[ChronoReverse]

What about the flak?  It looks almost the same except clearer...

[DaBrain]

The flak LOD is reduced to stage0 and stage4.
So you will have a "clear" effect until it is really far away.

And the for the launch it´s the same as for all effects wich use the missilehit ani. Al LOD stages are the same. Highest quality.


You should see it when a beam, or a missile hits a ship. The explosion looks much better an will stay longer.


Edit:
Here are some screenies which will show the difference.
The Infyrno is the missile of my choice for this


Old (expl. 500m away)


New (expl. 500m away)



Old (expl. 100m away)


New (expl. 100m away)

[Lightspeed]

Its basically all the normal effects with their LODs removed. LODs are there for a reason, though  

Then, theres the missile trails- pretty nice except for maybe missile trail5, although generally the 'embossed fibre' looks a bit odd.

The beam effects have some issues too. Instead of smooth shadings, we can see colour cutting edges, and loads of them. VOrange is the best example to see this - it really looks like 64 colours. The only exception is TGreen, which looks odd because the four spikes intersect with the ship hull. SRed doesnt have those issues either, but looks kinda flowery.

The green explosion - it's odd, and it has a colour cutting edge on the left side. Make sure an ANI is faded to RGB $0,0,0 at all 4 sides.

The particle also looks a bit odd, since it is 'shivering around' instead of staying still when flashing up.

The shield hit, erm... if the orange glow was 64 colours this must be a 4 colour animation. Really, if you use grey scale for an effect (like the shield hit) you should have ALL possible shades available (RGB $0,0,0 to RGB$255,255,255 - fits perfectly in 256 colours) - instead its horribly dithered and has odd edges outside the actual effect (see frames 0-5), and theres some green pixels (?) in frame 12. Also, this too, has problems with the edges of the ANI.

The preload TGA is pretty nice, although you should try to get one where the thruster bug (see left bottom corner) is not that obvious, and lower the ambient/diffuse lighting a bit to give it a more ambienty-feel

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Its basically all the normal effects with their LODs removed. LODs are there for a reason, though  

Then, theres the missile trails- pretty nice except for maybe missile trail5, although generally the 'embossed fibre' looks a bit odd.

The green explosion - it's odd, and it has a colour cutting edge on the left side. Make sure an ANI is faded to RGB $0,0,0 at all 4 sides.

The particle also looks a bit odd, since it is 'shivering around' instead of staying still when flashing up.

The shield hit, erm... if the orange glow was 64 colours this must be a 4 colour animation. Really, if you use grey scale for an effect (like the shield hit) you should have ALL possible shades available (RGB $0,0,0 to RGB$255,255,255 - fits perfectly in 256 colours) - instead its horribly dithered and has odd edges outside the actual effect (see frames 0-5), and theres some green pixels (?) in frame 12. Also, this too, has problems with the edges of the ANI.

The preload TGA is pretty nice, although you should try to get one where the thruster bug (see left bottom corner) is not that obvious, and lower the ambient/diffuse lighting a bit to give it a more ambienty-feel

The green explosion is not used.  I only forgot to delete it.
It was used for a test. I tried to use it as green beam explosion.


You won´t see the particles shivering. They are too smal and the ani is too fast.

And I tried out different shield anis. I thought I had quite cool ideas for it, but this was the one looking best in the game...
It was pretty smoth shaded before, but in game it looked very lame.

And green edges in a greyscaled ani ? I think I need to check this.

I noticed the thrusterbug in the corner AFTER releasing it

Well but shows the real FSSCP: Looking good, but a few bugs


I need to get used to color palettes...

Originally posted by Lightspeed

The beam effects have some issues too. Instead of smooth shadings, we can see colour cutting edges, and loads of them. VOrange is the best example to see this - it really looks like 64 colours. The only exception is TGreen, which looks odd because the four spikes intersect with the ship hull. SRed doesnt have those issues either, but looks kinda flowery.

Something is wrong with Vorange. But I will rework that effect anyway. Tblue has that issue, but for Tblue its not that bad, because anti fighter beamglows are pretty tiny, so it will be hard to notic this in-game. The interscting problem is the same as for the thrusters. There is nothing I can do to fix it, since I cannot code...

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Its basically all the normal effects with their LODs removed. LODs are there for a reason, though  
 

The LODs were there for 400-500 Mhz PCs.
And as I said before: It should be a performance hit, but my framerate is as high as before.

And it is not quite the same ani. The normal expmissilehit is too ugly for FSO...


What about the sounds ?

[Carl]

looking at the .ani files, i don't see a difference between them and the V ones, except for the green explosion, which is just a V explosion with a blob of green at the beginning, and the shield effect, which isn't as good at the V one.

all in all, it's ok. not as good as Voltion, but fine for a beginner.

the sounds are definately the best, though how did you make them?

[DaBrain]

With the original shield ani, it was a bit hard to see where the shield was hit.

Now you can see it perfectly. And it "feels" better to hit.
But thats my oppinion.

But the removed LOD should be part of the next mediaVP.
And I am interessted in BOBs new shield renderer.

Originally posted by Carl
the sounds are definately the best, though how did you make them?

Credits

Originally posted by Carl
looking at the .ani files, i don't see a difference between them and the V ones

I only renamed them, after extracting them.
Not a big thing,  but not everybody want/can do this.
So this is a good thing to keep it easy for everybody.

The main features are the beam glow/particles. The explosion anis were only changed to improve the visuals.

[Lightspeed]

Sounds are ripped from Freelancer and Homeworld AFAIK.

and making a crappy graphic just because "its all small and you wont notice ingame" is no excuse

As Carl said, it's okay - and definately nice for a beginner. I'll try removing my explosion LODs too one of these days - although it definately shouldnt go into the mediaVP. Instead I would like to see it as a command line or setting in the options screen - you simply make the game use LOD 1 whatever distance the explosion is rendered. This is both a much cleaner, and easier solution as you will not need ANY new files.

[.::Tin Can::.]

regardless, I'm downloading this... I've been looking forward to those new beam effects for a long time! Nice explosions too!

[Lightspeed]

Yeah, volition sure did a great job on them

[.::Tin Can::.]

And I'll download your nebula effects, lightspeed...

[Lightspeed]

You've inspired me to play around a bit with explosions...

Lightspeeds high-explosive compilation™

Includes the following:

• High Res ANIs (from FS1 and FS2)
• LODs for explosions removed for clearer distance views
• New flak explosion (from FS1)
• Smooth Explosion Technique™ (15 FPS explosions looked a bit stuttery)

Try it

[Taristin]

Oh, so this is why I haven't recieved texturing tips.

[.::Tin Can::.]

Pix? I always need pix before trying something out.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
You've inspired me to play around a bit with explosions...

Lightspeeds high-explosive compilation™

Includes the following:

• High Res ANIs (from FS1 and FS2)
• LODs for explosions removed for clearer distance views
• New flak explosion (from FS1)
• Smooth Explosion Technique™ (15 FPS explosions looked a bit stuttery)

Try it [/B]

Downloading now.
But the filesize is a bit high...
Perhaps these ani files a too huge.

Originally posted by Lightspeed
. Instead I would like to see it as a command line or setting in the options screen - you simply make the game use LOD 1 whatever distance the explosion is rendered. This is both a much cleaner, and easier solution as you will not need ANY new files.

That should be the best way to do it.




Edit: Somehow they make me remember the UT (1) explosions.
I think they are too fast. The speed increasement makes them stay very short. Wich is pretty unrealistic.
I don't really like the new flak explosion.
And I didn't change the normal explosions because of the huge performance hit when a capship explodes.
Before changing the normal explosions, we need a code change to separate the capship expl. ani´s form the normal ones.

[Flipside]

I've actually got some hypervoxel stuff set up for rendering, but the problem is I'm going to have to wait till I go abroad on Holiday or something before I start it

[Lightspeed]

I think they are too fast. The speed increasement makes them stay very short. Wich is pretty unrealistic.

I know, but filling in interpolated frames is gonna take a while - I could do that but I still wonder if it's be worth the trouble. But I still think a bit too fast explosions look better than stuttering ones.

I don't really like the new flak explosion.
And I didn't change the normal explosions because of the huge performance hit when a capship explodes.

Same as with the other LOD removing. All you need is a mighty computer

FLAK thing is just personal taste, if you don't like it, just remove all "exp20..." files.

 

Before changing the normal explosions, we need a code change to separate the capship expl. ani´s form the normal ones.

That could be pretty useful, too.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Lightspeed






Same as with the other LOD removing. All you need is a mighty computer

I not sure about this. The capship explosions were the heaviest perfomance hit in the past.
Now (after most of us got better hardware) they should be no problem anymore. But only with LOD.

For the normal explosions the removement of the LOD should not cause problems (only on really low-end systems).
In contrast to the ones used for capship explosions, these ani´s are only placed individually. (1 per effect)

Having 10 (not sure, mutiple big scaled expl. and shockwaves) or so played at once will be a performance hit on average systems.

[Lt.Cannonfodder]

Originally posted by DaBrain
Having 10 (not sure, mutiple big scaled expl. and shockwaves) or so played at once will be a performance hit on average systems.

Try blowing up a capship with 512x512 explosions without LODs. That takes even a high end system down, if only for a moment.

[ChronoReverse]

Yeah, it's really harsh.  Try playing The King's Gambit O_o


/me hopes that the .ani format will be replaced on day with something more efficient.

[Lt.Cannonfodder]

Originally posted by ChronoReverse
/me hopes that the .ani format will be replaced on day with something more efficient.

I hope they add a 24 or 32 bit support. The lack of colors is driving me crazy, not to mention the time wasted trying to get the palette right.