattern on most body parts, and you can define two colours on this pattern. I propose that the glowmap code be used on these existing patterns, allowing you to make parts of yourself glow in a pattern, just like that Rikti. The first use for this that came to my mind would be in the various tech armours, letting you appear to surge energy from the cracks in your armour like Iron Man.
But that's just a fraction of what you can do. Picture this: take a face, put a small pattern like make-up on it, colour it neon green, turn on Glow, and boom... glow in the dark face paint. Or apply it to only the eyes somehow, and they stick out in the darkness, like an eyeshine.
There are gonna be people making some pretty dire costumes out there with random pink glow over their whole body. But that shouldn't discourage the devs, as people already have the tools to make horrid costumes. It would just give a fairly large graphical beef-up to characters and aid customisation, all while using existing code. The most difficult part would be getting it to work with patterns and the like.
What do you think?
tl;dr, I want to let players put this glow effect on themselves.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.