An update to particle animations would be nice. Please?

[General_Hoohah]

Please keep in mind, I only have minimal knowledge of the limitations of this game’s engine, so I don’t know if adding this is possible or not. I’ve been learning how to create weapons and I’m seeing some limitations that I really think are ridiculous, and put unneeded limitation on the creativity of modders when creating visual effects. First, the length of time it takes for the animation for something like smoke for instance is directly partnered with the length of time until the smoke disappears. This is just silly. After a particle effect is animated, you should be able make it hang then fade away after a time.

Additionally, from what I understand, you can not animate a particle again, after the first animation introduces it. For example, I wanted to animate the dust kick up from a canon round hitting the ground. (You know, that spiky splash of dust that rises quickly, then have it slowly fall and fade away.) After talking to someone else in the 20th Century Mod, I’ve discovered that I can either animate it quickly growing as it is first introduced, or slowly shrinking in size as the dust falls back to the ground. What I can’t do is both… which pretty much throws out that idea, and many other I imagine.

I would really like to see a particle’s life span and time of animation be totally separate values that have no effect on the other (unless you cut the animation short with a short life span), and the added option to animate an effect twice, in the coming update. This would allow much more creativity, more realistic effects, and cut down on aggravation. I’m sure there are many effects that could be achieved with these added features.

[Spawn]

Couldn't you just have 2 particles with one starting then the other ends?

[General_Hoohah]

Doesn't work that way. You'd have to make the second effect appear at the same time the first effect ends, and a timer for this action doesn't exist.

Maybe if a timer was added that would work, so you could make it look like the effect is being animated twice, but in reality, it is actually two effects happening one after the other. So in other words, lets say the first effect ends after exactly 0.6 of a second. You would set a timer so the second effect starts after 0.6 of a second. And walla, a fully animated partical sequence. The second effect would continue where the first left off.

Thanks for the idea. This might also work.... unless it causes clipping in the effect.

[APCs r evil]

You could just have the dust spike thingy emit some particles that fly up then fall back down, although you can't control how fast they fall. I have an ODF somewhere that has an effect like that... Don't know where it is though.

[Angstromicus]

As far as particles slowing down or speeding up, I believe that emitInherit might solve that problem for you.

However, I have some weapons limitations I would like to comment on as well.

First: I'd like to be able to cross-class weapons. I.E. The ablility to make a lock-on/splinter weapon, etc., and a pluse/thermal weapon, etc.

Second: I'd like more options for explosions. Right now, this is what an explosion consists of:
1. A damage field (which is instantaneous, and nothing can stop it, it travels though everything I.E., you can't avoid an explosion by hiding behind something).
2. Kick field (consists of kickradius, kickvelocity (buggy! Fix this please!), kickomega).
3. Effects.

Perhaps extra things like being able to make a certain type of damage/kick field, or allowing explosion effects to cause damage instead of just looking pretty.

Finally: ODF-controlled physics of weapons (for stuff like mortar class).


I hope I don't sound too demanding, but I'm just asking for some extra options. They sound really cool and would be a nice addition to the game.

[General_Hoohah]

Very good additions to this post Omnis. I totally agree with everything you've said. I support everything he's added, on top of what I suggested. I’m involved in a mod, which is exactly what the patch is targeting, so there are more features for mods to use. But I've had a lot of headaches from all the restrictions I keep running into every time I want to create a weapon or a special effect.

I also wouldn't mind a new special effect added, that allows a laser beam to expand from a point of origin, at a rate of speed determined by a numbered value. I've seen this in some Sci-Fi movies, and I really like it. True, it’s not what a laser beam actually looks like. A real laser just suddenly appears, fully grown, but you can just call it something else.

I'd also like to have the original flash cannon from BZ1, added to BZ2. (This would benefit the BZ1 Mod) All it is a line, using a particle tga, which moves as you move. It says solid instead of being redrawn over and over. This would help frame rate a great deal in some cases. I think in BZ1, you activated this type of effect by setting the fire rate to 0. Its a VERY simple effect that should be easily added.

[GSH]

Right now, I'd say it's way too late to be entertaining more feature requests.

-- GSH

[General_Hoohah]

Why is that? Is this the last patch? (Well, not counting the fix being worked on for the AI lag issue.)

[DrummaDude]

well knowing the limitations, you know what you can and cant do. if your planning to make something and its either impossible hard, or just impossible, just find something else to do it for you. If its just a small thing then deal with it. Physics for a mortar might not be changeable but at least you can make one. to code something where you can hide and avoid being hurt by an explosion would probably take a great deal of time and sanity. any of these things would take up a long time and further delay the final release of 1.3. if you have something but you cant change a small thing about it, i suggest forgetting about it.

I have some things i would like myself but i cant do anything about it. For ages i have yearned for something like a solid laser beam or a render for the chargegun charge. I cant make a solid beam so i make something like the flash cannon. I cant make the render so...well i dont do anything about it. Im not trying to be a jerk or anything of that sort. I am just saying that these are small things that can be ignored.

[Angstromicus]

Speaking of small things... I almost forgot.

Perhaps it isn't too late to make an odf-based code where you can adjust the limit of something you can have on a screen (say, if you get too many sprites, the game starts cancelling them out). By now we should be able to have more sprites on the screen because of advances in graphics cards.

[BZZERKER]

That requires rewriting ALL the graphics code (or at least most of it). If that was done, it would be another 1½ to 2 years and neither Nathan or Ken (and probably a fair amount of the testers) want to go through that. It would likely also have an effect on other things that weren't even touched as the code (from what I hear) is a complete mess (even after having been cleaned up a bit).

[Avatar]

If anything BZ2 can put more sprites on the screen than any graphics card should have to handle.  The saturation at times is painful to the eyes...    Be on the recieving end of Scion Plasma Stream for an example...

There's always someone for whom "too much" isn't enough... 

-Av-

[Spawn]

Just try out a few resin archers

[Angstromicus]

The thing is though, I have this splinter weapon that fires a bunch of energy pulses simultaneously. If the pulses don't hit something, they all explode at the same time. There's 100 energy pulses (any fewer and the effects would look "thinned out". If all 100 of them (or close to that amount) go off, some the pulses don't have an explosion animation!!

[Spawn]

couldnt you just make the pulses bigger?