Effects Mods?

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

We saw a plethora of effects mods for ArmA from madmatt and DMarkwick as well as some others. Can we expect to see these mods upgraded for the new engine released for ArmA 2 in the near future? Is anybody working on any effects mods for example smoke and/or fire?

[Simon C 0]

To be honest, I think the stock effects with ArmA 2 are brilliant, but I should imagine that someone will work on new ones. Probably when modding tools are out though, although not sure, don't know what's actually involved in making an effects mod. :)

[mr burns 131]

Scan the credits in your game manuals for familiar names :p

[Deadfast 43]

To be honest, I think the stock effects with ArmA 2 are brilliant...

To be honest this is the first line in burn.sqf (\Ca\Data\ParticleEffects\SCRIPTS\destruction\):

//Burning vehicles. By Maddmatt, for ArmA 2

Not kidding :p

[Simon C 0]

Ah, that'll be it :D Nice one guys, glad to see good stuff being used in game.

[Thunderbird 0]

ArmA II effects are quite decent and don't need to be that much changed.

However, there are a few extra-effects which could be added and which would undoubtedly increase the immersion feeling in-game such as 'Blood Effects...' etc.

Regards,

TB

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

So you guys are telling me in real life the smoke from a burning vehicle or a destroyed building dissipates that quickly? Just because somebody from the ArmA 1 effects modding scene was involved in the making of the stock smoke effects doesn't mean they are realistic nor perfect. The idea behind the effects of DMarkwick were much better.

[Rogue_Trooper 10]

So you guys are telling me in real life the smoke from a burning vehicle or a destroyed building dissipates that quickly? Just because somebody from the ArmA 1 effects modding scene was involved in the making of the stock smoke effects doesn't mean they are realistic nor perfect. The idea behind the effects of DMarkwick were much better.

I used the Dm stuff in A1 extensively and tbh much better than A2 and don't cause my game to lag out.

[r3volution 0]

Arma2's stock effects in terms of smoke and fire might be better than Arma1's on release, but then again waving a bit of red cellophane and throwing some black painted cotton balls around would be better than the default smoke and fire effects in Arma1. There would definitely be an advantage in having longer persisting smoke, and longer burning vehicles, because no burning car I've ever seen has stopped of its own accord in 2 minutes flat. ;)

Edited July 28, 2009 by r3volution

[chris64 0]

I hope someone changes the effects for when shells and grenades explode on muddy ground, right now it just produces a puff of smoke but I would prefer something to show dirt and mud being thrown into the air. From my experience with the ArmA 2 demo I can swear I've already seen an effect like this, but it wasnt very common. Oh and change those cottonballs that come out of the guns! (But this might have been fixed by now?)

[akd42 10]

Also would like to see an improvement in the particle effects for large shells hitting buildings. As it stands, no matter where you hit a building, the effects originate at ground level and propogate vertically and horizontally from that point. Looks very odd when you, say, hit the second floor with an HE shell.

Men of War has brilliant effects for shells impacting the sides of buildings. Worth a look.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Also would like to see an improvement in the particle effects for large shells hitting buildings. As it stands, no matter where you hit a building, the effects originate at ground level and propogate vertically and horizontally from that point. Looks very odd when you, say, hit the second floor with an HE shell.

Men of War has brilliant effects for shells impacting the sides of buildings. Worth a look.

Very true.

I really hope DMwarkwick will get his butt in gear and start developing mods for ArmA II :). I'll have to talk him into it.

The main things I want are; 1: What is said in quote, 2: ...forget it, I want a lot of things added or modified for effects.

[Richard Bruce Cheney 10]

Looking forward to more smoke effects. Having viewblock smoke on release is very nice, and adding more smoke effects will increase immersion and gameplay variations due to visual obstruction.

[Opticalsnare 12]

Well im currently working on a mod which mostly focases on all aspects of ArmA 2, which is wat i was also working on the first ArmA but never borthered to release it as it was more of a personnal thing. I should really start my own thread but just to let you guys know im working on the particles for differnt ammo and weapons, smoke and fire etc etc. I been working on Crysis recently making some interesting particle effects with its built in bit. But so far ive added sparks and embers? to the explosions also getting some help from a crymod friend about adding exploding turrets so whena tank goes boom the turret and more bits of debris get blasted off it, what else oh edited the tracers like size,scale,lifetime and for different weapons, added sounds and changed most of the sounds is well yada yada. Added light sources to all explosive rounds and rockets. Edited the AI so they fire at the correct rate of fire bla bla bla they also engage further away if you so nomore telling them to attack a target and the stupid AI runs off and gets killed. Thats just for starters..

but yeh il show a video off of what ive done so far soon.

[kremator 1064]

Opticalsnare,

Thats sounds VERY promising so far. Keep going mate !

[akd42 10]

Well im currently working on a mod which mostly focases on all aspects of ArmA 2, which is wat i was also working on the first ArmA but never borthered to release it as it was more of a personnal thing. I should really start my own thread but just to let you guys know im working on the particles for differnt ammo and weapons, smoke and fire etc etc. I been working on Crysis recently making some interesting particle effects with its built in bit. But so far ive added sparks and embers? to the explosions also getting some help from a crymod friend about adding exploding turrets so whena tank goes boom the turret and more bits of debris get blasted off it, what else oh edited the tracers like size,scale,lifetime and for different weapons, added sounds and changed most of the sounds is well yada yada. Added light sources to all explosive rounds and rockets. Edited the AI so they fire at the correct rate of fire bla bla bla they also engage further away if you so nomore telling them to attack a target and the stupid AI runs off and gets killed. Thats just for starters..

but yeh il show a video off of what ive done so far soon.

Just a realism note as you go forward. A tank's turret popping off is the result of an internal ammunition explosion. As the M1A1/M1A2 Abrams have armored ammo compartments with blow-out panels, they should not exhibit this behavior. T-72, however, definitely could (but probably should only happen occasionally).

Now an effect for the ammo of an Abrams cooking off would be pretty cool, but that's something I've never seen footage of!

[Opticalsnare 12]

Well heres a quick vid i made, il make a better one sometime. But anyway the video is quick one from the Tunkuska AA, Firerate has been increased, AI now fires at the correct rate of fire at any distance, the twin tracers are from SDP mod, also shows the light sources from ammo impact and some sparks.

Il take alook at the the smaller impacts soon see what i can do to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh-7EQqMQz8

[Fintroll 10]

Awesom! Gimme gimme! Gimme now!

[kremator 1064]

Lovely stuff so far Opticalsnare ..... keep going mate !

[dmarkwick 261]

Heya guys :) I am indeed planning a whole new plethora of smoke effects for ArmA2. We're just finishing up on the tracker dog addon, after that I will be starting work on an addon called JTD Fire & Smoke. It will of course have the nice long lasting smoke, but hopefully with the quality ramped up significantly. Also, and I had some amount of successful tests in ArmA on this, I hope to include a fire propagation behavior too, so that fires can spread in a realistic fashion. It seems to me that Chernarus is built for fire propagation, what with all the discrete forests & small contained villages.

Anyway, we'll see what emerges, and what is feasible. And, thanks for the interest :)

[akd42 10]

Well heres a quick vid i made, il make a better one sometime. But anyway the video is quick one from the Tunkuska AA, Firerate has been increased, AI now fires at the correct rate of fire at any distance, the twin tracers are from SDP mod, also shows the light sources from ammo impact and some sparks.

Il take alook at the the smaller impacts soon see what i can do to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh-7EQqMQz8

Wow, that looks good.

[paragraphic l 2]

Heya guys :) I am indeed planning a whole new plethora of smoke effects for ArmA2. We're just finishing up on the tracker dog addon, after that I will be starting work on an addon called JTD Fire & Smoke. It will of course have the nice long lasting smoke, but hopefully with the quality ramped up significantly. Also, and I had some amount of successful tests in ArmA on this, I hope to include a fire propagation behavior too, so that fires can spread in a realistic fashion. It seems to me that Chernarus is built for fire propagation, what with all the discrete forests & small contained villages.

Anyway, we'll see what emerges, and what is feasible. And, thanks for the interest :)

Have you looked into Solus his work on the propagating fire? Worked quite good in both OFP and ArmA although it caused a lot of network traffic though. And yeah! Chernarus is made for forest fires and burning grass and stuff!

[dmarkwick 261]

Have you looked into Solus his work on the propagating fire? Worked quite good in both OFP and ArmA although it caused a lot of network traffic though. And yeah! Chernarus is made for forest fires and burning grass and stuff!

I have seen a vid of some propagating fire work done for ArmA, and it looked pretty effective. I have (more or less) the pseudo-code for propagating fire already, and one of my main concerns is that it doesn't worry the network traffic too much. I strive to make logic as simple as possible, my belief being that simple = efficient :D but with still as much realism as possible. So things like slope, wind, proximity etc will all affect the propagation, but will be implemented in a way that is kind to servers :D

Luckily, fire, like zombie logic, doesn't require immediate and speedy processing ;)

[Bizibiz 10]

working on this but claim association with addon maker for config.cpp, lol, i'm on it and i'm afraid to look it XD

Edited September 10, 2009 by Bizibiz