Updated Water Arrow Splash

[SneaksieDave]

I updated the temporary(?) water arrow splash, in celebration of the recent progress made with torches.

It's made up of a short "splash" stage, and a falling spray stage. Hopefully it looks somewhat more realistic. If you guys don't like it, speak up and we could either put the old one back up or tweak this one further.

[Ishtvan]

Does it still look okay when you shoot it into the ground, or does it kind've float up instead of down? I forget how the orientation of the particle effect was determined.

[SneaksieDave]

Interesting, I actually just submitted a report in the bug forum regarding not being able to see it at all when firing down, but I don't believe it's this particle, or any in particular. Something's possibly wrong with how arrows are set up - fire, gas, water - none show when fired closed at the ground.

 

But to answer your question - when it does show when firing at the ground, it looks good (to me at least). If not, the addition of one of those flat planar stages might help, as a later tweak. To make it I started with the old one and tweaked, and I didn't change anything for which I don't feel relatively confident of the effect. Did that make sense? Anyway, to be more specific, it uses the same type (not degree) of gravity, and the same depth hack setting.

 

One thing is for sure - particle arrows do not like downward angles.

[Springheel]

I like the first part of the particle effect, but at the end it gets very 'wispy'. It almost looks more like a blue cloud than actual droplets.

[SneaksieDave]

Yeah I toned down the old effect of the droplets holding together so much, because it kinda looked like a cartoon fountain. Now it's basically the splash droplets first, and then it fades into the misty stuff as it descends. I could revisit and see if I can get it more "watery."

 

I love it from up close though. Makes me thirsty.

[SneaksieDave]

Lowered the brightness of the 'mist' stage by half, on suggestion it was too bright in darkness. Will upload new version as soon as CVS is repaired.

 

More tweaking to come, I'm sure.

[sparhawk]

CVS is not broken. It's some scripts that were checked in a wrong state, so you can check this in whenever you feel like it.

[SneaksieDave]

Oh, but won't I have to sync up to place my file? I guess perhaps not. Okay we'll see if I feel daring enough, just don't want to break my local copy.

[sparhawk]

You only have to sync the files that you want to update.

[SneaksieDave]

Several scrapped versions later, I've updated the water arrow particle with one that hopefully everyone will like. Gone is the misty effect of the last uploaded one - after viewing it a while, I came to agree with its critics. It's now based on droplets like the original, and the only "mist" is a very faint amount in the background to fill it out. After trying several complex things, I decided to go with the simple - a thick burst that pops like a water balloon, and then rains down at a believable speed - that's it. It does look wet, to me at least. When you smack a guard with it, you'd be able to imagine he's drenched. And it looks good from all angles, IMO (even above, raining down on you - quite a neat effect). It's fairly light (to see) in light conditions as water would be, and not overly bright in dark conditions - visible, but not neon. And it's fat - 606 particles raining down. Anyway, I like it, let me know if you don't.

 

Hours of tweaking, just to end up going simple. *smacks forehead*

[Dram]

Hours of tweaking, just to end up going simple. *smacks forehead*

 

LOL, welcome to beta testing or whatnot

[Springheel]

The new water arrow looks great. Might be a touch on the big side, but nice.

[SneaksieDave]

Glad to hear it (really). I've actually scaled it down a little from what it was a couple of days ago because that was really too big. But this seemed to work best in the most situations. Some were too dark or too small in light areas, or too big and bright in dark areas (as in, stuck out too much or was barely visible) - this one seemed to have the right size and depth to appear like a non-wimpy water balloon pop at the right distances, with the right gravity acting on the rupture, etc., instead of just "evaporating" like all other arrows we've ever seen in Thief.

 

Cool.

[sparhawk]

Is it already on CVS?

[SneaksieDave]

Yes.