Here we go at last! I have decided to release a portion of the visual content which will be included in the Last Stand mod as a separate mini-mod, ready to be merged at your convenience with whatever is your current content of choice.
The background of and reason for this mod is simple - I am not satisfied with explosions in either vanilla game or improved versions of several graphic mods out there. The concept of this feature is that a battle should tell a story - when hundreds of ships are pounding at each other with weapons of incredible power, I wanted to see that power reflected directly on the ships themselves. I wanted to see pieces breaking off, sparks flying into space, thick smoke and fire billowing out, atmosphere escaping from cracks and finally, a glorious detonation befitting something which has fought hard, and lost.
However, words can be cheap - I have a preview video of what I meant by "carnage in space", one of the early names I had for this mod, before it got merged into the Last Stand. It's called "Face of War" and this is how the combat will look like in the Last Stand mod. Ok, I'll shut up now and hope you enjoy it!
Preview video (standard quality) download here: Mediafire(30Mb)
Streaming video (YouTube):
Also, here is a new preview video showcasing the new ver 1.0 effects: Mediafire (29Mb)
And on Youtube:
MOD DOWNLOAD: Volumetric Damage & Explosions Effects ver1.2 (Mediafire, 14.04Mb)
COMPATIBLE WITH SoaSE 1.18/Entrenchment 1.41
Entrenchment FIX
This fixes a bug where racial explosions wouldn't show up in the Entrenchment version. Keep in mind that due to the nature of the necessary changes, the currently available Dynamic Battle System version is no longer compatible with this mod. A new version of the DBS will be uploaded in its respective thread.
Download: Volumetric Damage & Explosions Effects ver 1.2 - Entrenchment fix
Version 1.2 change log
-added new explosion effects for all three factions. Now Vasari ships explode in a different fashion than Advent or TEC. Vasari explosions are green tinted while Advent are more to the purplish side.-added new explosion sound effects for all main ship explosions. The effects are more numerous now and have a greater variation/complexity-removed bodies from spilling when a ship is critically struck. Bodies still float around for a short while after a ship is destroyed-optimized ship explosions for heavy duty battles. You should notice a lot less of a FPS drop when lots of ships blow up in a short amount of time
KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES:
None.
This version is meant to be merged at will, so merge away, just credit me. The preview video includes improved particle effects by Bailknight. To merge this mini-mod with others, install those mods FIRST, then overwrite the files with the ones from this mod. Note that if you have any special explosions listed in your .explosiondata file, they will be overwritten. Also note that if your ships .entity files invoke any explosions of non-standard names, you will get a minidump, so take that into consideration when merging.
A final note - I am very much interested in hearing how this performs on your machine, so you are welcome to comment upon that and don't forget to include your system specs! I also playtested this for a few hours and so it should be free of error, but if you do notice something missing or odd, do tell.
This much from me for now, hope you'll like the new stuff!
Quick question. Is it supposed to minidump? Merged it with 7DS for my own personal enjoyment and dumps as soon as I blow up a Kodiak. The error log spams the message "Explosion Effect 'Cruiser 0' Not Found'". And by the way, this is the ready-to-merge version of your mod. And it is merged. So why the minidump?
Doesn't look like Explosion_Cruiser0.particle is in the stand-alone either. This needs to be fixed. Fast,
Alas, not an error on my part - it seems 7DS invokes special cruiser explosions which are not referenced in the explosions.explosiondata file. I can't fix it however, it requires editing of ship .entity files. I'll look into this and post an updated version later on, but if your mod calls for non-standard explosions names, nothing can be done on this end about it.
Well, ManSh00ter, I was checking out the explosionsdata file for 7DS, and there IS a Cruiser0 explosion there. Just not in the vanilla explosionsdata file. I am really gonna have to complain to DANMAN about this. Can you just make a cruiser0 explosion for us? Or at least let us know which one is supposed to be the cruiser explosion so I can rename it.
I think I know what's the problem. The way the explosions system works is like this: each ship entity file has a reference pointing to a particular explosion entry in the explosiondata file. If that entry is missing, you get a minidump. Since, if I am not mistaken, 7DS has incorporated Bailknight's Improved graphics mod, and since that mod has separate cruiser explosions, that's why you get a minidump.
I'll fix this by making an additional cruiser explosion. In the meantime, use this fixed version. Its is compatible with Bailknight's mod, and should be compatible with 7DS.
I had to do it this way because the merge-ready version is designed to change as few files as possible. So for example, if you altered your unit entity files, you would not lose that alteration by installing this mod. The consequence is that any mod which invokes non-standard explosions names (Frigate0, CapitalShip0, Fighter0 etc.) will cause a minidump.
Yeah I noticed that too. Hence the minidump post.
I uploaded a small change. I noticed Bailknight added a "null" explosion at the end... not sure what it does as all my units blew up nicely, but I updated the mod none the less. And thanks for posting this, it helps iron out the kinks.
Oh pretty pretty pretty.
Was just complaining seconds ago in the news post that spheric explosions are a bit missing and then saw your post here.
If just all may wishes would be fulfilled so fast I would be a happy guy.
Pretty boom
Anyone interested in posting a merged Bailknight's and this version, so people that are either too busy or too lazy can play the merged version?
Updated the links on the opening post, you can grab the merged version from there.
Just letting you know that I merged v0.8 of this mod into the Halo mod!
Did you make the critical hits look better? The MACs (giant railguns) now look visually stunning with your mod merged.
Great work!
Mansh00ter,
Had to personally give you congrats on this. The video is fantastic. Of course you know that I will be mergin this into 7 DEADLY SINS. And I do use Bailknight's mod as well as WLD's mod, and some special effects of my own, so that may be why Sparda or others are getting trouble. They may have to wait until I merge everything. Also, I like your style and Bailknights, and I am torn between the two, especially for capital ship explosions. I love his, but I love yours too know. I was thinking about using Bailknight's for the capital class "crusiers" and use yours for the TITAN captial ships. Let me know what you think about that.
Again.....amazing work.
DANMAN
DANMAN, he released an updated and fixed version for people with Bailknight's and 7DS. I already merged his mod into my personal 7DS and it works fine.
CanadaMan, yeah, I changed both the persistent damage effects and critical hits, made them more visually identifiable (original ones are a bit too diffuse for my taste) and also made them spew fragments into space... personally I was surprised how good it looks, especially when you see a unit victimized by massed fire. It is literally torn to shreds. It can be game-busting, I lost two colonies yesterday because I was too busy watching a gazillion bombers tear my shipyards to pieces...
Danman, feel free to mix and match as you like! For the Last Stand titan explosion I have a special system in mind, having the huge ship suffer a catastrophic explosion and then break apart slowly, with long-lasting chunks and a burnt-out wreck floating on the battlefield afterwards. But that requires special models to be made just for that one effect.
I'll continue stress-testing this as part of the Last Stand mod, and post updated versions when the engine constrains are lifted. I am also very interested to hear what experiences people have with huge battles (200+ships) involved. Artificially, I was able to produce a significant slowdown only when I simultaneously blew up about 80 ships, due to the amount of wreckage that was produced.
When I lose a capital ship against the pirates (I wanted to see the new explosions), the pirate ships dissapear with the exception of the glowing green lights. This does not happen with the playable races as far as I can tell.
I promptly flew a capital ship to the pirate starbase, but have failed to reproduce this. In any case its unlikely this dissapearance bug has anything to do with this mod, since it only changes particle effects and nothing more. However, I seem to recall people complaining about ships dissapearing (or was it weapon effects) a while back with the vanilla game, so it may be something like that.
Try the usual stuff, shutting down the game then starting it up again, disabling/enabling your mod etc. Sorry that I can't help more, but the mod works fine on my end.
Wow.
Yeah, that's it. Well, I rechecked my files and all are set correctly, with limited lifespans. In any case, a particle effect going off shouldn't cause ships to dissapear, especially not selectivelly. Actually, I know it sounds silly, but maybe the ships dissapeared because of the "fog of war" kicking in? It can sometimes behave erratically, so you lose sight of the ships but don't get the "dim eye" view immediately.
Just made it to headlines at ModDb.com
EDIT: Just remembered I'm using the most recent beta. I guess it doesn't work with the beta, then, huh? I'm leaving the rest of the post up in case there's someone who confirms that the mod works on the beta, making the rest of the message relevant.
This mod belongs in the Mods folder in Local Settings/Application Data/Ironclad Games/Sins of a Solar Empire right? When I go into options and enable the mod, I get a minidump immediately.
Since I seem the only one having this problem, I guess it's something I my end. I'm using the standalone version of the mod. The only custom content I have on Sins are a few planet textures, which shouldn't affect this mod.
The minidump is accessible here if you need it: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/155605/Sins-v1.096-2008-10-16-15-34-43-2820-2608.dmp
Thanks in advance.
I am using version 1.05 at the moment and the mod is 100% certified for that. If you get a minidump upon enabling the mod that means that either your version of the game is not compatible...
OR, you have not installed the mod correctly. Please check that the mod folders (Gameinfo, Mesh, Particle etc.) are located in the Documents and Settings\User(this may be called differently on your computer)\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\Volumetric\ folder. This is for WinXP, I think the appropriate folder is located in a different place if you are using Vista.
Specifically, check that you haven't got an extra Volumetric folder inside the first one... it will then register in the mod list ingame, but will cause a minidump when enabled. This can happen if you haven't checked "extract absolute paths" under advanced tab in WinRar when extracting. It's a fairly common error so its quite possible that's the problem.
I have updated the standalone archive so that it does not contain the extra folder.
Sorry about that Manshooter, the ships seem to be fine now. I do not know what happened, but it was obviously on my end, not a glitch in the mod.
Also, The work you did for the explosions is excellent. I cant wait to get a full blown war going. Good luck on completing the last stand.
I have good preliminary news about 1.1 - seems you can put in more than 10 explosion effects now. I just crude tested it (basically doubled the number of entries) to see if it will crash, so its not 100% certain since the game didn't have to call on any new stuff, but it looks promising.
So I guess in the version 1.0 of the mini-mod there should be race-specific explosions, as well as new cruiser-grade explosions thrown in for good measure. The 1.1 explosions look better than the old ones, but they seem still too meek for my taste.
More to come when I actually get some work done. Time to crack open the good ol' Particle Forge!
I love this addon! I hope you'll make it for v1.1! I love those blue core explosions on those stations and big ships looks soo pretty. Keep up the work!
But it does look like its okay working with v1.1. Some of the explosions though is replaced, is it because of the new folders?
is this 1.1 compatible or not?
the merged version minidumps in my mod and patch1.11
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