Hmm, but that's going to be below the water surace, right? I've got to confess a degree of curiousity as to how you're thinking of implementing that in-game.

To Arthmoor: here's screens of how the snow box looks in the CS: the first shot gives an idea of http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/Nosnowcollisionnecessary.jpg, the second is http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/One-windowexpandedblizzard.jpg by the mesh as it is right now.

I think at this stage I'll send you the current mesh and you can tell me what needs changed for your needs. I can adjust pretty nearly anything you like about the system (hmm, am I going to regret saying that?). Unlike the bubbles effect mesh you don't really want to be scaling this one in the CS, tiny or giant bubbles are one thing, tiny or giant snowflakes are a bit different. Just tell me what adjustments you need made and I'll handle it. After you're happy with the effect, I'll see about optimising the system as best I can.

Vac

Edit: to Ibsen's edit.

What's the problem with the size of the creature files? I spawned dozens and dozens of them simultaneously for performance testing and didn't hit a problem (AI seems to be more of an issue). From the distribution point of view, because it's just text data for the particle system and not meshes, the nifs compress stupendously well. The entire VASE resources compressed to under 3.5MBs.

Edit2: Anyone else who'd like access to the WIP snow box mesh (I'm thinking of house makers here) can PM me for access to the file. I need feedback on how to make it better for making it look like it's snowing outside your window.

Well, as little as I know of modelling and such, the least likely possibility that might work would be to use a separate mesh laid under the water. Where I figured it may not work too well is whether you could see it at all and whether it would be at all possible to create the effect of the centre bulging downwards at the spiral. The second possibility is more likely, as some of Texians water meshes provided a false surface that looked and behaved like water. If you were to create a large circular hollow in the landscape and place the circular mesh over it, you might well be able to adapt such a mesh so as to have an animated part in the centre that bulges downwards and swirls.

How I'd considered using this was in connection with the rootworms of the Black Marshes which are basically huge creatures that burrow under the Marsh's soft soil. The theory is that these worms assist in causing upheavals in the land and contribute towards many of the land slips that make the Black Marshes such a dangerous place to live. It is likely that their movement underground may lead towards gaps appearing in the landscape where their burrows have left holes. Therefore, whirlpools may form that drag the unwary traveller into a 'burrow' (an interior cell much like a dungeon), giving us yet another peril to avoid.


Curious! When I checked them out, I went to properties for one of the creatures that particularly fascinated me (glowing creatures in swamps is A ok!). The information I got back was stupendously huge....it will be worthwhile me downloading it again and double-checking...maybe there was some corruption of some kind going on for my copy...thanks for that. I'll check it out.

Hmmm, I found two videos that stood out to me -

This first one shows a geyser that looks typical to me, in video games, at least (geyser is made to erupt towards the end):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zozV2JK6vk

This second video, about 1:24 through 1:34 minutes in, shows a RL geyser erupting in stages (it gets higher and higher):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USCvVndukjA

Right before a geyser erupts, there is gurgling and bubbling of the water at the point the geyser shoots from, so maybe that can also be made in a geyser effect nif.

@ Ibsen3 and Vacuity: As for a whirlpool effect, that is best done with an animated mesh, I think. I'd make a swirling mesh with water texture, that sits a bit higher than real water level (if used on real water), both the central area and outer parts of whirlpool higher than the water, but with the outer whirlpool swirl part higher than the central part, and have it angle down to the central part, and possibly also angled down on the other side of the higher part to better "blend" the visual look of the whirlpool. The whirlpool can even continue under water, to be made to look as if it is underwater, even though the water in game is at same level it is always at - a visual illusion, basically. I don't know if that helps you visualize what I mean, but I hope so.

Ok, I've babbled enough. ("Back to Vacuity's regularly scheduled program")

Koniption

From what you're both describing, I agree that this is probably a better bet. If you'd like some spray/mist attached to yon mesh then I can do that for you, but I can't help you with the mesh beyond that.Well, I think all of my creatures are larger than the original wisp, but I think no more than 50% larger in the worst case. *Has a look*. Hmm, my largest creature is the Higgs (also the most beautiful, I think) and the skeleton weighs in at a hefty 187KB, with no mesh to overlay on that skeleton, just the textures (1.05MB for all the textures required for a single Higgs, the Higgs is unfortunate because it has a very-high-definition set of attack textures). Comparing that to some of the creatures in my game's Meshes/Creatures/ folder and it compares quite favourably as quite a few of the more commonly used ones take over half a meg just for the skeleton and the nifs to cover the skeleton. Some of them over 2 megs just for the nifs (and you still need the textures on top of that).

In any case, if you'd like I might be able to make more (MORE!?!) wisp-style creatures for you if the materials in VASE and Diverse Wisps aren't suitable/enough. They were lots of fun.Cheers for that. There's no way I can create anything as beautiful as a real-life geyser (or not without using enough particles to drag anyone's machine to a crawl), but I can probably make something identifiable that will make players stop and say "cooool". Hopefully.

"No schedule... No program!" as a certain droid might say.

I've sent Arthmoor a copy of the snow box in the hope he can tell me how he needs it changed for use in AN. Until I get feedback on that, I'll work on effects other than the weather boxes.

Vac

lol I'm dumb.

^ I think you misunderstood the nature of what Vacuity is doing here.

This is looking excellent Vacuity! I'm loving the Rain/Snow so far and anxious to see it in action. I can't wait to see this with All Natural and Immersive Interiors, it's going to be fantastic!

I honestly didn't expect you to whip that up so quickly, great job man.

...and has nothing to do with particle systems. This is one example of how not to make requests, I think.Well, it turned out to be rather easier than I expected it to be. It'll need iterative refinement before it's good enough to release as a general resource, so there's work to be done on it yet and then I'll have to do the same with one or two rain boxes as well. I'm not sure what all kinds of weather Arthmoor wants available outside his windows?

Currently playing with making a blood drip effect resource: great for placing under corpses and suchlike. It's kind of a shame it's too late for use in this year's Halloween mods. I expect to have it finished with just a little more work (though I may not get to do much modding work today, waiting on a phone call).

Vac

Sorry for my stupidity, but anyways, my request for you to make is something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPrTCf-dC_Q.
The snowing weather in Bruma is boring, but something like this would definitely spice it up.

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/37-violent-storms/

Anyway, lots of cool ideas so far that can be put to good use to spice up the environment.

I dropped off the front page? Ahh, no!

I'd better release something else then.

Announcing the release of the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35545.
It's just a shame it was too late for the Halloween mods. Sorry about that.

As always, if you want an alternate version with more/fewer drips, drips that go upwards, drips that loop the loop on the way down, whatever, just tell me.

I'll update the first post, with screens, shortly.

That's pretty cool. I might have a look at that to see how it's set up. I believe I can make additional weather meshes if anyone has a use for them.

Vac

Edit: Forgot to mention, but Arthmoor already got back to me with the first round of feedback on the snow box, and I've already sent him back a tweaked mesh based on his suggestions. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8500/snowbox2.jpg. In other words, progress is good for this too.

Edit 2: I've got a thread in the CS forum if anyone can help, in the meantime, I'm trying to work on the falling leaves effect resource. Right now I've got http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/Fallingbrancheseffectanyone2.jpg... Funny, but not quite what people are wanting, methinks. And yes, those are 3d meshes, not rectangular billboards.

Hurrah!
I could even see this as water and placed along the sides of icicle-beset buildings.


Very nice!

That snow looks amazing, can't wait to see that in game. Awesome work Vacuity!

That's a very simple retexture job. I could do it easily enough, I guess, but so could anyone else. Well, I guess there's a way to go yet. I have to get it working to Arthmoor's satisfaction, optimise it, make a wider version, and then I have to repeat the process (should be easier on successive rounds) on any other kinds of weather Arthmoor's wanting.

Now, the important part:
If you are wanting a falling leaf effect for your mod, I need a custom leaf mesh to use in the particle system. You can either provide me with the leaf mesh, or make sure I have a copy of a texture which trollf can (hopefully) use to make the necessary mesh. Right now, I've requested him to make a dogwood leaf mesh from a texture I butchered out of the game textures. I'll use that mesh to set up, test and iteratively improve the particle system. Once I'm happy with the system I'll re-mesh the particle system to use various leaf meshes, but each leaf type requires a discrete leaf mesh that has to be created by someone (other than me). The mesh appears to need to be a NiTriShape. I am still learning about the requirements for the NiMeshParticleSystem by a system of trial and error, so that's about all the info I can offer on that right now.

Vac

Edit: This stuff tires my brain, but it can be kinda amusing at moments. http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/Couldntresist.jpg?

Edit2: It's http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/FallingLeavesprototype.jpg!

Edit3: I think I'm close to wrapping up the system mechanics on this one. It's actually rather http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/LeafDistribution.jpg with very nice leaf spins and erratic falling. I'm very happy with this. With any luck I'll get something released tomorrow. I'd better get those leaf textures for trollf!

I love the blood drip, but I have not a clue how to insert it into my own mod, or how to even start a mod

The leaves look awesome (as does everything else)! Changing the texture on them should just be a simple nifskope job, right?

Theoretically, yes, but...
The thing is they use a mesh specifically for the leaf, so you can't necessarily stick a sugar maple leaf texture onto a dogwood leaf mesh. On the other hand I've just (literally while I'm typing this) got the leaf meshes for some more leaves back, with trollf commenting that the vanilla textures are so low quality that he's just using a flat plane for them. So never mind that.
The other thing is I'll be building each particle system such that it roughly matches the dimensions of the Speedtree model. You'd want to use the nif for a roughly similar-sized tree.

I'm going to provide effect nifs with three degrees of leaf density: high, medium and low with low probably being the most realistic, in all honesty. That'll be something like 18 effect nifs.

Vac

The three dogwood effect nifs are finished and optimised (13KB, 10KB and 9KB respectively for the heavy, medium and light effects).
Here's the http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/Particle%20Effect%20Resources/FallingMapleleaves.jpg.

Hi, Vac

No doubt about it, you are indeed the Pied Piper of Particles.

Good to see you back at your magical manipulations.

Looking great, Vacuity.

The weather effects are reminding me of the time I tried to do the same thing - I kinda got it working, but ran into some problem (can't remember what), and moved on. I'm very glad one with your expertise is doing this stuff.

Definitely something that'll get implemented in All Natural 1.2, no doubt about it, I can't let this good work go to waste!

Vacuity, this is really sweet! I love VASE and seeing more effects from you is cool. There's one thing I always missed from climactic battles in oblivion, and from when an oblivion realm is completed: There aren't any http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoadBearingBoss So, if you're interested, I'll

Request: The Dust of Doom!!!!! (read: falling puffs of dirt and various small rocks/pebbles off a structure right before/as something bad happens). Like Indiana Jones: http://video.aol.ca/video-detail/classic-scene-from-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-the-idol/2877143737/?icid=VIDURVMOV07 (sorry for AOL video, youtube always takes it down). Good moments @ 2:54 when the body pops out (kinda gross though), at 4:12 when the dart fires, and basically 5:31 onwards.

I had another idea for sparks. And fireworks maybe. Sparks would be good for things like sword fights or blacksmith shops. Think I might have seen fireworks elsewhere though.

Hey! Long time, no talk! Thanks for your kind words, as always. Are you wanting new weather meshes? Like, uhh, sleet (mixed rain and snow) or hail, or frogs? Or even the rain of sharks I showed yesterday? Gotcha, and actually quite a cool idea, but you would want someone to build the disintegrating meshes too for me to add the dust and pebbles to fall off.Sparks should be fairly easy to make and would be easy for modders to stick in their mods, I guess.

Fireworks though...
I kinda doubt you've seen them anywhere in Oblivion because for fireworks to work properly you need particles that emit particles (that emit particles) which is something I think only Xilverbulet worked out how to do (though after all the stuff I learnt yesterday with the falling leaf system, I believe I can do it too). Unless there are particle experts in other communities? Introduce me!

It turns out the game has multiple models for some tree types, so that makes progress slower in as much as I have more effect nifs that need made, on the other hand, that means it should be easier for people to find an effect nif of suitable dimensions for them to retexture for their own trees. You don't really want to be making major adjustments to the scale of these nifs in the CS as it'll cause mini- or giant-sized leaves to fall.

Vac (should release the falling leaf resource later today as long as he doesn't get distracted)

I think we're probably good with rain and snow since we don't really have anything else. Unless Wrinklyninja wants to take you up on the sleet offer and then add sleet weathers to the system

Here are two links to some nice leave textures, I planed on using them ones but I never good any good results.
The textures need some color tweaking, green leaves dont fall from a tree.

http://www.3dmd.net/gallery/index.php?cat=22
http://www.2textured.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1169

Nothing else to say, really... Uhh, but that means that in fact I am *not* about to release my 45 new effects nifs. I'm not sure whether to say "Damn!" or "Yay!"

Let's go for Yay!

Vac