Adding Weather Effects

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               I was using what amounts to smoke effects in my sandstorm... The biggest problem I had, other than getting it to be larger than about 3x3 Tiles, was getting a real sense of fast, violent, destructive motion into it. At present it just sort of billows. It billows FAST, but it somehow just doesn't seem savage enough, which is why I more or less abandoned it.

That said, I HAVE managed to get a similarly sized cyclone kind've thing to look quite violent. I originally did it all in fiery orange/red as an energy vortex for my Doctor Who Modules but just recently Fifi wondered what it would look like in dusty grey and it makes a damn good whirlwind, especially since she had the bright idea of throwing some of the "chunk" debris fx into it...

Now, if I can just come up with a good way of getting said twister to move about, other than making it a Creature model which would have assorted drawbacks...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I want that whirlwind VFX!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ShadowM]

               Yeah I got the big particles down, loved to grab you smoke work so far, but I could grab some myself and work on them. What are you getting in FPS with you 3x3 fog?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par ShadowM, 17 octobre 2013 - 06:22 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_dusty.lane]

               Combine a sandstorm VFX with the right density of properly coloured fog, and you got yourself a sexy sandstorm. Though with smaller sandstorms, the light and all that would not be so affected. I just like limiting players' vision.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ShadowM]

               Here a little video of the draft so far, sorry it short I hit the end button thinking it was not recording.
Sandstorm
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_dusty.lane]

               Neat. The draft is looking pretty good, definitely getting there. If you can get past the issue that plush hyena had, where it looks too tame for a "sandstorm", then we're golden! Also, love this community, got to say. Just random content flies about because somebody's curiosity got peaked.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               i agree, i figured it was only a matter of time until someone came up with just the idea. i personally been pondering the idea of a blizzard, sandstorm, real rain storms for a long time.

having this made means were pushing far beyond what the creators left behind ,and thought wasnt worth there time. correct me if im wrong, but i personaly think this is the best engine designed for a video game in a long time, so much can be done!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               Getting there. I like the look.

The mention of area fog above resonated with me for a couple reasons. (1) I think you will need to use area fog to improve the illusion of the sand storm. (2) I think that the color of this VFX should relate to the fog color and lighting. Isn't there a way to set up the texture and particle affect to do that?

In other words don't be afraid to consider this VFX/Placeable as working in tandem with area fog settings, and so design for it to work well with that.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ShadowM]

               I did do a little of the fog effect I used a dark brown fog to make it more like the sand what blocking out the light(everyone can work around with this for the best result). As for making it look even more dangerous, what would you suggest to put in?, stick models, big tree parts or rocks flying around? if I put like a bazzillion particles that will just bog down the computer. The way I have it the visuals applied to a placable through scripting and coming down but you could move the placable to different heights that will cause different looking effects if you have them near the ground and thicker look, but the effects has a pause I have not gotten rid of yet so that looks kinda funky. Oh do you want this just linked to a placable and added to the placable.2da or just left as a visual effect? I will work on it more Sunday. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               Sorry... Got thumped by a huge Conger Eel whilst we were shifting some of the patently overgrown aquaria inhabitants about here. Tail got me near the eye and couldn't see a damn thing for a day or two it was so swollen... "My vision is impaired - I cannot see!"

Disturbingly violent and unsuitable household pets now under control. More or less normal vision restored.

The Whirlwind VFX (largely due to Fifi's efforts as I've been too mushed to see it) is looking pretty good now, though still haven't figured out how to get it to move from place to place. Been thinking of an in-built animation loop that causes it to follow a preset path or some such thing... Whether it zonks about or not, it will be included with the masses of CC necessary for my ridiculously over-ambitious Doctor Who Modules, though I'll happily chuck it out sooner if that project continues to drag on in production hell...

Definitely Area fog is a necessary adjunct to any Sandstorm and/or Blizzard Placeable effect. For the Blizzard tests, I had the distance down to 30 or 40. (If I recall right, fps on the Blizzard's something like 35 at the moment, lag not at all bad and it's grown to about 4x4 tiles (in so much as a shapeless particle-spitting blob can be "square").
Have been distracted from the weather VFX by more strange things for Gallifrey and Rassillon's Forge for "Retribution of the Daleks" (and the Eel Incident) but I'll post what weather Placeables I get "finished" somewhere since the DW stuff will probably still be some little time in reaching release. This is the trouble with trying to do fifteen things at the same time.

And yes, we may be a sadly depleted cabal of intransigent die-hard nutters, but this Community is still freakishly dynamic. I ask one simple question on a year old thread and next thing everyone's building extreme weather Placeables. Obviously we all keep thinking about these things and the instant anyone actually mentions them, we're off! Keep it up, guys!

(And treat 7 foot Conger Eels with extreme caution. May be less powerful biters than a Moray but they've still got outrageously powerful tail-swipes).

PHoD, more or less able to see again.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Mecheon]

               My initial thought when it comes to "It has to move around" is "Can we just make it a creature?" Could give it a random movement script and something that it does when it gets near to people

Plus the whole sort of wanting a tornado enemy to fight thing

(also, PHoD, check out the animal custom content challenge, there's something in there you might like)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               As I think I said earlier, making it a Creature is the OBVIOUS (and pleasingly easy) way of getting it to move but does have drawbacks. There will be times I'd want it to be entirely beyond being interacted with other than a script to say "come within X distance of this thing and you get mushed". True, if you set the Creature to be non-selectable in the 2da (ie:- not surrounded with a big coloured glow the moment a mouse pointer strays over it), it wouldn't be too bad. A big fierce whirlwind that keeps glowing red or blue whenever anyone looks at it would just be silly...

Of course, there's nothing to stop me making a Placeable AND a Creature version...

Also now considering scaling it down, making a more sandy colour and adding some emitter eyes and some semi-transparent claws and creating a Djinn Creature, more or less accurate to the sandstormesque desert spirit creatures of Arabic myth...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ShadowM]

               Ok sorry, I finally got to do some more work on this. Here a longer video and I did some optimization getting around a solid 55 FPS with 8800 GT video card and I think I can make it higher without major changes. Let me know if we need more FPS. This video is using toolset fog effects also.

Sand storm video
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               looking good!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Oseryn]

               That does look really nice!