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300x300 resolution combat explosions mod


Version log:

V20Light: Done some colour changing on 4 explosions that where standing out in a bad sense - this is only done in the light version. Further all explosion frames are now 300x300. Shaving off roughly 70% of the file size it gives a huge performance boost. They are still larger then the planet destroyed animation and will only rarely ever be stretched by the engine. Found one last frame that still had green dots in the corner, while re-sizing. Just to make sure all the 8 new explosions have been re-saved as png's in case it was the online clipper application I used on them that somehow left some png conflicting "bonus" data - initially they didn't work in game. I've left a link for the last 512x512 version, just in case someone needs high resolution data for something completely different [;)]

There seems to be a problem with memory after this latest addition, to some, so for now I will throw up the link for the V12 along with the V20. Fixed.

V20: Added the last 8 explosions. Jumpy frames should be minimized. The raw data used is up to several hundred frames for a single explosion with variation in duration, so cutting it down to 20, re-scaling, turning and so on, can make some of them appear a little bit jumpy - example - 14 seconds of animation cut down to 20 frames run in-game right next to a 4 seconds one with the same original frame rate cut down to 20 frames, can stress this factor. Maybe it's just my eye cathing this having looked too closely at the data for too long [:'(]
On a note of turning and so on. Many of these explosions are used in tons of games over the years. I've done my best to make them as little recognizable as possible - as this is a thing often bugging my eye in general. Turning them odd degrees and playing with color balance makes it less obvious. [8|]

V12: Added six more explosions (Expl05b and all remaining Expl07) Improved upon jumpy frames in three Expl01 animations and Expl07h - I would have to redo them completely to perfect it, which will wait for now. Removed near completely transparent black dots, that occurred like the previous green dots in a few frames.

V11: Added one more explosion (Expl07h). Removed the pure green diagonal small dots that I had missed removing from corners in some frames.

V1: 5 different 512x512 animations turned in 4 versions 0/90/180/270

ExplosionsV20Light - Recommended version to use!
ExplosionsV20

The sample pictures here gives a pretty good idea.




On a note the samples are 40% original scale. They are all 512x512 pixels. I have yet to see the game engine scale them up, even when large late game space ports blow!

Install instructions:

To install you have to replace the original animations located in Distant Worlds(main folder)/images/effects/explosions/

Take a back-up of the originals, just in case!!

If you wanna use this in a mod, you are welcome - but please send me a pm, just to let me know!

Enjoy!!

Yes! Please make it! Maybe with debris will look awesome.

Been lurking, and i singed up just to yell you HELL YEAH! If you can include some new sounds as well i will pay for someone else to kiss you!

ORIGINAL: Ogaburan
i will pay for someone else to kiss you!

*** Laugh, very good ****

Hey, don't discourage Jon....or if this actually motivates him keep it up [:)]
I also really appreciate this idea....I mean the modded combat explosions part, not the paying for kiss part [:D]

not the paying for kiss part [:D]

In that case i will PRAY for someone else to kiss him... [;)]

great idea!

i am interested!

[;)] נשיקה ותפילה, לא רע!

It's a lot of work. I got one done and another almost ready. Had to do a lot of testing to find the right way to do it. Multiple layers, light blending and transparency, to go through, not to mention some 60 effect shots totaling almost 20000 frames of raw animation. I'm gonna make 512x512 as well as a 256x256 version - for those that ain't as crazy as I and go buy myself another 4GB of ram!

Now, if only the dear folks at CodeForce could make scaling of explosion animations available and maybe even allow us to add more frames than 20 pr bang, and maybe even more explosions in total, it could be really interesting! PS, CodeForce, I love you guys for using good old animated explosions!!

ORIGINAL: Jon Micheelsen
(snip...)

for those that ain't as crazy as I and go buy myself another 4GB of ram!

(...)

Awesome dedication man, I am really looking forward to how this will turn out

ORIGINAL: Jon Micheelsen

[;)] נשיקה ותפילה, לא רע!

I'm gonna make 512x512 as well as a 256x256 version - for those that ain't as crazy as I and go buy myself another 4GB of ram!

[:D]
Cant wait to see anything that makes the graphical aspect of this game better.
I made myself a nice icon set, and wanted to change the components & resource Icons...

Yet, the icons are way to small to be worth the effort.

And i cant find a good source for the components. Something that wont look like its taken from 100 places and made by 50 different artists. Something that will keep its consistency art-wise. maybe some of you guys know of a place? I cant draw for the life of me.
Im on vacation atm, and i can pure allot of free time into "sorting out"/"browsing" different things.

Also a nice attack.png cursor, i eventually reverted to the default one. Nothing looked "spacy" enough.

I would love it if we could have explosions by race, so that we can make different explosions for each race, based on what the aliens breathe

@ Astax, with what we currently can mod, it's not possible.

Here's a few random frames, to show what's coming:





The color balance is set to match the original, so to not break the graphic style of the game if we want to use them side by side - if we get proper weapons modding some day(hint hint devs[;)]). With a white background as here, they look a little too colorful, but in game, mighty fine.

Here's a little character bonus image, I've smacked together for an admiral in a little one planet super pirate race I'm using when testing explosions in all-auto-empire-control-one-super-ship games. Enjoy!!

BOOOM!! haha, looks awesome

I've gotten a bit distracted from this explosion mod here, sorry about that. I had some trouble getting the flash and shock wave thing right, as spiffy and intense as the originals, so I took a break from it. If the flash ain't right the explosion become very non-intense and just another inserted-stock-footage-explosion like - no matter the resolution. The project is still running however!! If anyone got any experience in making an animated awesome flash/shock wawe or know a program that might help with this please let me know!?!?

In the mean time, I've been playing around with making the ships in the game more intense. Most of them are just too grey I think, so I've been spiffing up contrast, sharpness and distinct racial coloring, as well as making glows from windows, energy conductors etc. Here's a few from the "other" families:







I want the darkest parts to be black as space, so what you see is the signature highlight of the ship poking through the blackness of space and not the whole thing. It looks a bit silly when they are damaged and there are hull holes in a glow, but what the heck, can't have it all and more intense ships are just cooler in my opinion. What say you folks? The pictures are png already, so you can grab them and test them if you'd like[;)]

Ooh, nice.
I am grabbing 4 out of 5 here. [:D]

I didn't like the big insect ship - maybe the contrast is a bit to high there...

As for your explosions - if you take a video of an explosion and look at it frame by frame you'll see that the frame with the "KA" in "KA-Boooom" (did that make sence?) is really bright - and big. The explosions in distant worlds (and many other games) grows slowly - reaches a maximum size, and then dims away.

But many real explosions grows really fast - within a frame or two - and then dims away over several frames.
Look at this clip from mythbusters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LptXaQ4Wkjw- around 0:58 you see that the explosion is instantly huge and bright - and then spend a (relatively) long time to dim away.

After having started over quite a few times I got some explosions coming up, just the way I like them! What kept bugging me, was that no matter what I did, the explosions kept looking copy pasted on top of each other. The fix was to go away from red yellow and orange hues - that really only makes sense in an oxygen atmosphere anyway, make some nice intense glowing white flares and in general crank up transparency for anything but pure white. This here is NOT an ingame shot but a test image that layers the explosions just like the game engine would.

I'll toss some animations together as fast as possible, so this mod can get ready to rumble!

Very nice!

I was skeptical myself; but that is a VERY job.
Nice work! [8D][;)]

So guys, I'm finally laying last hands on the first version. It'll feature a 0,90,180 and 270 rotation of 5 different 512x512 explosion animations - later I'll add more, not using rotation to cover all 20 explosions in the game. Question now is; any suggestions on a good free place to upload a mod zip around 20-40MB!?