Blastcore: Phoenix 2

[Opticalsnare 12]

Right listen up anyone who are missing bullet impacts or they are having strange things not appearing properly, go to video options and make sure you have set the particles to "HIGH"

[LucidPotato 10]

Maybe somebody could make a thread or something on live updating/debugging while creating mods? Maybe they could implement something like that when they start updating the dev branch again?

It would make things a million times easier for everybody, and less stressful.

[oldy41 61]

It definitely looks awesome!

But I would appreciate if the particles have less contrast, higher resolution and softer edges.

Also, are the illumination for fire looking too yellow and should be more orange?

I second that.

Especially the smoke particles do not look as good as the rest. (Maybe a little bit less here might actually be more ;) )

Besides that, great mod.

(Wishful thinking: What I am still waiting for is a really good tracers mod...)

[Greenfist 1863]

Is it normal that rocket lights stutter/don't move on every frame?

video

This was recorded at around 40 fps then slowed down to 20. You can see the difference between rockets and the MG tracers.

The effect is still very visible even at 70 fps.

Does everyone have this or is just me? Or am I just only one bugged by it?

The flickering nearly makes my eyes hurt when shooting rockets at night.

Is it even possible to fix if the light source is spawned with a script which just can't trigger on every frame?

[13islucky 10]

What are your particle settings? I find that mine are quite fluid even at ~30ish fps, on high particle settings.

[nikiforos 450]

Greenfist I have this too. I disabled the mod and the flickering was away.

[zach72 1]

THANKYOU Opticalsnare. This was an awesome Christmas present and we won't play Arma3 without it! (And JSRS)

please don't take people's critiques and suggestions to heart. This is how you made it, and we are thankful you spent the time and energy doing it.

[mikey74 168]

I second that one Zach!!!! Great work Opticalsnare!!!! ;) The artillery seems much much more intense with the AISS mod and Blastcore!!! Awesome work!!!!

[jumpinghubert 48]

Does everyone have this or is just me? Or am I just only one bugged by it?

The flickering nearly makes my eyes hurt when shooting rockets at night.

Is it even possible to fix if the light source is spawned with a script which just can't trigger on every frame?

I have it too.

[stephsen 79]

Hey OS, at first I thought the colour of fire & explosions was quite accurate, but then I checked out some footage of explosions, and one video (actually many videos of the same event) contains valuable footage of explosions at night. As you can see the color of the detonation is very "yellowish" (quite like the colour used in your mod at the moment) but quickly (I mean, like, less than 0.5 seconds after detonation) the colour turns orange.

yeah thats what i mean

[maturin 12]

OpticalSnare, I just read your detailed post on the mod's realism and your experience with development and plans for the future. First of all, that workflow with the particles really sounds hellish, and must have demanded a huge amount of dedication. I have no intention or right to criticize, and I absolutely don't want to be inflammatory, but the enormous smoke trails have a really big impact on my enjoyment of the mod.

Realism of FX is highly subjective given the number of factors at work, and at the end of the day, explosions can be spectacular, just like in the mod. But NLAWs, RPGs and ATGMs simply do not and cannot belch smoke out the back like some sort of mission to mars. It gives me flashbacks to CoD 4 and Die Hard movies, and is a big personal flashpoint for me that also got in the way of enjoying A2 Blastcore. Certain weapons like the MANPADs, FFARs or Skalpel AGMs might have smoke trails, but only for a few seconds of flight time.

I know many people will feel the same, and I know that Blastcore isn't going to undergo many changes by popular demand. Would it be very time-consuming to release a NoSmokeTrails patch? Or perhaps give your blessing to a third party patch accomplishing this? At the moment it's just sort of a cruel choice between using and not using the mod.

[Greenfist 1863]

Ok, the "flickering" was actually this: http://youtu.be/e13vzDHEmVU (light source doesn't move but is spawned at intervals instead).

Probably an intended behaviour but could this be improved without too big a hit on performance?

Other than this, I'm just in love with the mod! :D

[Opticalsnare 12]

Ok, the "flickering" was actually this: http://youtu.be/e13vzDHEmVU (light source doesn't move but is spawned at intervals instead).

Probably an intended behaviour but could this be improved without too big a hit on performance?

Other than this, I'm just in love with the mod! :D

Yea this is because its scripted effect. All smoke trails are scripted its because i wanted the smoke to have velocity getting blown backwards. Il have a look when i got time but its not something i want to get involved in atm scripts kinda devour my time.

As for the smoke trails il take alook at them for size, lifetime & visibility i don't think i have had chance to match them to the actual burntime of the missile or rocket yet, but i wont separate them or grant any permission to edit my mod at the present time.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Opticalsnare

[maturin 12]

In that case, please bear in mind that the correct amount of smoke trail for NLAWs and RPG is absolutely none at all. The RPG modeled in-game burns out entirely in the tube, and the has no trail whatsoever, as videos will show. For obvious reasons, this is vital to the operator's survival.

Since the Titan is a slow-moving weapon with optional SACLOS guidance, it's not going to make a massive technological step backward and start pouring smoke either.

[pawelkpl 29]

Hi, thx for the mod, I found that smoke screen lasts only a few seconds...

[Opticalsnare 12]

Yea i only got 4 types of smoke trails atm, its a easy job so expect it fixed in next update.

Hi, thx for the mod, I found that smoke screen lasts only a few seconds...

Fixed.

Btw im messing with the colours atm. What u think of this? I think too much red/orange? The only way i know or aware of to have the light a differnt colour during lifetime is to make 2 lights present at the same time and have the lifetime and colours set differntly, the only problem is that your be using 2 lights at the same time and will increase the chance of running out of light sources.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Opticalsnare

[PTV-Jobo 820]

It definitely looks better with this color compared to the all-lemon yellow. I think this would flow better with BIS's color choices than the original colors in the release. Perhaps adjust the yellow to be a more pale yellow-white? Especially if people have a wee bit difference in color calibration of their monitors, using things like SweetFX, etc. So it sort of balances out a bit. But I don't know, I know I've chimed in about the yellow, but feel kind of horrible about it knowing how much work went into the project and how much of a pain in the ass it is, especially with all the restarting stupidity with the game. But even so, I'd say this is certainly better.

[pawelkpl 29]

Yeah I think It is really Good !

[Champy_UK 1]

Lovely mod :) Would the colours be specific to the materials involved during the explosion? I E Fuel would be one colours and then mixtures of others accordingly? Are you going to be doing separate explosions per type of thing such as Ammo trucks and fuel trucks? So the ammo has lots of shrapnel flying out and then the fuel has more explosion than shrapnel?

Champy_UK

[GreenGriffin 10]

Btw im messing with the colours atm. What u think of this? I think too much red/orange? The only way i know or aware of to have the light a differnt colour during lifetime is to make 2 lights present at the same time and have the lifetime and colours set differntly, the only problem is that your be using 2 lights at the same time and will increase the chance of running out of light sources.

I wouldn't duplicate light sources for a single effect. Might alienate the users with more mid-range PC's - probably most people!

In my experience, any fire at night involving fuel (i.e. any vehicle) has more of an orange tint to it, like your photo. Definitely not pastel yellow. I've only seen overwhelming yellow in the case of certain chemical fires.

Perhaps add *very* slightly more yellow, and you'd be in the ballpark IMO.

By the way, incredible mod! Like everyone else, I'm just interested in the very slight improvements to make it even better.

Edited December 22, 2013 by GreenGriffin

[Tonci87 163]

@OS The fire on the picture looks much better. I too would suggest that you don´t use two light sources per fire. That would be too demanding in certain situations.

Another thing I found. In vanilla the smoke from smoke grenades can be blown away by a helicopter. This is pretty cool and usefull because you can actually see something as pilot when you try to land in a marked LZ. Sadly your smoke grenades are not affected by the rotor downwash. Any chance to implement this?

[snowingjimbob 34]

Does anybody see the small arms bullet impacts looking like this: (watch at around 5:30)

I'm running the stable version and I put the particle effects on high. I can now see small puffs of dust from bullet impact but nothing like this.

Just curious.

[artisanal 22]

In your video he uses Warfx (which is for arma 2 actually, though it "partially" works on arma 3).

[mythlawlbear 10]

Awesome colors man, much better, only thing that ur missing is turning down the brightness and particle size of effects a little bit.

[Kirill 1]

Explosions 120mm shells (not SABOT) - too small