[Vasudan Admiral]

As far as I'm aware, that's just not going to happen - in fact Taylor says in the code comments that he's looking to downsize that limit in future. I'd imagine that would be once a better standard of art content efficiencty is more widely used. (ie, no more animated glowmaps to produce those effects, more efficient use of animation frames elsewhere etc)

[aRaven]

I would rather limit the explosion animation frames to more retail like frames and just up the quality so we can have some glorious explosions.

[General Battuta]

Awwww. But the slow explosions are so...glorious.

[High Max]

'

[General Battuta]

No, it doesn't - if you check out the current effects ingame, they aren't strange at all. They're really beautiful.

[A2597]

ok, maybe I'm missing something here,

but is not one of the goals of the SCP to update the game? If so, why would one cap the number of textures allowed? Why remove the ability to do such things as animated lightmaps?

I know that this mod is not catering to those with high-end specs, but people can always turn DOWN the detail. But in 2 years when the slowest system around will be capable of much more than they are currently, someone will have to go back and re-do the work that was implemented to remove features that have already been worked on to be implemented. That just seems silly to me.

Code for beyond what we are capable of using now, and give people the functionality to turn off those features if they cannot use them on their rig. It will save time and work in the long run.

[Nighteyes]

ok, maybe I'm missing something here,

but is not one of the goals of the SCP to update the game? If so, why would one cap the number of textures allowed? Why remove the ability to do such things as animated lightmaps?

I know that this mod is not catering to those with high-end specs, but people can always turn DOWN the detail. But in 2 years when the slowest system around will be capable of much more than they are currently, someone will have to go back and re-do the work that was implemented to remove features that have already been worked on to be implemented. That just seems silly to me.

Code for beyond what we are capable of using now, and give people the functionality to turn off those features if they cannot use them on their rig. It will save time and work in the long run.

I totally agree, why turn that number down and not up? who cares if the code is not efficient? right now most gamers can play it really smooth(avg 60 fps), with everything on, and as the years go by the code efficiency will become less important, and computers will have less trouble handling the engine(in my opinion were already there)
the most important thing is to get the features that we want in it, code efficiency is less important 

[Herra Tohtori]

The game was released in 1999. It was coded for 1999 computers. The source code was released in 2001 and since then a lot of work has gone into the code, but the SCP crew aren't miracle makers.

I'm sure you understand that some parts of the code remain essentially untouched, with some limitations of the original game still in effect.


I'm not in the SCP crew so I don't know if this particular limit is inherited from the retail game or if it is of some later origin, but it really doesn't matter. Coders don't put limits into code just for the hell of it, although convenience might be a reason for some occasions (and it's perfectly valid reason if dynamic limit isn't feasible and you make sure the program won't exceed the limit). If you think it's so easy to up limits, download the source and implement the changes, then show them to the SCP crew and if they're good they might just get included.

Also, dropping code efficiency in favour of new features.

I would facepalm, but my face has been a bit worn out recently. I'm sure you understand why.

[Nighteyes]

I don't mean what I'm saying as criticism, just as a general way of thinking I know its very hard to code and I have a lot of respect for all those who put time into it 
and about: dropping code efficiency in favour of new features, all I'm saying is that right now, the code is officiant enough, because nobody has a problem running the game on max, and making it more efficient is mostly a wast of time that can be spent into implementing(efficiently ) new features.

[General Battuta]

I don't mean what I'm saying as criticism, just as a general way of thinking I know its very hard to code and I have a lot of respect for all those who put time into it 
and about: dropping code efficiency in favour of new features, all I'm saying is that right now, the code is officiant enough, because nobody has a problem running the game on max, and making it more efficient is mostly a wast of time that can be spent into implementing(efficiently ) new features.

This is unfortunately wrong. Many FREDders are handicapped by the need to keep reasonable framerates, limiting the amount of action they can include in a mission. More efficiency would allow bigger missions and more ambitious designs.

If they're thinking of dropping that limit, it's for some excellent reason.

And a lot of people on this forum alone have trouble running the game on max. While we shouldn't be catering to low-end computers (that's not who the MediaVPs are for, after all), I imagine the target audience is somewhere in the middle of the computer power range.

[karajorma]

It's also worth bearing in mind that end users only ever see the game running in release builds. Decreasing efficiency has a larger effect on debug builds. And if you make it impossible to play on debug builds, you won't ever get any new code. Cause it's the build us coders have to use about 90% of the time. 

[Nighteyes]

I see... so basically what needs to be done is make the effects with as less frames as possible, while still looking as good as it can...
I can see how 500 frames is too much  ill aim for 150-200 frames, a bit higher from the original, but much nicer

[aRaven]

now go to work!

[Nighteyes]

What program can batch convert from dds to tga? I want to edit a few existing effects...

[Dragon]

Infran View or this one: http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412#Download
Maybe others but I know about those.
I recently had trouble with TGA files created with
Infran View ,though they were connected to their
in-game use ,so I don't know how much you can thrust it.

[Herra Tohtori]

2002 actually according to wikipedia article. Not that it matters much for the topic.

Also, if you didn't catch my meaning I have had to facepalm a lot recently. Springtime does that to forums.

[Nighteyes]

Vasudan Admiral - can you please tell me how you made the 141/283 frame versions? and also how you made the DDS files 130kb?
I'd like to upload and test only stuff that can be used (of course if someone wants the TGA files with the original frame count they can ask and have it)

[Herra Tohtori]

Explanation.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Heh, I just deleted every second frame from the sequence by arranging them in an explorer window of four columns of icons, and selecting & deleting the entire second and fourth columns. Then I used a batch-rename feature that happened to be in paint shop pro 9 to re-sequence them, but I'm sure there are other apps or methods out there to do just that. I also manually skimmed through the images and deleted about 10 unnessecary frames from the beginning and about 40 unnessecary (ie, all black) frames from the end.

To shrink them down to 130kb, I used the nvdxt commandline based DDS application, with the command lines:

\nvdxt.exe -nomipmap -file *.dds -dxt1c

Which made it strip off all the mipmaps of every image and resave them in the same folder. You can find the Nvidia command line tools on their site: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_utilities_legacy.html if you don't have them already.

[Nighteyes]

Thanks for the info vasudan admiral
After a long time tweaking and testing, here are 2 new effects!! 
exp11 - is the final version of one of the main big explosions, im happy with it and only 180 frames!!
exp20, expmissilehit1 - are the same effect, just tested them as both missile hit explosion and flake explosion, time to add some smoke to freespace!! in both cases it looks good, but I like the original flake too so  maybe ill just edit that one...(150 frames)
enjoy!

also, I've just joined Earth Defence mod, so expect to see some nice effects there 
Earth Defence - http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=58470.0
Effects:
http://files.filefront.com/Nighteyes+effects+1rar/;13765573;/fileinfo.html

By gbtf67 at 2009-05-16