"Spooky Portrait" demo - the eyes of the painting follow you wherver you go!

[Starke Von Oben]

I got this idea from a Ghost train I went on a few years ago at Alton Towers. It's a real life optical illusion done in the Doom Engine - basically the eyes of spooky portrait will follow you no matter where you are in the room.

Nothing amazing, but it's still a cool effect :D

Note: this is done in Zdoom, so it wont work on Vanilla (256*256 texture).

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=11f144b51b751e5f1f8e0fff488e27e0727b44977550600ab878de785cc0f59e

[Snarboo]

That's a pretty unique idea for a concept wad. I might have to use that effect in a future wad. That wouldn't bother you, would it?

[Starke Von Oben]

I can't lay claim to an optical illusion I copied from a Ghost Train, use it by all means :D

[gggmork]

Nice one.

I've thought about and only briefly tested doing parallax scrolling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_scrolling
which is somewhat similar in having multiple texture layers. But it doesn't have much application unless you make a moving train or something (if using 3 layers of different speed buildings for example, it would help to make the layers different scales/sizes as well as scroll speeds.. and perhaps shade the back layers gradually darker, not sure).

Also kinda similar is the hollow face illusion I attempted in map 12 here:
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/47591-12-unfinished-weird-artish-maps-in-1-wad/
(not sure if your eyes might be more pronounced if they were similarly inverted round pockets with pupils in the back.. maybe for eyes that would get too small and pixely/blocky to look right though, and they already work well as is.

[Snarboo]

gggmork said:

...and perhaps shade the back layers gradually darker, not sure).

Depends on the time of day and what heavenly object you happen to be on. In Earth's atmosphere, objects appear lighter the further away they are. However, on places like the Moon, objects should, in theory, appear the same color no matter the distance as there is no atmosphere, leading to interesting optical illusions. For other bodies, it's highly variable. I believe objects on Mars diminish to red due to how rusty colored the planet is.

[gggmork]

Interesting. Maybe on earth they fade more toward light blue the further away (instead of pure white). Not sure if that effect would be necessary for the illusion of distances involved in parallax scrolling (or if such a detail would matter in a pixely game that isn't nearly a 100% perfect model of reality) but it'd be easy enough to experiment.

[Snarboo]

Yeah, in most games it's not as noticeable, especially during fast moving scenes. A diminishing effect can also be achieved with fog in game or a shader. I'm sure you could do the same in Doom.

Some of the information is based on things I remember from art lessons and personal research, however, so it might not be entirely accurate.

[Enjay]

Snarboo said:

However, on places like the Moon, objects should, in theory, appear the same color no matter the distance as there is no atmosphere, leading to interesting optical illusions.

which create some of the effects seen in photographs that "prove" the moon landings were faked.

[Snarboo]

Enjay said:

which create some of the effects seen in photographs that "prove" the moon landings were faked.

That's actually what I was thinking of when I posted that. The moon landing images look truly alien given that one of the things we use as a sense of scale on Earth, objects diminishing as they get further away, is absent on the Moon.

[pavera]

That's pretty awesome. Would love to see a haunted house wad with that effect.

[Starke Von Oben]

Krispavera said:

That's pretty awesome. Would love to see a haunted house wad with that effect.

A classic "Alone in the Dark" style single level TC would be quite cool :D