Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Kestrellius on October 05, 2017, 06:59:09 pm

Title: .eff files?
Post by: Kestrellius on October 05, 2017, 06:59:09 pm
How does one go about creating .eff files from scratch? I made a text file and relabeled it an .eff file, I have my frames in .dds format with the same name followed by _000x. Then I even tried copying an existing .eff file and altering it, to make sure there wasn't something I was missing about the file itself.

But no matter what I do, it won't seem to register in-game. If I try to have a weapon that uses it, I just get the default explosion particle instead...
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Nyctaeus on October 05, 2017, 08:23:35 pm
Pack your files and attach them here. There is too little information for us to figure out what's wrong.
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on October 05, 2017, 08:31:15 pm
Most instances of trying to load a nonexistant animation should generate a Warning.
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Spoon on October 06, 2017, 04:16:20 am
Quote from: AdmiralRalwood on October 05, 2017, 08:31:15 pm
Most instances of trying to load a nonexistant animation should generate a Warning.
And since you're getting the default explosions, its very likely that its not the .eff at fault, but that the effect is being overwritten by another table.

If you are modding with the mediavp's, you're bound to run into this, since the mediavp's have a load of seperate .tbm's that define effects like muzzleflashes and explosions seperately. It can get kind of confusing at times.

Check if mv_effects-wep.tbm might be overwritting your weapon entry.
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Kestrellius on October 06, 2017, 10:11:10 am
Quote from: Nyctaeus on October 05, 2017, 08:23:35 pm
Pack your files and attach them here. There is too little information for us to figure out what's wrong.

Alright. I'll do that shortly...

Quote from: Spoon on October 06, 2017, 04:16:20 am
If you are modding with the mediavp's, you're bound to run into this, since the mediavp's have a load of seperate .tbm's that define effects like muzzleflashes and explosions seperately. It can get kind of confusing at times.

Check if mv_effects-wep.tbm might be overwritting your weapon entry.

Well, that's what I assumed was happening at first, but I tried using a different effect -- an .eff from Blue Planet, not present in the MediaVPs, that I extracted into the MVPs folder, the same place as my effect, and it works fine...
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Spoon on October 06, 2017, 11:32:27 am
Have you tried running a debug build?
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Kestrellius on October 06, 2017, 02:15:07 pm
No. I realized that was probably a good idea...

Unfortunately my desktop keeps BSODing me at random, so I probably won't be able to get back to this until I figure out what's going on with that.
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Kestrellius on October 07, 2017, 09:56:05 am
'Kay. Here are the files.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1wmn9ibkij0izkk/AABYl8huF-985Owbjb073f0Pa?dl=0

Alright. Debug build says no frames were found.

Code: [Select]
Warning: EFF: No frame images were found.  EFF, shivflakparticle.eff, is invalid.

File: bmpman.cpp
Line: 1716

ntdll.dll! NtWaitForSingleObject + 21 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 67 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_8_0_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>

So I guess maybe I have the dds files formatted incorrectly somehow?
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Spoon on October 07, 2017, 06:30:31 pm
.dds files have to be 8x8 16x16 32x32 64x64 128x128 256x256 512x512 1024x1024 2048x2048 4096x4096 etc etc etc
80x80 is not a valid resolution for them
Title: Re: .eff files?
Post by: Kestrellius on October 07, 2017, 08:11:21 pm
oh

well that explains it then

Anyway, thanks!