View Full Version : Smoke Effects beta 1
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 16:29
As per my previous posts on the topic, here (http://freespace.virgin.net/david.markwick/SmokeEffectsBeta2.rar) is the current beta test of the smoke effects I've been playing with.
Mirror:
armed-assault-zone.com (http://www.armed-assault-zone.com/news.php?readmore=394)
Readme:
Quote[/b] ]
DMs Smoke Effects
First off - let me say that DM does NOT mean deathmatch http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif it's my online name. Unfortunate, but I'm not going to change it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
This addon beta test is as a result of me solvng the mipmap not found error I was plagued with, basically the original texture is increased from 768x768 to 1024x1024, which solved the problem. Don't know why, but there you go. I stretched the original texture to size which means that one of the things I need to do is to re-render the images at their new size, however as an initial beta these ones are fine.
Basically the addon/mission is showcasing how I think battlefields should look, huge plumes of thick oily smoke much larger and much longer lasting than default smoke. Many will like it, many will not, but it's all OK because the intention is to make it a client-side eye-candy addon. I'd like for AI to be affected by smoke obscuration of objects but I suspect only the server can affect that, and what the server sees relative to what the player sees might not match up perfectly due to the random nature of the particles. I have done no testing whatsoever in MP yet, I wanted to get something visible to play with first http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
It will be a slow process for me, not only do I not have a lot of time but I'm new to ArmA modding. My mandate is make things as simple as absolutely possible, and the sript is definately as simple as possible http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/biggrin_o.gif there's hardly any code there in fact. I want great, large effects with as little overhead as possible (excuse the pun).
The addon is a combination of default smoke texture with new settings, and entirely new animated smoke effects done by me. This mission is deliberately intense with more armour than you would normally see so close to each other, but it's a good stress test.
Installation: extract the files somewhere and put the mission into MPMissions and the DMSmokeEffects addon into your ArmA\Addons folder. Or you can do the @<hidden> mod thing, entirely up to you but the addon is texture only right now so there's no ill effects either way. As soon as I figure out how to make the smoke effects magically happen just by having the addon that will change.
Play: choose the Smoke Effects mission in your MP list. Play, observe, try not to leave the village as there's rather a lot going on. Try to let the scenario play out for at least 10 minutes so that you get the full range of smoke types on all wrecks.
The eventual plan is that the large smoke effects will burn continuously for at least an hour, possibly more, and the small smoldering smoke to last another few hours beyond that. This is designed for MFCTI + DAC missions eventually and that game takes around 4-5 hours to play out, and I want to see lots of indication where the DAC action is happening. (DAC = Dynamic AI Creator, the best addon ever for OFP IMO and soon to be released for ArmA.)
Problems: for some reason the animated smoke particles go "out of focus" or blurry now & then, no idea why but it's an ArmA thing. Zooming in usually snaps tham back in focus. Very large particles act starangely when getting close, zooming in or looking through optics, again it's an ArmA bug, one that I've reported. Also, the particles are not affected by distance so they always look as dark & sharp no matter how far away you are, which makes them look "pasted on". You won't see much of that in this mission but it's quite pronounced in larger missions. Again it's an ArmA bug, again I've reported it. The above problems are very likely the reason the default smoke is as weedy & pale as they are. I set the settings to look good at medium distances, i.e. the sort of distances you'll see here.
To do: redo the textures as mentioned above, cover all vehicle types with a range of different & randomised effects, add some more animated smoke & fire effetcs, extend the lives of the effects dramatically, destroy the effects objects as they eventually get to the end of their life (right now they burn indefinately), add code to handle when vehicles are fixed/removed/culled, have extra code to ramp down effects rather than simply cut one off & start another, and generally make it look great.
Kindest regards
DM
Vega [LSD]
Jun 29 2007, 16:33
Ohh nice I will try it out for sure! If they are anything near what I saw in the demo video then its really good : )
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 16:41
@<hidden> June 29 2007,18:33)]Ohh nice I will try it out for sure! If they are anything near what I saw in the demo video then its really good : )
LOL, the video was carefully chosen for it's best bits http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
Results vary from pretty good to pretty poor, post your results http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
PaulHargreaves
Jun 29 2007, 17:50
does anybody have any screenies to post ?
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 18:19
does anybody have any screenies to post ?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/DMarkwick/armaSmoke8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/DMarkwick/armaSmoke5.jpg
YouTube vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTHlcRxOFRM)
Awesome stuff, but the tip could use some work. Theres a huge pillar of thick smoke and it just suddenly ends? Would be nice if you kinda dissipated the end part to make it look more natural.
canis lupus
Jun 29 2007, 18:32
they almost gave me goosebumps... great work you get a really great feeling of battle out of this
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 18:37
Awesome stuff, but the tip could use some work. There a huge pillar of thick smoke and it just suddenly ends? Would be nice if you kinda dissipated the end part to make it look more natural.
The particles do fade to nothing at the top, but you might be experiencing one of two things:
not seeing the tip as it's obscured by lower particles http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
or
reaching ArmA's hardcoded particle limit, when it reaches this unknown (to me) number the oldest particles disappear.
I feel the smoke is exaggerated.
Definitely too much. While I think it's a good idea that the smoke stays a lot longer than in the original game, it's overdone concerning the thickness. There is a lot of smoke which is grey and transparent. Sometimes (means less than 50%) the smoke can be that black and thick.
So if you want to modify the smoke, please make it more variable.
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 19:01
I feel the smoke is exaggerated.
Definitely too much. While I think it's a good idea that the smoke stays a lot longer than in the original game, it's overdone concerning the thickness. There is a lot of smoke which is grey and transparent. Sometimes (means less than 50%) the smoke can be that black and thick.
So if you want to modify the smoke, please make it more variable.
Eventually I'd like to have a range of smoke effects and apply them on a statistical basis, I tried the variation but it looks patchy, especially when you vary size as well as transparency. The vagaries of the random process throws up more bad looking effects than good looking effects, so I intend to have a library of effects that do not have much random variation to choose from.
I havent tried it on my game, I'm just making an observation from your youtube clip. The top just ends, no smooth dissipation.
Psychonaut
Jun 29 2007, 22:21
Is it right, that the new smoke just works with your included mission. I hoped, the addon would replace the BIS smoke, so that every mission could profit from the new one. But maybe (hopefully http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif ) it´s just because of the Beta.
BTW: there some bugs like the blurry smoke, but i´ts really some eyecandy stuff. Keep on your good work http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Just a suggestion: maybe you should half the size of the cloudlets esp. for the tanks. Now it looks a bit overdone.
DMarkwick
Jun 29 2007, 23:10
Is it right, that the new smoke just works with your included mission. I hoped, the addon would replace the BIS smoke, so that every mission could profit from the new one. But maybe (hopefully http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif ) it´s just because of the Beta.
BTW: there some bugs like the blurry smoke, but i´ts really some eyecandy stuff. Keep on your good work http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Just a suggestion: maybe you should half the size of the cloudlets esp. for the tanks. Now it looks a bit overdone.
True as it stands, but as soon as I work out how to get an addon to "magically" apply the effects just by having the addon, it'll happen http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif (any help here would be appreciated http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif)
Until then, you can make a huge trigger that covers the island (or at least the area of interest) with settings Anyone, Once, Present and put this line into the On Activation field:
{_x addEventHandler ["killed", {[_this select 0, _this select 1] execVM "DMSmokeEffects.sqf"}]} foreach thislist;
You'll also need the DMSmokeEffects.sqf file from the PBO which you can get by using any of the decompressors available.
That will do it. Unfortunately the large effects short duration will still be in effect, but the smaller smoldering effects will last forever.
bravo 6
Jun 29 2007, 23:43
do we have shadows using this smoke? does the smoke generates shadows in ground and objects?
IronTiger
Jun 30 2007, 00:00
How can i replace this with the Arma vanilla smoke?http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/huh.gif
i mean with that "create PBO" thing
DMarkwick
Jun 30 2007, 00:16
do we have shadows using this smoke? does the smoke generates shadows in ground and objects?
No, ArmA particles do not cast shadows.
However, rather cooly, they can receive them http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif I've see helicopters cast shadows on smoke particles.
DMarkwick
Jun 30 2007, 00:19
How can i replace this with the Arma vanilla smoke?http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/huh.gif
i mean with that "create PBO" thing
Do you mean how can you lose the addon smoke and have the default one back? Lose the mission & addon. If you mean how can you replace default smoke with this one, well I posted that 4 posts back http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
ck-claw
Jun 30 2007, 09:49
Just tested !
Looking good! http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Col. Faulkner
Jun 30 2007, 23:56
I don't think I'd replace all of the default smoke with this but
I can definitely see a use for it in particular applications. I'd
been wanting a good effect for the aftermath of an attack on
an oil-storage facility and it looks like this might do nicely. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
yeah they are very nice, i love the 3d effect and how they are a deeper black.. i just think the smoke is a bit extreme for most of the explosions, but looks sweet, nice work!
DMarkwick
Jul 1 2007, 01:37
I don't think I'd replace all of the default smoke with this but
I can definitely see a use for it in particular applications. I'd
been wanting a good effect for the aftermath of an attack on
an oil-storage facility and it looks like this might do nicely. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Yeah for oil fires it's pretty good. Those oil pumps in the south of the island would be good candidates http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif I think I might redo the render though, people are complaining about the poofy fading away effect at the edges of the particle. If I make the edges slightly less sharp and lose the edge pulsing, and *slightly* lighten the texture I think it would be better.
Still fiddling with the other settings though, the non-custom textures used for the tanks. At a great distance they look pretty poor (fat) and close up pretty thin, maybe more particles but smaller size. Balance & observation http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
Did anyone like the smoke AFTER the main plumes have gone?
canis lupus
Jul 1 2007, 08:06
I don't get the fade out problem, it looks perfectly great by me, the smoke just slowly thins out and gets smaller untill its gone...
Psychonaut
Jul 1 2007, 11:00
Placing an activator for every single mission is pretty much work to replace the vanilla BIS smoke. As far as i know a sloution would be to implement a config.cpp to your mod and change the eventhandlers for every unit to use your smoke. I did some config-editing once in OFP, but thats long ago and things got much more complicated in Arma. But there are a lot of code wizzards around here. I bet there is someone, who can help you creating something, which will be able to replace the vanilla BIS smoke (at least for singleplayer).
DMarkwick
Jul 1 2007, 17:42
Placing an activator for every single mission is pretty much work to replace the vanilla BIS smoke. As far as i know a sloution would be to implement a config.cpp to your mod and change the eventhandlers for every unit to use your smoke. I did some config-editing once in OFP, but thats long ago and things got much more complicated in Arma. But there are a lot of code wizzards around here. I bet there is someone, who can help you creating something, which will be able to replace the vanilla BIS smoke (at least for singleplayer).
Yeah, getting the SmokeEffects addon to "magically" work just by having the addon is the aim. I hope that people will be able to use it in any mission, on any server and see great effects even if the server does NOT run it. (Each player will se *slightly* different results.) If the server does run it I expect everyone will see the same results.
Psychonaut
Jul 1 2007, 23:52
I´ve tested the whole evening to get this stuff to run in every mission by editing the cfgVehicles.hpp and inserting eventhandlers, but it don´t work at all. I´m not really into this stuff and it´s a lot of trial and error. Maybe someone have the right idea, how a working eventhandler could look like and how to get a working .hpp file. It´s really frustrating to have this great addon and can´t use it in the campaign.
me think, editing OFP was much easier, wasn´t it.
DMarkwick
Jul 2 2007, 19:24
Another YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AudGWZpwtCw) of some of the smoke settings. Not so much of the new animations, just an idea of what the environment looks like with tall smoke around.
Also shows off SNKMAN's blood effects, which are pretty cool.
Psychonaut
Jul 6 2007, 18:32
Maybe i´m the only one interested in this great addon http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif but are there any news or at least somt tipps how to get this to run in the SP campaign?
DMarkwick
Jul 6 2007, 18:58
Maybe i´m the only one interested in this great addon http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif but are there any news or at least somt tipps how to get this to run in the SP campaign?
LOL, just for you Psychonaut here's an updated version:
SmokeEffectsBeta2.rar (http://freespace.virgin.net/david.markwick/SmokeEffectsBeta2.rar)
Smoke now has a *slightly* different look for different windspeeds (not quite perfect but it's all WIP) and the animated smoke has a slightly different look.
Right now (until Sickboy gets hold of it http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif) you need to add a trigger in the mission. One huge trigger that covers the whole island, set for Anybody, present, once, and with this line in the On Activation field:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">{_x addEventHandler ["killed", {[_this select 0, _this select 1] execVM "DMSmokeEffects.sqf"}]} foreach thislist;[/QUOTE]
and you'll need the DMSmokeEffects.sqf file from the mission PBO, place it in your mission folder.
Psychonaut
Jul 6 2007, 19:43
http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/notworthy.gif Hey nice. I will test it asap. And good news, that sickboy is working on it, too. You are turning Arma into a totally new looking game.
DMarkwick
Jul 6 2007, 19:45
http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/notworthy.gif Hey nice. I will test it asap. And good news, that sickboy is working on it, too. You are turning Arma into a totally new looking game.
That's the aim http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif personally, better smoke and blood addons were my 2 must-haves. I couldn't do the blood, but I can do the smoke http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
*edit* BTW, I think I didn't rename the mission in the new pack, I don't think there's too much difference but you'd better make sure you're using the new version http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
DMarkwick
Jul 7 2007, 02:18
Hurrah! Just fixed the "blurry texture" problem with the custom animated smoke. Now it looks good all the time, no sudden blurryness, I will release a version 3 at some point.
I have had it pointed out to me though that it doesn't look good in low texture settings. I tried it and indeed it looks poor, but not too bad. I will suggest a setting of Normal or higher.
Just watched your last video and I must say you improved the smoke a lot.
Hope to see your smoke as a mod (or a part of the @<hidden> pack) to replace the default smoke in ArmA! http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Psychonaut
Jul 7 2007, 10:58
And at last you are mentioned at armaholic.com. Seems, that you will become very popular in the community http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/biggrin_o.gif !!! And if you ask me, you deserve it!
The new beta looks very nice. The blurry thing does not bother me very much, but it´s good to hear, that you fixed it. I´m using your addon with the newest version of XAM, ´cause they have some nice tank-explosion effect. I had to edit some eventhandlers to get it to work, but nothing too complicated.
What can i say:it feels and looks like a totally new game. Of course it works only with the large world trigger but i´m sure sickboy will find a solution for it. I´ve tried it by myself, but i was not able of coding a working eventhandler an script. Sorry, i really would have liked to help you with it.
I´m looking forward for the next version.
DMarkwick
Jul 7 2007, 19:02
Thanks for the comments guys http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif the plan is for it to become part of the SixthSense addon pack, so one day it will "just work" in any mission http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
I had considered doing some explosion effects, but I think XAM do it pretty good already, I'll just concentrate on smoke for now, I'm currently looking at how to improve building collapses too.
The beta 2 is also being hosted here (http://www.armed-assault-zone.com/news.php?readmore=394) too, I'll update the first post.
BTW, although I'm trying to get the smoke to be weather-reactive, at the moment it only has a very rough alteration for wind. Let me know if you don't like the way it's set now. Eventually it will change particle rate & lifetime based on how fast it gets blown away.
i'm guessing this doesn't work for MP. i tryed to put it on a mission on play it but to it doesn't work. enything about that??
DMarkwick
Jul 8 2007, 17:26
i'm guessing this doesn't work for MP. i tryed to put it on a mission on play it but to it doesn't work. enything about that??
Yeah, apparently setParticleEtc doesn't work in MP, I'm having to rewrite it for MP use using Drop instead.
DMarkwick
Jul 9 2007, 12:41
Rewriting the addon is taking ages, the setParticleParams command does NOT treat it's passed parameters the same way Drop does. So I have to do the "watch mission" thing for ever to recreate what I had:)
The good news is that the new way I need to structure the code means I can put weather reaction in easier, even though the actual smoke look is harder. So now the smoke reacts to weather.
So far the smoke adjusts it's lifetime and particle rate due to the wind (more wind = shorter lived smoke, but thicker as it's travelling faster. Effect is same amount of smoke.) and the smoldering aftersmoke effects reacts to rain. (Rain makes the smoke turn to steam (whiter and heavier) and also gradually reduces it's lifetime, so it extinguishes sooner. I'm sure the shorter lifetime effect is hardly noticeable, but it's there http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif)
I surely do hope Drop is MP friendly http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/biggrin_o.gif
Richieb0y
Jul 12 2007, 18:00
thx looking great
but i placed it the mods folder and i get the same smoke as the stock one do i need to add a command or something http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif
DMarkwick
Jul 12 2007, 18:50
thx looking great
but i placed it the mods folder and i get the same smoke as the stock one do i need to add a command or something http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif
Right now if you want to have the effects in your missions you need to extract the SQF file & place it in your mission folder, and create a trigger (the details of which can be read in the SQF file itself). Soon I will release a version that has 2 files that you simply copy across into your missions folder and that's it, and then after that the intention is to have a standalone addon that "just works" http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Other than that, run the included mission.
HGuderian
Jul 12 2007, 19:01
Optimal, but I suggest that the smoke might be clearer when collapse a structure. Good work
Hmm.. So this smoke-addon it's just for MP, and not SP or the Editor? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
Hmm.. So this smoke-addon it's just for MP, and not SP or the Editor? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
Sp
DMarkwick
Jul 12 2007, 23:42
Hmm.. So this smoke-addon it's just for MP, and not SP or the Editor? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
It actually doesn't work for MP right now, it's JUST a SP enhancement right now.
Haha alrighty then. *I'm stupid lol http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/biggrin_o.gif*
Anyway they look pretty nice. Beats the hell out of the default ArmA smoke. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif
DMarkwick
Jul 15 2007, 23:49
New version (and thread) here:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....1;&#top (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=70;t=65770;r=1;&#top)
http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/inlove.gif Dmarkwick
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