[Special FX] Keks' dose of effects -- Rising smoke

[KeksDose]

Hello. KeksDose here. I currently have quite a bunch of unused effects sitting on my drives so I thought: "Why not give them a release?" This post will be updated with each effect released.

You can be sure that I made everything you see in this thread myself from scratch and rarely use minor edits of IWAD sprites. As such I can wholeheartedly allow everybody to reuse and modify these resources to their heart's content.

So let's get this show on the road. :p

1. Half-Life 2 styled explosion (this post)
2. Meteorites + UTnT Add On
3. Steam jets
4. UTnT Torches redux
5. Scalable mini nukes
6. Rising smoke

Half-Life 2 styled explosion
If I recall correctly I made this in 2008 when alpha channels were finally fixed in GZDoom. It's a simple explosion: A flash, smoke clouds and some sparks for good measure. One can use them for projectiles or hazards, or in scripted sequences with a little ACS. You can scale the whole explosion by scaling the main explosion actor, which has DoomEdNum 8880. Check out MAP01 to see how.

Download!

[Reactor]

Meterorites sound very nice and useful. Can you tell me more about them?

[KeksDose]

I invite you to see for yourself. :P

UTnT Meteors Add On
I made the trail you see on the comets in UTnT Episode 4 Mission 2 back in 2007. Even back then I thought they looked pretty abysmal but there was not much time left to make a better version, so I made this superior version recently. It replaces the old comets, so you will need tutnt.pk3 to run it. Comet or meteorite, we do not care what you call it. It was fun making this one. :P

Download here!

Standalone meteors
And here's a version that works by itself. It would be rather illogical to include an actor to generate this one, so I leave it to modders to write one themselves. The test map, MAP02, demonstrates the use from ACS to create a meteor storm as seen in the UTnT map.

Apply cybernetic force here to download.

[Enjay]

Very nice, both of them.

[Reactor]

You did an awesome job indeed! If you don't mind, I'd use the falling meteorz system in the level Star Evil, as this system fits the concept perfectly: the star gets brighter until there is no night. Then the fire creatures come to rule you, but you defeat them all, and bring back the night.
Namely, the level would consist a yellow-reddish apocalyptic wasteland with the accursed star on the sky. The meteors would randomly fall from the sky (similar to MAP30: Icon of Sin, but entirely vertically), and spawn 4 different fire creatures, who the player must fight with. So an entirely vertically falling meteor concept would be lovely

Essentially, Star Evil will be an unimaginibly hard level, perhaps, next to impossible, but it'll be a secret level, so it is really not compulsory to play it.

[KeksDose]

Haha, that sounds pretty cool! Feel free to use them, that's why I posted them. :P

As promised:

Steam jet
An effect I made today. Place thing 8881 into your map. As with the Half-Life 2 like explosions you can scale the whole effect by setting the generator actor's scale. Be careful though, as the default scale is not 1.0 but 0.3. Furthermore, you can configure the way the steam clouds are spawned over the thing arguments. The test map, Map03, demonstrates pretty much everything you need to know. If it still is not enough, check out the text file and DECORATE!

Bring your daughter to work here!

[Reactor]

Brilliant! Can you create ground smoke as well? For example, there is a crater on the ground, and it'd look marveous if animated smoke would pour out.
(Ceiling smoke is the same,except it's vertical flip)

[Ctrl+Alt+Destroy]

You brilliant fellow you.

[KeksDose]

:O

Can you create ground smoke as well? For example, there is a crater on the ground, and it'd look marveous if animated smoke would pour out.)

Like a smoke screen? I have that planned, too. I found out how to make quite cool looking smoke sprites. Look out for that in the future. :P

Ultimate Torment 'n' Torture torch effects
Rolls right off your tongue. It's back from 2007. I found that some people still have use for this so I dug in my old files and gave this an update. You can also turn the torches and barrel on and off now. Flares are changed because I have no idea who made the ones Tormentor667 gave me to use in UTnT. Comes with GLDEFS. For everything else, please refer to MAP04.

Accidentally burn your finger here.

[Nash]

These are some nice effects. It would be nice to see these effects be drawn with soft edges...

[Reactor]

Another question - the falling meteors could be applied as animated falling objects too? Like, thrown junk, falling rocks (from a cliff), and stuff like this? So it's only a matter of graphic swap, the physics and methods are the same?

[KeksDose]

These are some nice effects. It would be nice to see these effects be drawn with soft edges...

Oh yes I agree. The clipping takes away the illusion of volume. Too bad it got rejected.

Another thing I'd love to see is fully rotatable particles. I remember randi stating it's planned for the future, so I'll be patient.

Another question - the falling meteors could be applied as animated falling objects too? Like, thrown junk, falling rocks (from a cliff), and stuff like this? So it's only a matter of graphic swap, the physics and methods are the same?

Basically yes. The ACS script handles the falling of the objects (which is actually more like a shooting since the projectiles are not affected by gravity). So you can rain anything onto the map by just changing what is spawned.

Scalable mini nuke
This is a variation of my old nuke super weapon, made smaller to be used as a tank explosion in Stronghold. We thought that introducing a gameplay concept in the last map was lame so we dropped it. I gave the code and graphics some touch ups, nothing dramatic, and made the whole effect scalable. So yes, if you like, you can now have a "mini" nuke as large as your favorite map. Or smaller. Whatever. Check out Map05 for a demonstration.

Credits to Inferno from http://www.freesound.org for the sound effects.

Insert witty call to download here.

[zrrion the insect]

I like nuclear weapons. That looks awesome; I'll have to try it out some time.

[Tormentor667]

Brilliant work, just as usual

Would you mind submitting them to the Realm667 repo so they are archived somewhere and can be found easier? It would be a great addition!
http://realm667.com/board/viewforum.php ... 1ceb8835f3

[KeksDose]

That's flimsy reasoning! :P

Smoke pillar thingies
An effect based off the steam jets with the same variability through scale and thing arguments. Spawns thick, dark clouds of smoke which slowly rise upwards. Could be used in many situations, such as an impact crater, chimneys, a burning hut, or with some editing, a dusty as hell room, weather clouds or explosion smoke. Use actor 8884. More info in Map06 and the text file.

Light a rather large cigarette here.



Alrighty, I am going to take a break from this as I am facing a rather odd situation right now. If there is enough interest, I will continue in the future with stuff like electric sparks, different torch effects, more explosions and whatever else comes to my mind (or yours). Just for fun. :P