Blastcore: Phoenix 2

[mr burns 132]

The only thing thats keeping me from bursting with excitement when readin this thread is that my Arma3 runs like shit :D

Count me in for the semi-productive YT links though:

b7bJdDEsziI

[chompster 29]

Are those the same particle effects you used in the Mark 82? can't help but get a sense that those were a lot more.. lush? and full? While these kinda go back to the standard Arma style effects of small round clouds forming a bigger round cloud, apposed to it being those weird oblong shaped smoke clouds that shoot out more to the sides in strands instead of up like you see in the video heavygunner posted and the one you Favorited.

Though with the initial strike you can see different strands shooting out in different direction, it doesn't take long for them all to become the same color turning it into a single big blob instead. Which, in my none important opinion, is a shame considering how truly epic those Mark 82 explosions were.

my 2 cents.

[Opticalsnare 12]

Are those the same particle effects you used in the Mark 82? can't help but get a sense that those were a lot more.. lush? and full? While these kinda go back to the standard Arma style effects of small round clouds forming a bigger round cloud, apposed to it being those weird oblong shaped smoke clouds that shoot out more to the sides in strands instead of up like you see in the video heavygunner posted and the one you Favorited.

Though with the initial strike you can see different strands shooting out in different direction, it doesn't take long for them all to become the same color turning it into a single big blob instead. Which, in my none important opinion, is a shame considering how truly epic those Mark 82 explosions were.

my 2 cents.

The Mk82 effects have a much higher particle count than these, and so are by far more detailed in its fire and smoke creation. Most of the attention on these, are on the dirt and debris. If they were the same as the mk82 as in the same amount, then the amount of particles being generated will consume far too much, it would not take long before the particles start getting cutoff because theres too many being generated.

The effects for these are more catered for quantity rather than quailty, as you can have a massive barrage of artillery fire without the risk of causing a system meltdown.

All effects in the update are based on what they are for, common effects such as general explosions, bulletimpacts etc wont be as detailed as say an epic explosion like the mk82/laser guided bomb. Hope this makes sense.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Opticalsnare

[snowingjimbob 34]

Very epic. Keep up the amazing work

[reallybigrocks 10]

Those were low quality?! Can't wait to see the high quality ones then, jeez.

[CaptainObvious 95]

Beautiful, love the randomness of the dust pillars.

[stephsen 79]

All effects in the update are based on what they are for, common effects such as general explosions, bulletimpacts etc wont be as detailed as say an epic explosion like the mk82/laser guided bomb. Hope this makes sense.

is it difficult to replace the old bulletimpacts with detailed effects, or is it not realy possible ?

Would be nice to see more detailed dust and dirt effects at small weapon bulletimpacts too. :pray:

[Grumpy Old Man 3546]

That's some fantastic work,

makes me wonder why BI is limiting particle count like that, is there any specific reason for this?

I mean most modern cards should be able to handle 2-3 times the particle count as what's currently possible in arma3 without breaking a sweat.

[bigpickle 0]

Looking great OS!

[chompster 29]

All effects in the update are based on what they are for, common effects such as general explosions, bulletimpacts etc wont be as detailed as say an epic explosion like the mk82/laser guided bomb. Hope this makes sense.

It does, thanks.

That's some fantastic work,

makes me wonder why BI is limiting particle count like that, is there any specific reason for this?

I mean most modern cards should be able to handle 2-3 times the particle count as what's currently possible in arma3 without breaking a sweat.

Because Arma barely even makes use of your card. Almost everything is being done by your processor. Unfortunately i doubt this is something we'll ever see change. maybe if they do a Arma4 but even then i wouldn't hold my breath on it.

If you do a search in the general forums i'm sure you could find some threads that go further on the subject.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Chompster

[nikiforos 450]

Particles are using CPU and not GPU just try it.

[Raytesh 10]

Sounds like BI has a project that would greatly improve performance. I always knew there was a reason that arma ran choppy with huge amounts of stress loaded onto my machine. Graphics card hardly breaks a sweat.

[Opticalsnare 12]

Well you have to set a limit somewhere. The amount of particles that are generated atm is by far more than enough. The limits can be increased via the config but im trying to keep things under this limit at the moment, i don't want to make things too demanding eating up frames and making unoptimized effect.

The particle limit is more like saftey net rather than a brickwall. If you hit it then you know you have gone too far and need to ease off some.

Its all about finding the right balance.

[nikiforos 450]

Opticalsnare I really hope that the change you made to the muzzle flashes will optimize the game a lot. I may have high expectations but I really hope we will have higher FPS during firefights.

[Opticalsnare 12]

Its only the muzzlesmoke thats been modded, the flashes are still the same as before. But it does improve your framerate some during full-auto firing in the first-person view. Not really tested so much in large scale engagements yet, i think it made it slightly better gave like a few extra frames, but you can definitely see an improvement in the FP view.

[sqb-sma 66]

Hey OS. One thing I was surprised by, and moreso now that your mod's doing the same, is how fast dust clears after the explosion! In all the videos linked you can see that dust really hangs around for a while, in Arma2 some dust hung around for realistic lengths (helicopter dust off) and some didn't. Now in A3 it all just vanishes.

It's very evident in the artillery video, which is unfortunate.

May I ask what the reason is behind this? It's a bit of a shame.

Oh also! Back in Arma1 we had lighting on dust particles, in Arma2 it was gone. I'm very surprised to see it not make a comeback in A3. Is there any way to get that back?

[Opticalsnare 12]

Hey OS. One thing I was surprised by, and moreso now that your mod's doing the same, is how fast dust clears after the explosion! In all the videos linked you can see that dust really hangs around for a while, in Arma2 some dust hung around for realistic lengths (helicopter dust off) and some didn't. Now in A3 it all just vanishes.

It's very evident in the artillery video, which is unfortunate.

May I ask what the reason is behind this? It's a bit of a shame.

Oh also! Back in Arma1 we had lighting on dust particles, in Arma2 it was gone. I'm very surprised to see it not make a comeback in A3. Is there any way to get that back?

Optimization dude.

Theses effects are a bit more detailed and complex than previous effects, so they use slightly more resources when being generated. Some new Battledust effects which have not yet been shown are currently under testing, these will begin after the initial blast has dissipated and will hang about the battlefield after major engagements, this is a more optimized method than before so will hopfully will cater for what you mentioned and not be so demanding as before.

Lighting on dust particles? Do you mean how to make the particles be emissive without a light source? If so then this option no longer functions in A3, there is some emissive settings for nightime effects but this does not work during the daytime.

[Tonci87 163]

Hey OS, here is a fresh video of a real jet crashing. Maybe it gives you inspiration.

[sethos 2]

Will definitely be returning once this is out, looks glorious!

[bigpickle 0]

Hey OS, here is a fresh video of a real jet crashing. Maybe it gives you inspiration.

Wow the jet disappears before it hits the floor, that is odd as heck, just after 12 seconds boom jet is gone then boom. As odd as it seems i think the video is not legit. When slowing down the video it vanishes. Sry for the off topic but had to say that.

[artemas 1]

That it gets lost against an urban background?

Seems a bit circumstantial to make hard calls on what is an unverifiable video.

[chompster 29]

Wow the jet disappears before it hits the floor, that is odd as heck, just after 12 seconds boom jet is gone then boom. As odd as it seems i think the video is not legit. When slowing down the video it vanishes. Sry for the off topic but had to say that.

The video quality is crap, the guy's shaking it like crazy and "before it hits the floor", which it doesn't btw it hits a building, is at a far distance in and urban area. Of course it's going to disappear.

So far i'v seen 2 more videos of it from different angles. It's legit. Not gonna link them cus they're on LiveLeaks and idk how mods react to linking to that site. But you can find em if you search it.

Sorry for the off-topic as well.

OS' work has been really awesome so far, but thing like that seem to be far beyond what Arma is capable of.

[fabio_chavez 103]

are you planning to make replacement effects for all the crappy vanilla particle effects too?

bullet impact dust, burnung wrecks, grenades etc etc

and are you intending to add more color variants to the smoke clumns?

eg

compared to

Edited September 7, 2014 by Fabio_Chavez

[The Hebrew Hammer 10]

someone can make a mirror please :)

are you planning to make replacement effects for all the crappy vanilla particle effects too?

bullet impact dust, burnung wrecks, grenades etc etc

and are you intending to add more color variants to the smoke clumns?

eg

http://i.imgur.com/UEOSHGg.jpg

compared to

http://eyreinternational.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/jdams1.jpg

I think those JDAMs are striking a combustable target..

[fabio_chavez 103]

I think those JDAMs are striking a combustable target..

there reference is random, however, you are implicating that the appearance of the smoke collumns are supposed to reflect somehow the characteristics of the target area.

If its possible to create an explosion effect that is sensitive to the environment, fine, thats even better but as far as my suggestion is concerened, the intention is to get rid of the flat, monotonous wall that is created by the series explosions.

I know the crappy bulletin sprite particle system is a problem and blastcore allready replaces some of the horrible old a2 default sprites that made it into a3 but id say there is still room for improvement.

here is an example for custom made particle effects on the BF2 engine, which is compareable to arma3 probably in that regard

even bf4 seems to use the same old technology more or less

p.s. please dont start a discussion about realism etc now these are just examples and realism is not a contradiction to artistic expression.