elaboration about how to improve effects

[NordKindchen 12]

This will be another rather big thread of mine.

This time I will focus on the effects and on how to improve them.

I will deliver example pics videos and quick mash-ups I made with photoshop to visualize my thoughts and for yout to get a feeling of my ideas.

I will be updating this thread every now and then and bring examples of how certain effects should look in my opinion.

It is greatly related to this tracker-entrance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Effects

1. Minigun bulletimpact

Introduction: While the tracers look already nice, impact wise the effects lack power. Even OFP 2 had better bullet impacts than Arma 3 atm.

Examples:

(switch to 3:05 sec)

REMOVED suggested by Bee8190. Switch to 1:30 sec.

Result:

1_Before

1_After

2_Before

2_After

3_before

3_After

--------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Smoke trails rocketpods/rocketartillery and backblast

Introduction:

The current smoke trails of the rocket pods are basically little smoke blobs that get rendered every few meters. On the rocket pods that doesnt matter - it still looks good since the smoke is very fade.

On the Rocket artillery on the other hand this system shows its drawback.

If the texture for the smoke trail would be "longer" - then the space between the rendered effects wouldnt be that much recognizeable.

Also - rocket artillery has a huge backblast which we have missing at the moment.

Examples:

Apache firing rocketpods - only watch the smoke trails here.

Heres a MLRS firing in slow motion.

Here is some syrian artillery system firing. Watch the huuuge backblast. The backblast is of course to big to implement in the game. But it shows that the ingame backblast needs to be rather large.

Results:

First I would suggest this video - maybe some of the techniques can be brought over to Armas particles.

Before

After

The mainthing to look at would be the rockettrails and that they dont fall apart in little dots.

After that it will be important to make sure that the smoke is blowing over the vehicle as well and is big enough behind the tank.

On top of that: For the explosion which appears when a rocket is launched - it is most easy to use some sprites which only appear for a quarter of a sec each. This is how most explosion effects are done in games like BF3 and comparable. It will deliver a great result if done right.

Towards the smoke: JTDs Smoke and Fire improved the smoke to a whole new level. I think we can anticipate even sth better since its 4 years old.

At the moment the smoke consists of little blobs - this system needs to be reworked. Take a look at link above.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Next: Rocketpods/50cal/Mortar

WIP and to be updated

Best regards

Edited April 9, 2013 by Max Power

[Hartmann 10]

So much yes.

I honestly can't imagine this not being on some to do list, it's an absolute crime to use the current effects when this amazing stuff is already there for Arma 2.

[kremator 1065]

We need OpticalSnare to work his magic on all these effects :) Where are you OS??

[NordKindchen 12]

If someone would explain me the basics - I would take on this task as well;)

[Bee8190 10]

This will be another rather big thread of mine.

1. Minigun bulletimpact

Introduction: While the tracers look already nice, impact wise the effects lack power. Even OFP 2 had better bullet impacts than Arma 3 atm.

Examples:

(switch to 3:05 sec)

And it's still being quite conservative from the looks of it. Again, I'd normally highlight it's an alpha but seeing as it is the same since A2...

1:30

EXPLICIT FOOTAGE REMOVED

Edited April 9, 2013 by Max Power

[NordKindchen 12]

Nice video - link added in mainpost.

Greetz

[roberthammer 582]

One of the devs said that they will update the particles/effects but it won't be anytime soon

[Montanaro 0]

that dude had god mode on! Glad to see that my difficulties of gunning down a lone man in ARMA via chopper is similar to real life.

[seamusgod 1]

for the impact effect, they could atleast make some use of sprites mixed in with particles instead of having everything as a particle effect, that's why they need to tone it down so much. too resource intensive. same with smoke, boy do those lag once you throw a couple.

[afp 1]

I think the impact effect should be at least "bigger", it's not really necessary to add a lot of visual details and particle effects. For the beggining be sure you have particle effects to maximum, or the smoke is almost invisible.

[max power 21]

Please do not post videos or other media depicting human beings being killed. Additionally, please do not link to sites containing such media. All forum rules are enforced, including the explicit media rules.

If I missed any images or videos in this thread it's not tantamount to approval. It means I missed them. This is your opportunity to edit your posts to come in line with the forum rules. The default infraction for explicit media is a 90 day ban, and I'm sure no one wants that.

[Tonci87 163]

Yes to everything in the first post!

[dmarkwick 261]

There are still problems with large particles in ArmA 3, as many of you know I like to use large particles but they are sadly limited to middle-to-far distance effects. They sort of break down when you get close or they get too big onscreen and have a shrinking appearance. Also their position alters when you turn, they move off the side of the screen faster than the view does.

[Mattar_Tharkari 10]

There are still problems with large particles in ArmA 3, as many of you know I like to use large particles but they are sadly limited to middle-to-far distance effects. They sort of break down when you get close or they get too big onscreen and have a shrinking appearance. Also their position alters when you turn, they move off the side of the screen faster than the view does.

I use rock showers as a particle effect in one of my compositions - does this mean I can't do that now?

[simon1279 53]

This will be another rather big thread of mine.

This time I will focus on the effects and on how to improve them.

I will deliver example pics videos and quick mash-ups I made with photoshop to visualize my thoughts and for yout to get a feeling of my ideas.

I will be updating this thread every now and then and bring examples of how certain effects should look in my opinion.

It is greatly related to this tracker-entrance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Effects

1. Minigun bulletimpact

Introduction: While the tracers look already nice, impact wise the effects lack power. Even OFP 2 had better bullet impacts than Arma 3 atm.

Examples:

(switch to 3:05 sec)

REMOVED suggested by Bee8190. Switch to 1:30 sec.

Result:

1_Before

1_After

2_Before

2_After

3_before

3_After

--------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Smoke trails rocketpods/rocketartillery and backblast

Introduction:

The current smoke trails of the rocket pods are basically little smoke blobs that get rendered every few meters. On the rocket pods that doesnt matter - it still looks good since the smoke is very fade.

On the Rocket artillery on the other hand this system shows its drawback.

If the texture for the smoke trail would be "longer" - then the space between the rendered effects wouldnt be that much recognizeable.

Also - rocket artillery has a huge backblast which we have missing at the moment.

Examples:

Apache firing rocketpods - only watch the smoke trails here.

Heres a MLRS firing in slow motion.

Here is some syrian artillery system firing. Watch the huuuge backblast. The backblast is of course to big to implement in the game. But it shows that the ingame backblast needs to be rather large.

Results:

First I would suggest this video - maybe some of the techniques can be brought over to Armas particles.

Before

After

The mainthing to look at would be the rockettrails and that they dont fall apart in little dots.

After that it will be important to make sure that the smoke is blowing over the vehicle as well and is big enough behind the tank.

On top of that: For the explosion which appears when a rocket is launched - it is most easy to use some sprites which only appear for a quarter of a sec each. This is how most explosion effects are done in games like BF3 and comparable. It will deliver a great result if done right.

Towards the smoke: JTDs Smoke and Fire improved the smoke to a whole new level. I think we can anticipate even sth better since its 4 years old.

At the moment the smoke consists of little blobs - this system needs to be reworked. Take a look at link above.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Next: Rocketpods/50cal/Mortar

WIP and to be updated

Best regards

Can you understand that BIS ain't a modding team but a software house, and i believe they really know what to do, their employee are professional developers not modders amateurs

[Bee8190 10]

Bad content......

Whoops, apologies for the link, I honestly didn't think it would be found as explicit :butbut:

---------- Post added at 12:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------

Can you understand that BIS ain't a modding team but a software house, and i believe they really know what to do, their employee are professional developers not modders amateurs

Nobody is saying that but why just don't do it right from the beginning?

[marcai 1]

Has to be said, the screenshots you posted of the missile smoke trails are pretty damned impressive, and I totally agree about the minigun look and feel. I'd love for them to have that explosive and powerful feeling when you pull the trigger, but right now I get an occasional few orange lines going forwards and occasionally I hit something to tell me they're landing. If they kicked up more dust or were more visible they'd be more satisfying, closer to reality, and have an awesome psychological influence against other players, imo. Would love to see these worked on, but unfortunately imagine better looks would come at the cost of FPS, which Arma games are somewhat notoriously low on for quite a few systems.

[nodunit 397]

Agreed, for three sequels it is rather aggitating to see the same particle effects on weapon response to the environment from arma 2 but it being early and they having worked on the muzzle flashes, who knows, there may be something down the road.

Sounds and visuals go hand in hand, and when your game has a high focus on gun play then you shouldn't neglect either of these.

Arma 3's is making great progress (at least imo) in the sounds but the visuals department needs to be brought up to snuff just as well.

Oh and about FPS...that is why we have particle detail options.

I'm hoping we get to see more 'livening' particles as well, things such as clumps of ground falling from tank tracks, or sparks coming from a rim dragging on solid ground along with the appropriate sound effects.

For example when you make a high jump in a vehicle and hit the ground, there is nothing to indicate just how much "umph" there was to that impact save for camera, you don't hear and thus feel as though you might have broken something.

Edited April 10, 2013 by NodUnit

[max power 21]

Thanks to NordKindchen and Bee8190 for their understanding :)

[seamusgod 1]

Agreed, for three sequels it is rather aggitating to see the same particle effects on weapon response to the environment from arma 2 but it being early and they having worked on the muzzle flashes, who knows, there may be something down the road.

Sounds and visuals go hand in hand, and when your game has a high focus on gun play then you shouldn't neglect either of these.

Arma 3's is making great progress (at least imo) in the sounds but the visuals department needs to be brought up to snuff just as well.

Oh and about FPS...that is why we have particle detail options.

I'm hoping we get to see more 'livening' particles as well, things such as clumps of ground falling from tank tracks, or sparks coming from a rim dragging on solid ground along with the appropriate sound effects.

For example when you make a high jump in a vehicle and hit the ground, there is nothing to indicate just how much "umph" there was to that impact save for camera, you don't hear and thus feel as though you might have broken something.

or rocks being chipped and powdered from machinegun fire:

more various hit effects for different surfaces in general.

[mr_centipede 31]

We already have it, tree chunks, fallen leaves stayed on ground a bit, small rocks... just put the particle detail on high and above

[seamusgod 1]

that is not the issue. please look at the video i provided and nordchen's photoshops, thank you.

[mr_centipede 31]

I have no problem with NordKitchen's PS. I just explained that we already have the things that you mentioned, tree chunks and chipped rocks.

[Enricksolt 12]

Totally agree with you. Most of the guns in Arma feels underpower because they look underpower. Some people don't belive that but particles effects make a huge difference, more than you think, having a nice, big, colorfull explosion is more satisfying than having a ball of smoke poping out from the ground. It change the way players fear those weapons and the way they use them.

[Gorbachev 1]

Most games make great use of sprites. They're efficient and look as good as the texture used on them.. I'd be all for that.