[Starman01]

Hello,

I got a question and hope someone can help me on this. The question is regarding the original freespace 2 demo.
2 Years back we ( WCS) used the freespace2 demo to release an aprils fools joke. Unfortunately, I lost our release package, and I also can't get the demo to run, so I need your help.

When a capship exploded in the demo, there were not only the normal explosion ani's, but there were lots of small yellow glowing thingies remaining for quite some time which look like small firelike debris, i guess those were simple partice effects.

However, I'm not able to reproduce that in the new SCP installation. Either I'm missing the correct particle files, or it has been coded out.
(Sorry that I can't post a picture right now).

Can anyone tell me if that's a missing effect, or if it is no longer supported by the engine ? I find the explosion quite boring when the fire and debris vanquish after a few seconds into nothing.

Starman©

[Trivial Psychic]

Don't people refer to that effect as "popcorn"?

[FireCrack]

Like when the lucifer died in the fs1 ending cutscene?

[Trivial Psychic]

Or the Shivan Comm Nodes?

[Prophet]

That would fit in fighters u know... Tone down the explosion ani, and add the "popcorn". So it would look like the fighter goes splash. It would look great if it could be used when a beam kills you... 

[redsniper]

That crackly sound that capship explosions make is the popcorn popping.

[Starman01]

Besides getting hungry (i made myself now a big portion of popcorn ) anyone knows if this can be built in again, or is it a code-issue ?

[Backslash]

Sorry to dig this up, but it's what I want to discuss. [Just curious, which is better: to do this, or make a new thead about something discussed before?]

I was quite interested in this effect, so I started trying things.  I see the popcorn is still there, it just never lasts long.  I changed ParticleSmoke02 (which is the one we want) to have a VERY slow framerate, so in theory that would make the particles be visible longer, right?  But instead they vanish (mid-animation) after a certain short time period.  Fighters are the best example of this.  Capships, it sticks around longer but still not long enough.

So, is there something else I should change, perhaps in tables (that I have not found so far)?  Or like Starman01 asks, is it just in the code?  Perhaps it is proportion to ship size or total hitpoints?

[aceofspades]

You know, inferno has 'dust' that stays around for a while. It's really visible when you take down a Peregrine or something and first there's a series of small shockwaves and an orange glow, than you see this grey and brown stuff spraying in this cloud-like shape.

[gevatter Lars]

What about changing the length instead of the framerate? That would have been my first idea when I want something longer.

[Backslash]

Heh, good idea.

Now I've tried that (with the older popcorn-looking one), and it's even more apparent.  You can try it for yourself if you like (attached):

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Starman01]

Excellent, that was exactly what I mean, thanks Backslash

Now there are just a few questions that remain

a) How can I increase their numbers after a capship explosion
b) Where is this effect used else (since there might be situations where this long glowing could be strange, i.e. missile trails or stuff)

[Turnsky]

a debris effect on impacts with larger ships would be cool, tho, like a smattering of 2d hullplate things with a mix of the odd particle "popcorn" whenever a beam cannon, torp, or energy weapon shot strikes the hull of a large capital vessel, the system's partially in place, incase you haven't noticed, just fly your fighter into the engine wash sometime and watch the little bits fly off.

[Backslash]

I found it!  I found it!

In fs2_open/code/ship/shipfx.cpp, there's a bit like so:

Code: [Select]

#ifdef FS2_DEMO
pe.min_life = 2.0f*range;   // How long the particles live
pe.max_life = 10.0f*range;  // How long the particles live
#else
pe.min_life = 0.5f*range;   // How long the particles live
pe.max_life = 6.0f*range;   // How long the particles live
#endif
and a few other similar settings (involving number of particles, speed, range and scale) surrounding it.  This stuff is some of what we want to customize!

Course, in my opinion I like the FS2_DEMO look so much that I don't see why it isn't the default, but I dunno, others may disagree?  And being able to customize this even further through tables or something would be awesome.   

[Dark RevenantX]

Explosions should be just little random explosions around the ship whose size and length of usage should be dependant on the ship, finaled by a large number of little explosions across the entire hull at the same time.  The ship would break apart into its debris chunks without losing 90% of them right after the explosion.