Here is my latests version of Whiff of Sulphur, after a year and a half of tweaking the file for my own use. In this version;
Melee dust changed to look like real dust
Musket fire made to look as realistic as I could
Naval combat with even more smoke, thicker fire smoke and nice steam ship smoke trails
Cannons tweaked to look better
Blood from musket hits
Air explosions tweaked
Musket smoke thick, but lasts for less time
A bit of dust from horses moving and round shot hits
Probably some other things I have forgotten
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Version 3.1 adds in smoking cannons (not howitzers) after they fire.
I redid the entire file to reduce the number of overall effects while trying to maintain at least Vanilla framerates.
In this version;
Extensively improved cannon smoke. I think I almost got them to look real!
Shell hits and air explosions improved (Enhanced version includes trails from the shrapnel)
Carcass and Quicklime effects improved and now show ground hits.
Air rifles have a quick burst of smoke.
Musket smoke lingers around thickly at ground level.
Brown dirt surrounds melee about waist high.
Ship cannons leave smoke for a good length of time and ship explosions look great.
I hope you like this mod! Combined with the incredible sound mods out there for drums, bugles, musket and cannon fire, I don't think I have ever had so much fun playing Total War!
Watch in HD!
Old notes...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
White smoke version notes;
Features;
White smoke from explosions
Spread out and lingering musket smoke, so much you can loose sight of everything!
More and lasting smoke from cannons, including at sea!
Less flashy but grittier explosions and solid shot ground impacts.
Dark brown melee dust around waist level for hazy melee mixups.
Blood from textures already in the game (sorry, cannon hits just don't seem to work)
Elminated tracers
and much, much more! (Well, ok, maybe thats about all, but it feels good to say it)
Penninsula campaign compatible.
Compatible with any mod that doesn't use Landbattles.xml, including NER (most mods)
Note: I have provided NER with a version that enables whispy trails from cannonballs. To enable them in any other mod, you have to edit the 3rd last column in Projectiles...add "cbt" for cannon ball trails and "hst" for howitzer shell trails (No jokes from Canadians about the HST)
Very special thanks to Pdguru for encouragement, enthusiam, advice, testing and creative insight and screenshot submissions that look just great!
Thanks also to The Nanny for his videos that help show the mod in action and everyone else for the good reception of my first mod!
The trumpets have sounded! The troops are assembled! Soon, you will experience a Whiff of Sulphur!
The Nanny has posted another video showcasing this mod. Included in the mod is Josst's grass mod; Sgt Merlin's NTW Sound Mod.
First version notes;
This mod adds a fair bit of smoke to the game for artillery and ships, as well as customizing a number of effects. The files below are in Mod format, the second file including everything but removing the flash and dark smoke from muskets.
Effects changed; (Landbattles.xml) Hazy smoke from all sources (Called uber smoke) hangs lower in the air and doesn't disappear when the camera gets close to it. Cannon smoke: Initial cloud takes several seconds to dissipate. Haze up to 3 minutes with the wind only able to dissipate part of it. Ship cannon smoke: Haze lasts 3 minutes with the wind only able to dissipate part of it. A few puffs here and there will rise in the air. Sustained ship duels will get very smokey. Water splashes from cannon balls: A bit more dramatic. Projectile explosions: No mushroom clouds. Smoke ribbons only on large explosions. A puff of smoke will hand in the air for some time from each airburst. Ship explosions: Effect by effect reworking. Craters: Smoke drifts out of them across the ground.
Problems; Smoking cannon effect looks ok, but I cannot move the effect with the animation as it appears to be tied to the map x, y, z coordinates. Additionally the location of the Howitzer muzzel is off by half a meter so I have removed the effect from howitzers.
Similar to the smoking cannons, I tried to create a smoke effect at the match but haven't made it work yet (even a negative velocity at the muzzel that quickly slows to zero didn't work)
I tried to make dust from walking and running haven't found the right shade or brightness for the effect yet so I reverted to the old appearance.
Credit to Mech_Donald for his blood effects which I have included in this mod and for the inspiration to make a smoke mod.
Notes: 1) All effects were set to zero so I could see how they interact, but it might make slower computers run the game poorly. 2) I removed most distortion effects except heat haze and the ripple from ship explosions because those two I liked. 3) Ambient grass, pollen and leaves were going to be removed, but I saw the effect in real life and thought "huh, it really can look like that" 4) The game seems to have a limited number of effects it can draw at any given time. (To give you an idea, each musket shot uses 19 particles each) In really big battles you might see some effects not animate or be delayed, but I have backed off on some non-crutial particle-heavy effects to help prevent this. In my test with over 8,000 men in full battle I saw no loss after my correction.
...the WHITE version is stand-alone and needs no other files.
Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.- Josh Billings The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.- George Orwell
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
How to use it?
I have taken the standart pack file (only the "best" of them) and place in data folder.
In user script I have typed mod "Whiff of sulphur 1_0.pack"; and that did not change anything in game.
Then I tryed mod Whiff of sulphur 1_0.pack; and that made the sound ingame disapere.
Then I just toke the file in data and then didten type anything at all,... no effect.
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
Higgings and TK3338
It appears that you are doing everything correctly. My mod needs to go in the data folder and user.script needs to be edited as you have described. Like you, I had trouble with mod type pack files not working in the past. I highly recommend LtChamber's mod manager edited for NTW.(http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=344757) Unzip the download and run the .exe and you should see a list of your mods which you can select and prioritize before running the game.
TopCat
No problem using my mod, I am glad you like it! Let me know and I might even be able to help you tweak some of the effects to your liking The file has its oddities and I am by no means an expert, but I have found out alot about this particular file.
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
All set then! Thanks for the prompt fix, I didn't even know there was a MM for NTW...never had to use it yet, thank you. For others thinking on trying it...DO IT. Being a reenactor, this reflects what it means to have thousands of troops pounding the heck outta each other. Plenty of smoke and the cool thing is the lingering. About a few minutes into the battle, it becomes hard to see the main lines, which is fantastic.
Couple this with Toons battle pack, and georiders units its one helluva great combo. Rep the good man +++
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
Thanks Nanny! I especially love the opening sequence with the cannons There are some explosions going off in the background of the footage of the line infantry that I am particularly proud of too as well as the ships circling through packets of smoke at the end.
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
Feel free to use it in Napoleon Order of War.
Riachi,
I believe the effect you are talking about is musket_1. I did not change any of the fade times on that effect. It might be the nature of the game itself, how graphics effects are drawn or that pixels can sometimes mimic constructive/destructive interference patterns, but some effects seem to always draw on top of others. (The effect musket_2 likes to do this...making it look like dark smoke is coming from the muskets, but the actual effect itself is light whispy gray) Since I brought the effect uber_smoke_white down to ground level, it might have the side effect of overlapping musket_1 at some point, causing it to wink out.
Each scripted effect has a fade_info line which I have used the variable fadin_range_life_unary (x,y) to fade in effects. Example, the hanging smoke in ship fights, the variable x seems to be in 10 second units or something. Also, Fade_info seems to be tied to the scale_info line (there are 3 different target scales for effects, but their syntax puzzels me...initial scale, primary scale and secondary scale) Because each scale has a lifespan associated with it, changes in lifespan might effect the fade in/out.
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
no problem mate...I was testing your mod, and testing vid recording settings, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone! hehe If you want, grab that vid and stick it into your original post...around here, particularly with visual mods, people like to see vid samples to decide if they want to install.
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
Originally Posted by ♔The Nanny♔
no problem mate...I was testing your mod, and testing vid recording settings, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone! hehe If you want, grab that vid and stick it into your original post...around here, particularly with visual mods, people like to see vid samples to decide if they want to install.
cheers!
Hey Nanny,
I love your work. Which sound mod are you using for the muskets, cannons, etcetera?
Re: Whiff of Sulphur - a ship and cannon smoke mod for NTW
I really like in this mod how the smoke lingers a bit longer. Also, the cannon balls splashes in the water are pretty cool. Oddly, I found that using this mod didn't really give me much of a FPS hit...barely noticeable...and a really nice surprise.
Whiff of Sulphur - WHITE
Reply With Quote
Any way to fix it?
Originally Posted by ♔The Nanny♔
