in the Alpha that you're using the FPS was hit kinda hard, yes. In the BETA being tested currently I have redone all the smokes and fires to look better and be FPS friendly!
All these additions will impact the FPS some, but not much and not for very long. I haven't noticed any slowdowns yet and let me tell you, when an oil_explosion happens it's awesome! Bodies, helmets, lifejackets, debris, it all goes flying...:rock:
Let me give you a perspective of the additions:
- particles.dat file size is just under 0.5 meg
- materials.dat file size is right around 13 meg
compare those file sizes to what you have currently...;)

I just sent out the revised v2.02 BETA to my BETA testers. If all is well it will be released this weekend. The liferaft hasn't made it into the mod yet, hopefully I can get it done before this weekend. :|\\

You're a champion RB, deadset:up:

The figures have been modified, Racerboy - check your PM.

I just gave the latest beta a try and the results were pretty dramatic. Apologies to anyone affected by the picture size...

It was tested on a modern tanker, which was anchored in the North Sea while loaded with 90,000 barrels of aviation fuel...:cool:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...fe/Pretorp.jpg

Debris and bodies everywhere as the two forward tank sections blow up. The new explosion graphics work quite well.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...life/Fireb.jpg
The final death throes were shockingly dramatic. I was panning the free camera around the sinking stern when the aft tank section suddenly detonated. Apparently some of the crew had fled to the after deckhouse to escape the flames amidships - about 25-30 of these sailors were blown right off the ship.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...Sternsink1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...Sternsink2.jpg
Burning corpses littered the water. I liked how a group of men and life jackets popped up as soon as the ship sank, along with the usual crates.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...e/Bcorpses.jpg
The aftermath...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...fe/Flotsam.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d5...ife/Jetsam.jpg

In all seriousness, adding this mod to SH3 gives the game a much more grim atmosphere. It reminds you that IRL those ships weren't a bunch of self-propelled drones. Sinking one of them all too often meant taking peoples' lives, and editing this aspect of warfare out (as was done in stock SH3) doesn't change that reality.

I can see a lot of people not liking that aspect to the game. I can both respect and understand that.

Personally, I'll be installing it as soon as i get back from my work trip this weekend (presuming its released, im not trying to rush you RB). I almost never use the external camera anyway, so i wont see tooo much of the additional debris etc, but i do like the new explosions and so on.

It's a kind of macabre feeling to look at these pics. Thanks IABL. I feel a little ambivalent about that mod at the moment, because it makes me think over the game a little more. I guess that's a good thing! Thanks.

@RB
THANK YOU BIG TIME (and hopefully it's ready this weekend, please ;))

Why anyone would want to shield themselves from the horror of war is beyond me. If I had my way, watching grim WWI and WWII footage would be made compulsary.

"A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic."

-Joseph Stalin

Probably only a genocidal monster would not blink at the deaths of many human beings. I guess it's safe to say that we understand this mod not as a way of reveling in death, but simply as an attempt to not trivialize war.

SH3 is a sub SIM.....a simulation to real life...how can you have a simulation if you don't have all aspects of real life? I'm not adding effects just for eye candy, I'm also adding them to bring the sim part of the game to spec. It also makes it more realistic.
For those that do not wish to see the real aspects of what war does and/or do not want to see the effects of blowing a ship up I would not use this mod that I am making.

I respect that also. I understand it's going to strike a nerve with some people. All I have to say is I'm not forcing any of you to use the mod. You have the choice to decide whether you want to install and use this mod or not. I will not change any aspect of it because some people find it horrid or too realistic. :smug:

Very good Work Racerboy, very realistic !!!!!:up:

Waiting for your release:rock:

It's all brilliant Racerboy.

Stay the course.

Keep going RB ... Looks great ... Bodies are common in any war ... only thing missing is the sharks showing up and having a feeding frenzy as a friend of mine once told me, when he was in the water after thier ship got torpedoed near Japan .....

I am sure the avarage SHIII player is more than capable of appreciating the realities of war without the addition of such elements. The imagination is a far more powerfull tool that literal illustration. Far from making it more realistic, I feel it in fact reduces the sense of realism founded in the immersion of such a sim/game. It is precisely the immersion and the atmosphere which SHIII creates which would be undermined by the addition of such things which are to my mind rather 'arcade' elements.

Great job RB

When I was a young Petty Officer standing on the hanger deck of the Kitty Hawk watching body bags highlined over, the real war of Viet Nam hit me..