Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Wanderer on December 09, 2005, 01:51:20 am
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So this is my idea how to improve normal flak and countermeasure effects. Not of best quality but rather a 'proof of concept'.
Here (http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/tbms/cm051207-wep.tbm) is countermeasure data. It requires a small and extremely ugly model (http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/tbms/cmeasure03.pof) to function properly. It should function in CVS builds after 05/12 and provide every species a countermeasure to match their engine glows hopefully looking quite like flares used against heatseeking missiles.
And another (http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/tbms/fl051207-wep.tbm) attempt to make Flaks look a bit better. It needs IIRC mv_effects.vp to function (requires yellow_glow.<something> graphic file). I've tried to make it look like a single bolt with a little trail but i'm not sure if it will look like that with low FPS (~ 20). It also needs a build with proper tbm support.
Please give some feedback about these. Oh and tbms should go to data/tables directory and model (.pof) to data/models directory.
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Well, I'm kind of biased for the countermeasure we have now, and the extremely-high-poly one by Firecrack in the FSUP forum. Mostly because both heat and aspect seeking missiles go after it.
The newest builds have countermeasures and weapons integrated, so you can use all the weapons fields with countermeasures...you might be able to do something interesting with that.
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did you ever code the interface to make countermeasures interchangeable in the loadout screen?
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Noop, just from ships.tbl, although someone (phreak?) did code it so that it'd be possible to do that, just needs the interface code and "$Allowed Countermeasures:"
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would it be hard to do the same for turret weapons?
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Changing them via the interface? Probably. New art, screen code, and loading code would be needed. Not to say that it isn't doable, but it's something that would require a fair amount of effort to do.
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Just out of interest, has anyone tried the flaks? Or the countermeasure?
EDIT: Just noticed by myself... That has really nice sound in it ;). Thanks admins! :D
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Screenshots.
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I would take if i could. :( OGL screenshots are pure green and DX part doesn't really work at all. :(
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OK, finally i got build with functional screenshot capability. So here goes three pics
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/Flak1m.jpg)
Here the shot on the left is my new flak shot (without comparisons to the retail version) and on the right (partially under the name tag) is normal laser shot with glows. (dotted arrow points to flak expl)
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/Flak3m.jpg)
Here is retail Flak shot. Not the retail flak explosion. Those two blobs are a single flak cannon shot
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/Flak2m.jpg)
Here again flak shot in the left and also right under the reticle. Normal cannon shot between them.
EDIT: Added retail pic
EDIT: Edited pictures
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Perhaps a bit hasty but.. ..after 50+ views and no replies :doubt:
:bump:
Flaks:
So, has anyone tried it?
Or do you have any opinions about it?
Or should i just shut up and drop the whole idea?
Some bit more gifted graphic artist could easily do a better job but IMHO even this looks a lot better than the original 'two-blob explosion' thing.
Countermeasures: Flares
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/CMTer.jpg)
When launched from Terran craft
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/CMVas2.jpg)
When launched from Vasudan craft
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/Pics/CMVas1.jpg)
Ulysses set as Vasudan after firing a countermeasure
Those countermeasures with their glows are a just bit smaller than the normal countermeasures but without glows they are much smaller so that in-game the effect is about the same. These were not ment to be the replacement for the current CMs but rather as an alternative...
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I couldn't tell which flak was which in the pics you posted. :nervous:
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Yeah didn't get it quite mehself.
Far as the CM's go, I'm biased towards the HTL canon, but I doubt that there's anything wrong with having those glowy ones as an alternative for campaign people.
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I added more information to the pics. Now those pics should be more informative. I was aiming for the normal primary weapon looks as in real life flak shot are not much different from other ammunition.
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I'll test the flak. Hum, i can't wait. ^^
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Looks pretty cool. I've not tested it yet to be honest, but I will. :yes:
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IMO the flak looks too much like the lasers.
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Well, from the screenshots I thought it looked like crap. Perhaps not "crap", but in line with Raa's comment at least. In-game though it looks really good. The screenshots really don't do the effect any justice since it does look too much like normal laser fire. While in game it's much smaller and rather subtle but acts as a much nicer and smoother effect. It definitely (to me at least) looks better than the old effect.
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Well, i was going after kind of a normal primary weapon looks so that is really not so suprising.. Problem is that AFAIK i can only use particle spews and trails with flaks so the options for the effects are limited.
Particle spew can not be modified to look as a single bolt, unless the appearance time is set so low that only single frame will appear (empirical knowledge). If the effect is too small (as it is with the flaks) there will appear gaps between the particle spew frames (as it does with retail flak). I even tried raising EFFs framerate into extremely high numbers to 'bridge' the gaps but it didn't help. So from what i have learned and tested the best option is to use very short particle spew appearance times (-> single frames) combined with trails.
And i'm not really a master of taking screenies :doubt:
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Agree, this effect is better tha the MediaVP. I would prefer a similar flak effect like the BSG TC.
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I've been trying to get this working with the mediaVPs, but I'm having a bit of trouble. Mainly that the projectile doesn't seem to appear at all. I've tried moving the yellow_glow.tga file to Media_VPs/data/effects, but no show. (It's also in mv_effects.vp/data/textures/yellow_glow.tga)
I'm just using the TBM from the first post; am I missing something?
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I'm just using the TBM from the first post; am I missing something?
Not sure, what you did is all I did to use it. I just put the tbm in data/tables and copied yellow_glow.dds (I converted mine to have mipmaps) to data/effects/ and it showed up fine.
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It might also be that the way i managed to build the effect is not a good one. If you check the .tbm you can see that the particle spews duration is set to be very short (1/80 of a second) so i was afraid that there might be problems with low FPS values. However i did see the effect even with FPS dropping to something about 30 so i was back then confident that it wouldn't be a problem. You could try:
i) changing the name of the effect into something else, i hope it is this one
ii) try to prolong the effect, if it is this one then i think the whole idea has to scrapped as then there would be problems with different FPS rates (some would see single blobs, some would see nothing at all and others would see multiple blobs) unless an override to draw only a single frame particle spews is available. IMHO too much effort to upgrade a single effect.
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Looks good. :yes:
Might use a similar technique in TAP. :D
I like the idea of the glowing countermeasures. The old ones I never saw, so it would make sense to see some flares shooting off the ships etc when you hit the button or am chasing an AI in a dogfight. Would be cool if they moved faster and had trails. :)
Nice worksies. :D :yes:
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Countermeasures can have trails.
Remember that weapons/countermeasures have been merged, so fields you can do with a weapon you can do with a countermeasure. That should include trails, esp. since the countermeasures already use the POF renderer like missiles.
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you need to make it where you can have any kind of rendering options, on any kind of weapon, regaurdless of type. that means laser code on secondaries, and the ability to use flak with effects other than pspew.
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That would be great as pspews behaviour is limiting the editing badly.