Small Mod: Colorful Explosions

[eRe4s3r]

Latest Update
This is the best looking one, destruction explosions now appear to fade out (well, as much as possible with 2 frames) and hit effects are slightly dysformed, no longer uniform circles.

Explosions V2.zip -
http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=554.0;attach=196

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This little "mod" makes the explosions (and only explosions!) colorful and erratic (meaning they look all quite different) - It looks very nice in far zoom levels, zoom up close and you will see more, but you will also see the repetition, can't do anything bout that ;p

To Install,
Extract the zip file and copy the 4 files (1.png to 4.png)
In your AI War\Images\Explosion folder, replacing the 4 files there (don't forget to backup the original 4 files if you want them back)

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This is a purely visual mod and causes NO gameplay or performance changes, no enhanced crash risk and no blue spots on your arm.

Edit: I changed the layout of the post to point to the only decent version of my creation - If you want you can scroll down to find some custom variation possibilities

[x4000]

Very cool.

The smallest explosion is just used when shots hit them.  The explosion parts vary in size, and so for the others it is just a matter of whether they bubble up to be a "full" explosion or whether they stay smaller as a "half" explosion -- there is no significance to them, they are completely visual only.

I never needed to have the explosions rotate before, because they were perfectly circular.  But that's on the list of stuff to happen with our various art upgrades!

[eRe4s3r]

You sure? I am fairly certain to only see red (sprite 4.png) when something blows up (is destroyed)

At first i had them all different but 1 and 2 seemed to interact somehow when something is hit by different weapons, and 3.png seems to be something else entirely

Well is just for my personal taste - it does make the game battles prettier though ;P

Also - In the zip file the explosions are all rotated differently, so repetition is minimized ^^

[x4000]

Sorry, I think I was unclear.  Only the Explosion\1 file is used for shot hits.  Then the other three are all used for either half or full blobs during actual explosions.  So yeah, you can definitely tell when your ship is exploding versus not, it's just that the midlevel ones don't have any significance.

[eRe4s3r]

Ah! ;P Thanks for explanation, so it does make it easier to see losses after all! ;p

[x4000]

Oh, definitely it does.  I think that's a cool addition for sure.

[Revenantus]

The individual explosions are very nice - I especially like the green that's displayed when shots hit their targets.

I'm not sure it quite works with ship/structure destruction however, the way it cycles through the four different colours is slightly comical. Any chance you could package four different frames of the red/green explosion?

Definitely looking forward to the artwork for the game that Phil's producing, but at least in the interim, using your explosion sprites would be pretty fun.

[PhilRoi]

if the 1st one is green for hits,  then it should be easy to re-color the middle 2.
green red red red
green red green red.

easy to do..    might do it myself

[eRe4s3r]

My first mod version had these frames (attachment) - they are the 4 intermediate steps of a 26 frame explosion in order, but it looks pretty weird so i dropped it

if you want i can make a zip with this variation (the attachment is 64x64, you could use them like this but it might cost 512kb more GPU memory ,p) but especially when ships blow the 3 overpowers all - sadly these were made for additive blending originally

If you want you can just grab these and order them how you like it most - You can even post your favourite variation yourself!

Seriously, i am still looking for the best "setup" myself - the first zip is for visibility of destroyed ships (that was the main goal) especially when zoomed out

(Yeah the 3 is not to be used actually, kinda messed up the alpha map on that ;p) you can pick any of the frames and use them in-game (resize them to 32x32 ,p) if you like

[x4000]

Main thing is that I don't want it to look to explosion-y.  This should be like a burst of light or energy or whatever, not a hollywood explosion (which is not physically possible in space).  That's why I like the colored ones, but not the better-looking explosion-style ones.

[eRe4s3r]

Here is a version with Green and the some of the Red Frames, no blue

I used 1,2 Green and 3,4 Red

It actually looks very nice this way but i have nay a fleet anywhere near so i can't tell how it looks in big fights

Feedback? ;p

(please note, these are not 1:1 what i posted above, i made them all a bit round to ease with the pattern problem)

[Revenantus]

I quite like this mix, it's a combination of the game's originals and eRe4s3r's.

Specifically it's the smaller green explosion for initial hits, 2 and 3 are the originals, 4 is the larger green explosion.

[Revenantus]

Still, I vote we wait for Phil's work before deciding to start editing any more of the game's sprites.

[PhilRoi]

I took erasers 1, original 3&4, Erasers 4


can't wait for new graphics

[eRe4s3r]

Well, its all a matter of taste ;p

I have really no problem if you guys mix your own version ;P
After all, so do i, i think i found a sweet combination now, anything more would be wasting energy, i indeed only wanted to fix the "worst" issue i see, and that is, lack of explosions

I think i will now go back to actually, you know, playing the game ;p

Should the game ever support png sequences for explosions (25 frames per second) i can contribute a LOT of sprite explosions with proper alpha maps et al also with high res (at least 128x128) But they all work with additive blending otherwise they would need a glow sprite to be drawn additive above them (would look even nicer) The reason is i made these for Silverlight/Flash.