Funnel Smoke & Particle Discussion

[Marhkimov]

Originally Posted by CCIP

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.

Originally Posted by CCIP

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!

[CCIP]

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

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

[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...

[chris911]

Go for it. Looks very promising atm

[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

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

***

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:


Judging from the MaxClipping on my camera, this is about 10km away:




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:



Then holy crap... Long after the T3's had sunk, the smoke started to grow laterally!







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??

[CCIP]

Talk about an oil fire

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.