Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: StargateSpankyHam on March 06, 2011, 05:00:21 am
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Is there anything in particular I need to do to make an explosion effect, aside from an exorbitant amount of time spent photoshopping the individual frames, and creating a simple .eff file to tie them all together? Will a solid black background work properly, and be counted as 'transparent'? Are 512x512 images sufficient for a small/medium explosion?
Specifically, I am making a Shivan flak explosion - more or less a sudden flash of bright red plasma.
How does one go about posting an image in a forum post? I've got three frames drawn, and I'd like to post a teaser of what I've built so far.
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How does one go about posting an image in a forum post? I've got three frames drawn, and I'd like to post a teaser of what I've built so far.
Host your picture on a image hosting site like ImagesHack or others, and put the url between [img] or [lvlshot] tags.
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1024x1024 is a good quality size :yes:
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as someone who did most of the newer stuff in the mediavps regarding effects, I would suggest using a video editing program like After Effects, adjusting individual frames in photoshop would involve lots of wasted time... you wont be able to see the final effect in real time, and make adjustments accordingly...
also I would suggest to look for some free stock footage, to make the effects from, or just create them from scratch in a 3D program(3Ds max, Maya and the likes...)
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1024x1024 is a good quality size :yes:
For an explosion effects?
Sure, if you don't mind a single effect being 100-200mb in size and eating up all your ram.
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1024x1024 is overkill, use 512x512, and for some smaller explosions like missile hits 256x256 works fine.
a 1024x1024 effect would take the framerate down, especially with a few of them on screen at once...
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1024x1024 is a good quality size :yes:
For an explosion effects?
Sure, if you don't mind a single effect being 100-200mb in size and eating up all your ram.
Sure!, if you use uncompressed TGA and you have 100 Frames. :rolleyes:
You know it!, effects dont use more than 70 frames. 1024 can be use for a good quality in this :)
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oh, i forget, but, by other side, If you can't give this, a very big detail, 512 is good!! :)
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I don't know why I'm even bothering answering, but anyway:
1024x1024 DDS DXT1 compressed image would be 512kb large, a decent explosion would last somewhere from 60-100 frames, that's with no smoke...
60x0.5=30MB effect.
that's the minimum, and that's only 1 of them, add 3-4 different ones, in a big battle, and watch your framerate reach the single digits.
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ermmm :nervous: obvious than for a devel process 1024 is good for graphics, you can reduce it more later with a converter or Nvidia Dxtools, or no? :confused:
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Really depends on how large the effects used will be in-game. Most explosion effects are fine as 512^2, but shockwaves which can be larger than even destroyers should be 1024^2. If you clearly differentiate large explosions from small ones, you can use both 256^2 and 512^2 effects, but if you mix them up, then going with just 512^2 is probably better. For example, flak and missile explosions may not necessarily be restricted to flaks and missiles, but if they are 256^2, they probably end up being ugly due to their low resolution to be used elsewhere.
But as I thought this was about CREATION of said effects, then going with at least twice the intended in-game resolution is safe bet. If your PC is powerful enough to keep render times reasonable, then going with four times intended in-game resolution would be great. That avoids the trouble of having to re-render effects again because you suddenly realize there's need for higher res version of some effect.
For example, Nighteyes did not originally render his shockwaves high resolution enough, making their quality worse compared of the current mediavps ones. Same can be said of the red flash effect. A 1024^2 effect and a small 256^2 effect would probably be most optimal setup, the bigger for capitals and smaller for bombs. But as it is now, 512^2 is used for both.
Also FYI, 1024^2 DXT1 works out better than 512^2 uncompressed if and when you're aiming for quality. Of course, same applies in other resolutions as well.
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[Spanish]Buena explicacion! :nervous:[/Spanish] :P :)