[Vasudan Admiral]

Slightly out of date video

This is my first real attempt at making a rendered explosion effect in Blender. It looks okish, but the work required to improve it further is more than I've got time for at the moment.

Download

Included in the zip is the source .blend file for anyone who's interested (it's basically 7 particle systems in the one object, each with their own material), and a testing TBM. The TBM will override all the games default ship explosion animations with this one so you can get an idea for what it looks like in-game. If you want to set it to just override one particular animation, open the TBM and remove the entries for the fireballs you don't want it to override.

The problem with it I see is that it's not quite as sharply contrasted nor as violent as the default exp04, exp05 and exp06 effects - so I think it can look a bit out of place when used in amongst them. Hopefully it will come in useful for someone somewhere though.

[Krelus]

Maybe what might help is to A.) make the transition from light to dark more drastic and B.) make the movement start off really quick and then slow down once the particles get away from the epicenter a bit. From my (extremely) limited knowledge of animation and rendering, though, B may be more trouble than it's worth.

It's amazing, FS2's 2D explosions are some of the best looking I've ever seen (especially with the hi-res MediaVP enhancements), only recently have 3D rendered ones begun to surpass them (in my humble opinion).

[Vasudan Admiral]

For the motion, I did look at a fair bit of reference material in the form of big explosions, and the fireball there usually isn't all that fast - it's the big flare that gives it the 'suddenness' we associate with an explosion. In that sense the FS effects are very wrong; because they were just tiny petrol charges exploding in front of a black screen - in actual huge explosions the fireball just wouldn't move that fast.

However, in cases like these, actual realism does not make the effect look any more realistic.

[Herra Tohtori]

What can you do, reality is unrealistic...

As long as it looks cool it should work out in the game, unless it's totally ridiculously impossible. If it's reasonably realistic as well, that's awesome bonus... but looking cool is obviously priority.

This explosion looks cool to me, but I'd need to see it ingame - preferably combined with Wanderer's flashy death script - to make my opinion completely.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Well that's why I included the effect itself in the release post - so people can try it out in-game.

[Herra Tohtori]

Well that's why I included the effect itself in the release post - so people can try it out in-game.

Alas, I have no access to my own computer and it would seem 3.6.10 RC2 does not run on this particular computer.

Although I would not blame the RC2 on that, but the computer. Or rather the Windows installation which sucks. It's in a sad state.

[Talon 1024]

Great Job, especially considering the fact that you used Blender! I was waiting for something like this, especially for modders who don't want to use content in their mods.

[Retsof]

So is the ingame product still 2D, or is it 3D now?

[peterv]

Lovely
I particularly like it's asymmetry.

[Krelus]

So is the ingame product still 2D, or is it 3D now?

A bit of both. The animation itself is simply 2D, but if the camera clips with it the .EFF deforms and deflects like a 3D model.

[wistler]

I think it looks great. I love the slowness of it and how it expands, makes it look like it's really in space rather then the fire balls used in game.

Reminds me of the explosions in nBSG to be honest, and thats a good thing 

[Vasudan Admiral]

Thanks - I'm glad some people like it as is.

Having seen Independence Day again today though, the thing it definitely needs is the sharp edges and high contrast 'puff stuff' in the middle as opposed to the jagged flames with a white hot core look. Like this basically:

[Talon 1024]

I guess a possible solution would be to have a mesh that has a composited material and some halos for sparks and flame effects.

But I don't know if Blender can key vertex positions...  A possible workaround for that is a displacement material with global mapping.

[Vasudan Admiral]

As a rule of thumb, assume Blender can do something until you've categorically proven it can't, and that's before you get to work arounds. In terms of flexability, it can make an octopus look bad.

So yeah, it can do node based compositing of materials and/or renders, vertex keying and both normal and geometry displacment from a height map, but anyway there is a relatively new metaballs feature that I've not looked into much, that sounds like it might be a good way to create the 'bubbly' shape of a fireball....



To the lab!

[asyikarea51]

gave it a try ingame... idk it kinda lacks "movement" compared to some other explosions. to me it just looks like some plant growing on steroids with the explosion just fading out at the end. missing that "wow" factor or whatever.

not sure how else i can describe it... better a crude description in simple words than an essay with arcane vocabulary that even i myself can't understand...

[Snail]

gave it a try ingame... idk it kinda lacks "movement" compared to some other explosions. to me it just looks like some plant growing on steroids with the explosion just fading out at the end. missing that "wow" factor or whatever.

not sure how else i can describe it... better a crude description in simple words than an essay with arcane vocabulary that even i myself can't understand...

I... Think I agree...

[maelstrom0511]

This explosion looks cool... I might use it in my cutscene...