Question about plasma cannons in new patch

[Dianoga4]

Hey guys. Well I tried searching the forums for various things to try and find my answer but so far I've had no luck. I did notice this when the TA5 patch first came out but I wasn't doing much with my mod at the time so I didn't look around on here and I'm still seeing it in the 5.1 patch.

Anyways, the problem I'm seeing is that when a stock gun tower shoots, the projectile looks fine. I have a gun turret and a vehicle that uses the exact same weapon that the stock gun tower uses but when they shoot, there is no bright green light at the end of the projectile. It's just an ugly thin green line flying through the air. I double checked the odf's to make sure and yes they are using the exact same gplasma_c as the gun tower. So then I thought maybe it had something to do with my models or something so I tried a stock assault tank and it's doing the same thing so I'm guessing it's not my models. I'm just not sure what's making it do that. It only started doing this since the TA5 patch and I did do a fresh install when I got the TA5 and 5.1 patches.

Thanks for any info.

[AHadley]

Lights were removed from projectiles in TA5 due to the heavy price on them. This is also the reason for the heavy clipping on the Recycler's front lights.

[TheJamsh]

The light was removed because it caused lag during battles.

Lights are a LOT more potent to framerate than they used to be... and i think theres a limit to 8-on screen lights at once, not sure.

[Dianoga4]

Ok well thanks, I didn't know that about the lights, but it's not really what I mean. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I took a couple of screenshots to show what I mean. The stock gun tower has the bright looking projectile and you can see on the second picture the difference in the two different shots. They are both using the same weapon.

[General BlackDragon]

Lights were removed from the "gplasma_a" and gplasma_c weapons only.

The plasma weapon the gun tower fires is called "gtower"



I tried to make a rude fix for the light in gplasma_a and _c by adding a lightflare sprite.  But it didn't get in before TA5.1

[Dianoga4]

Where does it say that the gun tower uses a weapon called "gtower". I'm asking because I am using Pak Explorer to look at the pak files and according to the ibgtow odf file, the weapon is a gplasma_c. The gun tower in the picture is a ibgtow. I'm just trying to clear this up and appreciate the responses.

[General BlackDragon]

Are you looking in data.pak or patch13.pak?

Always look in patch13.pak first, as it overrides data.pak

1.3 "ibgtow.odf" file:

Code Select Expand


[GameObjectClass]
baseName = "ibgtow"
geometryName = "ibgtow00.xsi"
classLabel = "turret"
scrapCost = 50
scrapValue = 10
maxHealth = 5000
maxAmmo = 10000 // 0 is *not* treated as infinite ammo!
unitName = "Gun Tower"
aiName = "GunTowerFriend"
aiName2 = "GunTowerEnemy"
heatSignature = 2.0
imageSignature = 1.0
radarSignature = 1.0
isAssault = 1

collisionRadius = 11.0

armorClass = H

/////// REQUIREMENTS ///////////////

requireCount = 1
requireName1 = "ibcbun"
requireText1 = "Build Relay Bunker"

////////////////////////////////////


/////// PROVIDES ///////////////////

provideCount = 3
provideName1 = "ibgtow"
provideName2 = "VIRTUAL_CLASS_GUNTOWER"
provideName3 = "defender"

////////////////////////////////////


/////// weapons ////////////////////

weaponMask = 00011
weaponHard1 = "hp_cannon_1"
recoilName1 = "recoil_r"
weaponName1 = "gtower"
weaponAssault1 = 0
weaponHard2 = "hp_cannon_2"
recoilName2 = "recoil_l"
weaponName2 = "gtower"
weaponAssault2 = 0

////////////////////////////////////

lightHard1 = "hp_light_1"
lightName1 = "spotwhite"

turretCount = 4
turretName1 = "turret_y_1"
turretName2 = "turret_x_1"
turretName3 = "hp_light_1"
turretName4 = "hp_eyepoint"

[BuildingClass]
soundAmbient = "igtow01.wav"

[CraftClass]
rangeScan = 250
periodScan = 1.0
velocJam = 0.0
weaponPitch = 1.5
steerFactor = 0.5
engageRange = 200

[TurretCraftClass]
omegaTurret = 2.0
detectRange = 210

[Lod1]
geometryName = "ibgtowL1.xsi" ;geometry for lod1
distance = 150                   ;bsphere under 200 pixel => switch to lod1
dontShiftLOD = 1


[Dianoga4]

Ok well that explains it. I didn't realize that the patch13 pak file overrided the data pak file. Thanks alot for the info.

[AHadley]

Bloody hell, man! Those bumpmaps!

[Dianoga4]

Bumpmaps? I didn't use any bumpmaps although I'm thinking about trying tsome.

[AHadley]

The shine on the power generator. Bumpmaps work in TA5.1. Not on my PC though - and I don't think I've seen them properly before.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I like the colored ship icon where the wire frame image usually sits. It looks way better then a standard wire frame image. More peeps should adopt this to stadardize the game a bit as it enhances the player interface quite nicely. Are you using Blender to make your models D4?

[mrtwosheds]

You would not think it, but wire frames are really very difficult to get looking good, a simple image of the model is much easier, Its what I did (and still need to redo). Every now and then you freak out and try to spin to shoot at it, which is why wire frames are a good idea.

[Mr X]

I actually prefer the wire frames, maybe I'm just wierd...

[bigbadbogie]

Perhaps it would be better if the ship icon had a border to make it look more like part of the interface.