How about some new effects?

[RogerBacon]

I know this forum is for completed units but this really is the best place to propose what I want because the target audience is here.

All of these new units are great but there is an entire catagory of graphic changes that have been oeverlooked: the "Effects" catagory. If you look in CIV4EffectInfos.xml you will see that there are different effects defined that can be called for different game situations.

As far as I know only one new effect has been made since Civ4 came out and that was the fire effect by Rabbit, White. So, how about some modders with skill in the graphical arts working on some new effects? After all, that EMP blast (EFFECT_PING) is getting a little old for all of my spells.

Roger Bacon

 

[Chalid]

I'll start digging into Effects today evening or tomorrow as i need some for my dragon.. I'll let you know what i find out. As i remember Rabbits fire effects are reused CIV effects but i am not entirely sure about this. Rabbit will tell us more for sure.

 

[Padmewan]

Thanks for the tip on EFFECT_PING, I didn't even see it.

There are some wonderful effects in the effects folder, and I've had lots of fun using them as unit or terrain graphics. (My software hacker units are currently fireworks, which is interesting and appropriately abstract though not quite right). The problem with most of them is that they are "one-shot" and don't recycle. Don't know if it's a simple mod to get them to repeat. (It's also unpredictable which ones do and which don't. One that I think is called Dirt_impact repeats, but most other impacts don't. I use it for the resource "High Wind").

Two effects I would love love love: Electricity and some kind of "mindwave." Esp. if they can be used in attack animations.

 

[Chalid]

As requested a psiwave attack Effect. Unfortunateley it does not yet work as intended (the waves are aligned in a wrong way ) But as i am away this weekend I thought i'll post in anyway. The color and visibility of the waves can be adjusted with the .dds as ususal.

EDIT: Found out why the rings are arranged in a wrong manner (they are aligned absolute to the game world) but i do not yet know how to solve that. I'll report any news and an tutorial when i got it solved.

Here a screenshot of the Egyptian Infantry thet fights rebels with their newly acquired Psi-Rifles:



And here the Effects (in three orientations):

 

[Padmewan]

SO COOL CHALID! I look forward to your tutorial, too

 

[Chalid]

Ok got it working!

Here a screeny:


More on Sunday.

And here is the effect:

 

[Padmewan]

NOW what we need are some units that attack by holding up their hands, or putting their hands on their heads, or whatever it is these things come out of.

I assume the origin of FX is set in a node somewhere in the model's NIF or KFM?

 

[Chalid]

Yes ther is an object in the nif that defines where the effect is played and an trigger in the animation that says when.

 

[RogerBacon]

As requested a psiwave attack Effect. Unfortunateley it does not yet work as intended (the waves are aligned in a wrong way ) But as i am away this weekend I thought i'll post in anyway. The color and visibility of the waves can be adjusted with the .dds as ususal.

EDIT: Found out why the rings are arranged in a wrong manner (they are aligned absolute to the game world) but i do not yet know how to solve that. I'll report any news and an tutorial when i got it solved.

Here a screenshot of the Egyptian Infantry thet fights rebels with their newly acquired Psi-Rifles:



And here the Effects (in three orientations):

It's strange. I installed it but it looks very different. Here is the code in my Civ4EffectInfos.xml:

<EffectInfo>
			<Type>EFFECT_PSI_WAVE</Type>
			<Description>Psionic attack</Description>
			<fScale>1.0</fScale>
			<fUpdateRate>1.2</fUpdateRate>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Effects/psiwave_infantry.nif</Path>
			<bIsProjectile>0</bIsProjectile>
		</EffectInfo>

I trigger the effect in the normal way:
CyEngine().triggerEffect(getEffectInfo("EFFECT_PSI_WAVE"),targetPlot.getPoint())

It looks like the top half of a cone expanding outward toward the player. Even stranger, when I use the effect on a hill it shows a full cone expanding outward toward the user. When I use it on a water tile I barely see any of it. It's like the higher the elevation of the terrain the more of the code I see. Is it even supposed to be a cone? It looks more like a series of rings in your post.

Roger Bacon

 

[Chalid]

Its a series of 6 Rings that expands in +y direction. The rings start out very small and expand until they finally disappear. The +y direction could be the Problem, i think.

Try in the zip above the psiwave_z.nif. That expands in +z direction meaning toward the sky. I might have to realign the rings in that effect through. (as i know now how that is done it should be easy as soon as i get home).

EDIT: I think i'l do some effects tailored to be used as spell effects as soon as i am done with the dragon effects. I fell Kael would have a use for those, too .

 

[Padmewan]

OK, I know how to add the effects into the EffectInfos.xml file. But how do you invoke it, as per the picture shown? I don't see anything in the XML files that calls the effects, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough...

 

[Chalid]

For the Infantry or on the terrain?

For the infantry you have to edit the animation file with an hex editor. Search for the Infantry_MD_rangedstrike.kf file. In the bottom of the file there are text pieces that look like:
Effect:EFFECT_something:EFFECT_XXX.
The green part can be replaced by your custom effect TAG. Make sure that your Custom Effect Tag has exactly the same length as the Tag you are replacing.

Here is the file i used. The Effect has to be called EFFECT_RIFLEBLAST_PSI001

 

[RogerBacon]

OK, I know how to add the effects into the EffectInfos.xml file. But how do you invoke it, as per the picture shown? I don't see anything in the XML files that calls the effects, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough...

You do it in python.

CyEngine().triggerEffect(getEffectInfo("EFFECT_PSI_WAVE"),targetPlot.getPoint())

I still don't know how to invoke a sound though. I started a thread on it but noone posted an answer.

Roger Bacon

 

[snafusmith]

So far as I know from making units, sounds are called and timed there (within the unit). The only places sounds are called in XML are at the end of the unit's section in CIV4ArtDefines_Unit. However, this is only for parts of the run, fortify and build sounds. All attack and death sounds are handled in 3ds Max (so far as I know). You need to define all new sounds in the Audio XML portion however.

Hope this helps...

-Smitty

 

[boneys26]

I got a good sound fx from the start of the film "saving private ryan" also have a AK47 firing and machine gun that i would like in the game. The saving pvt ryan would be brill for when attacking a city as its the sound from the landings on the beach but i dunno how to do it lol if anyone wants the sounds let me know i'll post them