This is just photoshopping an idea. I really wish there was a way to change the focus of first person weapon model closest to the viewing point of the user. *sigh* unfortunately I think it's impossible in the source engine.

Now - is it possible to replace the "physical" ironsights of the model with a sprite ,much like how the sniper rifle works? (I could easily turn what you see here into a sprite) It wouldn't have the realistic movement of the model verson but I think it's a trade-off between looking real and acting real ;)

mmm looks good, will it play the same though because the Sight will be focused wont it?

The closest I can think is when motion blur is added into the engine. At least then the capability of blurring a model will be in the engine, as for making it apply to IS like that...whole nother story.

Awesome idea though, maybe when you bring up Iron-sights, is there a way to overlay a blurred sprite, like what you did, in front of the weapon?

My idea is like this, when the user right-clicks for Iron sight, and you go into IS mode, if it was possible to make some sorta call to a vmt file to overlay a picture of the rear of the weapon blurred like you did, over the back of the rifle, it would obscure the model, giving the illusion of a blurred sight, but should still allow the front sight to poke through, like you did. (provided the vmt you make is only a blur of the rear sights) Get what I mean?

Well good idea Wile. This is realistic, as the human eye can focus on only one plane (front sights), hence the other plane (rear sights) are blurred. I'm not exactly sure how you can do this though...

It's a nice idea but I can see it being frustrating spotting enemies partly covered by the blur.

That looks really good, and I support it. Well, if it was possible to sway with the blur, it would have looked ten times better, but at least this would be a step forward. :)

Do you think it would be possible to just add a sprite of the back of the gun (I'm not very technical... excuse me :kitty: ) to the ironsight? Not right now, but do you think it's possible with some coding in and such?

you cant do coding to the engine, youd have to work for valve to do that.. because everyone needs to have the same coding for it to work, only valve can do this.

Originally posted by Sproily
you cant do coding to the engine, youd have to work for valve to do that.. because everyone needs to have the same coding for it to work, only valve can do this.

Yup, that's what I meant, Valve updating it at some point.

Been stealing ideas from Ham and Jam have you Wile E? :D

The biggest problem is how ironsights are currently done. When you go into ironsight mode, there isn't any actual animation being played, your gun model is physically moving to a new origin at the center of the screen. (Check the garand or k98 models, there are no IS animations) This is done (I think) so that any player running at any resolution can still have perfectly centered ironsights.

Someone running at 1024 x 768 would have a "smaller" weapon model because of their resolution. If the ironsights was animated, it would center below the actual center of the screen. While someone running 800 x 600 would center just fine.

Off the top of my head, there is no way to fake this effect until an actual sprite(vtf) being displayed over your model gets coded in. Personally I really like the blurred effect and I would love to see it.

I wouldn't be surpised if Valve actually implement something like this for Source. They have aimed to attempt to recreate how the human eye works with HDR and upcoming motion blur. This effect may come into the depth of field effect that Valve are working on with the rest of the cinematic effects. This would just be implementing depth of field on view models as well.

Originally posted by Trp. Jed
Been stealing ideas from Ham and Jam have you Wile E? :D LOL I honestly had no idea, which is ironic since I have access to your forums.

I know it used to be possible to have sprites, or just flat textured polygons with animated textures and such, in goldsource.

I remember somone did a couple Doom models for FA, the old shotty, looked exactly like the sprite weapon. And I remember an old 2D Garand, looked awsome.

If what Genie's saying is true then I dunno. But the idea would just be to put a sprite of what you've blurred and that would cover everything up but the front sights. Similar to America's Army if I remember right.

Might be possible if you make the sprite far back enough where you can't see it out of IS but it comes up to your face when you go in.

Copied from my post in www.dodcustomcontent.com :

actually, that is VERY much what I was thinking, the problem being I gave up modelling back even before the Steam release of 1.3

my idea was very similar. Change the location of where the actual rifle goes when it stops moving to ironsights on the very last frame of the animation. In that same instance, replace it with 2 flat, extremely low poly models

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7721/isidea1qp.gif

The advantage to this is that the front sight and rear sight would move independantly, giving the illusion of an actual weapon movment (i.e. if you were walking or when it fires). The only problem I foresee is lighting. Even if the model were made so it looked transparent, wouldn't it still affect it? Meaning if you were facing the right way, sunlight (or whatever) would reveal a ghost image of a rectangle around your sights. Or does it NOT work that way with transparent models?? I honestly don't know.
Now, here is YOUR job:

Start punching holes in this idea. Or add your own plaster and fill in already existing holes. Either way, we've got enough speculation already, now we need facts.

What we need it the depth of field option added to DoD:S. It, or something similar, is availible in Garry's Mod. That should solve all your woes, but it is just a matter of Valve adding it...any time now...

Originally posted by Tonedef
What we need it the depth of field option added to DoD:S. It, or something similar, is availible in Garry's Mod. That should solve all your woes, but it is just a matter of Valve adding it...any time now... aahhhh.... not really

Game depth of field would blur EVERYTHING that got real close. That is not realistic. The reason the rear sights appear blurry in real life is NOT because your eyes can't focus on them; it's because you have to focus on the front sight and target beyond. It's a matter of being able to focus on precisely what we want to see. Since a computer has absolutely no way of knowing what object exactly our brain is wanting to focus on, it either:
A) treats all objects exactly the same with the same focus range or
B) has to decide what to focus on, which usually ends up being whatever object is closest (think of auto-focusing cameras).

Option "A" doesn't work at all if you actually DO want to look at something close-up. Option "B" just plain old doesn't work in most every other instance, too many objects to focus on in an enviroment such as a first person shooter. Imagine trying to peek over the edge of a wall - you would keep focusing on the wall instead of the field beyond. Very frustrating. This is why most "depth of field" effects you see are limited to cinematics.

Pretty much the best and closest method to getting what we would want here is what you posted in that snippet with the animated gif Wile. If you could make a call to a sprite when you IS, to slide the sprites over the back of the rifle and attach it to the rifle, BAM there you go. But as has been said, there is no animation, so no way to make a call to a sprite, as it's just a repositioning. Perhaps if the sprite was positioned off screen when your rifle is "at the hip" and when you IS, it moves into the correct postion? I dont know if there's enough movement for this though. Unless that is sorta what your gif was getting at. (not calling for a sprite, but simply having it attached off screen, and it moves on-screen for IS as the rifle moves)

Originally posted by Wile E Coyote
aahhhh.... not really

Game depth of field would blur EVERYTHING that got real close. That is not realistic. The reason the rear sights appear blurry in real life is NOT because your eyes can't focus on them; it's because you have to focus on the front sight and target beyond. It's a matter of being able to focus on precisely what we want to see. Since a computer has absolutely no way of knowing what object exactly our brain is wanting to focus on, it either:
A) treats all objects exactly the same with the same focus range or
B) has to decide what to focus on, which usually ends up being whatever object is closest (think of auto-focusing cameras).

Option "A" doesn't work at all if you actually DO want to look at something close-up. Option "B" just plain old doesn't work in most every other instance, too many objects to focus on in an enviroment such as a first person shooter. Imagine trying to peek over the edge of a wall - you would keep focusing on the wall instead of the field beyond. Very frustrating. This is why most "depth of field" effects you see are limited to cinematics.

Even using the method you posted in the .gif above it can't read your mind. All it would require is a little bit of tweaking and the DOF would always just blur the back. I don't know how that is any different than the method you posted aside from the fact that the lighting wouldn't be messed up.

According to the Episode 1 commentary, the devs placed refractive sheet entities over the individual Vortigaunt models. Given the ability, it could be possible to do such a thing with the rear end of a rifle model.

I would love this. :D

Well, the new graphical updates are released (along with maps, balance and the like) tomorrow. I think the DOF will be that you focus on anything around the distance of the thing your aiming at, so if your near a corner, looking down a street, the corner appears blurred, but if you aim AT the corner, the street beyond appears blurred.

BUUUUMP!

After I was searching for "iron sight", because I was tired of that "decal" view (which is just hilarious, it's as static as it can be).
Anyways, when I saw your photoshopped screenshots Wile E, my mouth dropped wide open.
It just looks so real.
This makes me think about what they did with COD3 on XBOX360.
But I think it's the other way arround though, so blur on outside instead of weapon itself, whichs doesn't make sense to me really.

So, cause this topic is relatively old, I'd like to know if anyone knows more about this?

I'd rather have a simple blurred ironsight decal then the stupid static model.

I do think it's possible when using depth of field but I don't think it's possible to get it to work without it being a mod unfortunately.

Originally posted by 2ltben
According to the Episode 1 commentary, the devs placed refractive sheet entities over the individual Vortigaunt models. Given the ability, it could be possible to do such a thing with the rear end of a rifle model. I just noticed this. This is tech talk, of which I know nothing about unless I have guys like Jed thump me over the head and explain it to me.

What would this do - make JUST the rear sight blurry? Wouldn't it make everything blurry within the bodaries of that refractive sheet? (like you front sight, or the world beyond?

Not if you make the sheet small enough.

Yeah, hopefully with the episode 2 update they will actually add depth of field like they have been toting since the ironsights are 3d and not spriute based this would be the only real way to create this effect in dod:s. i mean you COULD create a mod with a screen overlay material to represent the foreground of the sight and have it cover the the 3d part but that might be a bit to much work