JTD Fire And Smoke

[.kju 3245]

Great addon. Nothing surprising. :)

1) Can you please write in the external hpp the length of the effect also in seconds.

2) Can you please make a check if the object the fire/smoke is coming from is still there

via a loop every second - many missions remove vehicles after a while and the effect

is there in the open. Thanks.

Edited October 24, 2009 by kju

[no use for a name 0]

I like this mod but I have huge performance drop when lots of vehicles or the forest is burning compared to default.

...uhhh, that's to be expected. you can modify the .hpp file to reduce fire sizes and smoke time

Hey guys, why dosent my JTD appear online? is there no server key out or what? I dont get kicked for hjaving it but no JTD smoke appears? Is this restricted for lag issues online or something? Maybe im missing an essential pbo file or something for online. It works just fine offline

it doesn't work unless the server runs it also

[dmarkwick 261]

1) Can you please write in the external hpp the length of the effect also in seconds.

You mean as part of the comment? Surely, I can do that :) Until then: the smoke source currently lasts anywhere from twenty minutes to forty minutes (Twentymin + random(Twentymin), with an additional 3-5 minutes ramp-down to nothing. There will also, in the future, be a (relatively) low-resource smoldering effect that will last for a similar amount of time after the main smoke has finished. This makes the smoke effects last for a long long time for each vehicle (random numbers notwithstanding) and was always the intention to give a sense of battlefield history over long games.

2) Can you please make a check if the object the fire/smoke is coming from is still there via a loop every second - many missions remove vehicles after a while and the effect is there in the open. Thanks.

This was brought up in the ArmA1 version and my answer then was that the addon is designed to give a sense of battlefield history, however I guess that I can make it user definable. There is a handy place in the loop that I can add in a conditional easily enough. There will still be a 3-5-minute rampdown though, I dislike effects "poofing" out of existence ;)

[mrcash2009 0]

Great flexibility when thats added ...

There will still be a 3-5-minute rampdown though, I dislike effects "poofing" out of existence

Yes the magic disappearing items, worst effect in the world LOL. "Poofing" ... love that phrase.

[Flaxpants 10]

DMarkwick you are a genius! This mod is awesome, last night I attacked an enemy base on a wooded hilltop- after taking out a tank the fireball rose up and set the nearby trees on fire, before long I was almost encircled by fire and then had to think about how I was going to avoid being roasted myself.. Amazing.

[Dr.Pulp 0]

brilliant mod! we use it since it was available.

It adds so much immersion!

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Love this mod, despite its performance cost. Might have to tune down a little :)

Bug (might be known):

Some of the smoke effects isn't affected by wind. To reproduce, put a tractor on Utes airport and just add a this setdamage 1 on it. In a trigger, add setWind [20,0,true] to experience some gale wind conditions. Randomize it to see some cool wind effects (I love how the grass reacts accordingly!!), but some of the smoke will not react to it at all.

[Oleg-Russia 10]

Is there any way to use only smoke,just cant look at this fire, looks horrible, no explosions as well , the only thing i love is smoke it is just great.

[mrcash2009 0]

Read the readme you turn Forrest fire off and smoke length etc in the config that comes with it.

[HyperU2 11]

I just wish I got credit for all the AI this thing kills. :)

[Alex72 1]

looks horrible

Hope those words were picked cause of bad english. Kind of rude otherwise dude...

[Oleg-Russia 10]

Hope those words were picked cause of bad english. Kind of rude otherwise dude...

No they were not, no offence but the fire effect it self (the animated texture is not looking that good ), and i did sad looks horrible as critic so the developer of this could see what needs to be improved , i have changed the fire color to standart BIS color and this starts to look much.2 things are thery important fire coloration and fire texture .As VFX artist:

<HD>

(link gives me a temporary error probably youtube got some problems)

alternative link :

i do have some HIGH quality fire/explosions footages and i`m free to share if needed for this mod :) The smoke effect is epic , love it ,no complains ,but it can be always better ! :) And like in beginning of my 3d experience ,other 3d artist told me your models looks horrible 2/10 etc etc and they were my friend i just took their feedback seriously and kept on improving my skills in 3d and now they are very proud of my models .

This is just an example of my experience ,and with words "Looks horrible" i just like to force developer to go for his maximum.

Oleg-Russia or 3DArtist

Edited November 2, 2009 by Oleg-Russia

[Avoidable 10]

Great mod, really adds to the atmosphere to see the smoke rising over a hill top from where you are going or where you've just been.

One question however, is it possible to remove the vanilla smoke from the vehicles and utilise just the JDT smoke?

It can sometimes look a little odd with the stock smoke pouring out of a smashed tank straight up while the JDT smoke drifts away at a 45 degree angle.

I realise this isn't as a result of your work, but it'd be great if you could release an option to run JDT smoke only.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@Oleg-Russia: What's the name of the classical music you used?

[madine75 0]

No they were not, no offence but the fire effect it self (the animated texture is not looking that good ), and i did sad looks horrible as critic so the developer of this could see what needs to be improved , i have changed the fire color to standart BIS color and this starts to look much.2 things are thery important fire coloration and fire texture .As VFX artist:

Oleg-Russia or 3DArtist

That video looks great, BUT there is a limit to what can be achieved within the Arma2 engine, without causing performance issues, so maybe be a little more constructive in your criticism.

3D animation is great, you can achieve anything - given enough time and render power.

[mrcash2009 0]

Oleg-Russia or 3DArtist

Help to make it better then?

[das attorney 858]

Really good mod - at first I wasn't that much into it due to the performance hit, but that's mainly due to my 2 year old Mac running this on a Windows 7 beta Boot Camp! :)

It really adds a feeling of actions having a consequence and punctuating the violence with visible evidence. There was a great moment the other night on a mission where I set off a couple of satchel charges in a tank depot and watched them all burn (murderous I know, but very pretty)!

I had a couple of queries though, hoping you can clarify.

1) It seems that the fire cannot harm me or any AI units. Maybe I corrupted the install somehow, but I can just walk through flames with impunity. I still die if I go too close to a burning wreck though, so I'm not sure what's going on. Has it been programmed this way, or have I installed it incorrectly?

2) Would it be possible to add a sound effect for when the trees fall over after burning? I've been pretty close to a few falling trunks and couldn't hear a 'timber' sound. I think, if you could do it, it would really add to the atmosphere.

Much obliged for a cool mod anyway, Ryan

[cole 0]

Uh, while playing a coop today, one of my friends suggested an interesting feature:

Could some trees fall after they stop burning? Like, randomizing the number of fallen trees, and making it optional via the .hpp?

If it's too hard to do or would be bad on the performance, just forget I even posted this :)

[SASrecon 0]

Uh, while playing a coop today, one of my friends suggested an interesting feature:

Could some trees fall after they stop burning? Like, randomizing the number of fallen trees, and making it optional via the .hpp?

If it's too hard to do or would be bad on the performance, just forget I even posted this :)

Some do don't they? last time i crashed my A-10 into a bunch of trees, some other trees caught fire and i swear i saw and heard some fall over, it'd be nice to see a burnt-out black/dirty texture on the objects however.

Maybe a building collapsed and caused a tree nearby to fall over, not sure.

[no use for a name 0]

trees do fall over when they stop burning but it's not customizable AFAIK; so after the fire is completely burned out the whole forest will be on the ground.

[dmarkwick 261]

Is there any way to use only smoke,just cant look at this fire, looks horrible, no explosions as well , the only thing i love is smoke it is just great.

As mentioned, the fire can be turned off with the config file. On the matter of quality: the fire is, IMO, probably about as good as it can get. (no false modesty here ;)) That is, as good as it can get without it becoming bogged down generating fire to such a degree that it (the game) becomes a fire-simulator with little rendering power for anything else :D There is the possibility of adding in up to another 3 fire animation loops for variance, but the fire looks pretty good with just two loops, so I might add more variance, or I might just leave it as is.

Glad you like the smoke though.

i do have some HIGH quality fire/explosions footages and i`m free to share if needed for this mod

No need, I have plenty of reference footage. It's not a matter of simply making a set of images, it needs to be loopable too, so that the last image in the sequence looks like the first image in the sequence.

---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 PM ----------

One question however, is it possible to remove the vanilla smoke from the vehicles and utilise just the JDT smoke?

It can sometimes look a little odd with the stock smoke pouring out of a smashed tank straight up while the JDT smoke drifts away at a 45 degree angle.

I realise this isn't as a result of your work, but it'd be great if you could release an option to run JDT smoke only.

The problem with me affecting the default effects is that different people always want different blends between addons, I used to get this problem all the time with the ArmA1 version. However, it might be possible to make a small, separate addon that simply removes the default vehicle smoke and allow players to use it or not.

---------- Post added at 10:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 PM ----------

1) It seems that the fire cannot harm me or any AI units. Maybe I corrupted the install somehow, but I can just walk through flames with impunity. I still die if I go too close to a burning wreck though, so I'm not sure what's going on. Has it been programmed this way, or have I installed it incorrectly?

You might be coming up against the "3ms" rule that BIS implemented for addon scripts. If there's a lot going on ingame, it seems that preference is given over to rendering over functionality, meaning that scripted effects like damage are delayed or even ignored. The script queueing system doesn't seem to be very robust in it's ability to take up halted scripts where they were snipped off.

2) Would it be possible to add a sound effect for when the trees fall over after burning? I've been pretty close to a few falling trunks and couldn't hear a 'timber' sound. I think, if you could do it, it would really add to the atmosphere.

I might perhaps do this :)

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------

Uh, while playing a coop today, one of my friends suggested an interesting feature:

Could some trees fall after they stop burning? Like, randomizing the number of fallen trees, and making it optional via the .hpp?

If it's too hard to do or would be bad on the performance, just forget I even posted this :)

All trees that burn do fall over after they've finished burning :)

Edited November 2, 2009 by DMarkwick

[Alex72 1]

Cole:

LOL mate! Did you seriously not know trees fall over after they burnt out? Your awesome dude. :D

Dmarkwick:

Oh damn didnt know about that 3ms rule thingy. Well i heard about it but didnt think it would skip things. Makes me a bit scared of big mods that uses lots of functions. Things not working in critical situations due to script overloads etc. This might explain a lot of the things that gone bonkers here and there in the game hmm.

[kklownboy 43]

....All trees that burn do fall over after they've finished burning :)

But thats because we dont have a model/texture of a burnt tree. Cause in RL they rarely ever fall over. The roots didnt burn,....

[das attorney 858]

Hi DMarkwick,

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm scheduled (annual bonus permitting) to get a new computer (PC) in February so hopefully I'll be able to run your mod properly, but in the meantime, it's very cool anyway.

I'll keep an eye on this thread, that's for sure :) All the best, Ryan

[cole 0]

All trees that burn do fall over after they've finished burning :)

They do?! Shit, I guess I just didn't notice it o_o

Sorry for that stupid post then.