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[MOD] TotalEffects Complete Particle Conversion mod for Diplomacy 1.034 UPDATE 12/17/11

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[MOD] TotalEffects Complete Particle Conversion mod for Diplomacy 1.034 UPDATE 12/17/11

from Sins Forums

version 0.801

 

TotalEffects now conforms to TSOP standards. Huge thanks to Soase Maelstrom!

Thanks Stant for the updated Diplomacy version.

 

 

Anyone may use this mod in their own mod however they like, as long as proper credit is given.

 

 

 

Enjoy

Diplomacy 1.034:

 

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21093989/TotalEffectsDiplomacy1.34.zip

 

 

.zip

7.69 mB

 

I have now included the Readme here for those who do not wish to download the mod at the moment.

 

Credit to Bailknight, Mansh00ter, and Zorodius for their corresponding graphical mods and inspirations.
Also credit to Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander for some of the textures.




This mod is an attempt to make another graphical mod that goes with the current list.
It contains a mixture of particle effects of my own creation(the majority), effects from bailknight's graphical mod, effects from Mansh00ter's mod, and effects from Zorodius' Solarflair mod.
I would like critique on my particle effect skills and what looks nice and what does not.

GameInfo changes:
Better range for the Jarrasul drain planet ability so that it actually has the same range as its bombing range. If the gameinfo folder is removed the drain planet effect will look funny.
Cleansing Brilliance has a muzzle effect. (bailknight)
Assault Specialization has an effect when it hits structures.
Charged Missiles now has a different beam texture and hit effect.
Disintegration bounceback has more attached effects and Disintegration itself has an actual muzzle effect.
Volatile Nanites now has an effect when a ship dies.
Tweaked a bit with all of the Vasari capship weapon attachments.
Changed the capship explosion. Getting rid of gameinfo will change the capship explosion back to Solarflair's.
I changed the Argonev's explosion to the same as the other starbases so as not to generate lag on death. If the GameInfo is deleted, the game will lag every time this starbase dies. (How d'ya like 1000000 particles onscreen at once? Attempt at your own risk)
Synced the Skarovas' and the Kortul's wave cannons to fire at a single point.

DELETING THE GameInfo FOLDER WILL CAUSE THE GAME TO CRASH.

The Solanus now has a muzzle effect
The Garda's shots also travel faster.
The Destra Crusader's plasma shots now fire at a single point on a mesh.
Added custom phase travel effects for each race. (Bailknight for TEC, Zorodius for advent, me for Vasari)
The Transcencia starbase now has Beam weapons instead of plasma. No damage change.
The Dunov's shield Restore ability now has a muzzle effect.

There is also a change in the theme music, one that I like more. (NO CRITIQUE ON THIS PLEASE)
Numerous other surprises relating to just particle effects.

 

I have removed all of the changes that would have anything to do with imbalance or game tweaks. All of the above changes are aesthetic only.

Showcase of Destra, Kodiak, Iconus, and Domina effects:

modding
750,568 views 298 replies
Reply #76 from Sins Forums Top

I know how and why they are used as I have used them several times (ref: the beta I just sent you)

I thought that Bailknight modified some null points in his meshes to re-orient the particle effects.

In other words on your systems which has Bailknight's mod installed the particle effects will work fine. However, on another system, which doesn't have Bailknight's mod installed, the meshes will be unmodified and not be correctly positioned.

Possibly the same for

"C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\stuff\ForgeTools1.1\ParticleForge\Mesh\" &/or

"C:\Documents and Settings\Staraptor\Desktop\Stuff\Stuff\PF\Mesh\

if they have meshes modified for particle effects.

PS: can you confirm that the meshs in those 3 directories have not been modified for particle effects (null points moved, re-orientated), and hence Sins original meshes are OK to use?

Reply #77 from Sins Forums Top

Also I have looked at your TextureAnimations and there is also the same possible issue.

In a number of your particle files (in the directories we have been discussing) the "textureAnimationName"s are in those directories but not in your TotalEffects mods directories

chaosbolt
sparks
sparksphase
sparkspsi
plasma_heavy
plasma_muzzle
plasma_heavyhit
plasma_lighthit
tricity
vividpyro
fireyflair
burst

in actual fact a number of textureAnimationName's (i.e sparks,...) have pathfiles to all 3 directories, that is some particles reference say sparks from the first directory, some from the second and some from the last.

PS: can you confirm that the TextureAnimations in those 3 directories, and those listed, have not been modified, and hence Sins original TextureAnimations are OK to use?

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Reply #78 from Sins Forums Top

These are either made up by me or borrowed.

tricity
vividpyro
fireyflair
burst

The rest are unmodified. Is that what you are asking?

Reply #79 from Sins Forums Top

Yes the animations in your TotalEffects dir are

brightfire.texanim

burst.texanim

tricity.texanim

vividpyro.texanim

Let me put it another way.

You have changed fireyflair.texanim, I searched your .particle files and you have used it in

CapitalAbility_Meltdown.particle

Flair_PirateTorch.particle

Now the relevant lines in those particle files are as follows

textureAnimationName "C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\stuff\ForgeTools1.1\ParticleForge\TextureAnimations\fireyflair.texanim"

textureAnimationName "C:\Documents and Settings\Staraptor\Desktop\ModStuff\SoaSE\Modtools\PF\TextureAnimations\fireyflair.texanim"

Also you don't have fireyflair.texanim in your TextureAnimations TotalEffects mod dirs.

Now let say you load Sins with your mod enabled, when Sins searches for the file fireyflair.texanim it will find it in the two dirs above. Fine, however those dirs are unique to your machine, so if I do the same thing on my machine (that is load Sins with your mod) Sins can't find those dirs and will load fireyflair.texanim from the Sins TextureAnimations dir, i.e an unmodified fireyflair.texanim.

This applies to any texture, mesh or animation that you, or Bailknight or who ever has modified and is in a unique dir to your machine. Sins on another PC won't be able to find the files and will revert to the original files in it's loadup dirs

 

Reply #80 from Sins Forums Top

Yep, that is what I want to happen,

I didn't change fireyflair or anything else...

Reply #81 from Sins Forums Top

No problem, consider it done. I can now delete all filepath references.

Reply #82 from Sins Forums Top

|-)

Thanks

I shall now delete filepaths before saving particle effects.

Reply #83 from Sins Forums Top

I shall now delete filepaths before saving particle effects.

I'm pretty sure it does help speed things up.

One final point before I can complete.

In your Diplomacy mod you have 222 textures

in your Entrenchment mod you have 218 textures

the difference is

cirrus_01.dds
el_0004_35.dds
el_0006_56.dds
gl0006_44.dds

Can you confirm that the 218 common files are identical across the mods, i.e you haven't got unique textures say one's for Entrenchment and ones for Diplomacy. It would save me comparing 218 texture files across your mods.

 

 

Reply #84 from Sins Forums Top

Those four are unused (at the moment)

I have not changed ANYTHING texture-wise.

 

(About 55% of the textures in my mod are unused...)

I didn't want to tell you that because I didn't want you to go on a crusade... :S

Reply #85 from Sins Forums Top

In the future when you make/use textures (dds) for your particle the TSOP has this to say:

Texture size: height and width should be a factor of 4. Preferably a power of 2.
Alpha channel: textures require a alpha channel.
Alpha channel: alpha channel should not be all white - it would cause graphic errors.

Reply #86 from Sins Forums Top

I didn't want to tell you that because I didn't want you to go on a crusade...

Your mod is still being expanded, I understand.

Reply #87 from Sins Forums Top

I understand little of .dds stuff, sorry.

I understand channels and how they work, I just do not know how to manipulate them...

Reply #88 from Sins Forums Top

ZombiesRus5 recommended in a previous reply

"In regards to how to convert tga to compressed dds you can simply use Gimp and the Nvidia DDS plugin"

I use Photoshop so I can't help you with particulars.

Basically there are your 3 color channel RGB, the alpha is just a 4 th and is a grayscale.

Download GIMP and the Nvidia plugin and have a play around, I'm sure it will be straightforward.

Reply #89 from Sins Forums Top

PS: if in doubt as to what to make the alpha channel just copy and past the RGB channels to your alphs. Have a look at other dds textures as examples.

Reply #90 from Sins Forums Top

cool

check the maelstrom forum page.

I made three effects for ya.

(I suppose I should have "PM"ed you)

Reply #91 from Sins Forums Top

Check your PM's. The optimizations are complete.

Reply #92 from Sins Forums Top

Dropping by for a quick -bump-

Added soase-maelstrom's changes.

Sorry for taking so long...

Reply #93 from Sins Forums Top

i get a 404 for both links

Reply #95 from Sins Forums Top

Hi Syneptus,

I only put your optimized mod on the Maelstrom website for file transfer to you.

Wasn't aware you were going to link them from there to the community, so when I re-shuffled the website, well ...

Let me know if you what a permanent space ... though I would recommend you hosting your files elsewhere i.e filefront for instance.

Reply #96 from Sins Forums Top

k

give me the redownload link and I will rehost them on filefront, I apologize, I did not realize that that was what you wanted.

Reply #97 from Sins Forums Top

I'll have to upload them again as I completely re-organized/cleaned the website. You are welcome to link them from the soase-maelstrom website, I just need to know if they are permanent or temporary...

Reply #98 from Sins Forums Top

Whatever, it is no trouble to me to relink them.