The Particle Effects Thread

[B25Mitch]

I'm attempting to compile a list of the particle effects in DCS world, along with ratings, comments and constructive criticism. Lately there have been some quite good ones added, and as some of these are hopefully improved I'll update the list. Please let me know if I'm missing anything major!

 

Explosion 1

Rating: B

This effect is appropriate for larger missile impacts,

such as Mavericks, and smaller bombs. Not suitable

for cluster weapons due to impact on framerate and

size of the explosion. Needs to be scalable.

 

 

Explosion 2

Rating: D

Unrealistic explosion looks like a firecracker going off.

Not really suitable for anything at the moment.

 

 

Explosion 3

Rating: B

This effect depicts a less violent explosion, such as a

fuel-air fireball with a billowing cloud of smoke. Smoke

needs to last longer, and the flames could use higher

resolution textures.

 

 

Explosion 4

Rating: C

"Ammo cookoff" explosion with flaming debris and

smoke trails. Smoke dissipates much too quickly, and the

ejected fire and smoke trails are low-resolution and fuzzy.

 

 

Impact 1

Rating: B

Ground impact plume for armour piercing and smaller

calibre shells. Needs to have better scaling for different

calibres - currently small-arms fire causes the same size

effect as 120mm AP.

 

 

Impact 2

Rating: A

Armour impact effect - visually effective and well-scaled

for different calibres. No improvement necessary.

 

 

Ground smoke

Rating: A

Burning vehicle flames and smoke. Scalable, affected

by wind, nicely animated particle textures and low

impact on frame rate. Possible improvements include

an increase in plume height, and a gradual dissipation

of the effect over time.

 

 

Generic dust and smoke effect

Rating: F

Used for rotor wash, collapsing buildings, vehicles

popping smoke and MBT main gun firing effect.

Noticeable impact on frame rate in some cases.

Needs to be replaced with customized effects.

 

 

Cylindrical fire

Rating: D

Animated object that needs to be replaced with a

proper particle effect. Cylindrical fire is somewhat

effective on fast-moving aircraft. Looks terrible when

stationary on the ground.

 

 

Tire smoke on touchdown

Rating: D

Similar to the old vehicle dust effect. Too dense,

particles do not fade out properly and the wheel

emits them for too long after touchdown. Needs

an overhaul.

 

 

Water splash

Rating: F

Also not a particle effect. Crudely animated splash

object; does not fade out smoothly, but disappears

before the splash is finished. Needs a particle effect

similar to Impact 1.

 

 

Vehicle dust

Rating: A

Dynamic dust effect, including mud spray on

tracked vehicles. Visually pleasing and realistic;

needs no improvement.

 

 

Aerial explosion

Rating: D

3-pronged explosion with quickly fading smoke.

Needs a more dynamic and irregular flash and fireball,

and smoke should linger for about twice as long.

 

 

Aerial smoke

Rating: D

Currently looks like a thick grey line in the sky.

Could use more variation in the smoke trail and

better texturing, like the ground smoke.

 

 

Aerial gun smoke

Rating: B

Effective for the most part, but has some peculiar

characteristics, such as 'sticking' to the gun barrel

while the weapon is being fired, and then letting go

afterwards. Can also appear flat from some angles

in the Black Shark.

 

 

Rocket exhaust

Rating: C

Acceptable, except for being the wrong colour. Needs

to be changed to an orange hue.

 

 

Contrails

Rating: D

Lots of flickering, emitted from the engines in 'chunks'

at regular intervals. Reportedly causes an FPS impact

(Quirk).

 

Wingtip vapour

Rating: N/A

Currently broken. Previous versions of the effect did

not fade in or out - appeared and disappeared instantly.

 

Sparks

Rating: N/A

Currently broken. Previously worked great and made

belly landings on the runway look spectacular.

Edited November 13, 2012 by B25Mitch

[Quirkitized]

I just really really really want a steady framerate rather than effects and what have you causing fps to jump from 60 to 5 to 30 to 20 to 10 to 40 to 50 to 25 to 15 to 7 to 3 to 60 in the matter of a few minutes depending on whats going on.

 

Other than that I'm not sure what to vote or rate? They look good, just need some serious tweaks I think.

[B25Mitch]

You say you are having framerate issues caused by particles - If so, please identify which of these cause the issue! That's one of the main reasons I'm putting this up here, so we can move forward in diagnosing fps problems caused by particles.

 

There is a common misconception that good looking particle effects kill your FPS. The effects which I have given the rating "A" do NOT kill your FPS, and still mange to look good.

[Witchking]

Fantastic post Mitch. COmpletely agree. I love the new effects added in 1.2.2...the dust spray from vehicles and the armor impact effect.

 

Regarding landing.... ED...if you see videos on youtube...when planes touch down, they create a nice spiral smoke. It would be pretty cool to see that. Also the opacity on that smoke is tooo high. perhaps if it was a bit more "particulate" and not like a paper cut out..would look good.

 

In my opinion, the cylindrical fire needs a change... and explosion 2...pop corn effect would be nice if it was merged with other explosions as particles....but not good on its own.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Witchking

[Quirkitized]

You say you are having framerate issues caused by particles - If so, please identify which of these cause the issue! That's one of the main reasons I'm putting this up here, so we can move forward in diagnosing fps problems caused by particles.

 

There is a common misconception that good looking particle effects kill your FPS. The effects which I have given the rating "A" do NOT kill your FPS, and still mange to look good.

 

I wasn't sure exactly how to interpret your post. Mainly it's CBUs , low flying black shark (ground effect) and mlrs, overcast clouds, and contrails. I am not sure what ones from your pictures depicts those explosions and effects. I also believe ED is more than well aware of these issues, I was just kind of ranting.

 

To stay on topic with the thread, then I guess, from your pictures, I would say

"explosion 1"

"generic dust and smoke effect"

 

 

Like I said before, I think the effects are great, just need fps tweaks, which ED is well aware of. I am unsure of how to rate them or give them grades as there is no system to rate them on, only personal opinion.

[SkateZilla]

Missing Wingtip Emmiters, Contrail Emmiters, etc.

[REL]

Grate Post B25Mitch!!!

 

I completely agree with your observation.

Over all a lot of work needs to be done in the effect area IMHO.

Will keep an eye open for changes and post...

[B25Mitch]

Thanks for the suggestions all, I've added contrails the list and a couple of effects that appear to be broken.

[SyntaxError]

Whoa this is exactly what we needed. Hope we see some really awesome effects added but sadly they will always be held back by the current engine.

[upupandaway]

Great idea for a thread. I have no real clue but I´ve always been thinking/hoping that the new engine "EDGE" will bring the whole sim to a DX11 level (concerning just the render path), including the effects (although it´s always called a terrain engine).

[Agg]

I wonder if we'll ever get some decent vapor effects... I understand that it's not on the top of ED's "to do list", but still, people have been asking about this for years now.

 

If we get a Hornet or Viper module without vapor I think Im going to cry :P

[mjeh]

If we get a Hornet or Viper module without vapor I think Im going to cry :P

 

If we get a viper module I will cry tears of joy. Hornet would be fine too I suppose :)

 

As for effects, the new ones look really good but I have to agree with most of the points of the OP. (G)round impacts from small arms fire look ridiculous now, and dropping more than one cbu-87 at the same time will kill my fps for a good 5-10 seconds. Like literally, I'll get between 1 and 5 FPS on my rig that is still reasonably respectable. And let's not mention MLRS

Edited November 13, 2012 by mjeh
oh right, let's stay on topic too.

[112th_Rossi]

I think the CBU87 explosion problem is due to the fact that the explosions themselves are not particle effects. They use a single circular texture with an alpha channel applied to it (so its semi transparent). The explosion ejects the textures to create the effect. This is fine for one explosion but for a CBU87 which can be dozens, I'm thinking the engine can't render the textures fast enough nor compute their trajectory effeciently.

 

Using a directx particle emitter would be much more effecient (rendered on the gfx card) but it would take time to produce.

[[DBS]TH0R]

Very nicely put together. Now we have a complete picture.

 

Lets hope some of these effects, in particular those that are broken and cause massive FPS drops get addressed soon.

[JABO2009]

Fantastic post Mitch. COmpletely agree. I love the new effects added in 1.2.2...the dust spray from vehicles and the armor impact effect.

 

Regarding landing.... ED...if you see videos on youtube...when planes touch down, they create a nice spiral smoke. It would be pretty cool to see that. Also the opacity on that smoke is tooo high. perhaps if it was a bit more "particulate" and not like a paper cut out..would look good.

 

In my opinion, the cylindrical fire needs a change... and explosion 2...pop corn effect would be nice if it was merged with other explosions as particles....but not good on its own.

 

+1

[Megagoth1702]

Absolutely agree.

 

 

It would be not that much of a deal if ED opened their config files to the commuty.

 

I am sure that we are able of scaling, assigning and even creating our own particle effects...

 

Look at the WarFX mod for arma 2. All hand made self made stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPHDwmUZZmM&feature=channel&list=UL

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kG4Pd3RBYs&feature=channel&list=UL

(2nd video has many slow motion scenes in it. no flash in the final mod as as long as seen in the video)

[Apples]

Absolutely agree.

 

 

It would be not that much of a deal if ED opened their config files to the commuty.

 

I am sure that we are able of scaling, assigning and even creating our own particle effects...

 

Look at the WarFX mod for arma 2. All hand made self made stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPHDwmUZZmM&feature=channel&list=UL

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kG4Pd3RBYs&feature=channel&list=UL

(2nd video has many slow motion scenes in it. no flash in the final mod as as long as seen in the video)

 

Agree!! Plus that WarFx is Sweet!!