Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: FireCrack on November 28, 2004, 10:01:30 pm
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Been working on some beam effects, tell me whatyou think of these..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/FireCrack/OMGJPG.jpg
the little blobs in the green beam are moving towards the sath, at high speeds
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/FireCrack/screen01.jpg
Lines on the side move inwards then more come from the other side and so on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/FireCrack/bVas.jpg
white glow removed, looks better animated ingame
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/FireCrack/BFRED.jpg
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I will have to say I am pretty impressed. Good job.
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And I would have to request better photos, before making any judgements...
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Yeah this one is preety ****ty, can someone tell me the screenshot key to make it easier to take a bunch of screens, wait it's probably in the f1 help ingame, i'l go.
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print screen.
and it pleases me
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As long as the small white bits actually travel the length of the beam great, otherwise :blah:
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Ok i updated the first post with another screen and put them in links incase i'm breaking the table format of the forum.
And yes the whites do travel the length of the beam.
The vasudan beam has little white lines that span the length of the beam that move into the main core, hard to describe. but the vasudan one isn't done yet.
I'l try to get a better shot of a shivan one.
oh and i'd like to know the statust of using decals with beams, will it kill freespace?
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Ok. A little overtiled on the second image, but a nice start...
Are you using EFF files? Or is it a still image being moved along the beam axis?
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i kinda like those
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image along beam axis, would the eff heolp solve my tiling woes?
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hey, if you want,
We are working looking for new extras for the media VPs. Could you post a link to your effect so some people can take a look at it?
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decals don't work at all with beams, it's going to take some major codeing to get them working properly.
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Top screenshots updated
I'l pt up the files tommorow as it's late tonight and this includes a table file, is that ok for media VP's or would i have to work around that?
As for the decals thing, umm, i acknowledge your reply.
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Just my opinion, but I think it maybe a good idea to make the BFReds look more menacing. Bigger, redder, meaner. Something that gives the "OMFG!!!" reaction.
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Originally posted by Eviscerator
Just my opinion, but I think it maybe a good idea to make the BFReds look more menacing. Bigger, redder, meaner. Something that gives the "OMFG!!!" reaction.
What he said. They just don't have the "HOLY CRUD! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, IT'S A HUGE FRICKING BEAM CANNON!" look anymore.
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I have to complain a bit about the shivan beams.
The glows have seams and the gradients are less than optimal.
(http://img113.exs.cx/img113/9817/BFRED.jpg)
I like the other beams. But AFAIK animated beams should be possible soon, which will probably look even better.
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I've been trying to make animated looking beams since I was able to make tri-beams but I haven't succeeded yet. Close to what I was trying to do was that Bvas you posted up top Firecrack... If you don't mind I want to take a look at the image you're using to see what I am doing wrong. There are several effect looking images (like lightning, rings, waves, shadow speckled, ect) that I have been wanting to use but they all turn into lined normal beams (like the last two posted above)... Don't mean to highjack, but I asked this like last year and didn't get much of a response.
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OMG I WANT THOSE!
The Terran beam in particular looks simply fantastic. The vasudan beam is kinda hard to make out details in that pic. The shivan one could use a little bit of work.
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I made a special build for Lighspeed earlier but beams were messed up in that build. It did have animated beam support though. No other build has it yet but the code is in CVS. The only problem is that I have no idea whether or not it actually works. I never had the art to test with. If you want a build to test with FireCrack then PM me but I'm not posting anything for public use yet. Just do it *quickly*.
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I'd say yes but I don't think my system could handle it, (see the problem I had with your last build in DaBrain's EFF thread. It made the game totaly unplayable for me.
specs:
p4 1.8gig
512mb
card ATI 7200 all in wonder tv in/out 32mb
[no chance of upgrading next 2-3years]
Well it least it's better than the p2 400 I had for the first 6 months when I joined HLP in 2002!!!!
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Your system should have no problem handeling the DDS version of the shockwave.
And your system is ok, you should only upgrade the gfx card... Aint that expansive. 50 bucks for a used GF4 TI.
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Okay, i'mnotsure ifi'luseit butsend theeff build toFioreCrack {at}gmail {dot}com
normal format of course, i put it like this so web botsdont get my adress
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OMG! Is your keyboard broken?
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Originally posted by Eviscerator
OMG! Is your keyboard broken?
I hope that was a joke.
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hmm, interesting work :)
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Maybe around tax time I will check in with my computer store (bought it from them) and see how much the cards are going that FIT my motherboard. I was drooling over the ATI 9800pro... MMM 128mb (drools) :P
[EDIT]
I know there is a table tut, but more specifically, is there a BEAMS 101 tut??? Breaking down exactly what each section does, and how it is effected when you mess with it (you can only use image files here or ani's ect..) Might cut downon experimentation time if people in the know clarify some things. True I still try things on my own, but it would greatly cut down on the amount of frustration (like how come they had lightning beams 2 years ago, and never released, and I can't make this lightning image come out as anything but a straight line?)
Also an animated glowpoint of lightning (yellow for vorlons) would be a good idea...
I tried using the kayser (I think) for lightning for my Yamato's Shock Cannons BUt as you saw in the last image I posted it didn'yt work it just made the glowpoint disappear.
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BAH just install it your self.
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Originally posted by redmenace
I hope that was a joke.
joke or not, the keyboard i was typing that on was actualy broken. the keys moved thouigh a length of 2cm and the spacebar took the force of both my hands to push.
Anyways to awnser some questions
I've been trying to make animated looking beams since I was able to make tri-beams but I haven't succeeded yet. Close to what I was trying to do was that Bvas you posted up top Firecrack... If you don't mind I want to take a look at the image you're using to see what I am doing wrong. There are several effect looking images (like lightning, rings, waves, shadow speckled, ect) that I have been wanting to use but they all turn into lined normal beams (like the last two posted above)... Don't mean to highjack, but I asked this like last year and didn't get much of a response.
Basicly i used the two new beam attributes from SCP (i think they're new)
copied from weapon flags thread (SCP faq forum
Beam Additions - Small beams will not vaporize small ships. Sheild hit code is now available for beams, add a "no pierce shields" flag on beams. This has no effect on the original Freespae 2 Campaign.
+Range: 2000 Maximum range of a beam
+Attenuation: 0.5 From 0.0 to 1.0 indicates the point at wich the beam's damage will start to
degrade (in this case the beam will start loseing power half way through).
Beams will also fade along there length now, wich makes them look cooler.
These two are optional strings that go at the end of the $BeamInfo: and
before the $Section:s.
+Tile Factor: 35.0, 1
This has two values the first is the tile factor the second is the tile type. There are currently 3 types,
0 absolute (the texture will tile 'tile factor' number of times no mater how long the beam is)
1 relitive (the texture will tile based on the length of the beam)
2 fited relitive (a better implementation of the relitive tile type, were factor of 1 will tile one time
factor of 2 will yeild 2 tiles ect... and adapt to beam length)
+Translation: 2.0
this is how fast a beam section will move, the values are reversed to what
you would think so this value would apear to be moveing tward the base
rather than away from it
so add
+Tile Factor xx.x, x
+Translation xx.x
to the end of the beam section.
I acomplished the Bvas effect by using this to tile a 1 pixel column of the beam texture across the beam followed by the next column then the next (originaly this is how i thaught beams worked in normal FS2)
so
+Tile Factor 00.1, 0
+Translation 2.0 ;; or whatever speed you want to animate at
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I'll try screwing with that..
This is a small improvement but I took teh 64x64 pink ring texture I wanted and made it 512x64 longer... At lest now you can see the rings BUT only close up, unless you are on top of it you only see the pink line. Before, no matter how close you didn't see the rings...
I copy pasted 6 64x64 textures in a row to fill up the 512x64 length and this is what I came up with. I thought maybe it was being stretched too wide and that might be making it look straight...
(http://img45.exs.cx/img45/241/pinkrings.jpg)
am I getting closer?
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Ok all my textures are 32x32 exept the shivan white lightning, wich is 64x64. Basicly what you have to do is use somthing like
+TileFactor 35.0, 0
That should give you a nice effect.
Keep in mind that the other beam sections might be in the way
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Originally posted by FireCrack
joke or not, the keyboard i was typing that on was actualy broken. the keys moved thouigh a length of 2cm and the spacebar took the force of both my hands to push.
Anyways to awnser some questions
Basicly i used the two new beam attributes from SCP (i think they're new)
copied from weapon flags thread (SCP faq forum
so add
+Tile Factor xx.x, x
+Translation xx.x
to the end of the beam section.
I acomplished the Bvas effect by using this to tile a 1 pixel column of the beam texture across the beam followed by the next column then the next (originaly this is how i thaught beams worked in normal FS2)
so
+Tile Factor 00.1, 0
+Translation 2.0 ;; or whatever speed you want to animate at
Sorry, most people on here do that inorder to protect themselves from haveing their email compromised.
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Cool I'll try it tomorrow after work....
Been trying to get around another nagging problem (missing textures on secondaries) converted some new missiles. They work in game but won't show textures though in all the maps folders and named correctly (and all 8bit)... I tried to make them ballistic primaries (changed model file from non to missile name) and FRED gave me a huge error message. I guess it didn't like what I was trying to force it to do. I can make new beams and new energy type torps that use bitmaps alone as Primaries (fake secondaries), but I guess not if it uses an actual pof file... MEh, going back to beams, my head hurts... ;)
Don't know what I did but standard secondaries lost textures also..? Wierd.. Standard 3.6 with new media files added... maybe that's a conflict?
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Originally posted by Getter Robo G
(http://img45.exs.cx/img45/241/pinkrings.jpg)
[/B]
They're...PINK!?
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ok here's the effects, theres no readme ATM i assume you know where everything goes but just incase
put the .tbl in tables, everything else in effects
http://members.shaw.ca/firecrack/beamz.zip
Oh and as for the bad keyboard thing. i did do that to prevent my email from being comprimised. the absolute gibberish of the first line was due to bad keyboard.
Okay, i'mnotsure ifi'luseit butsend theeff build to
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BFPinks. :p
Well, that's how they looked for me; though I fear compression may ruin it :
(http://www.netcologne.de/~nc-muenchma2/temp.jpg)
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hmm... are you on d3d or opengl? are you sure you installed the effects? the green beam looks just normal
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Well done. I'm sold. :yes:
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That's D3D. .tbl and .pcx files are at the right places. I've yet to check the vasudan beams, but those terrans sure look like they always did.
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Were they misses? The beams seem to extend and distort the image (at least for me) whenever they're forced to their maximum range. Try putting somiething closer to the gun, and make sure it impacts.
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The red glow still has seams...
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Yeah when a miss occurs it gets stretched to infinty (or max range) and distorts the image into mush.
I did not use your tables yet Firecrack (I will try themshortly, wanted to learn a bit more myself), but at least now I know WHERE to correctly put those those two values! I edited them in to my Test Cannon. There's a lot of room between ($Beam info) and ($section). and with 12 values between them I figured it would take me a while to figure out WHY FS2 was crashing (it said weapons table parsing). When I saw it the way you did, right above ($Zadd) it started to work again :) Unfortunately even messing with those values (35, then 70) I saw no difference. (I will look into this and other factors of my set up more later on)
However using my 512 x32 (or 64) trick I managed to make some interesting results (just wish I could make them move... Here are a few examples (some are racial beams for B5 and other projects) However the FIRST one is YOUR white-beam2 texture (I love the lightning look!).
Fire Crack's Texture I Lenghtened:
(http://tinypic.com/prozs)
Vorlon test:
(http://tinypic.com/prp5d)
Unassigned Red Plasma:
(http://tinypic.com/prp7r)
B5 SHADOW beams! yay!!:
(http://tinypic.com/prpdj)
Lastly, improved my Shock Cannons a little: the 3 part version suffers, but single beams look a LOT better:
(http://tinypic.com/prpjo)
Now to make these suckers move! ;) I'll keep trying, I have all settings OFF except for glowmaps and shine so maybe that's a problem. I need to make it as vanilla as possible so my system runs. L8tr!
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That last picture looks like homeworld beams.
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I've been raiding every game I own from HW to BC (I even reinstalled StarFleet Academy!). Leave no stone unturned!!! Images, models, sounds, the works (there are some jewels buried in those old programs)...
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Ah, now I got those new vasudan beams as well. Look nice, though they don't appear every time. I guess that depends on the type of turret that's firing.
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I'm only done with
BFred
Lred
BFgreen
LRBGreen
Bvas
Svas
so the other ones arent done in the tables, yet...
now they are,
http://members.shaw.ca/firecrack/beamz.zip
All beams are now set up and a few effects tweaks.
anyways, providing feedback is good and there are no major problems this version may be final unless i decide the BFred's arent beefy enough yet
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Mmmmmm BEEFY...... though I agree it may not be enough.
And just for the record: Yes, it was a joke.
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Originally posted by FireCrack
I'm only done with
BFred
Lred
BFgreen
LRBGreen
Bvas
Svas
so the other ones arent done in the tables, yet...
now they are,
http://members.shaw.ca/firecrack/beamz.zip
All beams are now set up and a few effects tweaks.
anyways, providing feedback is good and there are no major problems this version may be final unless i decide the BFred's arent beefy enough yet
Please take a look at beamglow4 and 8. They have some heavy seams. I'll look ugly in-game. The glows need to fade out to black on the edges of the effect.
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Ok,
1) i have no idea why i said this was final, disregard that
2) new build, seams are gone and vasudan beam is rounder
http://members.shaw.ca/firecrack/beamz.zip
3) is there any way to get a muzzle flash like the one on the flak to work on beams, firing at a continus rate while the beam fires
4) is there a way to set the orientation of the beamglow to be at a random angle to the viewer, and possibly fade through different angles.
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hello....
is there anybody in there...
I'd also like to say that i comply with any integration into the media VP's, if that has to be formaly stated
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Is the TBL file synched up with the particle effects that Lightspeed put out? What I mean is if I use this tbl will I still have my particlized primaries?
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http://members.shaw.ca/firecrack/weapons.tbl
That one is merged with LightSpeed's
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Thanks.
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i need to release all the beamglows i have on my harddrive, theyve just been rotting there