[DaBrain]

Yupp, those shots are from Inferno.

Originally posted by Raa
Looks...... funny.

These'll be ones that I don't DL. Sorry DaB.

Please tell me what exactly you don't like about it. It might be handy if you even try the effect.
I'm still working on it and want it to be mass-compatible.

[DaBrain]

Come on! I need to know what you don't like about the effect.

[Grug]

Wow Some nice stuff!

My critic (going by the screenshots) is that it seems a little low res. I'm not sure how much can be done considering they are probably dds. It might be an idea to up the res fairly high but give this animation 2 LODs the super high res and a smaller one for distances.

The animation seems pretty good itself, its just that slight bluriness and dds deterioration in quality.

But great work none the less!

Another Max product I presume? You should do a tutorial up for some of this stuff mate.

[DaBrain]

I'm still a noob to MAX.

But this effect is not completely a MAX creation. I start to use more and more software to use all adavantages of each.

I really hope I can afford PS CS anytime. It has some features I that might prove useful.


But back to topic. Thanks for your critic. The res is at 512². I can't go any higher, but I could still use more of the 512² space, to get more pixel informations in there.

Using LODs is not needed for DDS effects. There won't be any slowdown, even for huge animations, as long as there is enough V ram. LOD just use more ram.

Edit: BTW the first shots are still from the 256² version!

[DaBrain]

I'm working on a new flak effect now.

[Psychonaut]

I like the flare effect arround the explosion. I´m looking forward to see it in action.

Maybe you should add a shockwave to it

No, no, just a joke

[DaBrain]

Finalizing some stuff for the media VP.

How do you like this?







I don't know why, but I'm somehow not really happy with this...

[MetalDestroyer]

Le too, it's not perfect as usual.
Try to make some sort of flame + smoke.

The fire effect you add 'll be good for impact, or for sparks effects (for collision like those from Burnout 3/Revenge).

[FireCrack]

It's a junkload better than the whit craw we have now, i think it needs to be tweaked a bit in it's inital frames, have it come from a thinner, or more ill-defined jet.

[Fineus]

It's far too bright / long / intense. Tone the whole thing down. The effect is good but there's just too much of it.

[StratComm]

Agreed.  Especially when you look at the second shot with a critical eye; you've got this huge plume of flame coming out of the tip end of a spike.

Actually this probably needs to be handled in code though.  On capships the size is fine, it's on fighters that there's a problem.  I doubt having two seperate animations is the way to go, but there definitely needs to be some distinction between the two (scaling, perhaps?).

[WMCoolmon]

It looks good for flak.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
It's far too bright / long / intense. Tone the whole thing down. The effect is good but there's just too much of it.

Particle effects are a pain...

There are too many particles right in the beginning and they spread way too fast in the end.

I think the particle output is random anyway, which screws up anything.


The flak effect is complete now. It looks pretty cool.
But it looks awesome for beam hit effect too... now I have to decide.

[Gregster2k]

i say offer it in both forms: beam hit AND flak and let us choose where we want to use it ^^

or use it for both (why not?)

whats it look like when used for beam hit?

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by DaBrain
Finalizing some stuff for the media VP.

How do you like this?







I don't know why, but I'm somehow not really happy with this...

Too sharp IMO.

[Gregster2k]

I love the sharpness >.>

I say again, is there a way we can see te beam version of this and can we have it offered as both options (beamhit and flak)?

If its too sharp for flak, I say use it for beam hits.

[StratComm]

It is supposed to be plasma, and as such it should disperse and fade out without the sparkies that are there now.  It works, but to be honest the flare-to-smoke approach in retail was a bit better suited.  The sparks, as has been pointed out a couple of times already, are really better for explosions like flak or beam-hit.

[Gregster2k]

Actually, yeah, i like the idea of it being clouds of plasma freezing and dispersing (as a result of freezing...superheated plasma, well it wont be plasma anymore if it aint hot!)...stratcomm hit the nail on the head...if it looked like ICE coming out of the ship though it might look somewhat more interesting ^^ but not fire...it always looks funny when you see things "burning" in space --- there are some things about space sim video games that are "wrong" that actually make it feel cooler (like condensed nebulae) --- and there are other things, like burning things as if there is air, which don't XD

*COUGH* Freelancer is extremely guilty of that...the ships burn like matches when they're about to die

[DaBrain]

Ok, I think I'll toss that particle effect. There is no way to use it only for special impacts.

Maybe I can do something better with an updated particle system.

[Psychonaut]

Hey Dab. Though you are not satisfied with your stuff, would you mind to release it. I would really like to see it in action.
BTW: I´m still using some of your creations, which are not in the vp´s (e.g. the missile explosion). They are always a step forward in FSO an way better than the vanilla and (some) new vp-effects.