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Making DarkPlaces even MORE beautiful...

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Seven Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Germany |

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:16 am Post subject: Making DarkPlaces even MORE beautiful... |

Dear Quake Addicts, For those of you, that doesnt regularly visit www.quakeone.com I also want to share my files with you. Maybe one or the other like it. There is much time and effort in it. I hope you like it. Arent we quite all the same ?
Most of us are always busy in making Quake as perfect as possible... (in our personal point of view)
- New Textures (High Res + Parallax)
- New Models / Skins
- New Sounds
- Better Lights (rtlights)
- etc.
Lord Havoc gave us an engine with perfect modding possibilities.
For those of you who are still not satisfied (I was reading just the other day someone saying some effects
are ugly in DP) here is something for you (for those who didnt already knew it).
Part 1)
3 years ago I had my first intensiv period of Quake Modding, as I stumbled upon this little
unimpressive looking Text-File:effectinfo.txt
But then my family grew bigger an I had no more time for my beloved Quake.
Now I spend some time on it again and want to inform everybody, who are not already aware of it.
"effectinfo.txt" is NOT part of DarkPlaces Client download Package, but its in DPmod (or in Nexuiz).
So grab from there and throw it in your Quake/id1/ directory (or simply use my modified below).
With this little jewel you can edit almost every little effect in DarkPlaces, like:
- rocket trails
- shot sparks
- explosions
- smoke
- etc.
So I started with the effects, which are in my opinion not perfect and want to share it with you:
- Rocket trail (changed color, density and origin)
- Grenade trail (changed color, density and origin)
- Wizard Magic Attack effect (added color glowing and changed color, density and origin)
- Hellknight Magic attack effect (added color glowing and changed color, density and origin)
- Vore homing missile effect (changed density and origin)
Added by Jorix (special thanks to him) :
- New explosion / smoke effect (PLUS: smoke appears after explosions and disppears very slowly)
Taken the idea from Nexuiz and modified it (special thanks to Lord Havoc) :
- Bouncing sparks for shotguns and nailguns
I commented all my changes in effectinfo.txt , so its easy for you to understand what I did.
I would be very happy, if you take this as a start and keep on editing the effects, so after some time,
we will have a great pool of effectinfo.txt´s in this thread and Quake players can pick the ones they like
and use them.
Part 2)
Around the same time I found the other little file, which is also NOT part of DarkPlaces Client
download Package: particlefont.tga but can be found on Lord Havocs homepage.
As you surely know, Blood in DarkPlaces is really dark.
Even LH knows it, and I also found it on his (very long) ToDo´s list (which is also available on his homepage).
I tried to edit the blood decal myself and am more than happy about the result.
I didnt want to ruin Lord Havocs original intention, and made the blood just a little more red and lighter.
Just so much, that it looks realistic.
Simply throw my particlefont.tga in your Quake\id1\particles folder (if it doesnt exit, create it)
and see if you like it.
Because of the size limit in this forum I uploaded it to quakestatic (link below)
---
I know, that screenshots tells you more than 1000 words.
So i tried to make some.
Remember: Screenshots are not perfect in showing dynamic effects !
It is more than easy to try the effects on your own computer.
Its just extracting the below attachments. That s all.
Please give me some Feedback.
Thank you Lord Havoc for your great DarkPlaces Engine and
your steadfast, patient support to me !!
Without it, I wouldnt have been able to do this.
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
Original DP: Modified by me:
New Vore homing missile trail: ,
Jorix new fantastic explosion / smoke (step 1 to 4):
One: two: three: four:
Download my modified particlefont.tga from quakestatic:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/misc/particles.zip
effectinfo.txt Update: 2010-07-19
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/misc/effectinfo_modified_by_Seven_2010-07-19.zip

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mk Joined: 04 Jul 2008 Posts: 94 |

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 5:29 pm Post subject: |

Beautifulness is subjective. On the other way, design isn't. I recall reading somewhere that the scrag's projectile is a slime ball. So, its tracer should have looked like a trail of slime, not of gas. Also, both the scrag's particle trails and the death knight's particle trails should split sideways, which doesn't happen even in the regular DP.
And if Id Software wanted the death knight's projectile tracer to look like a rocket's tracer, they probably would've done that. So, I guess it's supposed to look like in the original DP shot, but splitting sideways.
Also, in your modified rocket tracer there's no smoke, only fire. Quake's rocket tracer is supposed to represent a trail of fire that gradually turns into smoke before disappearing.
The grenade was supposed to emit only smoke, not fire, so you actually reversed that one.
In the end you got the effects more pronounced, but whether they're going to be more satisfying or not depends on the player's perspective. New partial and/or total conversions could always benefit from them, though.
_________________
Makaqu engine blog / website.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

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Junrall Joined: 21 Sep 2009 Posts: 136 Location: North West Oregon, USA |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:39 am Post subject: |

Very cool post, Seven! I've checked out the effectinfo.txt in the past and have had varying degrees of success in understanding how to use this. Would you (or someone else) be willing to post a few step-by-step tutorials on usage and explanations. Trail effects, explosions, and fire would be good ones to demonstrate. Maybe describe what the options of an effect do... or list all of the options that are available and describe what they do.
I'd like to know if I can you use two or more effects together? Or can I create a totally new effect with a new name?
Lol, I'm sure this would be a time consuming task! I feel that a lot of tutorials are just "copy and paste" with no real "tutorial" included.
Sorry, Seven... I'm not knocking your post! I understand your intent is to encourage others to share their effects... I appreciate your post! And maybe, when I am able to wrap my brain around this, I will be able to post my own effects!
_________________
Good God! You shot my leg off!

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mk Joined: 04 Jul 2008 Posts: 94 |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:51 am Post subject: |

Junrall wrote:
I understand your intent is to encourage others to share their effects...

Good point; I didn't really think of that.
[edit] I should really have paid more attention:

Quote:
I would be very happy, if you take this as a start and keep on editing the effects, so after some time, we will have a great pool of effectinfo.txt´s in this thread and Quake players can pick the ones they like and use them.

I'll look into it.
_________________
Makaqu engine blog / website.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

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Seven Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Germany |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:59 am Post subject: |

@ mk Thank you for your reply. I know, that everything we do is always personal / subjectiv. Every encouraged Quake addict out there, who for example create their own monster skins (example Quake Reforged http://quakeone.com/reforged/, as the newest attempt)
are doing it the best they can. In their own personal point of view. Spending hours and hours of fine tuning.
Of course, they share their work and are proud of it. I guess many people will love their work.
Some will not. Because in the end it is subjectiv.
My intention was to show how much potential in this little Jewel is: effectinfo.txt
You can edit everything in your own personal way.
Well, I tried it and am very happy with it.
And it should be a good start for many others to edit additional effects or change the ones I made:
To their own personal liking.
@ Junrall
I am very happy that you like it. I can tell you, that it costed me many many days of trail and error.
Because there is no guide out there for the variables (and what they mean).
But Lord Havoc gave them names, which almost speak for themselves. So the learning curve is good.
I wrote in my post abovem, that I comment ALL my edits and additional lines in the file, so that
you maybe can learn/understand quicker than I did.
Jorix (from quakeone forum) gave me the hint, to check the source of DarkPlaces for additional comments:
cl_particles.c
I want to forward you this information, the help you here.
Beacuse of lack of time I cannot do a guide you described.
My family keeps me busy.
But I am sure, that with these informations, you will be ready to edit the effects by yourself very quick.
One thing:
You cannot add new effect names ! You can only use the ones wich are already there in DarkPlaces code.
Otherwise you have to edit the qc files and create an new progs.dat.
This is what you should try to avoid, if you want to play other single player episodes (which bring their own progs.dat)
Best wishes,
Seven

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GiffE Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 141 Location: USA, CT |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:21 pm Post subject: |

effectinfo.txt is not much of a secret, it's kinda been around for a while now. Though, people don't really share their own effects to often. _________________ http://www.giffe-bin.net/

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leileilol Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 1321 |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:05 pm Post subject: |

this is darkplaces made beautiful _________________

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Spirit Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 476 |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:38 pm Post subject: |

That reminds me, does anyone have a effectsinfo.txt that makes the smoke trails and explosion particles look like good old Quake? _________________ Quake Maps

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Junrall Joined: 21 Sep 2009 Posts: 136 Location: North West Oregon, USA |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 5:16 pm Post subject: |

Spirit wrote:
That reminds me, does anyone have a effectsinfo.txt that makes the smoke trails and explosion particles look like good old Quake?

LOL! You know.... sometimes the old trails and explosion particles are fun to see! I get a bit nostalgia whenever I see the old stuff!
For those of us who are fairly new to DP and/or just now discovered the use of effectinfo.txt... the Darkplaces Wiki has a section specifically for effectinfo.txt:
Effectinfo Scripting Reference
Not sure how long this has been there, but it is very informative and easy to follow.
EDIT: The link I gave does not work for some reason... bit you can find the link on the DP Wiki Main Page
_________________
Good God! You shot my leg off!
Last edited by Junrall on Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Seven Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Germany |

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:49 pm Post subject: |

Thank you Junrall. A very well described guide in the dpwiki. I think, this is what you (and maybe many others, including me) were looking for. Now you can wrap your brain around it and dive into it. I am looking forward to see your effects.
Best wishes,
Seven

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