Trueflame Replacer : III - Morrowind

» Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:55 pm

Well, I've managed to add billboards in NifSkope by copying them from another mesh, and I found a tutorial on animating textures in Nifskope, so I'll probably be able to do the fire now... I also have a somewhat-okay fire animation (best I could find for free, because it's illegal to use ones from other games). Now the only problem is the damn alpha channels. http://i44.tinypic.com/xgha8z.png

I've set it to 4845 flags... why don't other particles do this? Argh!

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:24 am

try setting the threshhold to 120, that usually works

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:45 am

On hair, yes, but anything meant to be a 'cloud' - like fire - ends up looking terrible; it screws up the transparency. And it doesn't even solve the problem. http://i44.tinypic.com/fuuyp1.png

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:55 am

I think its beautiful and elegant even without the flame effect!

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:33 am

Oh yeah, it looks fine without the flames, but I really want to put fire onto it. It seems like there's something missing without it.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:00 pm

if the threshold cuts too deep at 120, try setting it lower til it cuts just right, or just make new alpha templates if that fails

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:13 am

Maybe use the particle effect utilised in the Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer in Bloodmon? Doesn't look to flame-like but you might want to give it a try.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:10 am

I tried changing the threshhold, but the problem is that the alpha channels are supposed to not be sharp, what with the particles being fire and all. If I make them sharp it'll give the flames a hideous cartoony effect.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:31 am

If the particle thing doesn't work out, you could do something similar to the effect you made on Mehrune's Razor, except instead of just red spider-web-energy-thing, you could have it looks like flames licking around the blade...?

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:34 am

I love the design of the blade, too bad the fame effects are weird.
I remember a mod called Particle Effect Weapon Merchant that had a bunch of the normal weapons with some cool effects, those didnt look bad at all, maybe you can check em out?

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:00 pm

I love the design of the blade, too bad the fame effects are weird.
I remember a mod called Particle Effect Weapon Merchant that had a bunch of the normal weapons with some cool effects, those didnt look bad at all, maybe you can check em out?

Where can I find this mod? I may be able to copy and paste the particles from it.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:28 am

Need help with flames? I did a bit of particle work for SWG's Skies v3 (not done yet) and I found out it isn't that hard, I could try for you.

Oh, by the way, alphas often show wrong in nifscope, so you'll have to test the effects ingame or else they'll probably look wrong.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:54 am

I love the design of the blade, too bad the fame effects are weird.
I remember a mod called Particle Effect Weapon Merchant that had a bunch of the normal weapons with some cool effects, those didnt look bad at all, maybe you can check em out?

http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=3119?

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:53 am

I have a couple of other thoughts for the flame effect. Phijama made a sabre for http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3142 that has wonderfully executed animated flame texture. Might be a worth a look.

Also, while it's an Oblivion mod, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=4163 has a nicely done animated and bollboarded flame effect. Something similar could easily be done for Morrowind, you'd just have to come up with your own fire textures.

Particle effects are nice, but depending on the race someone is playing the particle effects will become offset from the weepon.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:10 pm

Also, while it's an Oblivion mod, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=4163 has a nicely done animated and bollboarded flame effect. Something similar could easily be done for Morrowind, you'd just have to come up with your own fire textures.

You could ask Nico if you can use his textures. He's really nice, he let me downgrade some of his Oblivion bow meshes. :nod:

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:01 pm

You could ask Nico if you can use his textures. He's really nice, he let me downgrade some of his Oblivion bow meshes. :nod:

Unfortunately that wouldn't fly, those flame textures are from Oblivion.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:06 pm

Unfortunately that wouldn't fly, those flame textures are from Oblivion.

Oh, I didn't know!

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:42 am

I have a couple of other thoughts for the flame effect. Phijama made a sabre for http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3142 that has wonderfully executed animated flame texture. Might be a worth a look.

Also, while it's an Oblivion mod, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=4163 has a nicely done animated and bollboarded flame effect. Something similar could easily be done for Morrowind, you'd just have to come up with your own fire textures.

Particle effects are nice, but depending on the race someone is playing the particle effects will become offset from the weepon.

I've been looking at Nico's already, sort of studying them to figure out how to animate the flames, and I'm pretty sure I've figured it out. It is rather maddening that the flame textures are Oblivion's though... they're so pretty, and mine are so bleah!

The particle effects on the original Hopesfire and Trueflame only got offset because they were curved. If I do end up using particle effects instead of animated billboards (which is what I'd prefer to use anyway) then I would use several particle generators spaced along the blade instead of one at the base; this would make the particle offset much less noticeable.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:30 am

Yup thats the mod, they have some cool effects and Ive been thinking that maybe if they use the normal weapon textures they should be ok to use with with some hi res replacers inplace too

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:27 pm

I've set it to 4845 flags... why don't other particles do this? Argh!

Most of them use flags of 13 (blend Source Alpha -> One) but the real trick is to put a NiZBufferProperty on the root node of the flames, with flags 1 (Z Buffer Enabled, Z Buffer Read Only)

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:52 am

The particle effects on the original Hopesfire and Trueflame only got offset because they were curved. If I do end up using particle effects instead of animated billboards (which is what I'd prefer to use anyway) then I would use several particle generators spaced along the blade instead of one at the base; this would make the particle offset much less noticeable.

It would offset regardless if it was curved or not. After I did Particle Arrow Replacer, I was making a complement to it by replacing the rest of the pre-enchanted weapons with versions that had particle effects. While testing, the particles would offset just like Trueflame/Hopesfire does with certain races and these weren't curved.

I did mess around with making several generators along the blade after that fiasco; it does work.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:25 am

Ah! Thank you, Alphax! You've saved Trueflame - and preemptively saved Hopesfire, for when I make it too!

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:45 pm

Very handsome sword! I feel like crap for not having MW installed on my new rig (but I will install it for sure!).

Cheers,
PKR.

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:49 am

It's all but finished - the flames work, the unassembled blade parts are textured to be rusty, and almost everything seems good. The only remaining issue is that the flames aren't animated when the sword is on the ground (table, weapon rack, etc). Does anyone have any insight as to why?

» Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:36 am

Small bump. Has anyone heard of this animation problem before?