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HerrTom's explosions


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10 hours ago, Mord said:

@HerrTom

I took a bunch of explosion bmps and combined them as a test, the other day, just to see what they looked like. I added in 36 and as far as I could tell they all showed up. To really test it, make say 50 animations, and add a big neon green or purple opaque cloud at the end, something large enough to stand out (like BMP 026 recolored and renumbered would do). Set up an explosion and look for the color at the end. You can keep going until you find a limit, or are satisfied with the amount you need, just keep renaming the neo bmp as the last in the sequence.

I like the color BTW. Keep a set like that before you throw too much yellow in.

 

Mord.

There's a definite limit.  I put together 150 frames.... and it didn't work :(

Had a beautiful animation ready.  Still is below:

SD19DnZ.png
Animation: https://i.imgur.com/sXZkHVK.gifv

Screenshots are below.  I had to cull the 150 frames to 25, which I think is the maximum.

l4DdVzG.png

The above I think is my favourite...  Great look, methinks.

ZasMJwo.png

In action.

AKyIvDt.png

Autocannon fire.

And a quick video of mortars. The animation runs a little too fast now, I think...

Clearly my next step is to take a look at the smoke bitmaps and bring them in line.

And...

@Battlefront.com I'm guessing it's 100% unlikely to be added - but I'd love the ability to create arbitrarily long animations using your system... B)

That and tagging for explosions - like explosiona001[metal].bmp or something for when something strikes metal - like a tasty tank and explosiona001[dirt].bmp for dirt, etc...

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I couldn't really see anything in the vid except for gray. Needs to be closer to the camera to catch the fire. But it seems to be ok. The animation gif was badass. As a test try something around the fifty bmp mark. I am pretty sure you can go over 25...just not sure how far.

Steve once said he'd like to have different explosions. Maybe in an upgrade someday.

Mord.

Edited by Mord
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Quick update - changed the smoke bitmaps to one of the frames of the explosion and adjusted some colours.  Looks pretty good in screenshots.  In action - not so much :)

qUTvxpp.png

3 minutes ago, Mord said:

I couldn't really see anything in the vid except for gray. Needs to be closer to the camera to catch the fire. But it seems to be ok. The animation gif was badass. As a test try something around the fifty bmp mark. I am pretty sure you can go over 25...just not sure how far.

Steve once said he'd like to have different explosions. Maybe in an upgrade.

Mord.

I'll give it a try!  150 was quite the pipe dream haha.

Better than anything would be a proper particle system - but that's even more of a pie in the sky than varied explosions.

One other thing I forgot to mention before was controlling the normal of the explosion - some ideas I had would be really good if they always oriented normal to the surface...  But that's getting complex!

Edit:
Oh, @Mord the reason you don't see much fire might be because it's only a couple of frames in the final animation

rmZXrCa.png

 

Edited by HerrTom
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9 hours ago, Erwin said:

Is that a different graphic from regular HE explosions?  I was thinking that "regular" HE blast is just a black cloud.  AT explosions are obviously different. 

RDX for example has a detonation temperature of around 3,600K which will produce black body radiation somewhere around this colour - but real combustion also produces other light emitting reactions beyond simply being hot.

What you'll see (in slow motion) is a bright flash of gas for the combustion products of the explosive which then quickly cools down and finishes burning, which will transition it to smoke of various sorts.  Dust and dirt if around will also begin to obscure the explosion.

I've got one that matches the last picture I posted a little better:

https://i.imgur.com/4TzBgGS.gifv

XLdm5yh.png

And Mord, I still have the orange one :) 

Video in-game showing a mortar barrage will eventually be here:

 

It's uploading in the meantime.

 

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I love your graphical images.  I was only going by comments I read on this board some time ago that normal arty HE explosions do not have the red/yellow flash which is associated with fuel or Hwd- type explosions.  I really do not know enuff about that.  So, am perfectly happy to take your word on this.

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20 hours ago, HerrTom said:

It should be less red/orange low temperature gas and more yellow/white high temperature gas.

Copperhead_and_tank_(explosion).JPEG

 I'm still getting used to the shader. 😎

It also burns very quickly so should show only as a flash!

I like this explosion mod. Gonna share? ;)

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YEAH! I am loving the orange one I asked you to keep. I don't care if it isn't completely realistic, it satisfies something in my nature to see things explode! It's looks awesome!

I did another vid similar to the first one, added a few angles this time, and a shot from Fortress italy. The Brumbar explosion is friggin' KILLER!

THANKS, MAN!

Mord.

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Thanks. I hope to get better with vids. Been something I wanted to delve for a REALLY long time. Seems reality wants to hamstring me at every turn, though. I finally bought FRAPS back in January but it won't capture the sound on my new comp and they no longer support it. Shadow Play is ok but it doesn't have the hide mouse cursor feature like FRAPS, which is a PIA. Then I go and find out Microsoft removed the Moviemaker feature from Win 10. WTF?

Here's something I was wondering about; have you experimented with an explosion at higher resolutions? Not sure if you can increase the BMP size but it shouldn't be a problem seeing that all others can be made hires. The Explosion BMP is 256x256, wonder how they'd look at 768X768 or even higher 1024 X 1024. Give you some more options for clarity, especially when the huge booms happen.

I'd suggest to keep testing the frame limits using what I stated above, until you find the stopping point.

BTW, if you notice the explosion bmps have an "a" before the number sequence, maybe that was BFC setting up a way to expand on them in the future? Why else put an an "a" in there, could just have named them "explosion001"

 

Mord.

Edited by Mord
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33 minutes ago, Erwin said:

I like em both as well.  You can't beat the spectacular...

Presumably they will work in any game including CMSF(?).

I think it should work in any CM game. I can check CMA when I get home tonight.

1 hour ago, Mord said:

BTW, if you notice the explosion bmps have an "a" before the number sequence, maybe that was BFC setting up a way to expand on them in the future? Why else put an an "a" in there, could just have named them "explosion001"

Imagine the game picking randomly from several explosion animations.. A b c d etc. Variety is the jalapeño of life, one might say. I'll try a higher res too. Thought since the originals were 512 I had to keep it!

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Thanks, John, I'll give it a read.

@Erwin, reread. We are talking about the future, not now. Plus I tried it LOL.

The letters would be better if they weren't random but assigned to specific explosions Ground/penetration/brew up etc. The game already reorients the explosion to give some randomness to the look. You can see it real well with the orange explosion Tom made. If you replay a scene over and over you'll see different angles. Notice the two big explosions from the Sherman and then look at the Brumbar. I believe it's because it isn't as symmetrical as some other modded explosions and because of where it starts from on the vehicle. It's very cool.

@HerrTom; Your bmps are 256x256, at least the orange one is. That's original size as well.

Yeah, you should try doing a test with a hires explosion, but I wouldn't suggest just resizing the one we have now, you'll probably just end up with something pixely. FEEL free to try with the one I like if you can reproduce it!

 

 

Mord.

Edited by Mord
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I took some shots from the explosions and made them into smoke.  Dust, black and grey are from the fireball one, and the white smoke is from the "realistic" explosion.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0j668Qucr8ZSr5Q2U84ZCP1t8Yzaw7T/view?usp=sharing

Oops - meant to post the above with the correct smoke.  Otherwise smoke columns look quite odd!

 

I also rendered the "realistic" explosion (render 2) at 1024 pixels.  Looks pretty good.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bSXAbyJOm1AYGZLaja-tu5ik5jiGZRus/view?usp=sharing

 

@Mord I made a set up to 40 frames, and made the 41st bright red.  No dice - and the animation still looked like it was being cut off.  I think the real limit may be 28 or 30 frames unfortunately.  CM may be hardcoded there.  I also lost the file I used to make the orange explosion.  I'll do my best to recreate it, but it won't be exact and may take some time.

Edited by HerrTom
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