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!
I'm on the list for downloading this as soon as it's available too.
I find the damage indicators for the frigates are a little too intense - they completely hide the frigate when it's on its last legs - but the spreading debris and the revamped explosions make larger fleet engagements or hapless pirate raids a total joy to watch.
If I were a modeller, I'd run off a whole lot of small damage-piece models like hull plating or struts for you to use, I like this so much.
Cheers!
I eventually plan to diversify the flotsam and give the pieces some texture - one just has to be careful with poly counts and keep them very low, otherwise you run the risk of bogging the system down. As for damage indicators, yeah, they can be a little too much on smaller ships, but unfortunately you can't give different ship classes different critical hit effects, so if I make those smaller they look too small on a capital ship. So its a bit of a trade-off.
Everything sounds great. I've been checking this thread about every 2 hours since you announced the entrenchment mod! [e digicons]:blush:[/e] Really can't wait!
manshooter I sounds great and I will be among the early downloaders when release
harpo
Just got back into Sins now the Entrenchment is gold... waiting eagerly for your Entrenchment compatible version!
Now, while I am busy making very small corpses for the Carnage In Space, can someone, erm, explain to me how do you actually build those damn starbases? Can't test explosions if I can't build 'em!
[e digicons]:-"[/e]
TEC and Advent have a dedicated construction cruiser, Vasari use the coloniser frigate, all races require tier 2 defense research to be able to build them. Blair promised a manual last week, so it should be available soon.
Edit: Looking forward to your next version, i combined this with Bailknights mod and Sins Plus to create BailShooter+ mod (or VolumetricKnight+ [e digicons]:grin:[/e] ), cant wait to see what you can do with Starbases. Considering bodies, remember that Vasari starbases get the Colony Pods upgrade
I can do this TO starbases.
Big enough?
Bodies... I am still torn between true 3D objects and 2D sprites. I'll go with 3D objects and see if there's a noticeable FPS drop, and if there is then I'll switch to 2D sprites. Naturally, given the size of some ships, the corpses won't be truescaled, as that would make them look like tiny dots, but they won't be so large as to break immersion either. In any case, you'll be too busy gawking at the "spillage" to notice that everyone is a bit on the giant-ish side.
WOW! Now thats how a starbase should blow up!
Wowzers! That's a lot better than i was expecting! That is showing some talent my man.
I have a request if you have time. Would it be possible to release this mod one piece at a time as they become available? For example, you could release the explosions for entrench and then the dead bodies(TM) later... But I imagine you're already quite busy with the mod... [e digicons]:grin:[/e]
Actually, the Volumetric 1.12 is scheduled for release tomorrow - the Carnage In Space will be probably ready tomorrow as well, but will in any case be released as a separate add-on, simply because of its experimental nature. That way people with older computers can ignore the carnage thing and still enjoy the enhanced explosions and damage effects. Depending on feedback, Carnage in Space will get integrated into later versions of the Volumetric mod, and of course, the Last Stand mod when Episode I is released.
you seem to work too fast at times manshooter with all these little projects, sure they might be part of a grander project with the last stand but you should take a little time off from all this stuff once in awhile
of course i look forward to the release either way of both this and your last stand mod [e digicons]:-"[/e]
can you explain well what carnage in space is?
Simply a little addition to the mod which adds crew bodies to debris. Most of the bodies are spawned when a critical hit occurs, you can see them fly out of the hole amidst the sparks and steam escaping. A few are also spawned when a ship explodes, as normal debris. The ones flying out of ships on criticals have a reduced lifetime, while the post-explosion bodies last as long as normal debris, which can be set in the debris.entity file.
BTW, did you increase the amount of debris that a destroyed starbase leaves? Currently they just vaporize completely, one of my very few complaints about Entrenchment.
nice XD
so i can set the debris lifetime to infinity? XD
OWA89, technically no, but you can set it so high that it will easily outlast any playing session.
ToJKa, yeah, there will be a slight increase. Sadly, I lack the time to make specific large debris chunks for starbases, so even with the increased number of debris, it will still feel like the whole thing vaporized. But with the new explosions, that will actually be believable now.
So.... you mentioned today? Well, I will definitily be checking this page every 5 mins now!
could you be able to make debris with parts of the starbases? like a piece of the circular part of advent's one? XD
it would be great XD XD XD
uhm, can you suggest me a high value?
So... We're coming to the end of "today" but no worries my man. Take your time, I'm sure there's a lot more work to it than I can imagine...
Worked my arse off today, but here it is at last! Keep in mind most playtesting was done in a half-hour session and while I haven't spotted any bugs or such stuff, there's always a chance I missed something. If you spot something of that nature, do tell.
MOD DOWNLOAD: Mediafire (8.38Mb)
Enjoy!
You are amazing man! Thanks so much for the mod!!!! [e digicons]:inlove:[/e]
Thanks!
BailKnights makes certain things look cartoony to me, so I used the modders folder. It always locked up my game when I tried to enable it until I deleted all the .entity files in the GameInfo folder. I removed them since the last version I was using did not have .entity files in the GameInfo folder, just the explosiondata file. Hopefully I didn't lose anything I was meant to keep.
Ah, that's what happens when you package files when barely awake. Modder's resource version should have had only the explosions.explosiondata file in the gameinfo folder, so you did everything right. Thanks for the heads up, I'll fix that.
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