Splendid Smoke

[Zabuza 63]

Splendid Smoke > reworked smoke effects

 

 

1. What does it do?
2. Features

3. Troubleshooting

4. Source

5. Changelog
6. Download

 

What does it do?

The mod reworks the smoke effects of various weapons and events. In the initial version this includes much bigger smoke clouds created by all types of smoke grenades.

The main aspect is the improvement of the visual experience while not decreasing the performance compared to vanilla. In general this means that the amount of spawned particles remains unchanged.

 

 

 

 

 

Features

The following list presents all added/changed features:

• reworked effects of smoke grenades and smoke shells
  • double the size
  • more volume due to increased spreading
  • blocks the sight of AI
  • same particle amount than in vanilla (performant, particle limit is not reached faster)
• compatible with common mods like ACE
• small and compact, no overhead
• perfomant

Troubleshooting

• The smoke effect does not look like in the video?
  • If you use any mods, try again without (vanilla). If the problem still persists, locate the problematic mod. Ensure that SplendidSmoke is loaded after this mod, this should fix the issue. In either case contact us here or at GitHub so we can fix the issue also for others.
• The smoke effects do not apply to a modded smoke grenade?
  • The modded grenade probably does not inherit from the vanilla grenades. Contact us here or at GitHub so we can add support for this mod

 

Source

The source of this mod is available at GitHub, it is published under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

 

Changelog

1.1:

- fixed signature keys not working

1.0:

- initial release

 

Download

Download here (no other addons required)

or via Steam Workshop

[FlyingVolvo 13]

Very impressive work! The smoke dispersion in vanilla never seemed anything remotely close to reality.

 

This is more of a technical question, but did the smoke not obstructing the line of sight (LOS) bug get fixed in an update somewhere along the line? I could almost swear the bug has been around almost as long as I have been on this forum, back in early 2014 or something like that. Hyperbole aside, the spread is really nice and no performance hit is very important to someone like me running an old-ish rig. Just great!

[vafana 110]

It is really very impressive @zabuza, thanks for good work! 

I was wondering if you can modify the smoke from the campfire, in my opinion, really needs some improvement.

[sammael 366]

Hi zabuza. I have a problem with vanilla. Every time when I shoot my fps drop down to 5-6 FPS.  Every time when I shoot in scope mode (LPRS ACOG DMS AMS and other) my FPS drop down about 10-15 FPS. Small weapon cause small fps drop.

for ex

Vermin-8FPS

SPMG 15-FPS

10-12 FPS drop when look at smoke from smoke granade

I make some  tests and find  FPS drop due to  barrel smoke effect when shooting in first person or see smoke from  grenade when you near.  This problem since 1.62 update. 

Is your mod affect  barrel smoke effect to make it more performant or only smoke from grenades?

maybe your mod may help solve my fps drop

[Jdownward 33]

Hey man looks great will look at this when I get home. No more predator vision Ai :)

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

[kremator 1065]

I wonder how well it works in conjunction with Blastcore (and variants!) ... would need to get the right order of mods of course.

[Zabuza 63]

This is more of a technical question, but did the smoke not obstructing the line of sight (LOS) bug get fixed in an update somewhere along the line?

 

I think so, at least I did nothing more than to say 'particle is sight-blocking'. The rest, the AI behavior, is from the engine.

 

I was wondering if you can modify the smoke from the campfire, in my opinion, really needs some improvement.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've wrote it down for next versions TODO-sheet. I'd like to hear more ideas what this mod should or can include in the future. And what other effects should be improved and how.

 

Hi zabuza. I have a problem with vanilla. Every time when I shoot my fps drop down to 5-6 FPS.  Every time when I shoot in scope mode (LPRS ACOG DMS AMS and other) my FPS drop down about 10-15 FPS. Small weapon cause small fps drop.

for ex

Vermin-8FPS

SPMG 15-FPS

10-12 FPS drop when look at smoke from smoke granade

I make some  tests and find  FPS drop due to  barrel smoke effect when shooting in first person or see smoke from  grenade when you near.  This problem since 1.62 update. 

Is your mod affect  barrel smoke effect to make it more performant or only smoke from grenades?

maybe your mod may help solve my fps drop

 

In the current version (1.0) this only includes the smoke of smoke grenades. Are you talking of this burning barrels, I may also include them for a next version. Sadly this mod will not improve your performance over the performance you get with vanilla. The particle amount and their lifetime (biggest factors) remain the same. However, if you're using other visual mods, like Blastcore, chances are high that they improve the particle amount for better effects. You may try to remove those kind of mods.

 

I wonder how well it works in conjunction with Blastcore (and variants!) ... would need to get the right order of mods of course.

 

You nail it, the order of loading the mods is important. You'll get the same size and movement-pattern of particles. However I think BC changes the particle data itself, so it may be possible that it looks awkward. If so, call back and I'll provide a patch.

[Zabuza 63]

To my astonishment someone of the ACE-Team just told me that they are working on a module called ACE-Particles. It also includes a similar effect than I achieved with Splendid Smoke (and also lots of other particle reworks). However it is not ready for the stable release of ACE yet, but will be soon.

 

As ACE-stuff really is some professional stuff - I'm looking forward to the release of ACE-Particles. Until then (who knows when 'soon' is), I'm glad we now have Splendid Smoke.

[haleks 8212]

I'm glad we have a standalone addon for this - ACE can be a pain to sort out with the file dependencies...

Thanks Zab!

[munger 25]

Thanks for this mod Zabuza. Completely agree - default smoke is lousy so this is a welcome improvement, especially for coloured smoke to make it more visible.

 

 

To my astonishment someone of the ACE-Team just told me that they are working on a module called ACE-Particles. It also includes a similar effect than I achieved with Splendid Smoke (and also lots of other particle reworks). However it is not ready for the stable release of ACE yet, but will be soon.

 

As ACE-stuff really is some professional stuff - I'm looking forward to the release of ACE-Particles. Until then (who knows when 'soon' is), I'm glad we now have Splendid Smoke.

 

Now that sounds promising! I wonder if it will be an alternative to Blastcore. Hope so as Blastcore is getting increasingly outdated despite the various 'bootleg' versions knocking about.

[john111 76]

About Ai seeing player:Is it possible to add a type-"green screen" effect to this,so it could be used as a way to obscure the ai from seeing players by adding a semi-transparent wall in front of the players ,so the Ai can`t see them except within a set distance?

 

Then make the smoke disappear only around the player that fired his gun-but keep it in-front of any other at the distance (that cant be set and toggled on/off and has several distances,set by trigger,even the 10X10m trigger).

 

This could protect snipers close to target,that did not fire a shot ,but reveal the unit that fired from further away+his team mates.

 

This way we could script events for missions that would been impossible before. 

[khaosmatical 237]

This is superb, it looks great and runs really well!

Hopefully BI will see your method for making smoke grenades much more useful.

[Jdownward 33]

Something that bugs me is that if I'm in a firefight with a Ai all I have to do is throw smoke infrount of me and they will stop completely :(

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

[lordprimate 159]

I am willing to bet that you could push for better performance by making the particles a little bigger and reducing their count by just a few so less particles but bigger.... i know performance is  not an issue with this mod but what im saying is that you could probably get away with reducing the particle production a lil bit and then increase the size and the life time of the particle..

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Splendid Smoke v1.0

[tpw 2315]

I absolutely love this mod. A seemingly small change that makes a massive difference to combat and elevates smoke back to real usefulness again. 

 

If you're looking for additional things to play with Zabusa, would you think about modifying the smoke shells? They used to lay down a fairly thick carpet of smoke but got neutered a while ago.

 

Thanks so much for this mod.

[Neviothr 102]

Very nice!

[Nife 33]

This is a really great step on the right direction, I'm very excited about smoke being finally useful again.

 

However, judging by the last scene in your demo video, I had the feeling that the obscuring area for the AI is a bit too large, to the point where you had clear sight on the enemy and yet he would not open fire himself. I'm a bit concerned this can affect the balance of the game.

 

Either way, very nice, keep it up.

[kremator 1065]

The size is always a difficult thing to call.  I'd be tempted to keep it as is for the moment, but perhaps concentrate on smoke shells ... they need loving.  Oh and BTW, it works great with Blastcore.

[Zabuza 63]

Something that bugs me is that if I'm in a firefight with a Ai all I have to do is throw smoke infrount of me and they will stop completely :(

 

I'm unsure if the AI really behaves this way atm. I think if they already know where you are then they keep doing some 'blindfire' (in the video I was not spotted before running through the smoke). However I have not tested this nor can I influence the behavior of the AI in this case.

 

However, judging by the last scene in your demo video, I had the feeling that the obscuring area for the AI is a bit too large, to the point where you had clear sight on the enemy and yet he would not open fire himself. I'm a bit concerned this can affect the balance of the game.

 

Yeah, I was surprised too. I think its because of the particle files. They are bigger then the actual 'painted area', the AIs sight is blocked by the particle dimensions itself, not by the actual painted area. Probably the only fix is to create a cropped version of the 3D-file.

 

The size is always a difficult thing to call.  I'd be tempted to keep it as is for the moment, but perhaps concentrate on smoke shells ... they need loving.  Oh and BTW, it works great with Blastcore.

 

Good to know! What do you mean with 'smoke shells'? Do you mean the shells from the artillery and mortar? If yes, modded variants or the vanilla stuff? I thought I already support them, but honestly I've not tested it.

[Jdownward 33]

Yeah mate I can understand that you have no influence on Ai performance, but it is something that I am looking into with another mod (Ai not smoke) that changes Ai :) I'll recommend if it works flawlessly

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[kremator 1065]

LOL I did mean smoke shells from arty ... perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough!  Keep up the good work mate.

[vafana 110]

Yeah mate I can understand that you have no influence on Ai performance, but it is something that I am looking into with another mod (Ai not smoke) that changes Ai 

 

I use these two (Pooter`s enhanced ASR AI, R3F AIcomTarget) and AI works well using supressing fire through the smoke.

[Jdownward 33]

I use these two (Pooter`s enhanced ASR AI, R3F AIcomTarget) and AI works well using supressing fire through the smoke.

What are they like on servers and do they take cover and get suppressed??

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[vafana 110]

 R3F AIcomTarget is created specially for multiplayer (see description in the link)  and makes the AI not to give up as soon as the target is no longer in sight, and Pooter`s enhanced ASR AI make AI`s suppressing fire to be very effective along with flanking maneuvers. Smoke only help you to get out from a bad situation, or to do some maneuvers, but for a short time because AI don`t give up watching you.