[MOD] TotalEffects Complete Particle Conversion mod for Diplomacy 1.034 UPDATE 12/17/11

By CPPFZKrdaxDrkrun on June 4, 2010 9:17:29 PM from

Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

CPPFZKrdaxD...

Join Date 06/2010

+344

version 0.801

TotalEffects now conforms to TSOP standards. Huge thanks to Soase Maelstrom!

Thanks Stant for the updated Diplomacy version.

Anyone may use this mod in their own mod however they like, as long as proper credit is given.

A graphical mod I have been working on for a while. Mostly focuses on ability effects, (unlike Bailknight's which focuses on weapons and some abilities.)

I am making an effort to replace every single particle effect in the game. I only have 15 left to replace, so hopefully those who use it are happy with the large amount of content.

Credit to Bailknight, Zorodius, Soase-Maelstrom, and Mansh00ter(BKG mod and Dynamic explosions are mixed, so I dont know if I used any of his effects)

I used those mods as fillers just because I am lazy. I am working on getting rid of effects that I "borrowed".

In spite of these fillers, I still have over 2/3 original content

I did not explain how to install the mod, go look at some other mod's explanation.

Enjoy

Diplomacy 1.034:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21093989/TotalEffectsDiplomacy1.34.zip

Entrenchment is no longer supported.

.zip

7.69 mB

I have now included the Readme for those who do not wish to download the mod at the moment.

Credit to Bailknight, Mansh00ter, and Zorodius for their corresponding graphical mods.
Also credit to Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander for some of the textures.

This mod is an attempt to make another graphical mod that goes with the current list.
It contains a mixture of particle effects of my own creation(mostly my own), effects from bailknight's graphical mod, effects from Mansh00ter's mod, and effects from Zorodius' Solarflair mod.
I need critique on my particle effect skills and what looks nice and what does not.

If you get rid of the gameinfo folder, you will get rid of:
Better range for the Jarrasul drain planet ability so that it actually has the same range as its bombing range. If the gameinfo folder is removed the drain planet effect will look funny.
Cleansing Brilliance has a muzzle effect. (bailknight)
Assault Specialization has an effect when it hits structures.
Charged Missiles now has a different beam texture and hit effect.
Disintegration bounceback has more effects and disintegration itself has an actual muzzle effect.
Volatile Nanites has an effect when a ship dies.
Tweaked a bit with the Vasari capship's weapon effects.
Changed the capship explosion. Need critique on this. Getting rid of gameinfo will change the capship explosion back to Solarflair's.
I changed the Argonev's explosion to the same as the other starbases so as not to generate lag on death. If the gameinfo is deleted, the game will lag every time this starbase dies.
Synced the Skarovas' and the Kortul's wave cannons to fire at a single point.

DELETING GameInfo will simply cause these changes to vanish CAUSE THE GAME TO CRASH. DON'T DO IT.

Solanus now has a muzzle effect
The Garda's shots also travel faster.
The Destra Crusader's plasma shots now fire at a single point on a mesh.
Added custom phase travel effects for each race. (critique please) (Bailknight for TEC, Zorodius for advent, me for Vasari)
The Transcencia starbase now has Beam weapons instead of plasma. No damage change.
The Dunov's shield Restore ability now has a muzzle effect.

There is also a change in the theme music, one that I like more. (NO CRITIQUE ON THIS PLEASE)
Numerous other surprises relating to just particle effects.

Enjoy

Hopefully everyone knows how to install mods. If not, look it up.

Hopefully this is clear...

I have removed all of the changes that would have anything to do with unbalance or game tweaks. All of the above changes are aesthetic only.

well, the biggest issue is that it is not a graphics mod... i mean, thats sort of your selling point, but since it includes many gameplay tweaks, some are intresting, but they dont belong inside a graphics mod. Unfortunatly, I am sure it would be very hard for you to go and seperate your tweaks out of the game, so thats kinda not an option i assume.

I suggust you try and sell it as a "balance mod + graphics" thing. I cant wait to see what the diplomacy version looks like.

I am however, dling it right now to see what you did with cap ship explosions...

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hehe... wow. I REALLY like the capship explosions.

Ya, i just dled the mod, started a random game, built a random capital ship and pressed scuttle. It was totally worth it.

hehe... ima go build another.

I also really like the lights on ships, they are really nice.

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I definatly have to play with this more, but there is only 1? capital ship explosion? its really really really cool, but theres only 1. make more.

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Actually, it is not a problem to remove the game tweaks...

I will separate the tweaks and release two versions of the mod.

I am currently working on the Diplomacy version of this mod, and I hope to be able to release it TODAY.

I also hope to be able to make a video showcasing some of my capship abilities.

I will try to make unique capship explosions, if that is what you want...

One for each capship. I think that that would be quite awesome.

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I apologize everyone, my update was broken. Only three people downloaded my update, and I hope everyone else can get the update before they even realize what happened...

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I really like your mod.One thing you may wanna change is some of the weapon colors.I really hate how vasari is based on vasari on green(hate green as weapon color)-purple, advent on purple and blue.

Tec is ok though,except the lasers that look more like energy bolts,cant you make lasers attacks actually laser beams?

though,not as the beams we already have.they way should do the same damage and hte way they attack should not be changed..

Imo,vasari should use weapons like the phase missile(supcom seraphim generic shots),like dark energy.it fits their scheme,green does not.

What i mean

http://th04.deviantart.net/fs24/300W/i/2007/325/f/a/Laser_beam_example_by_overlord_eddy.png

take this photo,go to paint and make it inverted.

You should know what I mean.

Advent is ok,except the purple terror.Would be better if they use blue instead of purple.

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I do not like the Seraphim weaponry for the Vasari, it doesn't really match my personal view of them. Go get Bailknight's mod if you like contrasting effects.

I am still working on Advent effects.

The TEC laser effects are LASER BOLTS. They are, and I quote: "highly energized pulses of plasma that move well below the speed of light. Possibly misnamed." -Star wars wikia laser bolts.

I am leaving them the way that they are...

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Pretty nice as it goes, not tested thouroughly but i'll give it a proper kick about later tonight. But definate kudos for some nice work.

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thanks

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I am currently working on videos to demonstrate a few abilities...

My results are always too choppy.

If SOMEONE else (I am indeed lazy) could possibly do a better job, that would be much appreciated.

Doesn't have to be a video, it can just be an epic screenshot, what ever works.

My poor comp cannot fully handle the awesomeness contained within this mod.

I will post the videos once I think that I have done a better job...

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Diplomacy version will be here soon!

Hopefully today after I finish my updates on my new computer.

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Here we go!

Diplomacy version uploading right now.

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UPDATE!!!!!

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well,i keep getting mini-dumps 5 minutes into each game...and i think the advent phase space effects could use some work,but other then that iz all good

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uh oh, wut?

I have yet to get a minidump.

Please clarify...

Are you running multiple mods? Do you have a small computer? Should I run the dev.exe?

What should I do to the Advent Phase effects? I can easily fix them.

I have added a new capship explosion...

That would be the only real difference between the Diplomacy and the Entrenchment versions of this mod.

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Hey Syneptus, I was getting this from the dev.exe. It didn't appear to cause any obvious issues but wanted to let you know.

maxNumFrames exceeded 5570652. Extra frames ignored.

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OH NO!!!!

YOUR COMPUTER IS TOO FAST!!!!!

I did not get such error...

If someone else gets the same error, please tell me...

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the charge up is good but it needs more PAZZAZ and a size increase,the scout frigate is like 1/3 the size of it.

the travel effect also needs more PAZZAZ, and another size increase.

i get a minidump near the beggining of the gfame,no other mods,dev exe was running at the time,and it didnt say anything

also i wanted to tell you that the vasari blackhole effect is simply marvelous and godlike,comparing in particle mastering to manshooter's texture mastering,but the awesome vasari chargeup makes the travel and exit look underworked.

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My real pride and joy was the TEC chargeup effect...

I have always been meaning to change the effects for the Advent and the Vasari.

If you like the Vasari Chargeup, it is not difficult to change the others...

That is the real point of this mod, to receive feedback and hone my particle skills according to what other people like.

Unfortunately for OriLord, I do not plan to do a major revamping of gameplay or entities.

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YOUR COMPUTER IS TOO FAST!!!!!

It feels slow at times. I need an SSD

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Do you have any suggestions as to what I should change about my graphical mod?

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Quoting Syneptus,

reply 46

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should change about my graphical mod?

Is that a sign to stop posting?

Seriously though, I just pull it up to see what you have done occasionally. I've been knee deep in my mod so I haven't had a lot of time for other things. I don't have a lot of specific critique's as of yet as a result. I need to play the TEC and Vasari to see what you've done. I've done advent a couple of times (Haven't decided if I like the lightning type effects or not yet).

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I did look through some of your files and was curiuos if/when you plan on following TSOP's guidelines?

For example, converting all textures to compressed DDS I believe is one of their standards. I noticed you are using TGA and a few uncompressed DDS files.

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Optimization Project?

IDK, how does one compress .dds???

I would be fine following the guidelines if this wasn't a GRAPHICAL mod...

If people want that, I will do it...

-edit-

Sorry if that sounded confrontational...

I just find it ironic that people want me to optimize a graphical mod...

Sure, I will try to do it if you want...

I just wanted to know if you saw any effects in my mod that looked bleh...

Or could look cooler...

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It was a little over the top, but It's fine and doesn't bother me.

It would be wise to note that most of us modders are creating graphical extensions to Sins. For example, I have 171 custom textures already for my mod and the graphical component is not yet complete. I will also have around 130+ custom meshes.

Considering the two main things that limit sins is cpu and memory with the latter being the most problematic. I was simply asking if/when you plan to follow some of these guidelines. If you choose not to then that answers the if question.

Additionally, the idea of optimizing the textures is to simply reduce the memory footprint used by this mod and possibly make it more accessible to players or other modders, many of whom are looking at either merging TSOP or incorporating elements that make sense for their mods to keep the memory footprint below the 2GB limit. Besides establishing a standard for defining how textures are incorporated into sins, I don't think this would devalue what you are providing as a custom effects mod, but that is up to you to decide.

Also, I don't find it very ironic that people would want a optimized graphical effects mod. IMHO optimization is a required step in graphics, software development or what have you. Any gains in performance or memory usage that does not detract from the desired output is a net gain and shouldn't be overlooked. If you are simply trying to push the limits of what Sins can do graphically then I applaud you because A LOT of your effects are really stunning.

In regards to how to convert tga to compressed dds you can simply use Gimp and the Nvidia DDS plugin. I would save a master copy of any high quality textures you have if you follow this approach.

- ZombiesRus5

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