DMSmokeEffects Beta 4

[dmarkwick 261]

This looks fantastic, great work!

Sorry if I missed this in the previous posts (didn't see anything mentioned), but is there any plans to make the burn time last longer?

Eventually I'd like to add my own burn effect to it, as fire is a very short-lived particle it shouldn't add too much to the overhead.

[-duke- 0]

Well it looks fantastic and I can't say as I've noticed any huge performance hit with many tanks/helicopters/vehicles burning at the same time.

I can also confirm that it works with ArmAEffects as well. All I did was ensure that -mod=@DM is before -mod=@ArmAEffects in my ArmA.exe.

I'm definitely looking forward to your future versions.

Thanks again for your work.

[dmarkwick 261]

First post amended with

[Maddmatt 1]

Those smoke effects are looking pretty good.

The way the mod is done now, it's going to conflict with my tank muzzleflash effect. If you use the extended eventhandler addon method then they will work together just fine.

Hopefully some other mods will do that too.

As for you fire particle looking pixelated/not loading properly. You can set ArmA to preload it to prevent this from happening. I did this in my mod because I had the same issue with vehicle explosions. It only seems to be necessary for particles with a short lifetime. The smoke effect doesn't need to be preloaded.

Here's what I did in my mod to preload the effect. You just need to change the folder paths for your mod: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class CfgCloudletShapes

{

DM_Fireball = "\Matt_ArmAEffects\DMFireEffects.p3d";

};

class PreloadTextures

{

class CfgCloudletShapes

{

DM_Fireball = "@*";

};

};

That goes in your config.cpp.

That's all you should need to do

[dmarkwick 261]

Those smoke effects are looking pretty good.

The way the mod is done now, it's going to conflict with my tank muzzleflash effect. If you use the extended eventhandler addon method then they will work together just fine.

Hopefully some other mods will do that too.

Extended Eventhandler functionality is one of the things I'll do. Given how long it took me to get standalone functionality going it might take me a while (I had to get serious help for that BTW )

As for you fire particle looking pixelated/not loading properly. You can set ArmA to preload it to prevent this from happening. I did this in my mod because I had the same issue with vehicle explosions. It only seems to be necessary for particles with a short lifetime. The smoke effect doesn't need to be preloaded.

Here's what I did in my mod to preload the effect. You just need to change the folder paths for your mod: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class CfgCloudletShapes

{

DM_Fireball = "\Matt_ArmAEffects\DMFireEffects.p3d";

};

class PreloadTextures

{

class CfgCloudletShapes

{

DM_Fireball = "@*";

};

};

That goes in your config.cpp.

That's all you should need to do

Thanks for the tip so do I replace "@*" with "@DMSmokeEffects"? or does "@*" just guarantee it works in any mod that starts "@"?

[Maddmatt 1]

Thanks for the tip so do I replace "@*" with "@DMSmokeEffects"? or does "@*" just guarantee it works in any mod that starts "@"?

Leave it as it is. I don't actually know what it's for, but the BIS particles are preloaded like that (look in ca.pbo to see that). It's got nothing to do with mods.

In my mod I should probably change the "DM_Fireball" to "Matt_Fireball", since it points to a different file (although it's the same particle anyway). I'll change it when I update my mod again.

[Vegabond 0]

Great mod

[GD Mast 0]

All I can say is "Wow"!

GD Mast

[Uranium - 235 0]

Great mod, but I have two suggestions.

1) The flames. Yeah. They look pretty bad.

2) While this is sorta fringe for your mod, it'd be nice to make the burning sound better / louder. Only reason I suggest this is because you have that microdebris sound so I figure it almost falls into the realm of your mod.

[dmarkwick 261]

Great mod, but I have two suggestions.

1) The flames. Yeah. They look pretty bad.

They do but they're really a placeholder, I'm working on getting a better animated particle.

2) While this is sorta fringe for your mod, it'd be nice to make the burning sound better / louder. Only reason I suggest this is because you have that microdebris sound so I figure it almost falls into the realm of your mod.

I don't intend to replace sounds as there are mods that already do that and it will be inevitable that they'll clash at some point. However I can ADD sounds, so when I do my own flames effect then I'll add in a new sound that will not clash with any sound mod. The microdebris is an example of an added sound rather than a replaced sound.

[Uranium - 235 0]

I keep getting "Cannot find sound MicroDebris1 / GrenadeDebris1" errors (or something like that).

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Confirmed - getting the same error each time a 'nade lands.

[dmarkwick 261]

Hmm. Me too, time to put out a new version methinks with the sound disabled until I can see why it's happening.

It's really bizarre as I only started getting this error today, and it happens without any other mod too.

As it happens there are a few little improvements in any case

[dmarkwick 261]

OK, first post amended with new version.

DMSmokeEffects Beta 4.1

4.1 improvements:

A new animated fuel fire particle.

Tank classes start their smoke effect a lot sooner.

All animated particles are now hi-res and no longer blurry.

Microdebris sounds temporarily disabled until a problem can be fixed.

[nubbin77 0]

Awesome work. I was about to report that nade sound bug and you already have it fixed. Now that's service.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Excellent, mate! Ty!

[Uranium - 235 0]

OK, first post amended with new version.

DMSmokeEffects Beta 4.1

4.1 improvements:

A new animated fuel fire particle.

Tank classes start their smoke effect a lot sooner.

All animated particles are now hi-res and no longer blurry.

Microdebris sounds temporarily disabled until a problem can be fixed.

Horray, my bitching made things happen

[dmarkwick 261]

Nice work this definitely adds a lot more atmosphere and authenticity to the game

Is there any chance of changing the smoke grenades into a more 'volumetric' look like the smoke from fires? Just a little bored with the old OFP smoke...I think VBS2 trailer had good smoke for reference. Oh and I'd love to see satchel charges kick up some dust as at the default they look really weak.

Oh, hey I TOTALLY forgot to mention the SmokeGrenade improvements in 4.1

Not much to be done there in truth, it seems to be handled in a slightly different way, which means I cannot use my favourite method of using different shapes for each particle. However I changed various settings, fade in & out, lifetime, size etc. There doesn't seem to be much texture in the smoke so I could change the one particle for a new one, but the single-image nature of it would be very apparent.

Let me know what you think

[dmarkwick 261]

The next version may well have DMViewBlock functionality:

Even got it to work on building collapse:

Which means that the AI will have a similar problem to the player in seeing through smoke. Cannot be guaranteed though - as luck might let an AI "glimpse" you through the smoke. The released version will have invisible Viewblock objects (to the player )

[dmarkwick 261]

Another more extended viewblock test. Also makes for a good showpiece in general.

[-duke- 0]

This is fantastic work and it really adds to ArmA. I was playing today with your mod and Symbiot rain as well as Chammys Sound Mod and it's like playing a whole new game.

I know I've asked before but I thought I'd ask again (sorry to be a pain), but is there any chance of lengthening the smoke effect substantially or perhaps making it a user configurable value? Some of these missions can last quite a while so it sux to see the smoke disappear after a relatively short time period.

Anyway, great work, can't imagine ArmA without it.

[KeyCat 131]

The next version may well have DMViewBlock functionality:

Great work DMarkwick!

Really liked the improved smoke grenade smoke, looked more dense and no more round "OFP puffs". Can't wait until your smoke grenades blocks the AI's LOS (a feature that IMO really should have been in stock ArmA this time around)!

If I remember correctly from OFP you may get some clipping issues when placing invisible viewblocking objects and I think I had less issues when using a dome shaped object instead of a cylinder for smoke grenades.

Also to minimize the clipping issue I raised the object from ground up by 0.5 m each second or so as the smoke expanded.

/KC

[Dwarden 1124]

what else i can say except 'wow'

[dmarkwick 261]

This is fantastic work and it really adds to ArmA. I was playing today with your mod and Symbiot rain as well as Chammys Sound Mod and it's like playing a whole new game.

Yeah, the various mods around can quite drastically change the look & feel of the game

I know I've asked before but I thought I'd ask again (sorry to be a pain), but is there any chance of lengthening the smoke effect substantially or perhaps making it a user configurable value? Some of these missions can last quite a while so it sux to see the smoke disappear after a relatively short time period.

The average timescale from smoke to end of smolder is approx. 3/4 of an hour. I made this addon in preparation for DAC when it's released, as it's a dynamic & unpredictable (but intelligent) AI addon sometimes the near battlefield can become quite crowded depending on settings, so I try to temper the smoke effects addon with this in mind. However it is entirely possible to alter the effects to last a lot longer, as long as anyone would like really. (In fact the very earliest tests did not even have a cut-off, just burned forever )

Next time I get things into a generally acceptable state I will try & look at getting some options in, although I don't know what form this will take or how to achieve it (yet )

[dmarkwick 261]

Really liked the improved smoke grenade smoke, looked more dense and no more round "OFP puffs". Can't wait until your smoke grenades blocks the AI's LOS (a feature that IMO really should have been in stock ArmA this time around)!

If I remember correctly from OFP you may get some clipping issues when placing invisible viewblocking objects and I think I had less issues when using a dome shaped object instead of a cylinder for smoke grenades.

Well I haven't done much testing with invisible ones yet, so this is the first time I heard about it. I will look out for it though.

Also to minimize the clipping issue I raised the object from ground up by 0.5 m each second or so as the smoke expanded.

Well I wanted the viewblock objects to appear exactly where the spawning particle was but they just always appear on the ground. I'd like to know how I can force the Z positional component to become relevant without adding much bulk in terms of coding (bare in mind this happens within a particle source loop so it needs to be lean).

This would mean I could have the tall columns also have viewblock objects, although I shudder to think of the possible CPU overheads but you never know until you try. I'm amazed that I can get the amount of smoke that I can, to be honest