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 hope the minidump issue will soon be fixed, that's three times i watch the videos on the first page, it lokks so awsome, i am eager to try it ! Thank you again for your work ![e digicons]:grin:[/e]
RS-fx, check out the possible solution I posted in Bailknight's thread.
ToJka, sounds like a missing texture. I found it and you can get a fixed archive from here. It was a last minute addition so unfortunately I forgot to copy it to the mod folder. If you see any more of those, do tell!
The new fixed archive also has renamed folders for a more self-explanatory install, without the ubiquitous version numbers. Now, the Entrenchment version is labeled as such as is the vanilla one. I have also removed all but the entity.manifest file from the mod folder for Entrenchment, to avoid hidden conflicts (thanks to Ryat for spotting that one).
For those of you who are having dissapearing particles issue, this is likely caused late game by the engine consistently hitting the particle count cap, especially in large battles. This problem may especially affect those using the versions of the mod rolled together with Bailknight's particle effects, as some of his particles, according to my dev version counters are quite heavy handed. Needless to say, the Volumetric mod IS a little more resource intensive than vanilla Sins, but what you can try, if your machine can handle it, is to increase the particle count cap in the user.setting by adjusting the MaxParticleCount to something higher than what it is.
Next version of the Volumetric mod will see some optimization done to further reduce the load on the system without reducing the visual quality of the effects.
I uninstall the game, just to realize that my computer refuse to read my retail cd [e digicons][/e] but fortunately, i could reinstall it using impulse who remembered my serial [e digicons][/e] (not as unhelpful as i thought, that impulse). So now, i have an english version of sins instead of my french one (no big deal) but the game still freezes with minidump when i launch the mod...
I suppose the only way for me is to purchase entranchment and try the 1.12.
I advise you to purchase Entrenchment only if you are interested in the features it brings - spending money for a possible fix to your issue might not be that wise.
I have one more suggestion for you: download the Forge Tools 3 and use the developer .exe which you can find in there. Put the developer exe to the root folder of your Sins installation (where the vanilla exe is situated) and then try to load the mod using the dev. exe.
It should bring up a more specific error message prior to mini-dump. You should see a bunch of error messages stating that some particle simulations need infiite lifetimes but have finite - those are irrelevant, they do not cause minidumps. Anything other than that, you can screenshot and post it either here or send it to me directly at [email protected]
I ran into this problem. I got into a big battle, and most of the explosions and weapons effect disappeared.
I love the mod, though. I love watching the starbases explode now! Thank you for this awesomeness.
I downloaded galaxy forge. The only .exe i found into it was the galaxyforge.exe so i supposed it is what you call the dev.exe. I copied it into the /programs/stardock games/sins of a solar empire folder. Then i tried to launch it, it failed (the program stop to run, according to vista), so i went back to the galaxy forge folder, try to run it and it doesn't work either but i don't think i have been doing anything wrong.
No, not the galaxy forge .exe, that's for making maps.
Forge tools 3 can be found here: https://stardock.cachefly.net/ForgeTools3.rar
You are looking for the file named "Sins of a Solar Empire Developer.exe"
oups, i saw forge and immediatly think galaxy forge.
ok, i have that error message :
Failed to Create D3DX Effect 'C:\Users\François-Xavier\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.15\Volumetric1.12a\PipelineEffect\SetupDefaultStates.fx'...(1,1): error X1507: failed to open source file: 'C:\Users\François-Xavier\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.15\Volumetric1.12a\PipelineEffect\SetupDefaultStates.fx'
then after i clicked on skip :
Failed to Create D3DX Effect 'C:\Users\François-Xavier\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.15\Volumetric1.12a\PipelineEffect\Error.fx'...(1,1): error X1507: failed to open source file: 'C:\Users\François-Xavier\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.15\Volumetric1.12a\PipelineEffect\Error.fx'and it continues with the same message but with another name files and it continues with a lot of name of files in pipeline effects, maybe all of these, i didn't check all names.
and then hat one, once the programm has crashed :
Particle Effect CapitalBuff_AntiMatterDetonate used for PlayPersistantAttachedEffect has finite lifetime but requires infinite lifetime
which continue with all the name of the files of the particule/buff folder
It ends with that one :
Assert @ c:\gs\main\CodeSource\GS/Render/Particle/ParticleEmitter.cpp(487)m_ParticleMinStartLinearSpeed <= m_ParticleMaxStartLinearSpeed
and then my old frien minidump come and shot Sins.
I hope it would make you tell me "Ah, THATS problem, it is easy to fix !" but i suppose i shouldn't being too hopeful or i would be punish by the little devil hidden under my keyboard. [e digicons]:X[/e]
Mansh00ter,
Similar problem encountered in Mad Scientist mod. Finite errors and particle speed errors. Also got these as well.
*** Pool's Allocated Space has been used up. new / delete is being used as a fallback. ***Warning: No skybox properties found for .*** Prim3D has run out of cache space for rectangles ***Hope this helps.
The particle errors are tied to the Bailknight's Effects mod, however they do not cause minidumps nor, as far as I was able to ascertain during some more extansive gameplay sessions, performance issues. I plan to fix all of those with the next update of Volumatric which will also see some of those optimized for better overall performance.
The error RS-fx is having seems to be a rare issue some other people have been encountering, and is not tied to the mod as such, but (at least it seems that way) to the uncommon characters in the username (in Rs-fx's case "François-Xavier") which are not interpreted correctly. Check this thread for more info.
Suggested solutions in that thread are shortening the name of the mod folder and changing the username to something which uses common characters only. Excersize caution when changing your computer settings, though.
I checked the shader folder and all shaders are present, so that means the game has trouble finding them, probably because it can't read the folder and filename path correctly.
Failing everything, you can finally try to simply erase the "PipelineEffect" folder from the mod entirely. The mod should still be able to play, you will simply not see the enhanced shield effects (that's the only shader effect change Bailknight made as far as I know).
Let me know how it worked out!
SlugwormX, those errors are probably related to the Mad Scientist mod.
any eta on the carnage in space release?
Tomorrow, maybe. I'm working on various puppet poses and textures right now.
I didn't succeed in changing the name of the folder (even if i change my user name in the setting to avoid my little too frenchy ç in my first name) : the road to the folder mod still use the previous name François-Xavier in the mod options of sins. So, i decided to remove the pipeline folder according to your advices and the result was that :
[URL=http://www.imagup.com/imgs/1236751289.html][/URL]
Now, the marza really looks angry ! Even if i don't have the enhanced shield effect but it's a fair deal. Your volumetric effect are great too (i watched one hour of recorded games just to see capital ships explode !) and it truly adds a lot to my experience of sins. A big thank for your work and your support !
Glad to have helped.
bump for an update!
Update coming soon! I had to do some emergency maintenance on my computer, so it caused a slight delay.
Suggestions for consideration for this wonderful mod:
I don't think the game can be set so that explosions can produce individual parts per race or per specific ship (with the exception of capital ships, which I know it does now), but it would be something else to see the head of a Cobalt frigate or the top armor plating of a pirate's hulk drift off.
...come to think of it, it might be interesting to adapt a few of the ship models into broken ship chassis and toss them into maps solely for window-dressing purposes. Having a wrecked Cobalt blackened shell spinning slowly around outside the edge of a gravity well would be appealing, I should think, even if it didn't come from one of the player's battles.
Sorry, forgot to reply to this - theoretically you could have ships break up to individual and easily recognizable pieces, but that would require each and every ship to have its own explosion. Maybe best left for Volumetric 2.0
I am still hampered by not owning 3DSMax - I work in XSI - and there is no way to export game meshes, otherwise it would be a piece of cake to do some serious texture scorching in Z-Brush. Ah well.
On to the update - grab the Volumetric v1.13 here!
Changes include the new a and optimized flotsam system which greatly reduced the number of polygons and look better than the old one, Dynamic Battle System optimized particle effects for smoke trails (in vanilla only noticeable when ships move as usual) and Carnage in Space! Get your spacesuits on boys and girls, because that hole in the bulkhead doesn't look pre... oops, too late! Hehehe.
[e digicons]}[/e]
Nice. I'm going to have to grab this later on today.
I've started to sway away from Bailknight's as I find it too over the top lately but your Volumetric is still a staple in my Manifest stack list.
Thanks ManSh00ter.
-dolynick
Glad you like it.
Actually, in preparation for the release of the Last Stand, I plan to revisit all of the Bailknight's original effects and tone them down a little bit. I think they do add a lot to the "shinyness" of the game because the vanilla effects look just too weak to me, and with all the shrapnel flying from impacts in the Volumetric, vanilla effects seem even weaker. But yeah, sometimes Bailknight's effects are a bit over the top, especially when you can't see the ship from all the explosions.
Also a note on Carnage in Space - currently all body models are the same, but future versions will likely see separate models for all races, because I can't have humanoids spilling out of the Xin ships instead of space squids, can I.
Volumetric really does add to the enjoyment of the game, Manshooter. You feel like you've accomplished something when a fleet of ships detonates nearly simultaneously.
Does this latest work with Entrenchment v. 1,02?
Yep.
Good Stuff A++ would download again. Especially loving the Carnage™.
this mod makes me feel like i bought a new game ... absolutely loving it. even convinced my brother to DL the mod so we could go head to head a few times. normally there is a lot of chatter between us during matches, but he was silent for alsmo 20 minutes before he burst out that he had been hypnotized by blowing things up the whole time.
one issue though, TEC torpedo ships dont fir torpedos when i use the mod. is that something that others have experienced?
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