ArmA Effects

[dmarkwick 261]

Rgr, thanks

I'm having trouble tracking it down, can you link me in please?

[Maddmatt 1]

And I'm waiting for the high quality version

It's up and is definitely much nicer than the youtube low-res version

Just added the link to the first post. Will download it myself too.

Now something I want a little feedback on:

Weapons tend to kick up some dust below them when fired near the ground, very noticeable when a soldier lies prone and fires off a weapon like the M249.

After watching a couple real videos of this, I made the effect in game. It's not released, it's just sitting on my hard drive right now. And I want to do a bit more with it.

Right now it's one dust particle kicked up below the weapon when it is close to the ground and fired. But the look of the effect is determined only by the height of the weapon muzzle above the ground. Just under 1m it is slightly visible and becomes less transparent (more visible) as the muzzle is closer to the ground.

It looks pretty cool seeing a machine gunner lying prone open fire and the dust kicks up in front of him. It doesn't blind you, it is transparent enough to easily see through and will obviously only be in your face when you are prone.

Now, what other factors should influence the effect? Should the particle be smaller when the weapon has a lower muzzle velocity for instance, so a pistol and MP5 wont kick up dust that is as visible as the dust from an M4 or M240? Or do these weapons kick up a similar amount of dust per bullet?

Don't worry about performance, in my tests it doesn't slow down large battles. It's (currently) only one short lived particle per bullet, and only if the weapon is held close to the ground.

Some real videos might be helpful, if you have any good ones that show this with real weapons. It's only really visible when lying prone.

[DaSquade 0]

I like the idea of muzzle dust effects. No expert but i assume the rule 'the bigger (weapon), the bigger effect...'. Meaning a M107 will 'blow' more then a MP5. Not sure how far you can and will go into it, but lot depends on the muzzle head (reducer) etc afaik.

Like for example, the M107 with 'stock' muzzle head will have more effect or blow facing backwords and spread out effect then same weapon with silincer on (yes, they come with silincers...but Barret itself doesn't recommand it ).

Anyway, lost of reference on the net i assume (google, youtube, live...etc) and don't suppose you want to turn your topic into a fotoalbum etc...

But just wanted to post this one...

Static image (doh), but even for this caliber weapon it is more or less low.

On a side note, depending what is possible, i hope it will more or less keep in mind what type of surface the effect is taking place. Meaning, desert dune vs nicely urban cleaned street/building .

Anyway, all up for that. Would be a nice 'cheat' if the dust stays hanging in the air for a few secs when fading out, so it acts as a target location spot.

Good luck (ArmA-Effects user and fan ).

[Maddmatt 1]

...

Thanks for that. The .50 cals could probably use their own special effect, since they kick up a lot more than most weapons.

Quote[/b] ]

On a side note, depending what is possible, i hope it will more or less keep in mind what type of surface the effect is taking place. Meaning, desert dune vs nicely urban cleaned street/building

I don't know if I can get that working properly. Right now it's just one effect which seems to look fine on just about any surface.

But that comment does remind me of 1 thing, I better make sure it doesn't appear over water. That's easy though.

Quote[/b] ]Anyway, all up for that. Would be a nice 'cheat' if the dust stays hanging in the air for a few secs when fading out, so it acts as a target location spot.

Good luck (ArmA-Effects user and fan ).

The dust fades out rather quickly, as it seems to in the real videos. It doesn't seem to make your more visible, since the weapons already send out some smoke.

I do want to keep this mod fair towards players who are not using it, that also makes sure that most server admins are happy to allow it on their server.

If this becomes part of some bigger mod that requires all clients to have it, then I wont need to worry about that since everyone will have to use it on the server.

[DaSquade 0]

@Matt: all makes sence and can life with.

By any change you can upload a small demo movie of the effect so far?

EDIT: just took a few minutes to check some recordings myself...and from what i see only the big 50cals produce enough air power to speak of kicking up dust. Again, this one has mayor air compression after shot + the muzzle head it made so it acts as reverse kick to compensate the recoil, witch leads to a big dust smoke. But also this is envirement/underground sensitive. Like expected, sand will produce a mayor cloud while in the grass land or on clean surfaces, this effect is very hard to spot.

->So imho, the effect would only apply to big calliber weapons (50cals and MGs) and not to assault riffles or pistols. But again, i think it all depends on the type of muzzle flash and surface.

Just my cent.

[ArmaVidz 0]

RTF Taliban Contact @ 22 Seconds there's some footage

. High caliber sniper rifle clip

[Apache-Cobra 0]

Great work MaddMatt. Do you think as well as doing the muzzle smoke from the ground you could fix up the muzzle smoke that comes from the barrel itself? The quick flash of smoke is sort of annoying to me. From what I have seen, when fired guns expel some smoke in an almost 180 degree angle facing outwards from the gun. In real life, the smoke at first is easily seen but slowly dissipates and floats away so you can barely see it but can still tell that it is there.

Cheers.

[chammy 7]

Hey Madmat, very very nice work done !

Now if I might add, I wanetd to suggest maybe, I noticed the AT impact explosions are great but I shouldnt the flash be a bit more quicker? And the smoke dissapate just like the grenade smoke?

Here's one example, if you havent seen already:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ee0_1183790924

http://vids.myspace.com/index.c....4449488

A nice back blast:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.c....7352142

nice tracer:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.c....0318457

http://vids.myspace.com/index.c....7351441

[Maddmatt 1]

I'd swear I just posted a reply here yesterday before I logged off Oh well, I'll type it again...

@Matt: all makes sence and can life with.

By any change you can upload a small demo movie of the effect so far?

EDIT: just took a few minutes to check some recordings myself...and from what i see only the big 50cals produce enough air power to speak of kicking up dust. Again, this one has mayor air compression after shot + the muzzle head it made so it acts as reverse kick to compensate the recoil, witch leads to a big dust smoke. But also this is envirement/underground sensitive. Like expected, sand will produce a mayor cloud while in the grass land or on clean surfaces, this effect is very hard to spot.

->So imho, the effect would only apply to big calliber weapons (50cals and MGs) and not to assault riffles or pistols. But again, i think it all depends on the type of muzzle flash and surface.

Just my cent.

I'm not going to upload a demo movie, not really worth it for one small effect and with my crappy internet connection.

The dust effect I have now is not for .50 cal sniper rifles or big caliber weapons, those would need a different effect to look real. It's a small effect for rifles and MGs.

Different surface effects is not easy to do. Not going to do that yet. It's just one general effect that looks ok on any surface.

I'll think I'll check muzzle speed so that pistols, MP5s and similar weapons kick up little or no dust.

Great work MaddMatt. Do you think as well as doing the muzzle smoke from the ground you could fix up the muzzle smoke that comes from the barrel itself? The quick flash of smoke is sort of annoying to me. From what I have seen, when fired guns expel some smoke in an almost 180 degree angle facing outwards from the gun. In real life, the smoke at first is easily seen but slowly dissipates and floats away so you can barely see it but can still tell that it is there.

Cheers.

I'll look into that. I don't think that effect allows me to do much with it in the config so it's probably gonna take some scripting.

ArmaVids and Chammy, thanks for the videos. Already watched them.

[chammy 7]

Heh heh, right on bro, and great work you are doing, I'll be happy with just some dust kicking up on rifles themselves and thats it, along with AT back blast.  Hopefully you will tweak out that AT impact efect. That flash is much to slow, it should at least be a quick one like the grenade and smoke and dust just sorta linger there for a litle or move away with breeze, but other than that, I'm not complaining. Keep up the good work.

[gL33k 0]

Hi maddmatt . could you add some chopper dust , enabled early (maybe 20 or 25 meter altitude) in your next release ?

i found chopper dust a bit modest

[Jarvis 0]

That's what I did for my BF2 mod, I created some smaller dust kick up effects for rifles/lmgs, pistols/smgs, .50-20mm, and the larger tank_geb is what it is called.  Just had to make some new materials and link some coding and effects.  Although, this engine is alot different, if the tank's dust kick up isn't somehow linked to spawning directly above the ground no matter what elevation your barrel is, actually I haven't done anything since I made that wind generator, think I should go work on some effects...

[Maddmatt 1]

Heh heh, right on bro, and great work you are doing, I'll be happy with just some dust kicking up on rifles themselves and thats it, along with AT back blast. Hopefully you will tweak out that AT impact efect. That flash is much to slow, it should at least be a quick one like the grenade and smoke and dust just sorta linger there for a litle or move away with breeze, but other than that, I'm not complaining. Keep up the good work.

I'll work on it all. Just haven't had much time recently, and wont for the next couple weeks . But after that I should have plenty of time to work on this mod.

Hi maddmatt . could you add some chopper dust , enabled early (maybe 20 or 25 meter altitude) in your next release ?

i found chopper dust a bit modest

I'm not sure that can be changed in a mod, without completely replacing the chopper dust with a scripted version. I'll look into it. But the amount of dust a real chopper kicks up is very dependent over what it's flying over. I'll see.

That's what I did for my BF2 mod, I created some smaller dust kick up effects for rifles/lmgs, pistols/smgs, .50-20mm, and the larger tank_geb is what it is called. Just had to make some new materials and link some coding and effects. Although, this engine is alot different, if the tank's dust kick up isn't somehow linked to spawning directly above the ground no matter what elevation your barrel is, actually I haven't done anything since I made that wind generator, think I should go work on some effects...

My dust kick up effect for rifles isn't linked to the tank dust at all. It's done through scripting. Just do a little bit of maths to get it working.

The tank dust on the other hand is built into the game, but the effect can be modified through config settings.

[andersson 285]

Hi maddmatt . could you add some chopper dust , enabled early (maybe 20 or 25 meter altitude) in your next release ?

i found chopper dust a bit modest

I'm not sure that can be changed in a mod, without completely replacing the chopper dust with a scripted version. I'll look into it. But the amount of dust a real chopper kicks up is very dependent over what it's flying over. I'll see.

I think the default chopper dust is ok. As you say maddmatt, its very dependent of what its flying over. I dont want any desert sandclouds in a wet forrest. Arma default amount and colour makes it ok everywhere.

[Juan 0]

I don't know if is been sugested, but, how about burning corpses and injured vehicle ocupants? I don't know if that would be to hardcore, but it was moded for OFP, and it would be interesting to have that back in ArmA. The problem would be in MP where your vehicle gets damaged and you are injured, and instead of crawling away from the wrecage you die from the burns or because the guy who is using the mod can see you a mile away because of the flames and smoke, and that wouldn't be fare on people who don't use the mod. But for SP would be cool, or if the server and clients all have the mod.

[proxemo666 0]

Jeezus. Go play resident evil. That's too much for this game.

[VIPER SHIVA 0]

I'm pretty sure I remember a mod or two from OFP that featured running, screaming burning corpses. It's scripted.

This mod could probably pull it off, if they wanted to.

[-Puma- 2]

got this baby working finally and love it

only problem for me is that the fire effect looks too cartoony...

[Maddmatt 1]

I think the default chopper dust is ok. As you say maddmatt, its very dependent of what its flying over. I dont want any desert sandclouds in a wet forrest. Arma default amount and colour makes it ok everywhere.

Yea, well I'll probably leave the dust as it is. Other things have more priority.

I don't know if is been sugested, but, how about burning corpses and injured vehicle ocupants? I don't know if that would be to hardcore, but it was moded for OFP, and it would be interesting to have that back in ArmA. The problem would be in MP where your vehicle gets damaged and you are injured, and instead of crawling away from the wrecage you die from the burns or because the guy who is using the mod can see you a mile away because of the flames and smoke, and that wouldn't be fare on people who don't use the mod. But for SP would be cool, or if the server and clients all have the mod.

That effects gameplay and MP, so I wont do that. At least not yet. Right now I just want it to be a visual mod that can be used in MP without bothering the other players.

I do remember that in the ECP mod from OFP, it was pretty cool seeing tank crewmen running around on fire. But not for this mod.

only problem for me is that the fire effect looks too cartoony...

Cartoony? The BIS one looks cartoony. Show me a pic where my fire effect looks cartoony if you can...

I know it looks a bit ugly on cars and small vehicles at a distance - which I'll try to do something about. But it doesn't look cartoony to me.

[Juan 0]

Fair comment, I completely agree, I don't want to mess with MP, and is no need for it, just wanted to know about it, thanks.

@ proxemo666, Resident Evil is a game, this is real

Nah, serious now, I just made myself a nice mod folder that I know I will never be able to use in MP because I'll be accused of cheating, because it uses most of the enhancements available that actually work, and I think I'm just fantasising with burning corpses and dismembered body parts flying over my head after an explosion, and so on. I'm not nuts, just been playing for too many hours on the row

[-duke- 0]

I know this is also going a bit sideways so I apologize in advance but jibbing would be a cool feature (not sure if it's feasible though). If a soldier steps on a landmine or gets hit by arty, there shouldn't be just a body remaining with a few blood patches, you should be picking him up with an eye dropper.

I have no real complaints about this mod and I've used it pretty much since the initial release. I think your work is great MM and I look forward to the future of this mod.

[M.Andersson(SWE) 4]

Ok tried it and i dont like it...

I mean dust dont apear just by trowing a nade.

And i think its to much, you go blind when shooting

singles. Doesent happens in real life..Not during the 10y

of use AK4 in sweden.

Nope this one goes out the tube...

[ERC-Blackwater 0]

I don't feel that the fire effect is cartoony. I love it.

[Maddmatt 1]

Nah, serious now, I just made myself a nice mod folder that I know I will never be able to use in MP because I'll be accused of cheating, because it uses most of the enhancements available that actually work, and I think I'm just fantasising with burning corpses and dismembered body parts flying over my head after an explosion, and so on. I'm not nuts, just been playing for too many hours on the row

I'm sure there will be a mod to satisfy your (and others) sick violent fantasies soon enough, just not by me

I know this is also going a bit sideways so I apologize in advance but jibbing would be a cool feature (not sure if it's feasible though). If a soldier steps on a landmine or gets hit by arty, there shouldn't be just a body remaining with a few blood patches, you should be picking him up with an eye dropper.

Feasible, but not for this mod because of gameplay/MP issues.

But it was done in OFP by others, so I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen for ArmA

Got enough on my to-do list for now anyway

Ok tried it and i dont like it...

I mean dust dont apear just by trowing a nade.

What dust? There is no dust from nades, just the same smoke I saw in real vids.

Quote[/b] ]And i think its to much, you go blind when shooting

singles. Doesent happens in real life..Not during the 10y

of use AK4 in sweden.

What are you talking about? Since when does this mod blind you when shooting "singles"? I haven't modified rifle firing effects at all so that should be the same as stock ArmA. There are no blinding effects here.

Be more specific at least. You're not making any sense to me.

Quote[/b] ]Nope this one goes out the tube...

Well thanks for your helpful comment ...

[Apache-Cobra 0]

...

His feedback is too intelligent for any of us to comprehend