A Couple Of New Fire Particles On Cvs

[SneaksieDave]

Not sure what forum this should go in... I figured Textures was closest.

 

I just submitted a couple of fire particles to CVS, in the file 'fire.prt'. It contains a candle flame (fire_candle) and a torch flame (fire_torch). See if you like, roast some marshmallows.

[Darkness_Falls]

I would check it out, but I'm a novice at this stuff. I'd need it in a map If they automatically go into all maps, generally speaking, that have candles, fireplaces and torches, then I could see them there. But if I have to somehow tweak files here, edit shader files there, etc... I'm out (for now).

[SneaksieDave]

You just need to create a func_emitter out of a brush, and then assign its particle as the one you want. Although, it might be a good idea to build a custom particle display map. I'm not sure if the texture and model one is still being maintained, but that might not have been practical anyway - that'd be a LOT of art to display. But it could work for particles probably.

[SneaksieDave]

Oh, I didn't mention, you can also just open the Media->Particles tab (in the editor) and scroll to it to see (though the candle flame is obviously quite small to see).

 

Anyway, small sample map, since FTP seems to be available again:

http://208.49.149.118/thedarkmod/maps/firemap.zip

 

It's just for display; they aren't extinguishable or attached to models or anything.

[Darkness_Falls]

Hmm, a bunch of black boxes are flying out of the torches. I must be missing some file. I'll CVS tomorrow; maybe I'm missing a texture ~

[SneaksieDave]

Yes, you should need the fire.prt from CVS. If that doesn't work for you (or anyone bothered to look) let me know.

[Springheel]

Some feedback:

 

Praise: The torch looks good...I like the bluish tinge to the bottom, it suggests an oil fire. The candle flames look really great close up.

 

Constructive Criticism: From a distance, the candle flames don't appear to be moving at all. I think an exaggerated motion would be better (most buildings of these types would be pretty drafty anyway).

 

The flickering shadows didn't quite work for me--I don't know if it was just added for effect, but the flickering was very fast and it didn't seem to move, exactly--just flash like a really quick strobelight.

 

One other thing I thought of in that map...do we have a sound for torches? I don't recall if they had a sound in T2, but it felt quite strange to be standing close to one and not hear anything.

 

A few shots for those who are having trouble.

 

[SneaksieDave]

Thanks for that.

 

I agree about the candle motion and actually struggled to get it where it is. I was trying to get a balance between number of particles used and 'solid-ness' of the flame (a candle flame looks very coherent and solid and placid, up close, compared to a sputtering, roaring torch flame). When you give it too much waver, the flame tends to break apart more than anything, and it looks a lot less "solid" unless you use a really high number of particles. I will tweak it some more. I quite like the particle editor and want to make more things with it.

 

Glad you noticed the blue part.

 

The flickering light is just a stock D3 shader thrown in for effect. It's no good for real use; we definitely need a good fire flicker one. Maybe I'll mess with that next, if I can figure out how. Regarding the sound... I'm not sure.

[pakmannen]

There is a sound for torches.

Check the sticky threads on the sound board: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=2698

(I starting to wonder how many times I'm gonna have to repeat this.. )

 

Edit: okey, once more, for claritys sake. If you want to know if a certain sound exists/uploaded to cvs/whatever, Check The Sticky Design Documents!)

[Darkness_Falls]

Constructive crit: I agree the candle flame should waver more. It can waver in the real world, just by sitting there eating up the melted wax that its melting and when the wick gets long, plus any movement in air, no matter how slight. Though I think it looks a lot better than the old candle flame I'd seen. Much clearer to see this one.

 

The torch efx look good, and I noticed the blue, too. Very cool. I think it seems a little 'flameless' to me, which doesn't seem entirely realistic. I've not seen a castle torch operate before, but it seems like there'd be a bit more of a flame in there rather than just particles exploding up in flame. (I know exploding's not the right word; but I'm in a hurry - can't think of correct term. sorry. --gotsta run)

[SneaksieDave]

Updates:

-scaled the torch flame down a bit, looked a bit too big. As a result, it's a bit tighter and more dense as well.

-changed the filename from fire.prt to darkmod_fire.prt. D3 apparently has a fire.prt, and it was rewriting the whole thing including their particles, apparently. Fire.prt should now be removed from CVS. Any problems, let me know.

 

Haven't addressed the candle flame requests yet, because so far, it doesn't seem possible. If you add more randomization at the top of the flame, for the sake of more waver, it doesn't waver as a group; it wavers as individual particles. So all that really accomplishes is breaking a tight realistic looking candle flame into a sparse crappy looking mess. I'm still trying to figure out a way to do it.

[SneaksieDave]

Scaled down the torch a bit more, and made it "thicker" (more particle density). Also, removed fire_torch_small from file darkmod_smoke.prt, because it was just a crippled version of the one I made (I assume because the latter was too big - thus the further scaling down ). Hope I didn't step on any toes - just trying to maintain neatness and the "tdm_" convention, with "tdm_fire.prt".

 

Also added a new flame which should be usable for fireplaces, tdm_fire_flame.

[Dram]

Remember that you can have several particles in one .prt file, so even if you just moved the particles from darkmod_smoke to tdm_fire they'd still work the same and all

[SneaksieDave]

Yep, I envision at some point there will be a cleanup where that happens. It's a little too disorganized right now. I just got rid of that "_small_" one because it looked bad and the existing torch flame is now more suitably sized. Better to break the entities now before the push for torch design than after...

[Dram]

Yes, definately true. We'll have to repair our maps anyways as soon as the texture reorg is totally complete.