[Bobboau]

got to admit, from the stills that seems like a nice explosion.

[Vasudan Admiral]

That looks quite good - I'd love to see it in-game if you could release it.

A good way you could package it up for easy testing is to name it something unique, (ie, not exp04/5/6) and put the attached TBM into data\tables\. From there, open it up in notepad and change the TBM's "exp07" to reflect your animation's name. This table will override the three main FS explosions with yours in the neatest way possible.

With the animation cutting off, that's probably your EFF file (or possibly the MVPs overriding yours). Make sure your framecount inside it accurately represents the number of frames you have in the animation, and again make sure it's not 04/5/6 to avoid conflicts, and that should sort that problem out too.

[attachment deleted by evil Tolwyn]

[Nighteyes]

Some test movies I captured  feedback is welcome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMpe3i1sAXk&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBJIxngICeI

The explosion is spamming way to much for my liking, and it gives it a blob feeling, thats why I want to try it with Flashy Deaths script, nobody knows how to activate it? I have no clue and it looks perfect for what i want...

That looks quite good - I'd love to see it in-game if you could release it.

I'm pretty close to releasing it, only a few more tweaks...  do you know where I can upload about 80mb?

A good way you could package it up for easy testing is to name it something unique, (ie, not exp04/5/6) and put the attached TBM into data\tables\. From there, open it up in notepad and change the TBM's "exp07" to reflect your animation's name. This table will override the three main FS explosions with yours in the neatest way possible.

With the animation cutting off, that's probably your EFF file (or possibly the MVPs overriding yours). Make sure your framecount inside it accurately represents the number of frames you have in the animation, and again make sure it's not 04/5/6 to avoid conflicts, and that should sort that problem out too.

Thanks for the tbl, I used it, but the cutting off is still happening as you can see... strange...

[General Battuta]

That's unbelievable. I want that so badly. And you should get in touch with the Diaspora team -- it'd fit well with BSG.

As long as you can fix the animation cutoff issue, this is a godsend.

[Vasudan Admiral]

How large is each individual frame (in both resolution and filesize)? A 512 res DXT1 image with no mipmaps should be 129kb, and even a 1024 res DXT1 with no mipmaps should still be only 513kb.

And if you do need somewhere to upload larger files, try 2Shared.

As for the flashy deaths script, I've not been able to get that working correctly yet.

[Nighteyes]

I love that explosion too, however, I think it is excellent if combined with the 3D shockwaves. But that might be a problem with how fast the 3D shockwave effect is compared to this explosion.

So if it is up for download someday, we can just download it and it is as easy as popping it in the effects folder for it to work and we wouldn't have to wait for it to be included in the next Media VP release?

shockwave speed is very easy to change, so if making it slower will help, it can easly be done
basically yeah, just drop everything in the effects folder...
The explosion is 512x512 dxt1, each frame is 171kb, x581 frames =97mb (after extensive testing , NO framerate hit )

[Vasudan Admiral]

581 frames?! Crikey that's huge! Little wonder it's being cut off, as I'm certain there'd be some sort of hardcoded limit to the number of frames the engine will let you have. At 30FPS that would mean a 19 second animation too, which for an explosion is waaay too long. It may not chug your machine, but I'm certain such a large and so commonly used effect will cause problems for others. For example the 3d shockwave from the old 3.6.8 AdvancedEffects MVP caused significant problems at 83mb. (The new MV_Advanced version of the same effect (which looks identical) takes up 20mb and hasn't caused any similar issues so far as we know)

I'd still love to get this into the MVPs if you can release it though. It'd have to be cut down (significantly) to more closely match our efficiency guidelines for what we'll put into MV_Effects and MV_Advanced, but if it looks as cool as it seems to in your demo vids then I reckon it'd be a great addition.

[Nighteyes]

581 frames?! Crikey that's huge! Little wonder it's being cut off, as I'm certain there'd be some sort of hardcoded limit to the number of frames the engine will let you have. At 30FPS that would mean a 19 second animation too, which for an explosion is waaay too long. It may not chug your machine, but I'm certain such a large and so commonly used effect will cause problems for others. For example the 3d shockwave from the old 3.6.8 AdvancedEffects MVP caused significant problems at 83mb. (The new MV_Advanced version of the same effect (which looks identical) takes up 20mb and hasn't caused any similar issues so far as we know)

I'd still love to get this into the MVPs if you can release it though. It'd have to be cut down (significantly) to more closely match our efficiency guidelines for what we'll put into MV_Effects and MV_Advanced, but if it looks as cool as it seems to in your demo vids then I reckon it'd be a great addition.

I'm positive its not a hardcoded thing, its just a clash with the vps, because the effect does work, I also tried it in the BTRL demo and it worked fine
3.6.8 was a few years ago no? computers came a long way since then, if my laptop can handle it I'm sure many other computers will as well are we not trying to push the game to its limits? 
any way, its testing time  I've uploaded the file and you can get it here: http://files.filefront.com/Big+Explosionrar/;13692670;/fileinfo.html
and this is a test mission for it: http://files.filefront.com/testfs2/;13692686;/fileinfo.html
Just extract the effect in data-effects folder, and also make sure 3d shockwaves are turned off, and the effect will replace the 2d shockwaves.
In the test mission I edited in fred the size and time of the shockwave so it will look normal... but this is just meant for testing, ideally the best fit for this effect will be with the Flashy deaths script, and until we wont get it working, I can't really see a practical way of using it
Feedback is most welcome 

[General Battuta]

I will go ahead and test.

But I must warn you, Vasudan Admiral knows a great deal about the way FSOpen works in the graphical department, so if he says it's gonna have to be compressed or made more efficient, it probably will have to be. There's no point in having a good explosion that prevents large missions from working, for instance.

I just hope it doesn't come at the price of eyecandy!

[Herra Tohtori]

Can we get the TGA versions of the frames?

I managed to substitute the effect to Wanderer's Flashy Death script (and edited the frame rate to 60 since the effect looked a tad slow to me in the youtube videos), but it looks totally ridiculous and out of place in this purpose as the effect is basically spammed around the dying ship and it just doesn't look right at all.

Also, looking at what happens in the game, the effect seems to cut off at frame 68, although the game itself seems to recognize the effect with correct amount of frames:

Code: [Select]

BMPMAN: Found EFF (EXP_flash01.eff) with 581 frames at 60 fps.
The interesting thing comes when the log shows how it's purging the image frames from the cache:

Code: [Select]

(...)
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 0.  512x512x24
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 1.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 2.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 3.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 4.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 5.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 6.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 7.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 8.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 9.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 10.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 11.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 12.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 13.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 14.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 15.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 16.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 17.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 18.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 19.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 20.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 21.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 22.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 23.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 24.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 25.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 26.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 27.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 28.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 29.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 30.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 31.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 32.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 33.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 34.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 35.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 36.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 37.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 38.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 39.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 40.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 41.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 42.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 43.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 44.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 45.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 46.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 47.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 48.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 49.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 50.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 51.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 52.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 53.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 54.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 55.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 56.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 57.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 58.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 59.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 60.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 61.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 62.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 63.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 64.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 65.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 66.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 67.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 68.  512x512x0
Unloading 2_DB_150002.pcx.  44x38x0

(...)

So, what's going on here? It seems it doesn't unload all the frames and the only reason for that I can think of is that it isn't caching them all in the first place and therefore not using them.

SCP bug/feature or something else?

[Mongoose]

3.6.8 was a few years ago no? computers came a long way since then, if my laptop can handle it I'm sure many other computers will as well are we not trying to push the game to its limits? 

All I know is that that single explosion effect is larger than my video card's entire physical memory, so if it winds up going into any of the MediaVPs, that's one I'm not going to be using.

[Herra Tohtori]

As far as I know, not all the frames are cached into VRAM for animated effects, so the amount of video memory used by this effect would be the same as any other 512^2 effect.

System RAM, on the other hand...

[High Max]

'

[blowfish]

With 2GB system RAM and 1GB VRAM, I'm not sure if it is an issue for me, at least.

Well you're not the only person who matters

[Nighteyes]

Can we get the TGA versions of the frames?

I managed to substitute the effect to Wanderer's Flashy Death script (and edited the frame rate to 60 since the effect looked a tad slow to me in the youtube videos), but it looks totally ridiculous and out of place in this purpose as the effect is basically spammed around the dying ship and it just doesn't look right at all.

Also, looking at what happens in the game, the effect seems to cut off at frame 68, although the game itself seems to recognize the effect with correct amount of frames:

Code: [Select]

BMPMAN: Found EFF (EXP_flash01.eff) with 581 frames at 60 fps.
The interesting thing comes when the log shows how it's purging the image frames from the cache:

Code: [Select]

(...)
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 0.  512x512x24
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 1.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 2.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 3.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 4.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 5.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 6.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 7.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 8.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 9.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 10.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 11.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 12.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 13.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 14.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 15.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 16.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 17.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 18.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 19.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 20.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 21.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 22.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 23.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 24.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 25.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 26.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 27.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 28.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 29.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 30.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 31.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 32.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 33.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 34.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 35.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 36.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 37.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 38.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 39.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 40.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 41.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 42.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 43.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 44.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 45.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 46.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 47.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 48.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 49.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 50.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 51.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 52.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 53.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 54.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 55.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 56.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 57.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 58.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 59.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 60.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 61.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 62.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 63.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 64.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 65.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 66.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 67.  512x512x0
Unloading EXP_flash01.eff frame 68.  512x512x0
Unloading 2_DB_150002.pcx.  44x38x0

(...)

So, what's going on here? It seems it doesn't unload all the frames and the only reason for that I can think of is that it isn't caching them all in the first place and therefore not using them.

SCP bug/feature or something else?

I've uploaded the TGA files: http://files.filefront.com/exp08rar/;13694580;/fileinfo.html
making it play at 60 frames is like watching is x2 the normal speed, if you want it faster try maybe 40-45, but going really fast with it will make it look funny
can you tell me how you got the script working? i'd like to test it myself, the whole idea behinde it was to make the explosion start about 1 second before the ship explodes, that way when its exploding the effect will be in the middle of the animation and look right...
I'm guessing the cutting of is a bug of somekind, because when using it as a shockwave it works good without cutting off, and as I said, when making it the main explosion for BTRL (ABexp05) it also worked fine...

[Nighteyes]

With 2GB system RAM and 1GB VRAM, I'm not sure if it is an issue for me, at least.

Well you're not the only person who matters

Never said I was. I was just wondering if it would affect me. Maybe 2GB system RAM isn't enough to handle it fast.

Why not just try it out and see for yourself? its not that big a monster of an effect, and another 90mb of your RAM wont kill you  (not to mention 2gb ram is pretty standard these days...)

[Mobius]

Do we have a FPS-friendly version?

[Vasudan Admiral]

141 Frame version

283 Frame version

These versions won't override the shockwave effect, but unfortunately the whole effect itself does look a *little* bit out of place next to the old much-lower-detail retail explosions. Then again, with the MVPs when has any other case existed? That said, Nighteyes, if you can make another one or two of similar quality I think we'd love to get them into the MVPs as well.

There is still some weirdness going on though, and I've done a lot of testing and a lot of vaguely competent code reading, and I can't work out why, but if you assign the 283 frame animation to more than just one explosion type (ie, medium and the two large explosions) then seemingly random instances of the explosion will cut off at about halfway through. As far as I can tell this doesn't happen in the normal case of assigning it to only one explosion, but still it's very odd.

If there was a kink in the frame sequence or no free slots left in BMPMAN the log would say so and all subsequent frames would just not play. As is though some explosions will play all the way through, proving the frames are all accounted for, there and working, but only sometimes it just gives up half way through. :\

[General Battuta]

These are gorgeous. I'm using the 283 frame version. The slower we can get these things, the better, however.

[Nighteyes]

These are gorgeous. I'm using the 283 frame version. The slower we can get these things, the better, however.

well you can edit the tbl file and tell it to play the effect at 25 frames per second instead of 30, that will make it go slower
but I do agree, I think the effect should be a tad bit slower, just a little bit
From what I can see the 141 frame version is a bit choppy, you took off too many frames... when the game runs 60 at frames per second you really notice it...
on the other hand, the 283 version look really good and smooth I'm even surprised at how good it looks  (but as I said, make it just a bit slower)
about the wierd stuff, contact some coders or something, its way over my head, and right now, we have it working and looking good
I was actually planning on making other effects
what I have in mind is:
another main explosion (but it wont look very differant, basically same kind of explosion exploding differantly)
I want to change that UGLY missile hit effect
particlesmoke01 - fire trail from damaged ships - needs a drastic change
exp04 - the 4 explosions before the ship dies(maybe change them to a flash and lots of small sparks)
and lastly, I'll try changing the shockwave animation to look more like the original...
I hope all will go smothly, but I have a test on friday, and general studing to do, so it will take some time 
Oh, and probably all the things ill make will have more frames in them then the original stuff... so be prepared