Set a plane to halo, neon light effect, do they work in the game Engine?

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
21

check and apply orientation (:

22

How do I do that?

23

select objk, Ctr A, apply rotation

24

Just popping with a small question sort of related to this thread.
Hypothetical scene:
Lava.
It’s supposed to glow, but the graphics are all hand painted and have “shadeless” active.
Would bloom still work?

25

Orientate the plane which way? Just select rotation and that is that, done by the program.

26

With something like lava think about how it would look on a sunny day. Not very impressive, since the light given out from the lava wouldn’t exceed the intensity of the sunlight by much.
Lava looks all cool and glowy in movies because the lighting is very dark, it’s the contrast between light and dark which gives the effect.
Even using a bloom filter won’t give you great lava unless you get the level lighting right.

Try using a grayscale texture to control which areas of the lava glow, set it to influence emit.
If you want a bloom effect, add another plane over the lava with the same glow texture but now set it to additive type alpha.

Here’s a demo:
layer 1 has the bloom lava and layer 2 has the simple emit lava.

lava.blend (817 KB)

If you want to use lava in your game, think about how you are going to set up the level to get the best effect, you are like a movie director trying to capture a great shot. Or like a tour guide trying to pick the best place and time for your tourists to view a natural wonder. Lighting is important, atmosphere too. Lava on a sunny day is just a wasted opportunity.

EDIT:
If you want an easier way of making the lava pulse, you can try using an action instead of python. Just mouse over object color in the properties box and press i to add a keyframe.

27

the answer lays in one of the previous comments.

28

Oh, I know all about how glows and such work in reality.
The initial idea is to have a platforming level inside a volcano.
Dark.
Spooky.
And ominous glowing lava.
I would even make the dark volcanic stone just a TAD bit blueish, this would really well emphasizing the bright orange/yellow in the diffuse textures.
As for the actual glows, thanks!
That’s pretty good to know. I was planning on just painting every aspect of the glows directly onto the textures.
This will speed things up when it comes to it ^^

29

If you want a more interesting way of modulating the lava color (or could be used for other glowing effects) here’s a little modification of the script for random intensity:

import bge
import mathutils
import random


def smoothstep(x):
            
    return x*x*(3 - 2*x)



def interpolate_float(current,target,factor):
        
    return (current * (1.0 - factor)) + (target * factor)


def glow(cont):
    own =cont.owner
    
    if "timer" not in own:
        own['timer'] = 0.0
        
        own['old'] = 0.0
        own['new'] = 1.0
        own['start_color'] = mathutils.Vector([1.0,0.336,0.10])
        
  
    if own['timer'] < 1.0:
        own['timer'] += random.uniform(0.001,0.05)
    else:
        own['old'] = own['new']
        own['new'] = random.uniform(0.0,2.0)
        own['timer'] = 0.0
    
    new_value = interpolate_float(own['old'],own['new'],smoothstep(own['timer']))
    
    c = own['start_color'].copy() * new_value
    own.color = [c[0],c[1],c[2],1.0]
    
    own.children[0].color = [c[0],c[1],c[2]]
    own.children[0].energy = new_value