Funnel Smoke & Particle Discussion

[timetraveller]

EDITED for tweak file information.

Current particle tweaks available for SH3 Mini Tweaker..

The following effects have been decoded in particles.dat for your tweaking in Mini Tweaker. Download the .ZIP files, unzip, and save to the Mini Tweaker \TweakFiles folder, as always.


;GENERAL EXPLOSIONS--------------------
;#Shell_fire_explosion
;#Shell_fire_explosion_halo
;#Shell_fire_explosion_ADD
;#Splinter_explosion
;#Splinter_explosion_halo
;&Shell_water_explosion
;&Shell_water_explosion_deep
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion_deep
;#Small_splinter_explosion
;#Small_splinter_explosion_halo
;#Small_splinter_explosion_no_halo
;&debris_water_explosion
;&debris_water_explosion_deep
;#Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion01
;#Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion_halo01
;#CrewMan_explosion01
;#Splinter_crewmans_explosion01
;#Splinter_crewmans_explosion_halo01
;#CrewMan_explosion02

www.delraydepot.com/tt/General_Explosions.zip


;SPLASH_WATER_EXPLOSION----------------
;&Bullet_water_splash
;&Bullet_water_splash_deep
;$Splash_water
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion_deep
;&debris_water_explosion
;&debris_water_explosion_deep

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Splash_Water_Explosion.zip


;MISC-------------------------------
;@Flare
;@Starshell
;@Lightning01
;@Lightning02
;@Lightning03
;@Lightning04
;#Ship_Collision
;#Propeller_wake

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Misc.zip


;PLANE---------------------------------
;#plane_on_fire
;#plane_on_fire_halo
;#Plane_splinter_explosion
;#Plane_splinter_explosion_on_water
;#Plane_splinter_explosion_deep_water
;#plane_damaged
;#Plane_catastrophic_explosion
;#plane_fuel_explosion
;#plane_oil_explosion

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Planes.zip


;DEPTHCHARGE---------------------------
;@Depthcharge_explosion
;@Depthcharge_deepwater
;@Depthcharge_surface_explosion
;@Depthcharge_anticipation
;#dc_bubbles

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Depthcharge.zip


;HEDGEHOG------------------------------
;@Hedgehog_deepwater
;@Hedgehog_surface_explosion

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Hedgehog.zip


;KGUN----------------------------------
;$KGun_muzzle_flash
;&KGun_water_splash
;&KGun_water_deep

www.delraydepot.com/tt/KGun.zip


;AAGUN---------------------------------
;@AAGun_explosion
;$AA_Gun_muzzle_flash

www.delraydepot.com/tt/AAGun.zip


;BOMBS---------------------------------
;$bomb_explosion
;$bomb_halo

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Bombs.zip


;OIL-----------------------------------
;#Oil_trace
;#Burnning_oil
;#Burnning_oil_smoke
;#Burnning_oil_fire
;#Oil_spot
;#oil_explosion
;#oil_explosion_01
;#oil_explosion_trail
;$Oil_explosion_halo
;#Oil_Floating_Spot
;#plane_oil_explosion
;#Burnning_oil_small
;#Burnning_oil_smoke_small
;#Burnning_oil_fire_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Oil.zip


;GENERAL MUZZLE FLASH------------------
;$Gun_muzzle_flash
;$Gun_muzzle_flash_halo
;$Big_muzzle_flash
;$Big_muzzle_flash_halo
;$MGun_muzzle_flash
;$AA_Gun_muzzle_flash
;$KGun_muzzle_flash
;$Gun_deck_camera_muzzle_flash

www.delraydepot.com/tt/MuzzleFlash.zip


;TRACERS-------------------------------
;@Shell_trace
;@Bulet_trace
;@Bulet_trace_Fast
;@Shell_trace_Fast
;@Bulet_spark

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Tracers.zip


;TORPEDO-------------------------------
;$torp_great_explosion
;$torpedo_splash_L
;$torpedo_splash_L01
;$torpedo_splash_R
;$torpedo_splash_R01
;#decoy_bubbles (DUD Torpedo)

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Torpedo.zip


;GENERAL FIRE--------------------------
;#Fire_big
;#Fire_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/General_Fire.zip


;MISC SMOKE----------------------------
;#house_smoke
;#funnel_smoke
;#Smoke_big
;#Smoke_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/MiscSmoke.zip

-----

TT

[Type941]

but aren't these always end up with: it's possible, but this kills the performance. :) like removing lods from the sea. I reckon by making smoke much bigger, the FPS drop will be huge, even for stronger machines.

[Col7777]

@ timetraveller,

If you remember in SH2, I along with a few others tried hard to get smoke on the horizon, it was Sergbuto who managed it in the end.
My personal opinion is to keep it there, I keep thinking of the movie Gafs Bay (spelling), where the lookouts spotted the smoke on the horizon and they steered towards it and it was the GB.

[timetraveller]

I've been working on taking apart the particles.dat file for modding values. There are a zillion things in there, and one is funnel smoke.

It's very easy to mod the smoke and make it thicker and taller, without changing the images at all. I haven't noticed much of a hit in frame rates at close range.. And at horizon distance I would think it wouldn't effect frame rates at all.

Anyway, here is some nice thick funnel smoke.

I'm making some tweak files for individual particle effects in the particles.dat file.

TT

http://img272.imageshack.us/img272/5074/funnelsmoke1sc.jpg

Here's everything that's moddable. particles.dat is quite complex, and requires each one to be individually coded in a tweak file. Takes some time, but it is doable.

Splinter_explosion
Splinter_explosion_halo
Shell_fire_explosion
Shell_fire_explosion_halo
Shell_fire_explosion_ADD
Gun_muzzle_flash
Gun_muzzle_flash_halo
Shell_water_explosion
Shell_water_explosion_deep
Sub_deck_bubble
Bullet_water_splash
Bullet_water_splash_deep
Deep-water
Splash_water
torp_great_explosion
torpedo_splash_L
torpedo_splash_L01
torpedo_splash_R
torpedo_splash_R01
Propellor_wake
Depthcharge_explosion
Bulet_spark
Shell_trace
Big_muzzle_flash
Big_muzzle_flash_halo
MGun_muzzle_flash
Big_Shell_water_explosion
Big_Shell_water_explosion_deep
dc_bubbles
Flare
ShipCollision
Oil_trace
Small_splinter_explosion
Small_splinter_explosion_halo
Small_splinter_explosion_no_halo
Gun_deck_camera_muzzle_flash
Gun_deck_camera_halo
Depthcharge_deep_water
Depthcharge_surface_explosion
Depthcharge_anticipation
Fire_big
Smoke_big
Burnning_oil
Burnning_oil_smoke
Burnning_oil_fire
Oil_spot
plane_on_fire
plane_on_fire_halo
Plane_splinter_explosion
Plane_splinter_explosion_on_water
Plane_splinter_explosion_deep_water
plane_damaged
Plane_catastrophic_explosion
sink_bubbles
oil_explosion_01
oil_explosion_trail
Oil_explosion_halo
AA_Gun_muzzle_flash
ref_bomb_explosion
bomb_halo
plane_fuel_explosion
Bulet_trace
Fire_small
Smoke_small
AAGun_explosion
Oil_Floating_Spot
KGun_muzzle_flash
KGun_water_splash
KGun_water_deep
Hedgehog_deepwater
Hedgehog_surface_explosion
Deck_Bubbles
Bulet_trace_fast
Starshell
plane_oil_explosion
Burnning_oil_small
Burnning_oil_smoke_small
Burnning_oil_fire_small
house_smoke
funnel_smoke
Sinking_foam
Splash_Sinking_foam
Lightning01
Lightning02
Lightning03
Lightning04
debris_water_explosion
debris_water_explosion_deep
Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion01
Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion_halo01
CrewMan_explosion01
Splinter_crewmans_explosion01
Splinter_crewmans_explosion_halo01
CrewMan_explosion02
Dust_underwater
Dust_underwater01
Dust_underwater02
Dust_underwater_ship
Dust_underwater_ship01
Dust_underwater_ship02
helix_bubbles
decoy_bubbles
Shell_trace_Fast

[CB..]

great stuff!!

at the moment i'm using a botched cloud mod attempt by myself--as co-incidently it rendered a thick light gray band round the horizon which picks the smoke out quite well--as a cloud mod it's awfull (truly awfull lol) but i use it for the smoke --i think i spotted somewhere that the AI actually does in some way see the smoke aswell but i'm not sure on that--

same as Col that scene from "river plate" is the inspiration---Hooky bell!!! :up:

[CCIP]

Excellent, that's the sorts of things I was hoping you'd find.

Myself, I'd gladly go for a bit more smoke from the stacks. Although what I'm really interested in is smoke from damage.

Heck, it'd even be great to have larger explosions for ammo ships, too :up:

What kinds of settings are there? Is it the number of sprites, or size of sprites, or both? And their distribution?

If this works, I'm sure particle effects could be revised very nicely without affecting our FPS too much.

[CCIP]

Oh, and a photo which made me think about this:

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1262/s3smokescreen6pn.jpg
:hmm:

[timetraveller]

Excellent, that's the sorts of things I was hoping you'd find.

Myself, I'd gladly go for a bit more smoke from the stacks. Although what I'm really interested in is smoke from damage.

Heck, it'd even be great to have larger explosions for ammo ships, too :up:

What kinds of settings are there? Is it the number of sprites, or size of sprites, or both? And their distribution?

If this works, I'm sure particle effects could be revised very nicely without affecting our FPS too much.

Yes, smoke, fire, and oil should be able to be modded quite easily. The important values seem to be:

Life or Lifetime (length of time on screen)
Opacity (transparency of the particles)
Rate (the rate at which particles are generated)
EmissionArea (area from where particles are emitted)

Velocity and WindCoef (wind coefficient) are in there too. And a ton more values, most of which are of lesser importance.

This should be a ton of fun to tweak.

TT

[Marhkimov]

Oh, this looks to be tons of fun! :D

[Col7777]

Yup. :up:

I can see smoke-screens coming next.

[Marhkimov]

I remember that we wanted oil slicks and debris spots to last longer. So I guess you've found it, TT.

After looking at your list, it would be cool to also see some other things. Taller funnel smoke would be nice, and also a longer stream of smoke for when you shoot down an airplane.

All provided that it doesn't hit our FPS too badly.

[timetraveller]

I remember that we wanted oil slicks and debris spots to last longer. So I guess you've found it, TT.

After looking at your list, it would be cool to also see some other things. Taller funnel smoke would be nice, and also a longer stream of smoke for when you shoot down an airplane.

All provided that it doesn't hit our FPS too badly.

Yep, I'm hoping for that too. We should be able to extend the time on screen out with the Life or LifeTime values. Not sure how long we can make smoke streams. The funnel smoke only seems to go so far up, but then I haven't played much with it yet.

I'm hoping to have the funnel tweak file out today or tomorrow.

What's the next one we should work on?

TT

[Marhkimov]

Hmm... I'm running low on ideas. What else do we need?

It's just a graphical issue, but how long are real life torpedo wakes? :D

[chris911]

Hmm... I'm running low on ideas. What else do we need?

A Smoke Trowing divice for all Warship Tybs especially DDs , maybe ? :hmm: :hmm:

[timetraveller]

Hmm... I'm running low on ideas. What else do we need?

It's just a graphical issue, but how long are real life torpedo wakes? :D

Good questions. Don't know on the torpedo wake. Doesn't look like that is moddable in the list above (for particles.dat). debris.dat and materials.dat have some good stuff in them too.

Smoke in general seems to be a hot topic now and then. A lot of people want it toned down a little because of frame rate problems. It could be that we could actually expand it (the area) some, but thin it out at the same time and help the frame rates a little. It'll be fun to play with.

I'm dying to see the difference in particle rate for oil smoke versus funnel smoke. Heavy oil smoke really drags my computer down. Maybe 10fps or less.

TT

[timetraveller]

Hmm... I'm running low on ideas. What else do we need?

A Smoke Trowing divice for all Warship Tybs especially DDs , maybe ? :hmm: :hmm:

That would sure be fun to have.

One thing to keep in mind is this. Any change to any of the items in the big list above changes it for all units of that type that use it.

For example, if you increase funnel smoke, funnel smoke is bigger for everything that puts out funnel smoke. From fishing trawlers to the QE2.

TT

[Marhkimov]

Since smoke will generally be tied to the issue with fps, could we just opt to create a smaller smoke TGA, and increase the lifespan of those "reduced" smoke sprites?

Maybe that would help to keep fps low, while giving us less quality smoke for more quantity of smoke.

[Marhkimov]

One thing to keep in mind is this. Any change to any of the items in the big list above changes it for all units of that type that use it.

For example, if you increase funnel smoke, funnel smoke is bigger for everything that puts out funnel smoke. From fishing trawlers to the QE2.

Maybe that is something that needs to be worked on. How about different versions of files (i.e smoke) for different classes of ships.

Larger ships should use smoke from "largesmoke" files, while smaller ships should use smoke from "smallsmoke" files, and etc etc.

The dev team has already done this for the flag files. Flag.dat is for larger ships, and FlagS.dat is for smaller ships.

I'm guessing it's not impossible to do... Difficult maybe... but not impossible.

[timetraveller]

Since smoke will generally be tied to the issue with fps, could we just opt to create a smaller smoke TGA, and increase the lifespan of those "reduced" smoke sprites?

Maybe that would help to keep fps low, while giving us less quality smoke for more quantity of smoke.

This is a good idea. The size of the graphic greatly effects the fps, I think sometimes more than the particle rate. Not surew what the minimum effective size would be for a graphic though. Testing will tell.


Maybe that is something that needs to be worked on. How about different versions of files (i.e smoke) for different classes of ships.

Larger ships should use smoke from "largesmoke" files, while smaller ships should use smoke from "smallsmoke" files, and etc etc.

The dev team has already done this for the flag files. Flag.dat is for larger ships, and FlagS.dat is for smaller ships.

I'm guessing it's not impossible to do... Difficult maybe... but not impossible.

Yes, this is something I would dearly like to figure out. Every "effect" has an 8 digit hex code associated with it. And somehow that code is cross-referenced to the effect's graphic. It's easy to change the 8 digit codes. But---- where to change the cross reference is the mystery. Maybe we will figure it out. Thanks for the tip on the flags. A good place to start looking.

TT

[HW3]

Debris display time might help Serg with his life boat mod.

[iambecomelife]

Good work, Timetraveller :up: . On my own system I've noticed that it's the oil slicks, and not the fire and smoke, that really kill FPS. One oil slick is probably equal to half a dozen big smoke columns in terms of the FPS hit. I'm thinking that this may be because the game has trouble rendering a semi-transparent mix of oil and water; non-transparent objects are apparently easier to render. When you finish this we should be able to alter this easily to help improve performance. Decent smoke columns, as you guys have already mentioned, would be nice as well. I just had to borrow this shot from Hartmann on another thread:

http://webalia.com/imgs/pen_maregeo1.jpg

Debris display time might help Serg with his life boat mod.

that's just what I was thinking. Jus replace the boxes with boat shapes, increase the flotation time to maybe a couple of hours, and presto - we've got boats!

[timetraveller]

The Big Smoke

The final smoke before she goes down. This one is indeed a frame killer.

TT

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7735/bigsmoke14em.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/404/bigsmoke23pm.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1010/bigsmoke36an.jpg

[iambecomelife]

Looks great! I remember that the SH2 modded smoke got less detailed at the top of the cloud, thus saving processing power. would something like that be possible here?

[CCIP]

I'm sure we could try and reduce the amount of sprites in there somehow. It looks like there's more than needed; perhaps tweaking with opacity and rate of smoke might help :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

I have a suggestion to try. It's just for testing purposes...

Let's try to replace all of the smoke TGA's with small, black and blank TGA's. We probably should try 16x16 files at 16bits. Then use these super small files in conjuction with super tall smoke columns.

If the fps still drops to super low levels, then super smoke isn't really worth it.

But if the fps hit is relatively low, then it is possible to use reduced sized sprites.


Do you guys follow? :hmm:

[CCIP]

Ah yea, I see what you're getting at.

It's worth a test. My suspicion, though, is that it's the number of sprites that counts rather than size.

[Hartmann]

Could be nice have a big cloud of smoke with a burning tanker :roll:

one little question.. is modeled in the game the scape of oil from a damaged boat ?? :88)

Thanks

[gouldjg]

The developments here are sounding very interesting.

I would love the ability to make the crewman exploisions last longer.

At the moment, I have crewman exploision in the planes but the flying crew never get to hit the sea.

Would be great if they could float rather than sink but maybe that is too much.

Anyway good luck

[Marhkimov]

Hahaha, if we can have floating crewmen, we won't even need lifeboats. Just let 'em sit on the surface!

[gouldjg]

Maybe just Maybe TT will find something on them. They do seem to be a model and apparently interact with other ships parts should they hit them i.e. small ragdoll effect.

Lifeboats would be cool but floating suvivors = extreme cool.

I am still hoping you guys find a way to place some of the dock human models on the ships i.e. the officers.

Getting back to subject though

Any smoke mod that improves the framerates slightly is my freind and my wallets freind.

[timetraveller]

Thanks, guys. All great ideas, and I know at least the particle rate and opacity ones are possible because they ahve worked in experiments.

Making the images smaller is also going to be interesting. By the way, the Big Smoke images on the last page dropped the frame rates by at least 50%. Sooo, we need to so something to compensate.

Ive got tweak files almost ready for

Smoke_big
Smoke_small
Propeller_wake
funnel_smoke

I'll release them sometime today and you all can do some playing.

Others coming. I'll work on Oil next.

TT

[Redwine]

Thanks, guys. All great ideas, and I know at least the particle rate and opacity ones are possible because they ahve worked in experiments.

Making the images smaller is also going to be interesting. By the way, the Big Smoke images on the last page dropped the frame rates by at least 50%. Sooo, we need to so something to compensate.

Ive got tweak files almost ready for

Smoke_big
Smoke_small
Propeller_wake
funnel_smoke

I'll release them sometime today and you all can do some playing.

Others coming. I'll work on Oil next.

TT

So good TT, many thanks for effort....

I am so busy in the pinpoint topic to can help here, but giving attention.

Will be so gret if we can have a "Vickers Firballs and Oil Slick style" add-on as for SH2...... :up:

[timetraveller]

Okay guys, these are ready for tweaking:

funnel_smoke
www.delraydepot.com/tt/funnel_smoke.zip

Smoke_big
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Smoke_big.zip

Smoke_small
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Smoke_small.zip

Propeller_wake
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Propeller_wake.zip

Unzip and add each to the Mini Tweaker's \TweakFiles folder.

Or, as always, TweakFiles.zip has all Mini Tweaker tweak files.
www.delraydepot.com/tt/TweakFiles.zip

NOTES ON TWEAKING PARTICLES
===============================

Many times particles effects use multiple images to create the effect. For instance, Smoke_big (the big smoke you see just before a ship goes under) has three different particle generators running at the same time, each using the same particle image. Each one may have a different rate, different opacity for the image, etc. You will need to be tweaking each of the generators. This means that some of the values below may be duplicated two or more times in the tweak value list.

Important values

Rate
The rate at which particles are generated. 0-50 is fairly low. 350 is high.

Life (or LifeTime)
The relative time that the particles stay visible.

Opacity
The transparency of the particles emitted. 0-1 as I understand. 0.5 would be 50% transparent.

Velocity
The speed the particles travel.

EmissionArea
The area where the particles are emitted. For instance a smokestack usually has an EmissionArea=.2

SphereRadius
How big the particle cloud becomes. Works in conjunction with EmissionArea. Particle clouds tend to be somewhat round. The SphereRadius defines how big.

Weight
An important one. Smoke often uses a weight of 0.5. You will Notice that it sinks rapidly. Change weight to 0 and it will rise. That's one of the ways I got the Big Smoke in the graphics on page one of this thread. Propeller wake bubbles have a negative weight. Not sure how this figures in.

NoDeleteChildren
Be careful with this one. This is a true or false switch, 0 or 1. Normally it is set to 0. Set it to 1 and all particles remain on the screen until their lifetime expires. Your frame rates will go down considerably if set to 1. BUT, the effect is sometimes spectacular! I set this one to 1 for the Big Smoke graphics.

TT

[gouldjg]

Thanks

Great work, :up: :up:

Now give me floating sailors :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep:

gimme gimme gimme ( he says, praying that TT will, as usual answer with the solution)

[timetraveller]

Thanks

Great work, :up: :up:

Now give me floating sailors :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep: :yep:

gimme gimme gimme ( he says, praying that TT will, as usual answer with the solution)

hehe gouldjg, how did Sergbuto get his lifeboats on the water? Did he clone a ship? Redwine has had some conversation with me about using floating crate debris and replacing the crates with a lifeboat. Maybe it would be possible.

TT

[timetraveller]

gouldjg,

Here's a couple of tweak files you might like to play with:

CrewMan_explosion01
www.delraydepot.com/tt/CrewMan_explosion01.zip

CrewMan_explosion02
www.delraydepot.com/tt/CrewMan_explosion02.zip

I *think* these are the two that send the crewman up into the air.

Set the weight to 0 or a little negative and see if the body floats!

TT

[Redwine]

So good !! :up:
Many thanks TT.... try to found depth charges explosions, a little bigger may be more impresive, and the tracer deckgun bullets...... i like those times from SH1 when i was able to see the bullet along all its travel.... :up:

[timetraveller]

So good !! :up:
Many thanks TT.... try to found depth charges explosions, a little bigger may be more impresive, and the tracer deckgun bullets...... i like those times from SH1 when i was able to see the bullet along all its travel.... :up:

Thanks, Redwine.

I know tracers are in there somewhere. Maybe also DC explosions. We shall overcome!

TT

[Marhkimov]

I'll try some tests and see what is possible in regards to larger smoke columns. :yep:

[Marhkimov]

TT, you know what I just realized?

The moon reflection might be in there somewhere...

[timetraveller]

TT, you know what I just realized?

The moon reflection might be in there somewhere...

That would be great to find that. I see lightning. No moon yet.

TT

[timetraveller]

For you Redwine.

Depthcharge_explosion
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Depthcharge_explosion.zip

Let's see some TNT!!

TT

[timetraveller]

I'll try some tests and see what is possible in regards to larger smoke columns. :yep:

Cool! Be sure to check those particle tips I wrote a few replies back. They especially pertain to smoke. NoDeleteChildren (set to 1) gives you a ton of smoke that doesn't go away very fast.

Can't wait to see what you come up with. :D

TT

[gouldjg]

Hey TT

Thanks for those crewmen files :up:

I can make them last longer, thats for sure. But floating is still hard to do.

When I set weight, the men fly about 500 ft in air and eventually fall once the blast has disipated. It was funny but not very good for a mod.

I set the weight back and tried depth bias for a guess but nope.



I was thinking that maybe the floating_boxes had different settings i.e. water interaction and if these could be copied to apply with the crew men?

I will wait till you have sorted the boxes file out and compare the two to see if it was staring me in the face.

Will get there in the end :up:

[Marhkimov]

Preliminary results:


This is regular smoke in my game, before I tweeked it with TT's files. I use 32x32 smoke tiles, so it barely even affects my fps. This shot was taken without pause, and you can see that my fps is still very high:
http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/1032/20wd.jpg


I still have lots of tweeking left to do, but this shows that it is possible. Here is smoke that I changed. The column is super high, and fps is very good. You can contrast the smoke size to the rear end of the Hipper... It is gigantic...
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2212/19tm1.jpg



There is a slight side-effect. The smoke trails off rather suddenly after the ship sinks, and after a few seconds, it even mysteriously vanishes...
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2674/36ne.jpg

[Redwine]

For you Redwine.

Depthcharge_explosion
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Depthcharge_explosion.zip

Let's see some TNT!!

TT

I cant believe ! :doh:

It is more quickly than a pizza delivery !! :rotfl:

Filling with AMATOL/MINOL :rotfl:

Many thanks :up:

[CCIP]

Looking good, markhimov!

Any chance you can increase the size of those plumes? I think it looks a little sparse on the sides because of that.

But that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see. Great that we can work with this :up:



I'm very jelaous of you people. If I didn't have a 20-page research paper due in 20 hours, I'd be tweaking smoke to my heart's content now :doh:

[edit]

Is there a way to prevent the smoke from disappearing when the ship sinks?

Another option: slow down ship sinking. That's very possible too, and might even be a good idea. But that's another mod.

[timetraveller]

Hey TT

Thanks for those crewmen files :up:

I can make them last longer, thats for sure. But floating is still hard to do.

When I set weight, the men fly about 500 ft in air and eventually fall once the blast has disipated. It was funny but not very good for a mod.

I set the weight back and tried depth bias for a guess but nope.



I was thinking that maybe the floating_boxes had different settings i.e. water interaction and if these could be copied to apply with the crew men?

I will wait till you have sorted the boxes file out and compare the two to see if it was staring me in the face.

Will get there in the end :up:

Sounds good. I see in the debris.dat file there are references to 8 boxes. Each has 3D object references and I'm hoping that I can substitute some sailors for them. hehe

What's s good ship to blow out of the water to give me maximum box debris?

TT

[timetraveller]

Preliminary results:

Whoa, that's a fine looking smoke column!! :up:

It has that "roiling" look to it. I like that it has some definition to it, and isn't just like "dark fog".

Great job! Great FPS too!! I like your 32x32 idea.

TT

[gouldjg]

Hey TT

Thanks for those crewmen files :up:

I can make them last longer, thats for sure. But floating is still hard to do.

When I set weight, the men fly about 500 ft in air and eventually fall once the blast has disipated. It was funny but not very good for a mod.

I set the weight back and tried depth bias for a guess but nope.



I was thinking that maybe the floating_boxes had different settings i.e. water interaction and if these could be copied to apply with the crew men?

I will wait till you have sorted the boxes file out and compare the two to see if it was staring me in the face.

Will get there in the end :up:

Sounds good. I see in the debris.dat file there are references to 8 boxes. Each has 3D object references and I'm hoping that I can substitute some sailors for them. hehe

What's s good ship to blow out of the water to give me maximum box debris?

TT

Go onto the bizmarck misssion and kill the nelson. Boxes always appear :up:

Yes, I like your idea.

If 8 Boxes then hopefully one can be replaced by sailor. If this works then there maybe some hope for lifeboat mod :rock: :rock: :rock:

[Marhkimov]

Looking good, markhimov!

Any chance you can increase the size of those plumes? I think it looks a little sparse on the sides because of that.

Yes, I'm almost there. Sooo close... I've made the smoke look almost like the default one, except that it is sky high. :up:



Is there a way to prevent the smoke from disappearing when the ship sinks?

I think the smoke only disappears from view because the number of sprites exceeds an on-screen limit. I'm sure one of those settings controls the limit... Question is which one?

But I've sorta fixed it, the smoke stays visible for quite some time...


Another option: slow down ship sinking. That's very possible too, and might even be a good idea. But that's llanother mod.

I was thinking the exact same thing... ;)

But you're right, that's more around the lines of what Der Teddy Bar is doing. We'll just have to wait for him.

[timetraveller]

Hey TT

Thanks for those crewmen files :up:

I can make them last longer, thats for sure. But floating is still hard to do.

When I set weight, the men fly about 500 ft in air and eventually fall once the blast has disipated. It was funny but not very good for a mod.

I set the weight back and tried depth bias for a guess but nope.



I was thinking that maybe the floating_boxes had different settings i.e. water interaction and if these could be copied to apply with the crew men?

I will wait till you have sorted the boxes file out and compare the two to see if it was staring me in the face.

Will get there in the end :up:

Sounds good. I see in the debris.dat file there are references to 8 boxes. Each has 3D object references and I'm hoping that I can substitute some sailors for them. hehe

What's s good ship to blow out of the water to give me maximum box debris?

TT

Go onto the bizmarck misssion and kill the nelson. Boxes always appear :up:

Yes, I like your idea.

If 8 Boxes then hopefully one can be replaced by sailor. If this works then there maybe some hope for lifeboat mod :rock: :rock: :rock:

Thanks, I'll have a hard crack at this tomorrow.

TT

[CCIP]

I'd be happy if even the boxes floated for a while - though there's obviously no reason we can't make life rafts out of them :)

By the sounds of it, I think there's now a 100% chance we can have a good smoke and explosion effects mod, and a good 99% chance for a lifeboat mod :)

Meanwhile, I'll wait to see any of the settings you guys come up with. I'd love to test these, but I just can't tweak around with this tonight. :dead:

[timetraveller]

Is there a way to prevent the smoke from disappearing when the ship sinks?

I think the smoke only disappears from view because the number of sprites exceeds an on-screen limit. I'm sure one of those settings controls the limit... Question is which one?

But I've sorta fixed it, the smoke stays visible for quite some time...


Check out MaxParticles for each of black_smoke#1, 2, and 3. That might do it.

Each black_smoke has a Life value too.

Wow, this is lookin' good :up:

TT

[Marhkimov]

Good news to report.


This is Hipper right as she blows up. She was pluming smoke before she imploded. The smoke diameter is probably twice the length of the Hipper:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6901/14fp.jpg

Here is the smoke right as Hipper slips under the waves:
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/6605/39fa.jpg

About 2 minutes after the sinking, here is the smoke residue left on the water surface... By now, the Hipper is probably hundreds of meters under the sea:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/5323/28wq.jpg

So the smoke does stay... But this might be a bad thing for convoys...



Next, do the wind values actually work? Can it affect the smoke direction? Is it a 1 or 0 setting?

How can we make the smoke thinner at the base and thicker at the top? Right now, the shape is weird... :doh:

[CCIP]

:rotfl:
Dirty mind!

Did you check the wind factor? Does it do anything?

Otherwise... actually, provided a plume like that isn't a real big FPS killer - it's actually not too huge a problem if smoke from sinking ships like that stays. Because last I've checked, there's really not much chance you'll see more than a few dying ships in campaign. In fact that might be a good thing, even (smoke doesn't just go away in reality, either) :hmm:

Is there a way to make the smoke sprites 'grow' in size as they move up? That might give us a 'mushroom cloud' effect.

[CCIP]

Also, from the screenshots - it looks like the smoke is actually dispersing over time - that is, the plume is growing outward. Is there a chance to speed up that process? :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

Hey, I'm getting improvements. It's looking a lot sharper.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/346/32of.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/74/24sz.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/8423/13vd.jpg

The smoke column is slanted, but no that is not wind. The Hipper is kept on chuggin' even after I blew three holes in him... I still can't get the wind to affect the smoke.


Now I just need to find a way to keep the fps running smoothly. My system was about halfway to choking, so I guess many other people will not be able to handle this... No worries. I'm on it! :up:

[CCIP]

Have you tested that theory of what kills the FPS - number of sprites vs. size of sprites?

If it's the number, which it probably is, I guess it's just a matter of reducing the smoke rates and increasing the size and opacity of the sprites.

Anyway, the FPS actually doesn't compare too badly to 'normal' smoke on my system. I think any smoke slows down FPS when you get your camera close to it, probably because of overly-tricky transparency.

[Marhkimov]

It should be real easy to manipulate the shape of smoke. We have 3 different "smokes" to work with: black_smoke#1, #2, and #3.

In essence, make one thin, but highly dense column that rises very slowly. This should be the base of the smoke.

The second column should be a little wider, less dense, and rises faster than the first column. This should be the middle section of the smoke.

The third column is the widest in diameter, the least dense, and rises the fastest. It will get to the top and be very wide, creating the mushroom effect.

[Marhkimov]

Have you tested that theory of what kills the FPS - number of sprites vs. size of sprites?

Yes, and both do kill fps. I also think that sprite size contributes a lot more. Ever since I reduced my sprite sizes to 32x32, I can fly the freecam through the smoke with no problems. With 128x128, I would be watching a slideshow if I did that...

But they both have a pretty big contribution to fps.



If it's the number, which it probably is, I guess it's just a matter of reducing the smoke rates and increasing the size and opacity of the sprites.

Good idea... I will mess around with this.


Man, I'm getting pretty jazzed up about this! :D

[CCIP]

Hey, and I'll take a bit of an FPS hit any day just so I get to see this :up:

Keep it up! If you ever get any final settings to work with - I wouldn't mind taking a break here and testing them for a bit, too, just to see how my crappy rig runs it :88)

[Marhkimov]

Hey, cool!

No offense, but I do need someone with a crappy rig to test my settings... LOL, thanks for offering! ;)



Also, I think that if we blow up too many ships, it could prove to be troublesome...

And "harbor raiders" might not appreciate FPS-killing smoke. The harbors, the traffic, and the land is already very taxing on my system. Sink a few docked ships and you could very well be seeing a slide show.

But I hope to fix all of this... :yep:

[chris911]

Go for it. Looks very promising atm :up: :up: :up:

[CCIP]

Yea, the harbors are a pain, but it's really mostly an oversight on the part of the devs; not much we can do about that. My FPS is often around 11-12 in those :dead:

Fortunately, anything better than a slideshow is mostly tolerable in SHIII, since it's not a terribly fast game. But still, the more we can do, the better :yep:

***

TT - is the propeller wake for underwater bubbles or for the surface spray?

One thing I'd like to see in regard to the bubbles is the ones that come from the boat, and the DC trails. They're good in terms of density, but trail off a little quickly. It'd be great to see them go higher
:hmm:

[Marhkimov]

Holy cow!


Smoke column immediately after sinking:
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/9219/10fb.jpg

Judging from the MaxClipping on my camera, this is about 10km away:
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/7/22hu.jpg



FPS seems to be fairly ok... There are a few more kinks to knock out, but it looks pretty respectable.

I still don't like how the wind has no affect on the smoke. I upped the wind coeffficient value from 1 to 250, but still no go.

[CCIP]

Now that I think of it though, I don't think there's any smoke I've seen which is affected by wind - except maybe factory smoke, but I'm not too sure about that one, either. :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

I've never noticed, but does factory smoke always billow in the same direction, or does the wind actually affect it?? :hmm:

**HINT**HINT**

**WINK**WINK** ;)

[CCIP]

:P

Yep, checked it. The smokestacks always blow in one direction. I don't think there's an wind factor for anything other than the waves, even.

I think to say it's one of those features that was originally supposed to be in the game, but never made it :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

Tried a test with two fuel T3 Tankers.


At first, everything started out fine:
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4008/15sy.jpg


Then holy crap... Long after the T3's had sunk, the smoke started to grow laterally! :huh:
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4084/27ni1.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/4530/36ry.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8012/46mo.jpg


I think it was the SphereRadius. I changed it from 17 to 120.

We can't have this because it's a real FPS killer, but at least it was cool...

So who was it that wanted that smoke screen?? :D

[CCIP]

Talk about an oil fire :88)

Is that some sort of a delayed action caused by the radius? Usually the smoke goes to the sides like this just as the ship breaks up and sinks, but I guess it took a while this time.

[Marhkimov]

Yeah, it took about 5-6 minutes for the smoke to get to that size and shape.

It seems that it is best to leave the SphereRadius to a small number, or else the smoke rises in a circular pattern. Unless of course someone wants this effect to occur...

[Marhkimov]

Is anyone else out there testing with me?

[Marhkimov]

Hey, I opened the "big_smoke" tweek file to see if TT wrote any notes, and I noticed that he made these lines inoperative:

[1]
DropDownName=ScalableParticleEffect
absolute,single,2DDF0,EmissionArea
absolute,single,2DE16,LifeScale
absolute,single,2DE2B,DensityScale
absolute,single,2DE41,VelocityScale
absolute,single,2DE55,WeightScale
absolute,single,2DE67,SizeScale
absolute,single,2DE79,SpinScale
absolute,single,2DE9A,Scale

[2]
DropDownName=WaterInteraction
absolute,byte,2DF16,StopAllParticles
absolute,single,2DF49,Depth
absolute,byte,2DF5A,DeleteMe

[3]
DropDownName=FastParticleGenerator
absolute,byte,2DFE4,IsDensityModifierActive
absolute,single,2DFF6,SphereRadius
absolute,single,2E00B,EmissionArea
absolute,single,2E020,LifeTime
absolute,byte,2E039,NoDeleteChildren
absolute,long,2E046,RunMode
absolute,byte,2E05A,Transparent
absolute,single,2E069,DepthBias
absolute,single,2E081,MaxParticleSize
absolute,byte,2E09A,UseShipWakeColor
//absolute,hex,2E0B2,LocalWind
//absolute,hex,2E0CD,GlobalWind
absolute,single,2E0F7,LifeScale
absolute,single,2E10C,DensityScale
absolute,single,2E122,VelocityScale
absolute,single,2E136,WeightScale
absolute,single,2E148,SizeScale
absolute,single,2E15D,OpacityScale
absolute,long,2E175,BitmapParticles

[4]
DropDownName=black_smoke#1
absolute,byte,2E19D,Report
absolute,single,2E1AB,Blending
absolute,byte,2E1BD,DepthTest
absolute,byte,2E1D0,LocalMovement
absolute,hex,2E1DE,Material
absolute,long,2E1F7,MaxParticles
absolute,single,2E204,Life
absolute,single,2E222,Rate
absolute,single,2E234,RateVariation
absolute,single,2E293,Size
absolute,single,2E2A5,SizeVariation
//absolute,hex,2E312,SpeedDirection
absolute,single,2E32B,Velocity
absolute,single,2E33D,VelocityVariation
absolute,single,2E3A0,Weight
absolute,single,2E3B2,WeightVariation
absolute,single,2E417,Opacity
absolute,single,2E429,OpacityVariation
absolute,single,2E494,WindCoef
absolute,single,2E4A8,InertiaCoef

[5]
DropDownName=black_smoke#2
absolute,byte,2E4ED,Report
absolute,single,2E4FB,Blending
absolute,byte,2E50D,DepthTest
absolute,byte,2E520,LocalMovement
absolute,hex,2E52E,Material
absolute,long,2E547,MaxParticles
absolute,single,2E554,Life
absolute,single,2E572,Rate
absolute,single,2E584,RateVariation
absolute,single,2E5E3,Size
absolute,single,2E5F5,SizeVariation
//absolute,hex,2E662,SpeedDirection
absolute,single,2E67B,Velocity
absolute,single,2E68D,VelocityVariation
absolute,single,2E6F0,Weight
absolute,single,2E702,WeightVariation
absolute,single,2E767,Opacity
absolute,single,2E779,OpacityVariation
absolute,single,2E7E4,WindCoef
absolute,single,2E7F8,InertiaCoef

[6]
DropDownName=black_smoke#3
absolute,byte,2E83D,Report
absolute,single,2E84B,Blending
absolute,byte,2E85D,DepthTest
absolute,byte,2E870,LocalMovement
absolute,hex,2E87E,Material
absolute,long,2E897,MaxParticles
absolute,single,2E8A4,Life
absolute,single,2E8C2,Rate
absolute,single,2E8D4,RateVariation
absolute,single,2E933,Size
absolute,single,2E945,SizeVariation
//absolute,hex,2E9B2,SpeedDirection
absolute,single,2E9CB,Velocity
absolute,single,2E9DD,VelocityVariation
absolute,single,2EA40,Weight
absolute,single,2EA52,WeightVariation
absolute,single,2EAB7,Opacity
absolute,single,2EAC9,OpacityVariation
absolute,single,2EB34,WindCoef
absolute,single,2EB48,InertiaCoef

[7]
DropDownName=WaterReflection
absolute,single,2EBD5,ClipHeight
absolute,byte,2EB92,Reflection
absolute,byte,2EBF8,Refraction
absolute,byte,2EC09,FrustumTest
absolute,single,2EC18,MinVisDim
absolute,single,2EC2A,MaxVisDim

[8]
DropDownName=VisibleUnderWater
absolute,byte,2EC9D,Under


They all have something to do with wind. I wonder why he took them away? Maybe they don't work correctly?

I'm guessing that we can blow the smoke sideways, but it won't change dynamically as the wind direction changes...

[Marhkimov]

Oh man... tweeking is a horrible job.

[Marhkimov]

OoOoOo... Hey CCIP, whenever you're done with your paper, you can take over as the main smoke MC.

Tweeking files can be rewarding, but it is doubly frustrating... :doh:

[CCIP]

:lol:

Sounds familiar.

Not too soon, but we'll see. What you've come up with looks pretty good already; otherwise, tweaking it is. Whenever you're beyond sick of it, just send me what you came up with. :)

But I ain't tweaking anything in SHIII seriously until I tweak this paper and the next one. :88)

(the irony: both of the papers I'm writing are pretty directly related to SHIII, because I'm analyzing some of my own bits of text and patrol reports from WaW in excrutiating grammatical and generic detail. It sure took a while to explain the concept to my profs, but they ended up pretty... intrigued with it. Oh what SHIII does to some people/dorks :dead: )

[Marhkimov]

Hi TT,

You probably already have a lot on your plate, but how about some tweek files for these?


Ugly fire
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6206/10ek2.jpg

Awful oil spill
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3278/24bm.jpg

[CCIP]

And they kill FPS, too (especially that fire, at least on my system) :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

And they kill FPS, too (especially that fire, at least on my system) :hmm:

From my tweeking/messing around, this is what I've learned about SH3 particles: Just about every particle effect in this game can be made to be more efficient/FPS-friendly.

A lot of times, the effects have waaaay too many sprites, and it could be toned down without much loss.

Stock SH3 particles are ok, but we can do much better.


But I'm also starting to see why the original dev team did not bother to perfect all of this... It has taken me many hours to understand just this much. And it'll probably take MANY more tweeking hours before I come up with anything... :dead:

[Marhkimov]

I'll see if I can speed up the process for everyone else.

This list is everything that I know for certain. And as far as I know, the same is true of every other particle effect.



value name = short description of its effects (recommended ranges)


ScalableParticleEffect
EmissionArea = The higher the number, the larger the radius of smoke emission (i.e. smoke will rise from the water if it is too large). Keep it smaller for better smoke density (0.5-3.0)
LifeScale = the higher the number, the taller your smoke column will be. Too high will cause smoke to disappear at certain times (2-20)
DensityScale =
VelocityScale =
WeightScale =
SizeScale = relates to the size of particles when viewed from long distance. Higher means that sprites "grow" when you view them from farther away, but that means they also shrink when you move closer (1-4)
SpinScale =
Scale =


WaterInteraction
StopAllParticles =
Depth =
DeleteMe =


FastParticleGenerator
IsDensityModifierActive =
SphereRadius = determines if multiple sprites are dispersed in a circular pattern. Keep it low for smoke. (0-30)
EmissionArea =
LifeTime =
NoDeleteChildren = (either 0 or 1) correct me if I'm wrong, but my tests show no effect.
RunMode =
Transparent =
DepthBias =
MaxParticleSize =
UseShipWakeColor =
LifeScale =
DensityScale =
VelocityScale =
WeightScale =
SizeScale =
OpacityScale =
BitmapParticles =


black_smoke#1,2,3
Report =
Blending =
DepthTest =
LocalMovement =
Material = hex code reference to the TGA graphic file
MaxParticles = max particles allowed on-screen at one time. Particles will flash or disappear if exceeded. From personal experience, keep it lower than 100000 or expect CTDs (250-99999)
Life = lifespan of a sprite. Values that get too high seem to cause smoke to disappear at times (1-20)
Rate = rate of particle generation. Higher value means higher concentation of sprites. Keep it low for better FPS (1-20)
RateVariation = randomized +/- for the Rate
Size = overall sprite size. Higher means a bigger sprite. (0.1-4.0)
SizeVariation = randomized +/- for the Size
Velocity = speed of particle movement. Higher means faster moving sprites. (0.1-2.0)
VelocityVariation = randomized +/- for the Velocity
Weight = particle floatiness. Zero makes floaty sprites, but any other value gives me problems (0)
WeightVariation = randomized +/- for the Weight
Opacity = (from 0 to 1) Zero is transparent, 0.5 is 50% transparent, and 1 is opaque (0-1)
OpacityVariation = randomized +/- for the Opacity
WindCoef = no effect
InertiaCoef = no effect


WaterReflection
ClipHeight =
Reflection =
Refraction =
FrustumTest =
MinVisDim =
MaxVisDim =

VisibleUnderWater
Under = (either 0 or 1) Zero means the sprites cannot be seen when underwater (0)

[Redwine]

For you Redwine.

Depthcharge_explosion
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Depthcharge_explosion.zip

Let's see some TNT!!

TT

Made the first test with depth charges explosions...... works so good, but sadly the original textures are weird and ugly.

The final smoke effect start up on "orange colour" :hmm:

It is due because is conected with the explosion incandescent particles, but it is bad, because i cant extend the life time of the final smoke effect, if i extend it life, it is clear visible the smoke start up in orange colour and it is ugly.

If i extend the explosion effect to conect with the orange smoke, it become a explosion in a slow speed camera..... :rotfl:

I need to replace the textures.

Anyway i can increse the size of DC explosion up to envolve the sub..... :up:

Thanks for the tool TT...........

Still trying......

[timetraveller]

Wow, you guys have been busy overnight :up:

marhkimov-
Yes, I have plans on doing the oil fires. I want to spend some time today trying to replace some debris boxes. I've already got debris.dat decoded. Materials.dat has some necessary stuff in it too.

CCIP-
My guess is that propeller wake is for underwater bubbles and visible surface bubbles, but not wake that rises above sea level.

marhkimov-
About these commented-out values. I never was able to decode them. They don't seem to fall into any of the value categories, so for these tweak files I've left the "hex" and commented them out.
//absolute,hex,2E0B2,LocalWind
//absolute,hex,2E0CD,GlobalWind
//absolute,hex,2E312,SpeedDirection

About the Materials= value (the 8 byte hex value). I believe this to be a figure that is cross-referenced the the object's TGA graphic.

Redwine-
Do you have any DC explosion screenshots?

TT

[Redwine]

Redwine-
Do you have any DC explosion screenshots?

TT

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3397/dc10tf.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dc10tf.jpg)

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7310/dc27of.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dc27of.jpg)

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4287/dc33vt.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dc33vt.jpg)

:up:

[timetraveller]

Very impressive! :up:

Thanks!

TT

[Marhkimov]

Hey Redwine,


Some people have improved explosion textures out there. I don't know what they are called, but I think IUB might have it.

I have pretty DC explosions on my copy of SH3. I have to locate which TGA file is responsible for DC's, but if you wait, I can send it to you.

[Redwine]

Very impressive! :up:

Thanks!

TT

Mmhh.... i dont like them too much :cry: . Any way they looks very better in movement as a cinematic scene, but are a little bit ugly.

I made this effect so impresive for SH2 with some explosions frm Flanker 2.0.



Hey Redwine,

Some people have improved explosion textures out there. I don't know what they are called, but I think IUB might have it.

I have pretty DC explosions on my copy of SH3. I have to locate which TGA file is responsible for DC's, but if you wait, I can send it to you.

Good Marhkimov !!
I was looking for them, i was sure i seen this cinematic secuence at some place, but i cant found the, may be i seen it into a mod, or in a previous installation.

Do you have this texture unpacked into data\Textures\TNormal\tex folder ?

I attempt to found the file to unpack them but i can found it.

Please host the texture, or send it to me by email, look at my profile.

I need to know, its external size and each frame size.

May be i can input that one i made for SH2.

look here :

http://rotteufel.iespana.es/htdc_tutorial/beforeafter_007.htm

[Marhkimov]

Just off the top of my head (I'm not at home)...


data\Library\Materials.dat

try extracting these:
explosion.tga <== I have a feeling this is the DC explosion sequence
fireadd.tga


I have the improved texturing placed in the Texture\TNormal\tex folder.


Hope that helps! :up:
Marhkimov.

[Jochen Mohr]

Hello!

Could anyone post a good Funnel Smoke-File?

I´m to stupid to change that. :oops:

If anyone has changed them,please post the File.

Thanks!

[Redwine]

Just off the top of my head (I'm not at home)...


data\Library\Materials.dat

try extracting these:
explosion.tga <== I have a feeling this is the DC explosion sequence
fireadd.tga


I have the improved texturing placed in the Texture\TNormal\tex folder.


Hope that helps! :up:
Marhkimov.

That was.... i seen it some time, may be into a mod or some thing....

Thanks alot.

[Redwine]

@ Marhkimov :

Hi Marhkimov, sadly the game make non sense of that image, almost in depth charges explosions.

I made a test, modifying the file, and no way, but looking what it had modified, it seems to improve the cannon flashes. :hmm:

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/9498/explosion0fc.th.jpg (http://img286.imageshack.us/my.php?image=explosion0fc.jpg)

It seems to modify the cannon flash, but not the depth charges explosions.

[Marhkimov]

Hello!

Could anyone post a good Funnel Smoke-File?

I´m to stupid to change that. :oops:

If anyone has changed them,please post the File.

Thanks!

Nothing has been made yet. We're all still trying to figure it out.

But we'll have something soon, I hope.



Hi Marhkimov, sadly the game make non sense of that image, almost in depth charges explosions.

I made a test, modifying the file, and no way, but looking what it had modified, it seems to improve the cannon flashes. Hmmm


Sorry, I directed you to the wrong file.

I think DC explosion is cloud_blob_add.tga

Here is the one I use: http://rapidshare.de/files/8787913/cloud_blob_add.tga.html

Test it first, but it looks right.

[Redwine]

Hi Marhkimov, sadly the game make non sense of that image, almost in depth charges explosions.

I made a test, modifying the file, and no way, but looking what it had modified, it seems to improve the cannon flashes. Hmmm


Sorry, I directed you to the wrong file.

I think DC explosion is cloud_blob_add.tga

Here is the one I use: http://rapidshare.de/files/8787913/cloud_blob_add.tga.html

Test it first, but it looks right.

:D Sorry about waht ? :up:

Will be so good if we can improve the cannon flashes too :up:

I downloaded the file..... i have it, but it is an alone frame :hmm:, i was looking for a secuence of many frames as in the explosion.tga file......

If you or any other want to try my "improved" ugly :88) :rotfl: new depth charges FX effect......

Here the particles files..... (back up yours please).


http://rapidshare.de/files/8789544/particles.zip.html


Try and comment, may be for me is ugly, but may be good for another person :hmm:

:up:

[Marhkimov]

I don't think there is a frame sequence for the depth charge explosions. I've looked extensively at all the TGAs, but I don't remember seeing any, except for the cannon blasts.

[timetraveller]

Looks like you guys are busy with your own problems like me.

Didn't make too much progress today. I've been working on the debris.dat file and it's relationship with materials.dat and particles.dat.

I'm having to do some surgery on the old SH3 File Analyzer in order to take those files apart. What I'm trying to do is come up with an objects list and a materials list.

Fooled around a little trying to swap debris with a crewman but it didn't work. Not sure I had the right object in the swap. That's why the side track to make an objects list so I know what I'm dealing with.

Maybe more tomorrow.

Good luck on your mods.

TT

[HW3]

marhkimov, just for information purposes, the cloud_blob_add.tga you posted is from Pascal's Smoke and Splash Mod. :yep:

[CCIP]

Well, so far the only thing I managed to do with smoke is successfully make it disappear :dead:

Strange. I followed the general suggestions, but it just... didn't work at all :hmm:

[Marhkimov]

Well, so far the only thing I managed to do with smoke is successfully make it disappear :dead:

Strange. I followed the general suggestions, but it just... didn't work at all :hmm:

Now you know why this smoke gives me a big ol' headache... :dead: :lol:

Try setting the maximum particles for black_smoke#1,2,3 to 90000. The smoke shouldn't disappear if you do that.

[Redwine]

I reach a good cinematic effect on depth charges explosions, but not an eyecandy one, there is some texture hidden in some place, i cant found it. :dead:

Any way i obtain a mor eyecandy cannon muzzle flashes :rotfl:

If some one want to try this cannon effects, here it is :

http://rapidshare.de/files/8814393/Gun_FX_Stage1.zip.html

Try a look into Bisckmark mission.......... :up:

If you want to take a look for how the depth charges can be changes, try it ( you need to have the Gun FX files from above to it works)

I need to eliminates the too yellow colour.

http://rapidshare.de/files/8814604/particles.zip.html

:up:

[Marhkimov]

Hey CCIP, how are your smoke effects coming along? Did you get anything worth looking at?

The smoke sometimes baffles me. When it first begins to stream from a sinking ship, it looks spectacular. I managed to make it thick, dark, black, and very easy on the FPS.

But after a while, it appears and disappears, depending on what (freecam) angle I am looking at it. It also flickers in the periscope view... Very weird. I don't know what to do about it. I hope there's not a limit to how much smoke can be rendered.

Any thoughts? Anyone?

[CCIP]

I'm back to working on my writing, I only had about half an hour to tweak with it so, needless to say, I didn't get very far. In fact I didn't even manage to get it working as I wanted it to :(

As far as the periscope thing, that does sound odd. Does it happen this way all the time?

Maybe it's a camera issue. I wonder if there could be some sort of limiter in the cameras file.

[Hartmann]

Perhaps the periscope effects is a camera issue..
i was thinking about the moon reflections, that only appears in the uzo, binoculars and periscope, while in the bridge view (very wide angle to vission) it doesn´t appears. :hmm:

[iambecomelife]

I've managed to get some good-looking smoke effects, but I've noticed that sometimes the smoke appears to drift DOWNWARDS, especially the smaller smoke clouds. Any idea what value I should alter to stop this?

[iambecomelife]

marhkimov, you wanted to modify sinking times? It's actually very easy to do; just edit all the floodingtime values in the data\zones.cfg file. It's all text-based stuff. Several sinking models cover more than one ship. I think there are separate categories for small warships, battleships, carriers, small merchants, and large merchants.

[Marhkimov]

I've managed to get some good-looking smoke effects, but I've noticed that sometimes the smoke appears to drift DOWNWARDS, especially the smaller smoke clouds. Any idea what value I should alter to stop this?

Change the weight of the smoke to 0. Depending on which one you want to float, change it for black_smoke#1,2, or 3. Or just change them all to zero.



marhkimov, you wanted to modify sinking times? It's actually very easy to do; just edit all the floodingtime values in the data\zones.cfg file. It's all text-based stuff. Several sinking models cover more than one ship. I think there are separate categories for small warships, battleships, carriers, small merchants, and large merchants.

Ok, maybe I'll change it just for my testing purposes.

[Marhkimov]

The thing with the disappearing smoke...


If I make the ScalableParticleEffect-LifeScale into a large value such as 10 or 15, then the column will be enormously tall. That's what we want, yes, but then the whole smoke column disappears when I use freecam to look up a few degrees. Same thing also happens with periscope. If I look back down again, then the smoke reappears. This is not a good effect...


But the problem goes away if I make the ScalableParticleEffect-LifeScale into a lower value such as 4 or 5. The smoke won't be as high, but at least it won't flicker on and off. And I think it is reasonably high enough, by my estimation, it is still 100 meters tall. Stock smoke by comparison is only 25 meters tall.


Iambecomelife, do you have any pictures of your smoke?
What's the fps like?
What do you think about it?

[Marhkimov]

Checkpoint time... Here's what I have so far.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1637/15cj.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5974/23zq.jpg


PROS
-Thick billowing smoke columns that reach up to 100-150 meters.
-Should not disappear if you look up at the smoke (although it does happen at times; not sure how to fix this).
-VERY FPS FRIENDLY. On my system, I can zoom into the smoke with no lag.

CONS
-Small amount of graphic flicker (not sure how to fix this).
-Disappears sometimes when you look up at it (minor annoyance).
-Smoke residue does not hang around after the ship sinks (at first, I made the residue possible but the smoke started to flicker/disappear).



So far, I've only tested it with three ships on screen at once (2 tankers and a DD). I'm not sure how it would handle in a convoy. Anyways, I need people with different system specs to test my settings. Or you can modify it and report on how it could be improved.


BETA SMOKE TEST: http://rapidshare.de/files/8846419/Marhk_SmokeBETA2.rar.html

Remember, it's just a BETA. Download is recommended only for experienced modders (i.e. newbies need not apply...)

[CCIP]

I put it through a bit of a stress test - looked good, helped FPS - a definite improvement over the default smoke!

I did wish it could be bigger and stay longer though (this especially irritates me - the game's smoke just goes away too fast). Wishful thinking? :hmm:

BUT

Weird thing is that, running my stress test where I put a German task force next to a British convoy, the game went CTD at some random point with ships exploding all around :stare:

I'm not sure if it's related to the smoke. Maybe I just overdid it.

Be sure to check though - I really do hope it's not related to the smoke.

[Marhkimov]

LOL, good testing CCIP...

But I think the CTD was smoke related... Maybe you can try the same test again, but with default smoke? That'll give us a definate answer.

Myself, I had a CTD after I also altered the funnel smoke, and a few ships were fighting on the surface.



I have a bad feeling that SH3 is not meant to render such a high amount of particles... :cry:

[Marhkimov]

I have two theories about the myserious CTD:


1) CTD would have happened regardless of smoke. Two opposing convoys that meet in the sea are sure to be a system-killer.

2) CTD happened because there were too many particles for SH3 to render at one time. Try changing black_smoke#1,2,3 - MaxParticles to something smaller. I set it to 90000, and this is most likely the reason. Of course, if you set it smaller, I think the smoke plume will also be smaller. Either that or it will begin to flicker with a smaller value.


I'll be home to test my theories later on... Unless someone wants to do it for me??? :hmm: :yep: :yep: :yep:

[timetraveller]

Marvelous looking smoke, marhkimov :up: :up: :up:

Wow, can't wait to try this! Thanks for your efforts on this.

TT

[Marhkimov]

Has anyone found out how to make improvements to the smoke? I'm not sure how to make it better.

How can we make it higher without over-stressing SH3?

[Redwine]

Has anyone found out how to make improvements to the smoke? I'm not sure how to make it better.

How can we make it higher without over-stressing SH3?

I am using Pascal's smoke textures and they looks fine.

Did you tryied how they looks with the changes you made on the smoke FX effects ?

Waiting for your job, it looks wonderful ! May be you can try with difertent smoke textures.

:up:

[Marhkimov]

I made a different, grayer texture... SUPER FPS FRIENDLY! Personally, I don't like it because you can see how low quality it is. That's actually one of the reasons that I was able to increase the smoke height: by reducing smoke quality.

Anyways, here are some shots. I don't like it, but some others might:


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/hockeemaster/SH3%20misc/4497807b.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/hockeemaster/SH3%20misc/3472bb19.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/hockeemaster/SH3%20misc/3e82bbe7.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/hockeemaster/SH3%20misc/401cbfc6.jpg

[timetraveller]

Has anyone found out how to make improvements to the smoke? I'm not sure how to make it better.

How can we make it higher without over-stressing SH3?

I found that it would go higher if I increased the Velocity value for each of the 3 black_smoke's. However, it starts to look unrealistic if the velocity is too fast (obviously smoke is better if it kind of lingers and doesn't rise like a rocket).

Each of the 3 black_smoke's also have a "Life" value. I seem to rememeber increasing them too.

Not sure if these will help any. Maybe changing in conjunction with the Scalable "LifeScale" and/or FastParticleGenerator "LifeTime" will do it.

Haven't looked, but are you setting NoDeleteChildren =1? That will defintely keep the particles on screen longer. It can effect FPS though.

TT

[Marhkimov]

I tested the NoDeleteChildren value, but it doesn't seem to do anything... But I'll try it again.

I have already made black_smoke#3 my fastest rising smoke. I still don't think it goes high enough.


Not sure if these will help any. Maybe changing in conjunction with the Scalable "LifeScale" and/or FastParticleGenerator "LifeTime" will do it.

Yes, I tested it. Increasing these values will make the smoke fly if you want it to. But if the smoke becomes too high, then it disappears when you look up at it, and I don't think it's an issue with my graphics card because I have a Radeon...

[timetraveller]

Can't decide if I like the "oil-ier" darker smoke better or the lighter one.

By the way, nice smoke drift in that first shot.

TT

[Marhkimov]

I reduced all of the black_smoke "MaxParticles" from 90000 to 1000, and I don't think we'll see anymore CTDs. Also, the smoke is still high enough. I think 90000 was just overkill...

[timetraveller]

I reduced all of the black_smoke "MaxParticles" from 90000 to 1000, and I don't think we'll see anymore CTDs. Also, the smoke is still high enough. I think 90000 was just overkill...

Sounds good. I think the height was good. I think I like the darker version after all. More oil in it. Is that a 32x32 image??

TT

[Marhkimov]

Yeah, its a 32x32 image... Needless to say, it will be possible to zoom right into the smoke and still retain over 100fps (well, at least for me ;) )

And as long as the smoke texture is small enough, anyone can use whatever TGA graphic they choose. Everyone has their own personal tastes. :yep:

[CCIP]

Yea, I've picked out my texture a while ago and I'm sticking with it.

Any other changes you made, or can I just plug in that 1000 for max particles and be happy?

I still wish the smoke stayed up for longer. It just seems to disappear too fast to be realistic :(

[Marhkimov]

Yea, I've picked out my texture a while ago and I'm sticking with it.

Any other changes you made, or can I just plug in that 1000 for max particles and be happy?

I still wish the smoke stayed up for longer. It just seems to disappear too fast to be realistic :(

Just plug in 1000 for each of the black smokes and that's all you need.

If you want the smoke to stay up a little longer, it has to do with either scalable lifescale, fastparticle lifescale, or blacksmoke life. Try doubling or tripling one or all of those to get increased smoke lifespan. If you can make it work, please do come back and tell. ;)

[timetraveller]

Yea, I've picked out my texture a while ago and I'm sticking with it.

Any other changes you made, or can I just plug in that 1000 for max particles and be happy?

I still wish the smoke stayed up for longer. It just seems to disappear too fast to be realistic :(

Just plug in 1000 for each of the black smokes and that's all you need.

If you want the smoke to stay up a little longer, it has to do with either scalable lifescale, fastparticle lifescale, or blacksmoke life. Try doubling or tripling one or all of those to get increased smoke lifespan. If you can make it work, please do come back and tell. ;)

Thanks, marhkimov :up: :up: That's good to know about the 32x32 image. It will help my Intel 2.4 GHZ dog. hehe Man, I remember when a 64KB Radio Shack Model I was good.

He$$, I'm so old I remember when an IBM 360 Model 65 with 256KB of memory was good! It was a roomfull too! :D That was 1968.

TT

[Marhkimov]

1968? :huh:

That's like a billion years before I was born! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: jk

[timetraveller]

1968? :huh:

That's like a billion years before I was born! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: jk

hehe yeah, unfortunately. It's the year I wrote my first line of computer code. Fortran.

TT

It looked like this (this is actually a model 75):
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/2311.html

[Marhkimov]

Latest picture, very smooth FPS...

http://img436.imageshack.us/img436/5462/a30bj.jpg

[Marhkimov]

Honestly, I can't wait until TT releases some more particle rules.

I plan on going particle craaazy! :doh: :doh:

[Marhkimov]

Hi TT,


I was wondering if there is a way for us to hack into the weather patterns. Has anyone figured out what determines the number of cloud formations? Where is this file? (and don't tell me that it is hard-coded; I don't buy it)

Nori01 and Nori02 are great, but there should be up to Nori99. :huh:


Yes, you read right... 99

[timetraveller]

Hi TT,


I was wondering if there is a way for us to hack into the weather patterns. Has anyone figured out what determines the number of cloud formations? Where is this file? (and don't tell me that it is hard-coded; I don't buy it)

Nori01 and Nori02 are great, but there should be up to Nori99. :huh:


Yes, you read right... 99

Now that would be interesting. I agree, 2 graphics are not enough. I'll try to keep weather in mind as I look around.

BTW, I should have some more particle tweak files out in 2 or 3 days. Coding by hand turned out to be too time consuming. I've been modifying File Analyzer to rip apart the particles.dat file and create automatic tweak files which don't need much hand editing.

What would you like next? Oil fires and smoke? Or something else?

TT

[Redwine]

Now that would be interesting. I agree, 2 graphics are not enough. I'll try to keep weather in mind as I look around.

So good :up: , and agree, more files will be great.


What would you like next? Oil fires and smoke? Or something else?
TT

If posible, the bullets...... i found the texture file, and made it more visible giving yellow and orange colour, but the tracer bullets still too small to be well visible along their travel as in SH1, they need to increase size. :know:

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/993162/0/nouser_993/T1_-1_993162.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=993162)

And if posible the cannon muzzle fire effect, i changed their texture and looks too impresive now, specially in cinematic movement, but i want to make big the "dragon fire" from big size battleship guns. :huh:

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/993163/0/nouser_993/T1_-1_993163.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=993163)

[Marhkimov]

Redwine,

Have you seen this page: www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-7.htm

They have information and images that may be relevant to you... :yep:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/bb-62-DNSC8902127_JPG.jpg

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/bb-61-DNSC9103648_JPG.jpg

[Redwine]

Thanks Marhkimov !!!

Here another good picture. The USS Iowa.


http://show.imagehosting.us/show/995173/0/nouser_995/T1_-1_995173.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=995173)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/995173/0/nouser_995/T0_-1_995173.jpg

I read in some place, when Yamato shoots its cannon, must not be people on the deck, the explosion kills any on deck.

In tests, they let some pigs on the deck when shoot the first time the big guns, the pigs was splashed as insects in the windshield of your car.

[timetraveller]

Okay Mateys, something to do this weekend. Particle mania.

The following effects have been decoded in particles.dat for your tweaking in Mini Tweaker. Download the .ZIP files, unzip, and save to the Mini Tweaker \TweakFiles folder, as always.

;OIL-----------------------------------
;#Oil_trace
;#Burnning_oil
;#Burnning_oil_smoke
;#Burnning_oil_fire
;#Oil_spot
;#oil_explosion
;#oil_explosion_01
;#oil_explosion_trail
;$Oil_explosion_halo
;#Oil_Floating_Spot
;#plane_oil_explosion
;#Burnning_oil_small
;#Burnning_oil_smoke_small
;#Burnning_oil_fire_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Oil.zip


;GENERAL MUZZLE FLASH------------------
;$Gun_muzzle_flash
;$Gun_muzzle_flash_halo
;$Big_muzzle_flash
;$Big_muzzle_flash_halo
;$MGun_muzzle_flash
;$AA_Gun_muzzle_flash
;$KGun_muzzle_flash
;$Gun_deck_camera_muzzle_flash

www.delraydepot.com/tt/MuzzleFlash.zip


;TRACERS-------------------------------
;@Shell_trace
;@Bulet_trace
;@Bulet_trace_Fast
;@Shell_trace_Fast
;@Bulet_spark

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Tracers.zip


;TORPEDO-------------------------------
;$torp_great_explosion
;$torpedo_splash_L
;$torpedo_splash_L01
;$torpedo_splash_R
;$torpedo_splash_R01
;#decoy_bubbles (DUD Torpedo)

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Torpedo.zip


;GENERAL FIRE--------------------------
;#Fire_big
;#Fire_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/General_Fire.zip


;MISC SMOKE----------------------------
;#house_smoke
;#funnel_smoke
;#Smoke_big
;#Smoke_small

www.delraydepot.com/tt/MiscSmoke.zip

-----
More coming. Maybe explosions next?

TT

[timetraveller]

As a suggestion, make a sub folder in your SH3MiniTweaker\TweakFiles folder called \Particles, and save the particle tweak files there. That way they are kept separate from the rest of the bunch. That's what I did anyway. There's getting to be so many tweak files I can't find the right one sometimes. hehe

TT

[Marhkimov]

Once again, nice work TT!

Sure, explosions are always fun! :D


Also, I have subfolders for almost everything: air, sea, submarines, particles, env...

[Marhkimov]

Hi TT,

With all of the new particle tweeks coming out, I have one tiny gripe. Since all of the particles are located in a single DAT file, it is hard to combine different particle mods...

Sorry, let me try to clear that up. For instance, me and Redwine each have a particle mod. Redwine did depth charges, and I did smoke. But there's no simple way for us to combine the two. Either Redwine or I would have to write down our settings so that we could re-enter them manually. And with more particle mods coming out lickety-split, it'll only get more complicated...

Is this understandable?


I was thinking it might be helpful to make some sort of "particle list" where we could type in the numbers, and a program would read the list and make the changes to particles.DAT. Then all of the modders could pass this "list" around, and it would be easy to copy and paste settings created by other modders.

Sorry. Would this be too much work for you? I'll shut up if I'm asking for too much...

Thanks TT,
Marhkimov.

[Hudsonhawk]

Guys...quick question......this stuff is still in test mode.....us NoN-Graphic modders....can't try them out just yet????

[Marhkimov]

All of TT's releases are tweek rules. Those rules aren't actually mods, but rather tools that allow modders to make mods.

And so far, only me and Redwine have released anything... Even with TT's rules, it takes a long time to make a mod that is worthwile. For my smoke mod alone, I must've ran over 30 tests. I probably sank around 60 or 70 tankers.

[Hudsonhawk]

Thanks Marhkimov :up: ......by all means .....take your time.... :|\ .....everything looks GREAT.......To all of you...thanks!

[timetraveller]

Hi TT,

With all of the new particle tweeks coming out, I have one tiny gripe. Since all of the particles are located in a single DAT file, it is hard to combine different particle mods...

Sorry, let me try to clear that up. For instance, me and Redwine each have a particle mod. Redwine did depth charges, and I did smoke. But there's no simple way for us to combine the two. Either Redwine or I would have to write down our settings so that we could re-enter them manually. And with more particle mods coming out lickety-split, it'll only get more complicated...

Is this understandable?


I was thinking it might be helpful to make some sort of "particle list" where we could type in the numbers, and a program would read the list and make the changes to particles.DAT. Then all of the modders could pass this "list" around, and it would be easy to copy and paste settings created by other modders.

Sorry. Would this be too much work for you? I'll shut up if I'm asking for too much...

Thanks TT,
Marhkimov.

Hi Marhkimov,

Yes, I do understand. It's something that has been on my mind lately too, although I haven't come up with an "easy" answer for merging particle mods. Your suggestion is along the lines of what might work. Not sure how complicated the program would be. I'll give it some more thought. Thanks for the input.

TT

[timetraveller]

More particle tweak files just out.

;DEPTHCHARGE---------------------------
;@Depthcharge_explosion
;@Depthcharge_deepwater
;@Depthcharge_surface_explosion
;@Depthcharge_anticipation
;#dc_bubbles

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Depthcharge.zip


;HEDGEHOG------------------------------
;@Hedgehog_deepwater
;@Hedgehog_surface_explosion

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Hedgehog.zip


;KGUN----------------------------------
;$KGun_muzzle_flash
;&KGun_water_splash
;&KGun_water_deep

www.delraydepot.com/tt/KGun.zip


;AAGUN---------------------------------
;@AAGun_explosion
;$AA_Gun_muzzle_flash

www.delraydepot.com/tt/AAGun.zip


;BOMBS---------------------------------
;$bomb_explosion
;$bomb_halo

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Bombs.zip

-------
Hope you have fun with these.

TT

[timetraveller]

Here's some aircraft tweak files.

TT

;PLANE---------------------------------
;#plane_on_fire
;#plane_on_fire_halo
;#Plane_splinter_explosion
;#Plane_splinter_explosion_on_water
;#Plane_splinter_explosion_deep_water
;#plane_damaged
;#Plane_catastrophic_explosion
;#plane_fuel_explosion
;#plane_oil_explosion

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Plane.zip



..

[Redwine]

Whow TT !!

I back home today from a travel, i had not seen your recent updates !!

Many tahnks......!!! :up: :up:

[timetraveller]

You're welcome, Redwine, everybody.

See page 1 of this thread for the complete particle list with links.

TT

[Redwine]

You're welcome, Redwine, everybody.

See page 1 of this thread for the complete particle list with links.

TT

Finally i was able to enlarge the tracer shells.....

I had enlarged them up to they are visible along a 16km travel but with 10X maginification.

On original magnification you can see them up to 10km.

Now, i am able to aim and adjust distance with no help of the periscope or map.

I can see now if the bullet run is short or long...... :up:

I need to try for the best size, and plus for a more big water splash, it helps to aim, if the shot is short, you can see the shell over the hull of the ship, with no explosion and a god water splash.........

:up:

[timetraveller]

You're welcome, Redwine, everybody.

See page 1 of this thread for the complete particle list with links.

TT

Finally i was able to enlarge the tracer shells.....

I had enlarged them up to they are visible along a 16km travel but with 10X maginification.

On original magnification you can see them up to 10km.

Now, i am able to aim and adjust distance with no help of the periscope or map.

I can see now if the bullet run is short or long...... :up:

I need to try for the best size, and plus for a more big water splash, it helps to aim, if the shot is short, you can see the shell over the hull of the ship, with no explosion and a god water splash.........

:up:

Excellent, Redwine :up: :up: I still have to do tweak files for the main explosion particles. I'll try to get those out in the next few days. Lately I've taken a little diversion and am writing a hex viewer/editor program. I haven't been real happy with the freeware ones out there.

TT

[Type941]

I see some fantastic results from the screenshots, but will there be a some sort of 'I think this is final, let's release it as a mod' type of file? The one I can just put into JGSME and take care of that? It's all a bit confusing for me, since I've been out of the loop with SH3 for a few months now, and now coming back, it's all a bit overwhelming...

Also eveyrone seems to be making new ships but I see the same list of new ships as there were 3 months ago.. Am I missing something again? :) :doh:

[Dowly]

I see some fantastic results from the screenshots, but will there be a some sort of 'I think this is final, let's release it as a mod' type of file? The one I can just put into JGSME and take care of that? It's all a bit confusing for me, since I've been out of the loop with SH3 for a few months now, and now coming back, it's all a bit overwhelming...

Also eveyrone seems to be making new ships but I see the same list of new ships as there were 3 months ago.. Am I missing something again? :) :doh:

There´s the Marhkimov´s Supersmoke included in the "OceanMadness" mod. It´s really cool and it doesn´t affect to fps. :up:

[Type941]

I do know that Markhimov is the name to look out for when looking for mods at uboat.simulations. :D Thanks for the tip.

[timetraveller]

New tweak files for water splash and water explosion.

TT

;SPLASH_WATER_EXPLOSION----------------
;&Bullet_water_splash
;&Bullet_water_splash_deep
;$Splash_water
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion_deep
;&debris_water_explosion
;&debris_water_explosion_deep

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Splash_Water_Explosion.zip


..

[timetraveller]

And some miscellaneous ones that are interesting, including lightning.

TT

;MISC-------------------------------
;@Flare
;@Starshell
;@Lightning01
;@Lightning02
;@Lightning03
;@Lightning04
;#Ship_Collision
;#Propeller_wake

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Misc.zip

..

[Redwine]

Wonderful !!

Many Thanks TT...but i cant open the files.....

Win Zip give me an error mesage ! :hmm:

Can you check please if you can unzip them :up:

[Panama Red]

Timetravler:
The zip told me too that it was an "incomplete file" when I attempted to open it.

[Redwine]

Timetravler:
The zip told me too that it was an "incomplete file" when I attempted to open it.

I have an error mesage too, and download dialog do not appears, looks strange.

We will give you thousand of thanks if you can check this TT....

:up: :up:

[timetraveller]

Try them again guys.

The Misc.zip was corrupt for sure. I rebuilt both and uploaded.

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Misc.zip

www.delraydepot.com/tt/Splash_Water_Explosion.zip

TT

[timetraveller]

Okay, one more, and an important one.

General Explosions of all kinds.

TT

;GENERAL EXPLOSIONS--------------------D
;#Shell_fire_explosion
;#Shell_fire_explosion_halo
;#Shell_fire_explosion_ADD
;#Splinter_explosion
;#Splinter_explosion_halo
;&Shell_water_explosion
;&Shell_water_explosion_deep
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion
;&Big_Shell_water_explosion_deep
;#Small_splinter_explosion
;#Small_splinter_explosion_halo
;#Small_splinter_explosion_no_halo
;&debris_water_explosion
;&debris_water_explosion_deep
;#Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion01
;#Small_crewmans_splinter_explosion_halo01
;#CrewMan_explosion01
;#Splinter_crewmans_explosion01
;#Splinter_crewmans_explosion_halo01
;#CrewMan_explosion02

www.delraydepot.com/tt/General_Explosions.zip

..

[johnfriesen77]

V cool.. I'll start playing with this one, thanks for this work :)

[VikingGrandad]

Hey guys, I just finished reading through all the posts in this thread. Excellent work! :up: HW3 pointed me here because I put a thread up on the SH3 forum about smoke from burning ships.

You may want to take a look at the thread (http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/857101043/m/9901011093), as it contains some good pics of smoke you may find useful as reference. The first pic (the one that gave the idea to start the thread) gives an excellent 'head on' view of a large smoke column with a width that increases with height. It would be awesome if you could get achieve this kind of formation! :|\

[johnfriesen77]

I've been having fun tweaking the explosions and smoke.. but what I really wanna do is build ships :)

Pack3d is FANTASTIC tool.. but I haven't figured out how to clone or add new smoke.. I can add a new funnel... anyone know how to add or clone smoke effect?