New particle effects

Content and general development discussion, including quest scripts and server code. TMW Classic is a project comprising the Legacy tmwAthena server & the designated improved engine server based on evolHercules.


Forum rules

This forum houses many years of development, tracing back to some of the earliest posts that exist on the board.

Its current use is for the continued development of the server and game it has always served: TMW Classic.

User avatar
Crush
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 8046
Joined: 25 Aug 2005, 16:08
Location: Germany

New particle effects

Post by Crush »

Some new particle effects:
Image Image Image
The sourcecodes can already be found on SVN.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
User avatar
Dawn
Novice
Novice
Posts: 167
Joined: 30 Mar 2008, 01:28
Location: Australia

Re: New particle effects

Post by Dawn »

Amazing :shock: I'd love to see it in game
User avatar
Crush
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 8046
Joined: 25 Aug 2005, 16:08
Location: Germany

Re: New particle effects

Post by Crush »

Any idea for what they could be used?
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
User avatar
Jaxad0127
Manasource
Manasource
Posts: 4209
Joined: 01 Nov 2007, 17:35
Location: Internet

Re: New particle effects

Post by Jaxad0127 »

The blue one would be good for when a character respawns at a soul menhir.
Can we do monsters that are just particle effects? The orange one would make a good (mini)boss type monster.
Image
User avatar
Crush
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 8046
Joined: 25 Aug 2005, 16:08
Location: Germany

Re: New particle effects

Post by Crush »

Can we do monsters that are just particle effects? The orange one would make a good (mini)boss type monster.
We can, but I would not suggest to do this because people with low-end computers might switch off particle effects to increase the framerate.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
User avatar
feline monstrosity
Warrior
Warrior
Posts: 430
Joined: 27 Apr 2008, 14:08
Location: Wales, UK

Re: New particle effects

Post by feline monstrosity »

The orangey one should be used for a fireball spell in the 0.1 version!
~Feline Monstrosity
User avatar
EJlol
TMW Furniture
TMW Furniture
Posts: 1224
Joined: 06 Sep 2005, 08:42

Re: New particle effects

Post by EJlol »

I think it looks to powerful for a normal spell.
User avatar
Crush
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 8046
Joined: 25 Aug 2005, 16:08
Location: Germany

Re: New particle effects

Post by Crush »

...and requires too many particles.

This effect needs 1161 particles.

The maximum number of particles on one map is 3000.

About 2000 is the maximum which should be used for permanent map-based effects leaving only 1000 reserved for temporary ones like spell effects.

The effect is also quite an FPS killer. It reduces my framerate to one third of the normal framerate.

This means one of these effects can be on the screen at the same time, but when people start spamming this effect it will cause problems.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
User avatar
fate
Warrior
Warrior
Posts: 402
Joined: 20 Mar 2008, 14:34

Re: New particle effects

Post by fate »

Apart from the fact that I'm not too fond of `attack spells' (since they demote wizards to heavy artillery), the effect doesn't look too much like a fire or an explosion in that it is lacking smoke/contrast and jagged fiery edges. Admittedly, animating a good fire is nontrivial, but smoke at least is definitely possible with the particle system.
User avatar
Rotonen
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 3154
Joined: 08 Sep 2004, 19:48
Location: Bern, Switzerland

Re: New particle effects

Post by Rotonen »

You just have to be a lot more intelligent with how you use the particles.

IMHO a particle effect which needs more than 50 particles at once could potentially be defective per design. You should not need a multitude of particles to achieve the effect: they are all about the fluent motion which fools the eye.

How about you give all the particles in the menhir effect a slight random (both direction and force, not too forcibly though) sideways diagonal initial momentum and then let them freely gravitate towards a point which is above the stone (without getting stuck and going round, short lifetime particles)?

This could be a nice constant flow effect. With for example 1-5 particles per second coming out at random intervals so there would be an average of 5-15 particles out there at once.

An additional burst of let's say 20 particles could come out when a player respawns there.

For this we need larger images to attach to the particles which fade out into the alpha channel towards the edges. Also I think we need the possibility for particles to fade in from transparent and fade out into transparent. (Sorry if I'm just clueless with this last one and it is already in there. I have not kept up to date on the technical side.)

All that said, I think we would really need one person dedicated just to fiddle around with the particle effects to find out what it can achieve and give suggestions together with feedback. Volunteers?
This message used to be meaningful.
User avatar
Crush
TMW Adviser
TMW Adviser
Posts: 8046
Joined: 25 Aug 2005, 16:08
Location: Germany

Re: New particle effects

Post by Crush »

Rotonen wrote:How about you give all the particles in the menhir effect a slight random (both direction and force, not too forcibly though) sideways diagonal initial momentum and then let them freely gravitate towards a point which is above the stone (without getting stuck and going round, short lifetime particles)?
Good idea, I will try that.
Also I think we need the possibility for particles to fade in from transparent and fade out into transparent. (Sorry if I'm just clueless with this last one and it is already in there. I have not kept up to date on the technical side.)
Already possible: fade-in and fade-out particle property.
All that said, I think we would really need one person dedicated just to fiddle around with the particle effects to find out what it can achieve and give suggestions together with feedback. Volunteers?
Unfortunately it seems like I am the only person on the planet who really understands the particle engine (I programmed it, after all). For that reason I started developing a particle effect design tutorial on the wiki. As you can see it is still merely a list of notes what I want to explain in what chapter.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
User avatar
Modanung
Grand Knight
Grand Knight
Posts: 1719
Joined: 20 May 2005, 15:51
Location: Groningen, The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: New particle effects

Post by Modanung »

Using blobs/dots for every detail is very inefficient resulting in thousands of particles. It's better to use more detailed sprites like with the waterfall. This can greatly reduce the number of particles needed.
Spinning the particles (in a random direction with random speed) also makes it more interesting. I don't know if that's possible yet.
I just made these for the fire. Try experimenting with them. I'd love to see them in action.
Image

The idea is to randomly pick one of these 16 sprites for every particle spawned.
If you're looking for 3D FOSS games be sure to check out LucKey Productions on itch.io
User avatar
fate
Warrior
Warrior
Posts: 402
Joined: 20 Mar 2008, 14:34

Re: New particle effects

Post by fate »

Hi,

some new particle effects for the next revision of #305:
magic sparkles
magic sparkles
magic-sparkle-default.png (27.22 KiB) Viewed 2913 times
Teleport effect (apologies to the QfG1 designers)
Teleport effect (apologies to the QfG1 designers)
teleport.png (14.9 KiB) Viewed 2913 times
`protect' effect
`protect' effect
protect.png (27.64 KiB) Viewed 2910 times
EDIT: The `protect' effect now goes in the other direction, since the `end-of-protect' effect (not shown here) goes downwards.

-- fate
Last edited by fate on 16 Jun 2008, 17:28, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
5t3v3
Warrior
Warrior
Posts: 451
Joined: 31 Oct 2007, 15:08
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Re: New particle effects

Post by 5t3v3 »

Crush wrote:...and requires too many particles.

This effect needs 1161 particles.

The maximum number of particles on one map is 3000.

About 2000 is the maximum which should be used for permanent map-based effects leaving only 1000 reserved for temporary ones like spell effects.

The effect is also quite an FPS killer. It reduces my framerate to one third of the normal framerate.

This means one of these effects can be on the screen at the same time, but when people start spamming this effect it will cause problems.
Perrhaps it could be a rare attack of some boss-monster then?
In game characters: "5t3v3" and "L "
User avatar
leeor_net
Novice
Novice
Posts: 180
Joined: 03 Feb 2008, 09:17
Location: Ohio, USA
Contact:

Re: New particle effects

Post by leeor_net »

There's also the possibility of reducing the FP calculation accuracy -- I remember there being a config setting somewhere about this but it should dramatically improve performance for users with single-core and low-end CPU's (e.g., Celeron's, Sempron's and older Pentium/Athlon class CPU's).

It may also be possible to program in an option that sets the maximum detail level for particle effects -- e.g., 'effect' type system would have their particles capped at 100 for a 'low' setting and at 400 - 600 for a 'high' setting.
- Leeor

"Oh, no thanks. I ate a boulder on the way in." - Shrek
Post Reply