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

http://www.delraydepot.com/tt/Splash..._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



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!!!

[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

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:


:hmm:

[timetraveller]

Originally Posted by 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

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!

[Col7777]

Yup.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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?

[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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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