Tweaks to The Smoke; Flames and Explosion effects in SF

[frinik]

Hello Fellow SF Fans,



After tweaking, testing the special effects for the game for more thna 2 months , making sure it would not make the game unstable or drop the fps I managed to achieve significant changes to some of the visual effects of the game.What I have done is changing some of the values ascribed in the common resolutions folder for the smoke, flames, explosive effects that are assigned to shells, explosions the smoke and flames cmoning off a burning tank or house to make them much more spectacular and convincing than the stock effects.They are in line with what you see in other games or sims and are immersive.I have tested the effetcs with 2 graphic cards both low to middle end type ; ATI HD3650 and Hd5670 and very low impcts on th fps and no stability issues.Of course since I didnt know what the values in the common res stood for I had to test individually every value and tweak it and then test so a very intensive labour.All you need is about 10 minutes of your time ot make the changes and then save them.

To make those changes go into your common res folder of your data file in your main game5 data/k42/loc_rus/lelev/LEVELS/common/common resolution) and change some values as shown below.Just go change the stock values in your folder for those I set in bold characters and save.TTO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO FIND THE LINES YOU NEED TO MAKE CHANGES I HAVE REMOVED THE OTHER LINES THAT COME WITH EACH OF THE 3 ENTRIES WHICH YOU WILL FIJND I N THE MIDDLE OR LOWER OF THE COMMON RESOLUTION FOLDER. Normally you just need to do it into the game main common res folder.Once you start playing you"ll notice how high the flames of the burning tanks go( 3 times the size of the stock game value), how high the flames go and how twirling and thicker the flames are.I also tweaker the HE explosions and smoke form explosions to make them more convincing.With the new sounds that adds immersion.Please try and advise.Warning the tanks being hit will become more prone to shoot up in flames than in the stock game but nothing unrealisitic.Here a the values to be chnaged in bold character below.Don't forget to save.try it and let me know what you think!
 
 
parts_desc()
{
 
smoke,15,4,2,6,1,0.1,1,0.7,13,0.6,0,smk_sphere0,0x00000006,sh_ablendd,0x802E2C23,0x304E4C43,0.3,5;
 
fire,1,3,0.4,0.8,1,0.3,0,0.7,0.2,1,0,fire_sphere0,0x00000004,sh_add,0xffFFE081,0x00FFE081,1,15;
smoke_fl,1,8,1.9,8,1,0.5,0,5.3,0.3,1,0,smk_sphere0,0x00000002,sh_ablendd,0xff4D4D45,0x004D4D45,1,5;
smoke_eng,1,2,0.2,1,1,0.3,0.2,-0.3,0.2,1,0,smk_sphere0,0x0000000a,sh_ablendd,0xff4D4D45,0x004D2D45,1,5;
 

vis_expl_pats()
{
 
he_expl_pat,75,he_expl,85,0.5;
 
mgun_shot_pat,7.62,mgun_shot,1.9,0.5;
 
smk_expl_pat,100,smk_expl,85,0.5;
}
phys_expl_pats()
{
 
he_expl_pat,75,4.5,1.5,7,4,0.7,13000;
sh_expl_pat,75,3,0.8,6,2,0.4,9200;
smk_expl_pat,100,0,0,3,5,0.4,3500;}

Just be careful not to forget a dot por coma or not change an,y of the symbols when you make the changes to the values.

Cheers

Frinik

[Kyth]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing, I'll be giving them a try,

[whukid]

Have you tried using a photo-uploading site like "Tinypic.com"? I personally use photobucket

Anyways, nicely done! I'll try this out!

[hemisent]

Frinik
 Thanks for all the hard work, looking forward to giving this a try.

Cheers
H

[Panzerfaust]

Just got it installed Frinik and tried it out on nodlews Soviet Tank Gunnery Range, one word.... AWESOME..kudos to you on your hard work comrade, it really makes the difference  .
Cheers

[lockie]

hi, frinik.
Would u be pleased to attach some screenshots to make comparison an original effects to the new ones?

[frinik]

Hi Lockie,

I tried but the mediashare that I have apaprently does not allow a link to this forum.I emailed Kyth a dozen pics to be posted as he gracefully offered to do it.

Thanks Kyth!

[lockie]

I tried but the mediashare that I have apaprently does not allow a link to this forum.I emailed Kyth a dozen pics to be posted as he gracefully offered to do it.

OK. Would be interesting to see them.
Is it possible to add effect like this? I mean destroyed head.

[frinik]

I 'd love to Lockie because I miss that in SF.You have this feature( the blown turret) in TvT, Panzer Elite etc but not in SF.I saw KOmrade SHYN's pic on the Avia forum but unfortunately he does not explain how he did it.Could you please ask him How he managed that?I looked through the common res and damage files but can't find what the trigger is.With thicker flames and smoke and explosions  it would really add to this magnificent sim.Anyway give my tweaks a try you won't be disappointed!

3 comrades already tried them including Panzerfaust and Friedrich Wilhelm and said they liked it.I stillworking on tweaking other elements such as the smoke and flash effects when the guns or tank guns are fired,the flash effect when a tank ammo or fuel reserve blows up etc but it's painstaking work because without knowing what the values ascribed in the common res lines mean I am working blind having to test every single value and then see how far I can tweak without creating instability or slowing the fps.One thing is sure the smoke effects in SF are very light in terms of slowing down the game.However the game is very sensitive to sounds.Soon I will post my sound mod so people can enjoy new shots, explosions and hit sounds.

[Kyth]

Okay, everyone, pictures are up, please see the original post,

[frinik]

Thanks Kyth!!! Mymy I am such a talented photographer!May be I should consider a job with Time Magazine , Life or Der Spiegel?

[lockie]

Thanks for the pictures! Looks great, I'll try er setting.

However the game is very sensitive to sounds.Soon I will post my sound mod so people can enjoy new shots, explosions and hit sounds.

I'd like to point out er attention, that "inside sound" depends on the file content coc_***.engcfg
For example, Hetzer's file was out of the next line

Code:

syncs()
{
	//chank on the techniques, chank on the cockpit, show only 1
	s_root;
}

I had to add above line to see sounds like this: hatch, inner/turret movement etc.

[frinik]

Thanks for the info.I might try to add new inside sounds reloading and realistic rotating sounds. Still I am curious to find out how did SHYN get that turret off the hull?

[lockie]

Still I am curious to find out how did SHYN get that turret off the hull?

I've got replay from SHUN. According to him advice, u've to add an additional line into config.
Here's a line:

Code:

deform         =    true;

It works!

[frinik]

Thanks Lockie and please give my thanks to SHYN! However I need a bit more info:

It's in the config ENGCFG folder?Does it go into one of the existing entries( if yes which one is it?) or do you create a new, separate one?Do you put it at the very end of all the entries at the bottom of the page? And what is the entry called i_deform?Could he post his entry so we can easily copy it?




i_defglobal:defglobal()
{
   //ðåíäåðèòü áëèêîâîå îñâåùåíèå
   specular   =   1;

}// end of i_defglobal:

[norm]

Frinik, which number controlls the likelyhood of a tank burning, so I could try the new smoke/flames with the current chance of tank fires.

[whukid]

Frinik, which number controlls the likelyhood of a tank burning, so I could try the new smoke/flames with the current chance of tank fires.

hehe. Just do the Porkhovaka mission. You get to see plenty of flames >

[frinik]

Norm the likelihood of a tank burning is not determined by one value only, it is determined by the type of shell you use(AP or HE and calibre), the angle where the hit lands on tank or vehicle, the velocity of the shell, distance from the target and whether the round penetrated the target or not.Believe me with the tweaks I am proposing at least half or more of tanks/APcs on the battlefield will catch fire! Check the pics that Kyth posted they are taken from my missions and you can see the high number of vehicles burning.You don´t want to overdo it( I did some testing and when the values are too high every single hit results in an exploding tanks which is not realistic).If you want to tweak the shots I will send you the chnage to the guns I have made in the common res files with reliagned penetration and concussive values for Tiger I,II, Panther, JS-2, T34 and Panzer IV etween these and the Fx tweaks yoiu´ll be happy!

[Donken]

Or you can also do it the hard way and go in to the object editor and check out where all hitboxes are and how big they are. Im not shure about how advanced the hitbox system are in Steel Fury but tanks should only catch fire if you hit the engine, fuel or ammunition. Im not shure about transmission thou but it should'nt make a tank catch fire because the oil in it have to high flame limit (it boils a long time before it catches fire)

[lockie]

Thanks Lockie and please give my thanks to SHYN! However I need a bit more info:
It's in the config ENGCFG folder?

It's in config file of any vehicle, i.e. T-34 appropriates file is:
...\data\k42\loc_rus\levels\levels\tech_cfg\t34_76_.engcfg
This is a fragment.

Code:

	//The size of technics at check of crossing
	bb_round	=	5.0;

	//deformation
	deform         =    true;
	
	//armor thickness, mm
	armor_thick	=	60;