It's really Time: add Glass Voxels or add Merging Glass Panels or add Flex Glass

[Hirnsausen]

Since a long time, the DU community waits for better glass solutions (#metoo).
Those glass solutions would allow for much better-looking cockpits and bases. I describe them here again.

Glass Honeycombs
Can be processed and altered like any other honeycomb. But there needs to be a way that the player can change them:
- % of transparency
- % of color tinting
- maybe % of one/two-sided reflection/miror

Merging Glass Panels
Requires just some attribute changes of regular glass panels to be changed: they need to overlap, to merge, without showing any former borders inside the merged area. Merger areas of two or more panels have only the weight and mass of one panel.
More changed attributes:
- % of transparency
- % of color tinting
- maybe % of one/two-sided reflection/miror
- When connecting to other glass panels or honeycombs, rotation of two axes is required:  the one we can rotate now, and another one to allow creating large bows/arks of glass panels

Flex Glass (auto-shaping / auto-scaling element)
This would probably require a new tool, or an additional function to the existing Select Voxel tool. The player can use the tool to select different points (voxels) of what the border edges of the future window will be, and the tool then auto-connects those highlighted points. Then the area within that straight or curved edge is filled with a thin Flex Glass (a honeycombs).  Selecting one area of that Flex Glass, it makes that entire Flex Glass area selected, allowing here, too, to make adjustments as follow:
- % of transparency
- % of color tinting
- maybe % of one/two-sided reflection/miror

Edited August 5, 2022 by Hirnsausen

[J-Rod]

I agree we need some more glass options. All the options listed above would be great although I know some would be hard to implement.

 

I for one would like some curved glass pieces so I can make a nice cockpit.

Or some really large glass plates to cut down on element usage.

I like making glass floors on sections of space stations but find it extremely tedious and lag generating to place 500 large glass plates to make a floor.

I want some XXXXXXL glass plates please.

[Zripss]

Suggestion:

#1 Remove glass panel sizes

#2 Leave medium sized one

#3 Make its production price as XL

#4 Add option to scale it

 

Same thing could apply to some other decorative elements.

 

Generally we need more shapes for glass panels, like triable, quarter of circle. But this goes back to initial suggestion, adding multiple new elements for multiple sizes doesn't scale (cha), so changing basic system and adding option to simply scale up/down elements (reasonable amount) would simplify element handling from code side as it would contain less actual entries and would only include extra value for its scale.

 

[Hirnsausen]

Thanks for the wonderful and agreeing feedback! More feedback welcome.

[Corrancarpenter]