(Request) basic realtime render stuff like Billboards

Having started building a game level, one thing I'm missing are billboard/lookat objects.

Normal - Fully face camera (e.g. circular glows)
Vertical - Face camera but remain vertical (e.g. trees)


You can already link to a camera node I think, but something else that would be useful would be:

Link to Cam Pos - Moves the object with the camera without rotating(e.g. Skybox).

I say skybox and realise there is already built in skybox support, but if you can create your own scene you could create custom animated skybox backdrops with transitions and UV animated cloud planes etc.

With draw order in the material properties you could make a fairly small skybox and link it to the camera and keep your camera range down, since your sky wouldn't have to be larger than your scene.

Just a couple of suggestions, is it ok to make them? Also, I realise these features may be in the pro version.

Yes, they are in the Pro version, i will consider making them available in CE

Ribbon Trail objects are in the intenal Dagon version

The "Link To Cam Pos" will be better suited to be implemented in your application as you will need to keep track of the current camera and update it every frame

The sky can use any Ogre materials defined in the material editor, so you can make a multilayered (multitexture) and define the layer order

You can use the uv animation settings to make the clouds effect

For the sky or clouds plane range, you dont need to put them close to the camera, just disable the z buffer

I'm hoping to be able to afford the pro version, but that would be cool .