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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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!

The Big Smoke

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

TT

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7...gsmoke14em.jpg

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

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1...gsmoke36an.jpg

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?

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:

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:

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.

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

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

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

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.