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!
confirmed no problems with 1 hour of play in entrenchment 1.03
harpo
And the official word from the maker of the mod - yes it does work with the latest versions of the game.
Very Very Well i might add
-Teal
Time to make like a psycho in a maternity ward and bump this baby.
Anyone test this yet for Entrenchment 1.04 compatibility?
As part of the bigger mod work on the Last Stand, I am now testing if I can have separate explosion entries for each faction in the game, so that Vasari ships don't blow up the same as TEC ships. If successful, the new 1.2 version of the mini-mod will have all those in.
Just to repeat the question is it compatible with entrenchment 1.04??
Ignore
Untill I get a definitive answer whether the existing developer exe is compatible with the new version of the game or not, and if not then untill I get my hands on a new version of the dev executable, I can't patch my game because it would screw with my mod work big time.
So if anyone is willing to test this out and get back to me, I'd appreciate it!
manshooter, the 1.181 & 1.041 patch updates DO have the developers with them
I had suggested this in an email to blair just after entrenchment 1.02 update's release
Yep, I didn't know that. I'll patch up my game today and get things compatible asap.
Ok, I tested 1.04 Entrenchment with this mod and it seems to work fine. No loading errors and no errors during gameplay although I haven't tested every single effect. If you spot bugs or dumps, let me know so I can fix them!
Arrg.
It does not work with 1.041 entrenchment in one incredibly specific area:
some capital ships cause minidumps when you attempt to assign their first ability.
Here is where I encountered an error:
if you try select the Halcyon Carrier's OR the Kortul Devastator's first ability, it minidumps the game. I tested several other caps, including the Kol, Sova, Skiratta, and the Rapture, and they worked fine.
As far as I know, it's only the Halcyon or Kortul that causes this. I had no other mods running and got a fresh copy of this mod from the link in the OP to see if it was a version error.
I'll check the remaining caps and edit this post if I find more minidumps
Please, please, figure out what causes this, this is a awesome mod and it makes playing alot more fun.
EDIT 1:Arg. Add the Akkan to the list.
EDIT 2:And the Anorak Marauder. I think you have to mouse over the ability that got changed in the patch to cause the minidump, though, so my really quick tests probably missed a few and it's too late to go through them all again.
I know you're busy with that big mod you're working on, which looks great btw, but please fix this up! I can't really enjoy the game when things just pop on death anymore... this being in almost every other mod out there has gotten me used to seeing these effects all the time, and now without them... it's just not the same.
To get this mod to work with entrenchment 1.041 you need to use harpo's mod tools to convert it. Use the mod updater to get it 1.041 compatible then once that is done you need to use the manifest maker for mods to fix the entity files that are causing the mini dumps on those specific ships. Works a charm after that. This should also work for converting any other mod out there to 1.041.
Enjoy. [e digicons]:beer:[/e]
sgtscum is correct, the problem is that the colonise ability used to be one entity, it is now an ability and a buff(new) and if the new buff is not in the manifest minidump when you try to access it
Ok, thanks for the info. I am working on the new effects for each faction right now, I got the Vasari more or less done and I need to do the Advent, then I'll release the new version - in the meantime use Harpo's mod updater to fix the minidump.
Oh, and also the new version will be again optimized to run much better in big battle scenarios.
If nobody's told you today that you're awesome, I have just corrected that.
Thanks, HominidSlayerUsingBallisticChemicallyPoweredWeaponry. I honestly think this mod itself is essential to the immersiveness of the game.
cann't wait for 1.81 support
Ok, the new version is baked and ready to be served!
Volumetric Explosions and Damage Effects v1.2
Download link
The big changes in this version include explosion optimization, new explosions for all three factions - now Vasari, Advent and TEC ships have different explosion effect attached to them so you can always tell who just blew up - and new sound effects for all main ship explosions with greater variety and complexity!
I've been waiting for this!
Thanks again for continuing to update this quality mod!
Heads up, seems I've forgot to include some modded files in the vanilla version archive, so you can't see all the new explosions for the Advent and Vasari. If you are using the vanilla Sins, re-download the mod from the link available at the top, I've tested it and it works fine.
Here's some shots so you can see for yourself:
Apologies for the foul-up!
ManShOOter,
question: Can the (1) .entity and (3) .dds files be deleted from the Particle folder without effecting anything or do they need to be in there?
I really like the new stuff, awesome work thanks.
Yeah, you can delete those, they are stowaways. No idea how they got there.
Great stuff! Love the race specific effects and the new sound mix. As retroboy said above sins just wouldn't be nearly as immersive without this effects pack! I noticed the amount of debries has been cut down and you only see bodies if you zoom in really close after an explosion. Looks much better then the previous one with the big bodies popping out with every critical.
Looks like lots of little optimiziations across the board have paid off in this release with much better endgame performance in the full fleet vs full fleet plus planet and starbase attacks. Only thing that still happens on those bigger battles is that the effects come and go at random. I'm going to assume that the mod is hitting some sort of particle limit and was wondering if those values could be turned up in an optional release for us players with nice rigs that can take the stress. =)
The thing is as the modding community has only recently become aware of certain hardcode limits (like the texture limit), I am now unsure whether the dissapearing effects are the cause of max particles reached or because the engine dumped certain textures from memory and loads them back up occasionally... unfortunately there is also no way for me to tell.
You can try increasing the MaxParticleCount and MaxParticleSimulationsCount in the user.setting file found in your Setting folder. I haven't tried this in a long time, but maybe it will help - do let me know if it does!
Is there another link for this? The Mediafire download keeps timing out.
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