New explosion FXs (RK's Explosions)

[RK4000]

Uploaded combat demonstration replay!

Thanks to Barad-Dur for assistance.


Notes:
*Seraphim effect is unoptimized and slows down the game about 10x more than it should. I know the reason and a fix for it is coming next update (in a few days, maybe less).
*Bad micro for land units on my part, the T3 fight is a massacre
*Reworked "damage" effects on ASF and air units in general.

Will not work anymore due to changed version (mods don't keep old versions so the old replays will desync).

New combat demonstration replay will be up soon.

[Exotic_Retard]

for a start, i think the air crash and air effects in general are way over the top.
when a plane crashes it is not even possible to see it dues to the extreme amount of particles surrounding it. it looks more like a fireworks display than anything.
the effects are of a high quality, but i think they need serious toning down. (the damaged asf effects are really nice but the smoke is too black for me)
ignoring the fact that my fps drops to ~5 , as i think that's been fixed.


Land effects are much better, but i think some of them take too long to fade :
uef t3 there is an explosion, then, after everything has finished, there is a "blast wave" that just lingers afterwards and doesn't look like its related to anything :/ speeding it up will sort it for me.
Size is much better!
Cybran effects, especially t3 are not "consistent" enough for me; when a brick explodes there are huge lightning textures which reach really far, while the actual explosion is smaller than the rest of the t3 imo. also, it finishes too early, as i can see it explosde, then i see the brick being despawned and replaced with a wreck, i didnt notice this as much wit other factions, so i think cybran is slightly worse in that respect.

sera explosions, especially t3, have some strange looking lightning which lingers after the explosion. i would make faster and make it flash or something, at the moment it looks strange imo


overall, really nice, i can see improvements
keep it up!

[Sulo]

Agreed, air explosions look like fireworks, Cybran ones are not that bad but the Aeon and Sera...
As for land, some of those explosions are now a bit too fast, or they are mix of very fast and very slow effects giving off weird overall effect, in my opinion UEF are still the best.

And it still kills my FPS, all of them, even the land battles were slow as hell.

[RK4000]

Yeps, i became aware of the issiue earlier today, I didn't notice the horrible unoptimized emitter that was playing on all the explosions, because I made it nearly invisible a long time ago, silly me

Hotfix will be out tomorrow, I estimate a 70-80% performance increase since that's how many particles the unoptimized emitter emits compared to the rest

[RK4000]

Updated replay: download/file.php?id=6340
(Replay is also on first post on the first page for easier access.)

Info for update:
*Added experimental (lol pun) Experimental explosions. Currently using just generic fireball explosions, this will be changed. This is just a test to see how well sub-explosions work.
*Major performance increase for the Seraphim explosion (now the least FPS draining explosion, might need some buffing if it looks too weak now)
*Slight tweak to the "charge-ring" for the Cybran explosion (should be slightly thicker now).
*Slight tweak to the UEF sparks (more visible now).
*Added more dust to all explosions.
*Changed lifetime of Aeon explosions very slightly.




Planned for next update:
*Fireball effects for UEF explosion
*Factional building sub-explosions
*Tweaking the "fall down trail" on airplanes when they fall down after being shot down.
ETA: Few weeks, the building sub-explosions will take quite a while.

[Ceneraii]

Lookin' good, the experimental explosions are WIP I assume so take it with a grain of salt, except that fatboy one takes way too long

Sera explosion looks a bit off, not sure why but some part of me expects the lightning to go outwards and then back inwards, sorta like their ACU explosion if that makes any sense.

Other than that, great work, keep on going.

[Exotic_Retard]

pretty much what ceneraii said, you haven't showed us the air explosions if youve changed anything in them :/
the amount of dust on the experimental explosions is ridiculous, but i assume that they will be changed a lot anyway so that doesn't matter (also it lags somewhat)

[RK4000]

Yes, the experimental explosions were basically just a test to see if i can add some fancy sub-explosions, not just the initial one.

About the air explosions, I will be uploading a replay of an actual game soon, there's a few air fights here and there, and this should also show how the explosions actually look like in-game.

[RK4000]

Uploaded an actual game replay!
download/file.php?id=6341
Replay is also on the first post.

The game is mostly T1, there's some T2 in there, also a few air units exploding and falling down.
Cybran vs Seraphim.
Thanks to Ceneraii for the game.

[Exotic_Retard]

looked at your replay, made screens of things i don't like the look of:

thing1.png (901.39 KiB) Viewed 3274 times

t1 engineer explosion, way too large flash of lighting, this also lasts for a very short time, making it even stranger

thing2.png (762.06 KiB) Viewed 3274 times

same for t1 scout, but even more ridiculous, you can see scout clearly through entire explosion :/

thing3.png (473.42 KiB) Viewed 3274 times

plane crashing - huge, huge explosion
i expect that this is from the t3 plane, which it would look better for, but still this crash is a bit much, and is quite ludicrous :/
also you can see plane through all the lighting, which is weird.
this illustrates all the problems with sera explosion i think:
1. lighting that can be seen in pic is too big
2.it only appears for 1/4 of a second, making it look like it shrinks hugely
3.you can see right through explosion, and while its huge, it makes it very strange looking, a small white ball like in current explosion in the middle would be great

also look at mantis explosion - its a bit silly, the bright red is not great at all imo

i've also got 2 more pics coming