It Is An Plasma Grenade (WIP)

[Ifafudafi]

Before you fags got the Gallery thread banned, I was showing off a plasma 'nade effect. It's based loosely on Halo 3 in that it's dark blue instead of H1/H2 light blue, and has a little sound before exploding, but instead:

(Updated! New stuff's in bold)

1. Lights up, shoots off a few sparks as timer counts down.
2. Large lens flare is suddenly "sucked in" to the 'nade as opposed to H2/H3 constantly enlarging flare, and lots of sparks shoot out. Also sound
3. Quarter-second pause. Nothing happens here
4. Boom. Light-blue outer flames move and fade away quickly, while dark blue inner flames last a small bit longer. Custom bitmaps here.
5. Small residue particles from the explosion, a la H3. Light blue decal. Particles are custom bitmap, but too small to really matter. Some electricity. Light smoke appears.
6. Particles gone. Light blue decal faded into a smaller, dark blue decal. Smoke begins to fade.
7. Scorch mark.

New video with aforementioned updates. I threw it on an elite and a grunt so that the giant dirt shower didn't obscure your view.

oIq03hB6AZ8

I have no idea why the "Related Videos" are all Bob Dylan videos.

Current electricity is H2, but there's something I just don't like about it. Smoke also seems a little off to me. What do you guys think?

[sdavis117]

I've got a training video for Halo and in the related section is "Editing porn With Vegas". I've contacted Youtube about letting people edit the related videos section.

And o.O

When do you think it will be done?

[Ifafudafi]

Once I tweak everything to my satisfaction and get this damned electricity working.

Also (and this applies to everyone else) tell me, without being an asshole, what you don't like about it so I can work on it some more.

[sdavis117]

It looked like something spawned right before the plasma detonated. Do you know what it was?

[ICEE]

It looks very cool, I like the sort of misty blue flame effect it has. The lens flare that flashes quickly right before the grenade detonates is cool, but it would sort of confuse combat a bit. Players might think that was the explosion and that its safe to move that way and then get hit by the blast.
here, check out the plasma grenade explosion in this map (effects by my friend M6dEEp). It's not anywhere near realistic but the charge effect is very cool

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3062

[Sel]

Seems way too fast.

[Ifafudafi]

The speed is one of my own concerns, but I'm hoping that a lingering lightning effect will alleviate that. An earlier version of the explosion had the blue fire last longer, but it just looked wrong, so I changed it.

[ICEE]

Seems way too fast.

Play halo 3 then say that. Halo 3's plasma grenades explode around the same speed of halo 1's frags

[Pooky]

I really like the... blip effect when it hits something. The lens flare though, I think should only disappear right before the grenade explodes, to give people a good idea of when its going off.

[Ifafudafi]

Actually, the "blip" is entirely unintentional. I replaced the "flash h shield impact" particle with a different bitmap for something else, and it carried over for a bunch of stuff. But if it looks good, I'll let it stay.

As for the flare, the pause between its death and the actual explosion is short enough that I doubt the player would have time to actually get in the way.

Also, H3's plasma seems to last a little longer because of the lightning rings. See my above post for my reasoning in that respect.

[Pooky]

Keep the blip, it's awesome :D

[Hunter]

I think it is awesome. But the time between the small pop and then the explosion should be shorter.

[Corndogman]

I think the blip should be larger, and then shrinks quickly, then the explosion comes right after that. like a "sucking in" effect right before it blows up.

[Ifafudafi]

Well, as I said, it was a complete accident, but I'll see what I can do.
I'm recompiling it for the fourty-eighth time since I made this topic (I've been counting) and then I'll see what I can do with the little flash.

[Heathen]

Explosion was too quick and big....try to tone it down and make it steam like on halo 3 after the explosion. Other than that its pretty snazzy.

[Ifafudafi]

Alright, I've gotten to compile number 65 since I made the topic. Updated. Check first post for details.
also +rep mb D:

[Corndogman]

I think the Lightning like effect lingers a bit too long at the end.

[AAA]

I think you should bring back the Halo 3 sound sbefore the Plasma explodes, only make it fade out much more smoothly instead of ending unexpectedly...

Makes for a good suspense and satisfactory, epic, winning.

[Limited]

Electric bits seem to last too long imo.

[Reaper Man]

The bolts of electricity at the end seem too slow, otherwise very nice.

[Ifafudafi]

Compile number 72. Lightning's cut down in length and sped up a bit, since that seems to be the general consensus, and I've worked with the small flare when the 'nade hits a surface to be a bit more profound; it also has an unintentional side effect in that it makes a neat effect when it attaches to a moving target.

As for the sound, I can't seem to find a proper H3 plasma whine for the life of me; the best one I could find was the one you see here, and that had some fag firing a Carbine in the middle of it. If anyone has the sound without interference, I'd be most grateful.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

I have a half decent recording of the sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmjfIPoIP-k PM me if you want it. :d

/threadjack

[t3h m00kz]

dude fucking sweet, I like the work with the light sources on it... but how do you get the particles coming off the nade to just stop spawning after a while?

The particles look fine for the most part, but the spark animation during the explosion seem to switch bitmaps a biiit too slow.

Also I'm seeing some cyan lighting on things... don't know if it's a decal or a light source, but check into it. If it's a decal I'd say don't worry about it, doing a decal for every freaking surface is annoying.

[Ifafudafi]

Since the explosion is made of both cyan flames and dark blue ones, I have some cyan light on top of the dark blue, and there's a larger cyan decal which later fades into dark blue.
As for the lightning, it's ripped directly from Halo 2, but since it's ugly, I'm having my brother (who's an excellent pixel artist in Paint) sprite me some more coherent lightning which I'll run through Photoshop and then put in the game. Maybe that'll make it look better.
The particles are quite simple, actually. The flaming effect on the grenade once it comes to rest is defined in the "detonation start.effect" file. What I do is simply create two more event blocks; I add sparks in to the first one, with the distribution function being "constant," and have the event block's duration be .65 seconds. I set the next event block to last .45 seconds, kill the sparks, and reduce the flame count to 2. Lastly, I delay the next event block .2 seconds, and here I call the big spark shower, the lens flare, and the sound. In the actual projectile file, the detonation timer is just a quarter-second more than the entire effect file; that's where the pause before the explosion comes in.

Anyway, at compile 76; I'm just waiting for some better lightning sprites. CAD's provided me with the H3 plasma whine.