Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: DaBrain on July 13, 2004, 07:28:47 pm

Title: Upgrade: Effects (update)
Post by: DaBrain on July 13, 2004, 07:28:47 pm
UPDATE:
Release 1.1

Includes:
All Release 1 effects (tweak)
New (not really) missile trails
New beamglows (The zPack glows are ugly)
New afterburner trails
New shivan thruster


Release 1.1 (http://www.swooh.com/peon/DaBrain/da_effects1_1.rar)

Mirror part1 (http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/da_effects1_1.part1.rar)  part2 (http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/da_effects1_1.part2.rar)

Pre Release1(old) (http://www.xs4all.nl/~joost5/dab_effects.exe) (Includes my other shockwave)




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had some time and finished some stuff. I hope you like it. ;)


This is what it contains:

-New shockwave (I posted some preview (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,24254.0.html) shots a while ago. Now it's fixed. (256 color optimised)
-New flak explosion (I think this is the best one :) )
-Particle smoke (The stock one was just crappy)
-New Particle EXP (Hard to notice, but I got close to the old one... it's ugly)
-New missile trails (Slightly better than the stock one.)
-New shieldhit (I think it's in the mediaVP, but I want my stuff to be complete)

Just put everything in your /effects folder.

Here some shots (Keep in mind this stuff is animated):

New flak
(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089764053.jpg)

New particle smoke
(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089764274.jpg)

New shockwave
(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089764380.jpg)

New particle
(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089764725.jpg)




(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089764793.jpg)






http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/dab_effects_1.rar
http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/dab_effects_2.part1.rar
http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/dab_effects_2.part2.rar

Edit: Click (http://www.xs4all.nl/~joost5/dab_effects.exe) (Full package) Thanks to wolfdog :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: TIMMAY on July 13, 2004, 08:03:01 pm
Curious... with your new particle effects do you still get a slowdown when right behind a ship spewing out particles?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 13, 2004, 08:07:03 pm
I had no slowdowns at all, but I only made some screens.
No intensive testing.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on July 13, 2004, 08:24:59 pm
I would be alot happier if someone would do beams without a HUGE glow around it. Could someone try that out.

Oh and I'm not sure I like your particle spew there, looks like the prometheus struck a gas tank or something :p
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: TIMMAY on July 13, 2004, 08:33:42 pm
Just tested them out.. they all look really good, but now that i've got them in there I got my first Out of Memory error :(
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on July 13, 2004, 08:34:58 pm
It does no harm to your computer... :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Unknown Target on July 13, 2004, 09:17:08 pm
Very nice! As soon as I can, I'll download them! :)
Title: hmm
Post by: TIMMAY on July 13, 2004, 09:25:52 pm
Quote
Originally posted by jdjtcagle
It does no harm to your computer... :)


Yeh, but having never gotten the problem before and especially getting it after 1 mission.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Ransom on July 13, 2004, 09:31:36 pm
Great work DaBrain, huge improvements over the originals, especially the shockwave. I think the particle effects could be a little smaller though, closer to the size of the originals. (well, they seem bigger anyway)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Bri_Dog on July 13, 2004, 09:54:46 pm
Would it be too much to ask if somebody could take fraps and make some short vids showing off the new effects?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on July 13, 2004, 10:08:22 pm
How do you take VIDs?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Bri_Dog on July 14, 2004, 12:23:06 am
Use fraps to capture screenshots then compile them into a .gif or .avi
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Singh on July 14, 2004, 04:48:16 am
Quote
Originally posted by Bri_Dog
Use fraps to capture screenshots then compile them into a .gif or .avi


*is sorely tempted to run through that mission again*

Umm....nm.
Good work Dabrain, from the shots, it looks like this is gonna rock! :yes:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 14, 2004, 09:36:25 am
I took some clips. Sorry, but after mpg conversion, they got a bit dark... I don't know why, or how to fix it.
Also Fraps cuts down my fps by a huge ammount, as soon as I start the avi capture. You might notice some stuttering.

http://www.geocities.com/dabrain2005/flak.zip

http://www.geocities.com/dabrain2005/boom2.zip

http://www.geocities.com/dabrain2005/smoke.zip


For everybody who liked the stock effect, I made a new shockwave :) (I still think the other shockwave is way better)

http://www.geocities.com/dabrain2005/shockwave01.zip

(http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040714/1089815745.jpg)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Bri_Dog on July 14, 2004, 12:22:43 pm
Cool stuff!  The flak looks great
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 14, 2004, 03:52:39 pm
A better clip of the flak.
http://mitglied.lycos.de/da56brain/flak2.rar
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on July 14, 2004, 04:12:40 pm
Right, the flak looks nice,...........but (i know ;7 ) in my opinion, the ani is too long (maybe 1 or 1.5 sec). e.g. flying between two flak-mounted vessels and you got completely blinded. Yeah, it looks cool, but it´s not really playable.

Just a thought: maybe a different colour would look nice, too. Bright-blue for example (´caused by a strange type of ammunnition with blue thingies in it  :D ). Hey, you can watch yellow-orange explosions all the time. It would be a different look.

BTW: the smoke effect looks brilliant,............but (i know again ;7 ) the particle_smoke anis could be a bit longer (and maybe ?red?)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on July 14, 2004, 04:29:12 pm
DaBrain, would you mind making an effect or two for a campaign i'm working on?
They might be useful elsewhere too...
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 14, 2004, 05:13:21 pm
Sure, if it won't have much frames...
I can't stand the conversion work, it takes ages.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: aldo_14 on July 14, 2004, 05:17:04 pm
Quote
Originally posted by DaBrain
Sure, if it won't have much frames...
I can't stand the conversion work, it takes ages.


How come?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Nico on July 14, 2004, 05:26:39 pm
I suspect he's converting the palettes frame per frame, like I used to do?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 14, 2004, 06:10:11 pm
That's it, after I recolored them by hand, to get optimal use of the 256 colors.

It's a really stupid job... doing 100 times the same thing.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: aldo_14 on July 14, 2004, 06:21:11 pm
Quote
Originally posted by DaBrain
That's it, after I recolored them by hand, to get optimal use of the 256 colors.

It's a really stupid job... doing 100 times the same thing.


Why not use bright (http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/TextureSpecifications / http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/TextureSpecifications/bright181.zip)?  Insofar as my eyes can see, it does a perfect job creating an optimal palette - there's almost / no detail loss converting most stuff.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Bobboau on July 14, 2004, 07:00:30 pm
bright kicks ass, I've used it a lot myself, the only time it gets flaky is when you have to do a long animations with lots of color variation and there is a short but very visable part of the animation that has an unusual color.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: aldo_14 on July 14, 2004, 07:09:19 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Bobboau
bright kicks ass, I've used it a lot myself, the only time it gets flaky is when you have to do a long animations with lots of color variation and there is a short but very visable part of the animation that has an unusual color.


Arguably more of a problem with the single-palette animation format, though.  Did anyone ever try to implement avi cbanis with the SCP?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Singh on July 14, 2004, 11:35:03 pm
hmm. I just saw the flame and have some feedback: although it looks good, perhaps it wouldbe better for it to fade to black/red instead of white? It just doesn't seem like a flame more than a gas leak. See the FS1 intro for an example of a ship on fire - it should be something like that :/
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Nico on July 15, 2004, 01:36:27 am
Quote
Originally posted by aldo_14


Why not use bright (http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/TextureSpecifications / http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/TextureSpecifications/bright181.zip)?  Insofar as my eyes can see, it does a perfect job creating an optimal palette - there's almost / no detail loss converting most stuff.


The man has photoshop, the man should use... and there Nico becomes helpless for his photoshop version is french :p
You can record what you're doing in toshop ( probably in the history tab, don't have PS running right now ), then in the file menu, you can apply automatically those modifications to a set of files ( batch conversion I believe it's called, in english ).
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: aldo_14 on July 15, 2004, 03:33:15 am
I think bright is just as, maybe more, effective as Photoshop, though.  Plus it's easy as hell to setup a bat file......  I'm sure I ddin't / don't get as good results colour reducing maps with PS.....
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Ransom on July 15, 2004, 05:54:36 am
Hmm, is it just me or is the second shockwave zip corrupted? (the blue stock remake one, that is)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 15, 2004, 07:39:10 am
It works for me.
Try again. It's more FS1 style, I think.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on July 15, 2004, 10:50:07 am
After my reply yesterday i tried to get into this ani-stuff myself.  But what can i say. Thats not really fun. Maybe i didn´t find the right tools, but converting ani files foreward and backward and foreward and backward....just to get the pcx-files out of it was really frustrating. (And yes i know how to use the search key, but i didn´t find any useful hints).  Maybe there is a tutorial, that i didn´t find.  I would be thankful for ani(y) help.

Greetings, Psychonaut
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 15, 2004, 11:01:49 am
So you want to extract the PCX files ?

You should visit this site:
http://www.descent-network.com/descman/
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on July 15, 2004, 01:18:34 pm
So i see the anibuilder and the aniview-tool. Is there anything else, what i need? Maybe my thinking is too simple, but i thought, to get in this stuff slowly, just try to modify some existing anis.  Get the pcx, change them a bit and compile them to an ani again. It seems, that it isn´t that simple, isn´t it.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 15, 2004, 01:47:19 pm
Uhm, you shouldn't do that.

All frames of ANIs share the same (256)color palette.

If you alter them, they will need a new palette, so you will loose quality 2x.

Like opening a jpg, and saving it as jpg.



After your work every frame has to use the same palette. Keep that in mind. Try not to use many colors.



Btw for everybody thinking the flak ANI is too long, or too big:
Rename it to "ExpMissilehit1.ani" and create some copies.
ExpMissilehit1_1.ani, ExpMissilehit1_2.ani, ExpMissilehit1_3.ani

Might look better for this effect. (Especially the flaklaunch looks great.)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Krackers87 on July 17, 2004, 05:03:42 pm
I downloaded the shockwave .zip and it was corrupt, i dled it again but it no longer exists....
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 18, 2004, 05:44:01 am
Try this link:

http://mitglied.lycos.de/da56brain/shockwave01.rar
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 18, 2004, 10:52:57 am
Is there any effect you really hate ?

The next on I'm on is the super-stuttery nebula smoke ANI, but lets see what I'll do after it. ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: wolfdog on July 18, 2004, 03:31:09 pm
Didn't have time to test the effects yet.. but I did have time to put all the files in a single archive and upload them.. as you requested.. Click (http://www.xs4all.nl/~joost5/dab_effects.exe)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 18, 2004, 03:34:06 pm
Thanks ;)
It's really crap to create something and nobody is able to get it.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Deepblue on July 19, 2004, 09:29:57 pm
Ugh. I wish someone would find a way to make it so that you could use alpha blending with 0, 0, 255 because I want to make a smoke trail with BLACK smoke. Thick, black smoke.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 20, 2004, 05:44:55 am
Even if this was possible, you wouldn't be able to see it in space.

Dark grey is the best you can do.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on July 20, 2004, 09:54:49 am
black smoke, IIRC, should be possible with the use of 32-bit TGAs.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 20, 2004, 10:30:16 am
I think it's supposed to be an ANI...
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Deepblue on July 21, 2004, 10:04:02 pm
Exactly. And anyways, even if I made a trail with grey smoke it is too transparent to be practical.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Krackers87 on July 22, 2004, 03:09:45 pm
the part 2 of 2 .rar is also corrupt.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 22, 2004, 03:26:24 pm
Wolfdog posted a link to the complete package.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~joost5/dab_effects.exe
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 23, 2004, 09:47:43 am
Here is the gas ANI.
http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/gas.rar
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on July 23, 2004, 05:58:50 pm
pics?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on July 24, 2004, 04:21:08 am
Nope, it's minor effect (like debris in space). But the old 4 frame 32² pixel animation in nabulas was just too ugly.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 04, 2004, 04:40:17 am
I just got a good pic of the new expMissleHit.
(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1882/BeamExp.jpg)
Just rename the flak ani. It looks much better for beam hits.
I think the standard explosion looks just out of place.


Edit: I got some additional shots.
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2894/beamhit1.jpg)
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6339/beamhit2.jpg)
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/372/beamhit3.jpg)
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9545/beamhit4.jpg)

Edit2: Is it possible to have particles spawned on beam hits ?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Setekh on August 04, 2004, 07:22:32 am
Wow, that looks different. I'm going to have to try that myself and see it in motion. :nod:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 04, 2004, 08:46:23 am
Here is a new ParticleSmoke animation.
It looks more firery (just like some people suggested).

It's more an upgraded version of the old effect.

http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/particle_smoke.rar



Edit: Oh sorry I forgot the shots ;)

(http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/1443/smoke1.jpg)

(http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/2899/smoke3.jpg)

(http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/997/smoke2.jpg)


And a shot of my favorite missile (infyrno) with the new expMissileHit1.ani.

(http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4594/infyrno.jpg)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: karajorma on August 04, 2004, 09:37:20 am
Looks a little extreme but I'll give it a shot :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 04, 2004, 09:44:07 am
Yeah, I tried to get close-up shots.
The effect is not bigger than the standard effect.
It you think the animation is too long, increase the ANI framerate to 30.

Although I think it's ok the way it is ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on August 04, 2004, 10:26:45 am
That was pretty cool :) :yes:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Gloriano on August 04, 2004, 11:26:05 am
Wow that is diffrent I gonna check it
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Taristin on August 04, 2004, 12:17:28 pm
It looks alright until it fades off, IMO. It begins to look too much like a rendered cloud from Photoshop. But I haven't looked at it in game yet.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: jdjtcagle on August 04, 2004, 12:26:24 pm
it's way.... better in-game :nod:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 05, 2004, 07:14:44 am
I think we got rid of the most ugly/outdated effects now.
Please tell me if I missed one. ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on August 05, 2004, 07:34:22 am
Could you start out the particle smoke more fiery, and then fade it to grey? This would look pretty cool, i think.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 05, 2004, 08:05:51 am
My first particle smoke stared firery, but somehow, it wasn't really noticeable.

I like the firery one more than the smoky one ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Singh on August 08, 2004, 01:11:04 am
which files do I have to rename to get the new effects?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on August 08, 2004, 01:34:13 pm
Only my flak Ani (Exp20.ani) to ExpMissilehit1.ani. Yopu should also create some copies of it (ExpMissilehit1_1.ani, ExpMissilehit1_2.ani, ExpMissilehit1_3.ani).


If you like my flak animation don't just rename it, but rename a copy of it ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: SadisticSid on August 08, 2004, 02:23:01 pm
DaBrain, would you fancy doing a makeover on Inferno's new Shivan weapons?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 07, 2004, 05:03:50 pm
Sorry, I didn't see your reply. (one month ago)

If it's not too late, I'd like to do ít.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 12, 2004, 12:21:14 pm
Ok, I think my last shockwave had a weird perspective, so I just tried again. And then I decided to make a whole new, better shockwave effect.

But here is my old problem: The 256 color limit.

There is only one option for me: Recolor each frame in Photoshop, so 256 colors will be enough. But I can't decide on a color...
Standart (Needs at least 16 bit)                
(http://img76.exs.cx/img76/5913/shockwave.jpg)

Blue
(http://img76.exs.cx/img76/318/shockwave1.jpg)

Orange/yellow
(http://img76.exs.cx/img76/3697/shockwave2.jpg)



Feel free to suggest other colors. Tell me if it needs more red or wheter a dark blue looks better.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 12, 2004, 12:23:26 pm
Reddish (Shivan) - Greenish (Vasudan) - Near white (Terran)...
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 12, 2004, 12:31:34 pm
Hmm much work. Can that even be done? Race specific shochwaves?

Would probably need a modified table if it is possible.




And if you had to decide on one color for all shockwaves, which would you choose?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 12, 2004, 12:33:03 pm
Well, if you have to choose for a color then the orange/yellow one is pretty much fine ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 12, 2004, 12:35:45 pm
Ok, thanks. Thats what I thought ;)

This one will get Lods, so it won't cause that much performance problems as the old one.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 12, 2004, 12:36:49 pm
Oh, BTW: Great Work on those shockwaves!
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Janos on September 12, 2004, 12:39:01 pm
Gorgeous, just gorgeous.

Now someone should just compile all of the new stuff into yet another SuperMediaVPVP.vp and give us short bus crew a chance to furiously masturbate over our keyboards while thinking of DaBrain.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Swamp_Thing on September 12, 2004, 04:37:08 pm
Someone´s feeling very horny...  :D
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Taristin on September 12, 2004, 05:01:44 pm
...Janos has been acting more and more like an even more immature KT lately...

Scary.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 12, 2004, 05:23:30 pm
Do not masturbate! You will become blind!!!
:eek2:
(And don't think of me while you do it... unless you're a babe.)


I'll go for the orange version.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Antares on September 12, 2004, 05:42:44 pm
Dude.  Make a red one.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 12, 2004, 05:56:44 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Antares
Dude.  Make a red one.


I think red looks weird. Do you agree?
(http://img40.exs.cx/img40/769/shockwave4.jpg)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 12, 2004, 06:05:03 pm
Blue is still the best colour for shockwaves.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Jetmech Jr. on September 12, 2004, 06:53:14 pm
Is it possible to have the First part orange (the bright point of light) and have the shockwave blue? How would that look?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Deepblue on September 12, 2004, 07:03:50 pm
Shockwaves need to be colorless. Period. In fact you shouldn't see them at all, just see the debris getting pushed and feel the hit.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Trivial Psychic on September 12, 2004, 10:10:18 pm
I'd say include as many colors as possible, like have the leading edge of the shockwave one color, and its trails getting dimmer and cooler as they go further in.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: StratComm on September 12, 2004, 10:48:08 pm
Problem is, they are ani's and as such all frames use the same 256 color pallete.  So monochrome they shall stay, unless DaBrain has 75% of the pallete entries free to play with.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Swamp_Thing on September 12, 2004, 11:35:39 pm
The shockwaves and explosions shouldn´t be fire like. There´s no oxygen in space, thus there wouldnt be any big ass explosions and fiery shockwaves. Small explosions are ok, because terran ships have oxygen inside that could fuel them. But big ones, like some we see, are a definitive no no.
Explosions could also be species colour coded. Terran ships have an oxygen based atmosphere, thus it makes an orange coloured blast. Shivan and vasudans have diferent atmospheres (if at all) and so the explosions would have a diferent colour, depending on wich gas their atmosphere is composed of.
Now, if i were to choose based on looks alone, i would definitely choose the blue one, or the oranje one.  The red shockwave starts ok, but then the red colour feels out of place. Maybe it could be done so that it starts red, and then fades into orange and yellow...
:)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Deepblue on September 13, 2004, 12:04:49 am
Vasudans breathe air. Look at the shield test cutscene.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 13, 2004, 03:40:23 am
Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
Problem is, they are ani's and as such all frames use the same 256 color pallete.  So monochrome they shall stay, unless DaBrain has 75% of the pallete entries free to play with.



Even if I stick to one color, there will be a minor quality loss.
While it's ok for smaller ANIs, the shockwave can be quite huge.
So I can't use even one other color :(

I think there is no way to avoid a complete recoloring for this effect.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 13, 2004, 03:49:46 am
That reddish one could do for some weapon effect... Keep it, someone will find an use ;-)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Ransom on September 13, 2004, 03:58:27 am
Quote
Originally posted by Deepblue
Shockwaves need to be colorless. Period. In fact you shouldn't see them at all, just see the debris getting pushed and feel the hit.

But flashy effects look cooler! :p

I'm not sure what realism is good for. All it seems to do is make things not look as good.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Gloriano on September 13, 2004, 08:37:14 am
Blue one looks coolest :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 13, 2004, 12:09:46 pm
2:1 for Blue (right?)
So I guess it's going to be blue :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Woolie Wool on September 13, 2004, 12:15:40 pm
I vote for FIRE!
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: StratComm on September 13, 2004, 12:20:09 pm
Go with blue.  More canon, and it just looks better against the black of space.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 13, 2004, 12:21:18 pm
Canon? Can you explain me how blue is more canon than orange/yellow? Or any other color?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Woolie Wool on September 13, 2004, 12:26:15 pm
Because the original shockwaves were blue?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Zarax on September 13, 2004, 12:27:27 pm
Err... weren't they gray?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Woolie Wool on September 13, 2004, 12:32:19 pm
No.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 13, 2004, 02:16:59 pm
Some kinda grey-ish blue. If you ask me it looks like it was drawn for a cartoon. Well, perhaps it's just me.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Vaelinx on September 13, 2004, 04:22:28 pm
I've often wondered if the shockwaves would look cooler a little more asymmetric...  Is that possible?  Like either longer on one axis, or sort of 'chunckier' in places...

But as far as color goes, I'd say a grey-ish blue, not too bright.  (now are these the same shockwaves we get when bombs go off as well?)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 13, 2004, 04:37:15 pm
Yes :nod:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 14, 2004, 08:40:50 am
If you want to test it. This is more or less the alpha version of the effect. To be precise, this is what the little tool  Bright offers me.

Not enough for my taste, but still very cool ;)

Could someone take a shot or two?


http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/shockwave01.rar
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on September 14, 2004, 03:43:41 pm
For itself, the shockwave is a nice improvement to the old one (nice job as usual :yes: ). But it seems, that the old effect is bigger and lasts longer, than the new. e.g. destroy an arcadia-station and you can barely see the shockwave behind this huge explosions. In that case the old one works much better.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 14, 2004, 05:00:52 pm
Thanks for the feedback. :yes:  But are you sure about this?
They both have 100 frames. And both last 6 seconds.


I think the old one was a bit too big.
Try blowing up some other ships ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 15, 2004, 07:06:07 am
I think I'll reduce the framerate. It will look a bit stuttery in ANI view, but since FS2 tends to change the speed anyway (In most cases much faster than I want) it doesn't mattter.


But perhaps something else is wrong... The stock shockwave last only 3 seconds, but that just can't be true. :wtf:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 15, 2004, 03:06:43 pm
Shockwaves completely ignore framerates and are based on $Shockwave speed.

:)

And recolour it to blue - the last version you posted has QUITE a bit of visual problems. Plus it's brown and me doesnt like that for a shockwave ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 15, 2004, 05:19:46 pm
Even adding more Frames won't make it last longer, right?

I kinda knew that ... :ick:


Ok, ok I'll make it blue. ;)

The brown-ish wave is Brights fault. Uhmm blame Bright ;7
In-game is't not was bad as I imagined when I previewed it  in ANI View.

But I don't want to loose the smooth glow, which make capship explosions look cool. :cool:


I had absolutly no time for anything today... :(
Title: RELEASE
Post by: DaBrain on September 17, 2004, 01:56:53 pm
Final Package

Release 1.0 (http://www.swooh.com/peon/DaBrain/da_effects.rar)

Includes all previous effects, but now with LOD.
And the new blue shockwave, also LODed.

I've optimised some of the effects, in looks and size.


If you have any performance problems with the new shockwave, replace the shockwave01 with a copy from shockwave01_1.
Will reduce the quality a bit but will use ony 1/4 of the memory.



And thanks to Stealth, who gave me webspace, so I can release this. :yes:


I hope at least some parts of it will be used for the zPack. :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 17, 2004, 03:06:15 pm
Oh I almost forgot the super-important shot ;7
(http://img46.exs.cx/img46/976/screen59.jpg)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 17, 2004, 03:09:22 pm
I'll give it a look.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 18, 2004, 02:17:54 am
Ok.


Uhm is nobody else interessted? :confused:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Singh on September 18, 2004, 02:19:41 am
i dont have a PC atm to look at it, so :P to you
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 18, 2004, 03:01:11 am
swooh is down...  I would DL it, but I cant...
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 18, 2004, 03:10:16 am
Ah so that's it.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 18, 2004, 03:11:16 am
:nod:  I will download it as soon as I can though!  :D
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Gloriano on September 18, 2004, 03:24:13 am
I gonna check this :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Setekh on September 18, 2004, 04:00:03 am
Hey, 1.0! Nice one. I've gotta get a big news post up.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: MetalDestroyer on September 18, 2004, 04:27:58 am
I prefer the Yellow One, but, if there are any new version in the next week, try to set into the shockwave 3 differents colors .
Yellow for the extremis, blue for the middle section and for the center of the shockwave i think any color will be suitable (white, blue, yellow).

In all words, it's still impressive.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 18, 2004, 05:03:45 am
Sorry, it's not possible to use more than one color :(

It might work, if I cut out the lens effekt. But I think the 8-Bit color limit hardly leaves possibilities to do that.

[V] made a very cartoonish looking shockwave, probably because of the color limitation. (And they also used only on color...)


But I've kept all 24-Bit images, so I can create better ANIs as soon as FSO supports it. :)

I might release a yellow shockwave soon. Don't know yet.


@Setekh Thanks for the news ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on September 18, 2004, 11:18:29 am
YES YES YES LOVE THAT STUFF GIVE IT TO ME YES YES YES
NOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAARGHHHHH THE LINK DOESN´T WORK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :hopping::mad: :sigh:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: c914 on September 18, 2004, 11:34:16 am
Same here link does't work.
Mayby swooh is down.. but that is strange I was try to download it few hours ago and I couldn't:doubt:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Gloriano on September 18, 2004, 11:41:40 am
Effects are really nice, Good work DaBrain:)

I tested them in game
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Ulala on September 18, 2004, 12:03:57 pm
Looks cool. :yes:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on September 18, 2004, 02:18:25 pm
How did you get it?:confused:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: StratComm on September 18, 2004, 02:20:35 pm
It was up for a while, just not now.  Wait until Swooh comes back.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Mr_Maniac on September 18, 2004, 02:21:52 pm
Would someone be so nice to upload this file to another server?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 18, 2004, 06:50:11 pm
Well the link does work now for me...
Try again.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 19, 2004, 06:36:01 am
I think the missileHit has one LOD to much. It gets too blury for my taste.
Just cut out the first LOD (ExpMissileHit1_1) one and replace it with LOD 0 (ExpMissileHit1).

I'll fix the package. So if you're lazy, just redownload. (In 10 minutes or so)

Edit: Might take a while. I'm adding some stuff ;)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 19, 2004, 08:08:32 am
swooh is taking for EVER to download it from...  something like 4 hours from a T1 line.  :mad:
Title: RELEASE
Post by: DaBrain on September 19, 2004, 08:19:42 am
Release 1.1

Includes:
All Release 1 effects (tweak)
New (not really) missile trails
New beamglows (The zPack glows are ugly)
New afterburner trails
New shivan thruster


Release 1.1 (http://www.swooh.com/peon/DaBrain/da_effects1_1.rar)

Mirror part1 (http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/da_effects1_1.part1.rar)  part2 (http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/da_effects1_1.part2.rar)

Pre Release1(old) (http://www.xs4all.nl/~joost5/dab_effects.exe) (Includes my other shockwave)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Fury on September 19, 2004, 09:00:03 am
DaBrain, send the full file to my email or send it over ICQ and I'll upload it to better host. fury[NOSPAM]@mbnet.fi
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 19, 2004, 09:09:03 am
I can't, gmail doesn't work right (try again later, blah...), and web.de (my other account) doesn't allow files bigger than 3 MB. :(
Thanks anyway :)

But the Mirror should work fine now.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 19, 2004, 10:59:04 am
Can you download the parts and upload them in one file? (extract, reRAR)

That would be great :)
Title: Comments
Post by: übermetroid on September 19, 2004, 06:39:34 pm
(http://swooh.com/peon/ubermetroid/pics/shockwave.jpg)
(http://swooh.com/peon/ubermetroid/pics/shockwave_2.jpg)
The blast looks cool, but for big ships it is hard to see under the explosions.   The wave seems kinda slow, but I guess that is a table thing.

(http://swooh.com/peon/ubermetroid/pics/missleblast.jpg)
The missleblast is wierd.  It looks fine when going against a cap ship, but on fighters or bombers by the time explosion is done the ship is far away.  Like the explosion is too slow.  Any way to speed it up.?

Over all I like the looks, but I am going to really need a lite version of everything for it to run smoothly on my PC.
Title: Re: RELEASE
Post by: DaBrain on September 20, 2004, 12:22:22 am
Quote
Originally posted by DaBrain
If you have any performance problems with the new shockwave, replace the shockwave01 with a copy from shockwave01_1.
Will reduce the quality a bit but will use ony 1/4 of the memory.
 


Try this.



I can't do much about the shockwave speed, but to edit the tables. I'll give it a try.


If you want to have a shorter lasting missileHit, just use Ani Builder. Extract the frames, build a new Ani using the frames, ust with a higher framerate, I'd suggest 30-34.

I quite like it the way it is. Would look awful if the explosions would "follow" the ships.


Btw cool shots :yes:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Liberator on September 20, 2004, 01:06:00 am
I just caught this thread...is this stuff compatible with Lightspeed's tbls that he is releasing with the Shinepack upgrades?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 20, 2004, 01:18:34 am
Yeah, only the ABtrails won't work with LS tables. But I think Turambar is going to modify the tables.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: MetalDestroyer on September 20, 2004, 01:38:02 am
I prefer the yellow one you did before. It was the best shockwave I 'veever seen. really, on this pic, shockwave are very confusing.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 20, 2004, 10:15:31 am
I do not understand what you want to tell me, I think.

How is the shockwave in the picture confusing? :confused:
How can it be confusing? :wtf:


If you prefer my old shockwave, load the old pack an extract only the shockwave.

I could create LODs for the shockwave. Hmm perhaps I'll do that.



And btw has anyone problems with the beamglows?
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 20, 2004, 11:11:56 am
Couple of (severe) problems with the release:

- You use DDS for effects. This is a BIG no-no, and looks absolutely horrible. use TGA or JPG for ANY effects which rely on smooth gradients. Even 8-bit PCX looks better than DDS for smooth gradients.

- You include mipmaps with the DDS, this is useless as SCP wont use them.

- The thruster images waste memory, as they're blurry enough to be sized down at least one size.

- ParticleExp01 looks cartoony, as it is displayed when you hit ships with primaries (as well) - use something more explosion-like for a good feel (instead of white "stars twinkling" upon impact of primaries)

- heavy bounding box issues with the beamglows - fade to $0,0,0 at the edges, and have a smooth transisition that way.

- The missile hit (as has been mentioned already) lasts a bit long for a missile hit. Also, it's a bit blurry for its resolution - try working in more detail into the ANI.

That said, the shockwave looks pretty cool.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 20, 2004, 11:42:56 am
Nah, DDS aint that bad fot effects.
RGB or ARGB looks pretty good.

TGA and JPG waste memory, as they cannot be loaded compressed in the memory.

8-Bit PCX can't compete with DDS when it comes to gradients that consist of more than two colors.

I'll fix the beamglows. I have a special layer for that (I'm kinda lazy), but it looks like I did use it only on one glow... oops ;)


ParticleExp01 was supposed to make the beam charging look cooler. ;) I know it's used for for primary impacts too. But it's almost not noticeable. Well I think the stock particle is so butt-ugly that it's not much of a difference.

Reducing the thruster map size would not reduce the quality much on fighter thrusters, but it'd be too blury for capship engines.


Can you tell me where the "shockwave time" or "speed" can be found? It looks like I'll have to adjust it.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 20, 2004, 12:41:24 pm
can be found nowhere, 'cept for the weapon tables, IIRC.

And I still stand to what I said about DDS.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on September 20, 2004, 12:53:01 pm
You have to edit them in the ships.tbl.
Search for these lines and alter them (if you wish) for every ship.

---------------
$Expl inner rad:            150.0
$Expl outer rad:            850.0
$Expl damage:               200.0
$Expl blast:               11000.0
$Expl Propagates:            YES                  
$Shockwave Speed:            250.0         
$Shockwave Count:   3
------------------------

This is from the Deimos. The inner and outer rad are responsible for the size of the shockwave. The speed is responsible for the time, the shockwave needs to reach the outer rad.

If you want a shockwave in fighter explosions for example, you should use an outer rad 130.0 and a shockwavespeed of 100. (I know fighter shockwaves are not in vanilla bat looks cool and if you set them randomly, you have always a different look).

For example: i´ve altered the shockwave from the arcadia station, to make it slower and bigger in size, which is more "realistic".

----------------------------------------
$Expl inner rad:        100.0
$Expl outer rad:        3500.0
$Expl damage:           400.0
$Expl blast:            6500.0
$Expl Propagates:       YES
$Shockwave Speed:       450.0
$Shockwave Count:   2
-------------------------------------------

Try it out. It looks much better



BTW: It would be interesting to find out, if you can use more than one shockwave. ´cause the name of the shockwave-file is shock**01.ani, maybe there is a possibility to have an **02.ani, **03.ani and so on. I´ve searched through the table, but i didn´t find it. It must be "hidden" somewhere in the code. Maybe one of this talented coders could find it?!
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 20, 2004, 02:05:45 pm
Ok, thanks ;)

A litte code improvement would be cool.
Shockwave01 should be in the weapons_expl.tbl, like any other effect.

Random shockwaves could be interessting too.



I'm fixing the beamglows right now. Don't use them cause they're ... uhmm ... a bit blocky, although I think they don't have seams.

And now that I'll have to upload it again, I can add a little surprise too. ;7
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: MetalDestroyer on September 20, 2004, 03:08:33 pm
Oups, sorry dabrain, i got a mistake. Oups sorry. You're new shockwave is pretty good.
I was so tired... :p
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Psychonaut on September 20, 2004, 03:32:05 pm
Hmm i don´t think so. The shockwave don´t seem to be defined in any of the table files. I havn´t found it yet.  The line, which says "if you have to play a shockwave animation then play shockwave01.ani" must be set somewhere else in the code. Perhaps it´s in the SCP.exe-Build and Bobb or WMCool know something about it?

Edit: awful awful english. :lol:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 20, 2004, 05:06:06 pm
Just look at your post count. Add two zeroes to the end, and your english should be significantly better :)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Fury on September 22, 2004, 12:22:20 pm
DaBrain, I think I received ICQ authorization request from you but ICQ decided to crash. You already seem to have mirrored the files though.
Title: Video of Stuff
Post by: übermetroid on September 22, 2004, 08:17:24 pm
Here is a small video I made just recording the shockwaves.....

wmv though, sorry.  I will divix it later.  2.2 megs.

http://www.swooh.com/peon/ubermetroid/stuff/fs2_0001.wmv

:yes: :no: :confused:
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 24, 2004, 05:45:41 pm
no takers? :(
Title: bad news old chap!
Post by: Getter Robo G on September 24, 2004, 06:19:36 pm
3 HOURS and 58 minutes till I get it, rightnow 3 mins in and only 7kb

BTW I have a CABLE connection. Swooh strikes again!

I'll try tomorrow...

edit: It starded DL when I was typing this, took 5 mins then stalled, and then 2 mnutes later got it... WIERD

Nice vid though!
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 24, 2004, 06:20:11 pm
install some decent engine trails :p

Oh, and the video has quite some framerate problems. Set the time compression to 1/4, that should fix the FPS problems.

Other than that, 'tis okay.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Deepblue on September 24, 2004, 06:20:41 pm
Nice vid.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 24, 2004, 07:53:32 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Lightspeed
install some decent engine trails :p

Oh, and the video has quite some framerate problems. Set the time compression to 1/4, that should fix the FPS problems.

Other than that, 'tis okay.


LS you are always saying that.  Where could I get some good ones?
Title: Re: bad news old chap!
Post by: Axem on September 24, 2004, 07:56:29 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Getter Robo G
3 HOURS and 58 minutes till I get it, rightnow 3 mins in and only 7kb

BTW I have a CABLE connection. Swooh strikes again!

I'll try tomorrow...

edit: It starded DL when I was typing this, took 5 mins then stalled, and then 2 mnutes later got it... WIERD

Nice vid though!


That's nothing. Once swooh stalled on me halfway through a download. Then when I resumed later it gave me, as Firefox told me, 7000kb/s download speed. I mean, what the crap?

Anyway, super nice effects DaB. :D
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: übermetroid on September 24, 2004, 08:55:58 pm
swooh  :D
Here is another one.  DIVX.
http://swooh.com/peon/ubermetroid/stuff/lucydown.avi

not much different, just a little longer under 6 megs, and in subspace.  

I am really just toying with this and I came to realize that if a mod wanted to they could make some videos for between missions really easily.  With out rendering or anything.  Just a thought.
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: DaBrain on September 25, 2004, 07:38:11 am
Quote
Originally posted by Lightspeed
Couple of (severe) problems with the release:

- You use DDS for effects. This is a BIG no-no, and looks absolutely horrible. use TGA or JPG for ANY effects which rely on smooth gradients. Even 8-bit PCX looks better than DDS for smooth gradients.



For everybody who is using this:

The included DDS files have exactly the same quality as my TGA orginals. I'm not using a DXT compression.


@ubermetroid downloadding now. (3.7kb/s)
Title: Upgrade: Effects
Post by: Lightspeed on September 25, 2004, 08:25:54 am
DaB is infact right, I was missing the fact he's using uncompressed DDS files.

Also keep in mind they will NOT save any memory compared to using TGA. They even waste some memory, as they include mipmaps.

ubermetroid: Here, for example (http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/Bobboau_Lightspeed_Maps_V1.2.zip)
Title: Re: Upgrade: Effects (update)
Post by: shiv on January 06, 2009, 09:53:50 am
That's absolute record I think :D
Sorry for necrothreading that old thread.

Is there still any way to get those effect packs?
Title: Re: Upgrade: Effects (update)
Post by: Droid803 on January 06, 2009, 06:19:11 pm
Haven't these been integrated into the MVPs?
Or do they have awesome stuff that have since vanished?