New CMBO smoke mod

[Flesh]

I've created a smoke mod for CMBO. Here's the URL: http://dave.allbizhost.net/Flesh_Faint_Smoke.zip

Here's some background info, with regard to my motivation for doing this:

There are various smoke mods available for CM that make the smoke very dark or black. Unfortunately, the same smoke texture is used for burning vehicles, buildings and terrain. In my opinion, I don't think the sight of a burning wood or forest emitting jet black smoke is realistic. So, I resolved to do my own, more grey texture. I also had the idea of adding lots of holes (or pink spots) to the texture to make it more transparent, and thus fainter. This has the added benefit of allowing users of low powered machines, who can't use the high quality smoke setting, to experience transparent smoke.

Anyway, I'd appreciate some feedback from anybody who downloads this.

[leakyD]

Hey, I kinda like this one...not all smoke is thick and oily, right?

However, it would sure be swell to have *different* .bmp's for each type of burning object.

ie; one for vehicles, one for bldg's, one for vegetation, etc. Heck, if one's going to go to the trouble, different smoke .bmp's for each *type* of vehicle, bldg, veg, etc.

Maybe BFC could push back....

Whoops! Heh Heh....

One for the rewrite, but of course....

[Flesh]

Hey, I kinda like this one...not all smoke is thick and oily, right?

I'm glad you like the idea behind this mod.

Anyway, any thoughts on how the mod looks? Do you think it looks at all realistic? I'm quite willing to attempt to improve this mod in response to user feedback.

[Dirtweasle]

The thing is - when a house burns it is more times than not extremelly thick smoke. Carpets, matresses, furniture and what not all burn very dirty.

Likewise forest fires can be seen to burn somewhat clean, but more often than not it's pretty thick and ugly stuff. Take a look at this link to some forest fire photography.

I like the different smoke you made, but I have to tell you it's more accurate looking to have thick nasty looking smoke.

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

Almost all smoke from fire is thick. Smoke is basicly half of what the fuel is converted to when it burns (the other half is the soild byproducts like melted metal or ash). By fuel, I am referring the substance that is burning of course, not petrol.

Fire is basicly the rapid oxidation of a substance (like rust for example, but much faster). So what is happening is the fuel is being converted into another form as it burns. So to put it in perspective, think of all the molecules in a piece of wood being spred out insted of packed together. You get a pretty thick cloud. Unless there are pretty high winds, or the fire is very small (like a camp fire), you will normally get thick smoke in any kind of fire. The only other exceptions are fuels that burn invisable (which are a major hazard to firefighters as they have walked into unseeable walls of flame in these situations). But this is normally only in certain chemical factories, and dosen't really have any place in CM.

[Thraka]

Can we get a screenshot compairison please?

[Mr. Die Easy]

Dear Flesh,

I have installed your smoke mod - it is looking great! It is a very good alternative to the black smoke with red fire from Warfare HQ.

If smoke can be CMMOS'ed we would have the option of chosing the optimal smoke colour (grey or black) for a given scenario - that would be really great.

Best regards

Mr. Die Easy

[Flesh]

Okay folks, lets not get bogged down in debates over the chemical composition of smoke...

The main thing I wanted to do with this smoke was to have some nice, pale greyish smoke. The transparency thing was an afterthought. I think I still have a version somewhere that isn't transparent. I suppose I could upload this one too for people who don't like transparent/faint smoke.

Also, I'll take a look at making this CMMOS compatible. Hopefully I should have this sorted in a day or two.

[Flesh]

I've uploaded a new version. Here's the URL: http://dave.allbizhost.net/Flesh_Faint_Smoke_2.zip

I've added two alternative textures. These ones are non-transparent. Also, one is dark. The other is light. Hopefully this will satisfy anybody who didn't like the idea of transparent/faint smoke.

Any comments?

[lcm1947]

Hey there flesh I just took a look at your new smoke mod and must say it's a keeper. Big improvement over the darker ones although they have their place for sure. Looks like I'll be switching them around as both are certainly good. The added plus in your's would be that you can see through them better. I did have trouble seeing through the dark ones so your's will really help there. Thanks for thinking of us and you work. Good idea. Are you going to try something else as far as mods?

[Flesh]

Originally posted by lcm1947:

Hey there flesh I just took a look at your new smoke mod and must say it's a keeper. Big improvement over the darker ones although they have their place for sure. Looks like I'll be switching them around as both are certainly good. The added plus in your's would be that you can see through them better. I did have trouble seeing through the dark ones so your's will really help there. Thanks for thinking of us and you work. Good idea. Are you going to try something else as far as mods?

Thanks!!! I'm glad you like it. Makes all the hard work feel worth it.

As far as other mods are concerned, I have a grass texture ready to upload. Unfortunately, it's based on somebody else's grass. I'll probably have to get their permission before I can release it. Anyway, here's some info on the grass:

It's basically a "dappled" grass. By that I mean that it features a mixture of various shades of green and brown. It looks sort of like the kind of grass you see at the end of a long, hot summer. You know, where some of the grass has been bleached by the sun, while other patches are still green. At least, that's the way I view it. You could also consider it to represent "patchy" grass, with bare soil between clumps of grass. BTW it's actually the grass in the screenshot included in the smoke mod zip file. However, I now have a version that I've blurred in order to obtain a "smoother" texture, with a less grainy appearance. I suppose I could upload both versions - blurred and non-blurred. IMO the blurred version works best if you're not using antialiasing. The non-blurred version would probably be best if you are.

Anyway, I'll post soon with more news on the grass front.

[russellmz]

hope you don't mind if i show it off. (not sure if it IS showing either) nice grass too!

[ August 28, 2002, 11:26 PM: Message edited by: russellmz ]

[Flesh]

hope you don't mind if i show it off. (not sure if it IS showing either) nice grass too!

Thanks! I was a bit pushed for time, so I hadn't got around to doing this. BTW the grass in the shot, which is my grass mod, is based on the FGD grass mod by gunnergoz. I need to contact him to obtain his permission to release it. However, I can't find his mail address. There was no "readme" with his grass mod. Anybody have his address?

[Chad Harrison]

Nice smoke pic! Whose grass mod is that?

[Flesh]

Originally posted by Chad Harrison:

Nice smoke pic! Whose grass mod is that?

Mine. As I said before/above, it's based on the FGD grass mod by gunnergoz. I need to contact him and obtain his permission to release it, but I don't have his mail address.

Anyway, glad you like it. Hell, you should see the blurred version...

[Flesh]

New update. Here's the URL: http://dave.allbizhost.net/Flesh_Faint_Smoke_3.zip

I've added two replacement textures for smokescreens. The default one is transparent. The other one is non-transparent. Hopefully the transparent one might fix the problem of units getting lost in smokescreens, resulting in the user having to switch off the smoke graphics in order to find his/her units.

As usual, any feedback is much appreciated...

[Silvio Manuel]

Flesh,

{colossal BUMP!}

Nice one! :eek: This is hands-down my favorite Smoke mod, I'm using your default 1801.bmp and it blows the rest away. Usually my chip can't handle lots of smoke on the hi-res setting, but yours works fine.

[Flesh]

Thanks for the feedback Silvio. I've tested my default smoke texture in the CMBB demo and it works quite well. Also, I noticed that the smoke textures in CMBB rotate, which seems to make the smoke look more realistic than in CMBO.

Anyway, here's a shameless plug for my grass mod, which is based on the famous FGD grass mod by gunnergoz. Here's the URL: http://dave.zirconiumdns.net/Flesh_Mottled_Grass.rar

Also, I've got a treebase mod ready to go. I'll post with details when I've uploaded it.