Water Effects Removal

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:22 pm

Is it possible to remove the water effects, like the rings caused by bullets hitting the water, spray under hover vehicles and splashes caused by explosions without having to edit ODFs?

Post by **AQT** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:26 pm

Since most, if not all, of those effects are loaded from the ingame.lvl, you can create a custom ingame.lvl replacing all of those water effects with dummy effects, and load your custom ingame.lvl after the stock one in your lua(s).

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:12 pm

Oh great, it's not as hard as I though it would be. Thanks.

EDIT: I managed to remove all the water effects except one. It's a ring that is created when something explodes on the water (thermal detonators or missiles).

I put a few pictures below to show better what's happening:

Hidden/Spoiler:

Here are the files that I've edited in the data_ABC/Common/effects folder

Code: Select all

com_sfx_waterbulletspray
com_sfx_watersplash_lg
com_sfx_watersplash_md
com_sfx_watersplash_ord
com_sfx_watersplash_ord_lg
com_sfx_watersplash_ord_md
com_sfx_watersplash_sm
com_sfx_watersplash_wade
com_sfx_watersplash_walker
com_sfx_watersplash_xs
com_sfx_waterwake_lg
com_sfx_waterwake_sm

The only change I made to these files was setting all alpha values I found to zero, so everything is transparent.
So I ask, is that ring removable through some .fx file or something?

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:16 pm

In your explosion/ordnance ODFs:

Code: Select all

ImpactEffectWater = "fxname"

Change that to call for no effect, I.E. leave the quotation marks blank.

CressAlbane · Post by **CressAlbane** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:14 pm

And if you're not making custom sides, it should be possible to achieve the same result through multiple SetClassProperty calls.

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:03 pm

How is it done?

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:05 pm

Ah wait, no, you can't edit weapon properties through SetClassProperty().

Post by **AQT** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:32 am

If those ring are indeed part of the splash effects, whichever ones they maybe, then it seems your making of transparent via the .fx file property isn't working. Going along with the method you are currently using, however, you could make the textures that the rings use transparent and include those in you custom ingame.lvl file. But, as I had suggested originally, if you were to just replace those splash effects with dummy effects, then it would be more efficient.

Tears2Roses · Post by **Tears2Roses** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:32 pm

quick question: why would you want to remove the water effects?

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:50 pm

To create the illusion of ice.

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:19 am

Yes, and to make things a little clearer, I want to replace these water effects by their "ground couterparts", as the blasters and missiles will be hitting a solid surface.

Another important thing to say is that there are invisible blocks under the water to allow soldiers to walk on it. Their top surface is slightly above the water level, so lasers are triggering the effect for hitting solid things however missiles and other types of ordinance seem to be still calling for the water effect.

And what is a dummy effect? I mean, what would go on it's .FX file?

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:40 am

A dummy effect would just be a blank .fx file.

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:06 pm

Oh, I tried creating a custom ingame.lvl with blank .FX files, but the game probably didn't recognize them because all the water effects were played in-game. I believe the game loaded stock effects from the stock ingame.lvl.

Post by **AQT** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:58 pm

No, a dummy effect is not just a blank effect or an .fx file containing no content. I didn't use the word blank for a reason because people like Marth might get confused. Something like the following will work:

Hidden/Spoiler:

[code]	ParticleEmitter("BlurRing")

	{

		MaxParticles(0.0000,0.0000);

		StartDelay(0.0000,0.0000);

		BurstDelay(0.0000, 0.0000);

		BurstCount(0.0000,0.0000);

		MaxLodDist(0.0000);

		MinLodDist(0.0000);

		BoundingRadius(0.0);

		SoundName("")

		NoRegisterStep();

		Size(0.0000, 0.0000);

		Hue(255.0000, 255.0000);

		Saturation(255.0000, 255.0000);

		Value(255.0000, 255.0000);

		Alpha(255.0000, 255.0000);

		Spawner()

		{

			Spread()

			{

				PositionX(0.0000,0.0000);

				PositionY(0.0000,0.0000);

				PositionZ(0.0000,0.0000);

			}

			Offset()

			{

				PositionX(0.0000,0.0000);

				PositionY(0.0000,0.0000);

				PositionZ(0.0000,0.0000);

			}

			PositionScale(0.0000,0.0000);

			VelocityScale(0.0000,0.0000);

			InheritVelocityFactor(0.0000,0.0000);

			Size(0, 0.0000, 0.2000);

			Hue(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			Saturation(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			Value(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			Alpha(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			StartRotation(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			RotationVelocity(0, 0.0000, 0.0000);

			FadeInTime(0.0000);

		}

		Transformer()

		{

			LifeTime(0.5000);

			Position()

			{

				LifeTime(0.0000)

			}

			Size(0)

			{

				LifeTime(0.0000)

			}

			Color(0)

			{

				LifeTime(0.0000)

			}

		}

		Geometry()

		{

			BlendMode("BLUR");

			BlurValue(0.0000);

			BlurRes(0.0000);

			Type("PARTICLE");

			Texture("none");

		}

	}[/code]

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 7:47 pm

Ok AQT, I tried the text you wrote. No water effects were played but the rings were still there. But there are some interesting things I'd like to share.
Later on, I looked at the world1 .FX file and just to see what would happen if I set the OceanEnable line from zero to 1. I did it, munged and the result was that these rings we're-trying-to-get-rid-of were no longer played in game. Problem is that the water (or ice in this case) wasn't there either. It makes me think that these rings aren't related to the FX files we've been editing but to the world1 FX file.

Also, do the following values actually change something in-game?

Code: Select all

// water event parameters
WaterRingColor(148, 170, 192,255);
WaterWakeColor(192, 192, 192,255);
WaterSplashColor((192, 192, 192,255);

I've already tried changing them to zero but I didn't notice any differences on the water or any of the effects related to it.

Post by **AQT** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:00 am

Hmm, I'm not too sure what's going on now, then. If I have to guess, I will say that these rings have to do with some kind of an unchangeable property of water that is purely related to the ClassLabel "explosion."

GAB · Post by **GAB** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:32 pm

I think they are also related to walkers. Currently, with the dummy fx you suggested, the only vehicles that trigger these seemly non-ingame.lvl related effects on the water are AT-RTs and AT-STs, both walkers. Interesting is that, while the AT-RT triggers a ring when its feet touch the water (First picture below), the AT-ST triggers a thin spray that is quite hard to notice. (Second picture below)

Hidden/Spoiler:

The only other things that are also causing these rings to appear are rockets, thermal detonators and some heavy vehicle cannons like the particle cannon on the rebel AAC-1. Stadard weapon lasers aren't causing this because the invisible blocks that are slightly over the surface of the water.

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:20 pm

Honestly, I really think you should try using WULF's method for ice, which is using modeled ice that has an alpha channel and a reflection region, and you could also have it set to render ice!

THEWULFMAN · Post by **THEWULFMAN** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:01 pm

Marth8880 wrote:...and you could also have it set to render ice!

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that render type works. I've tried it, with no noticeable effect.

Marth8880 · Post by **Marth8880** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:29 pm

It works, I tested it in Pluto, although, it might be render refraction, but I'm almost positive it's render ice.

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