Damage Texture Experiment

[metalnick]

Hey guys. I've been fooling around with my BC install and one thing that has always bugged me is the way the damage textures look. So I figured I'd try and get something I was happy with. So what I did was use fluxcapacitor's Damage.tga for the base stuff and then used Chris Larkin's Fiery Nanofx textures for the inside.This actually turned out a lot better than I expected. So, What do you guys think of the results?

[DJ Curtis]

I like the mix of crispy and cooking.

[metalnick]

Thanks DJ. I was trying to get as close as possible to these pics.

[Captain_D]

I like the mix of crispy and cooking.

Yea, I like BBQ too,,,

That actually looks pretty nice metalnick for damage.

[metalnick]

Thanks guys. I tried it the other way around with fiery edges and burnt inside but it looked kinda goofy.  Anyways Here's some more with DJ's Enterprise D.

[DJ Curtis]

I think you're on the right path with this last update.  If you could have one main large fire for each big hole, and then some smaller fires around them?

[JamesTiberiusKirk]

might use the flux texture as a base, put the nanofx as a second layer, then use the eraser to make only small blobs of the nanotexture and smudge the edges, so that they blend in. that might work.

[Lurok91]

Think those are looking good    *cookie*     Just curious: what size tga are you using?  The fire-section looks a little low-rez and think could look a lot better/realistic if you go larger.   And are these to replace the NanoFX textures or the stock ones? 

[El]

You might want to consider making the edges of the burned areas glow. Similar to the effect when you set fire to paper after the flames have gone out.
You have a charred area that still glows on the edges.....

I really like this so far, and I agree with DJ that your on the right path with this.
See if you can increase the res for the glowing bit to match the quality of the charred area.

[metalnick]

Ok. Thanks for all the kind words guys but I think I should make it clear that I did not make these, I just mixed together 2 textures I really liked. I'm not too sure but I think the glowing part is 64x64 and the charred image is 128x128. Can't say for sure since I'm away from my home PC atm. Will see what I can do.

[Lurok91]

Ok. Thanks for all the kind words guys but I think I should make it clear that I did not make these, I just mixed together 2 textures I really liked.

That means you made them    Like sampling: taking pre-existing stuff and mixing together to make something new.  Originality is in having idea in first place -- no-one else did -- and getting it done. And it's not like you're going to take credit that it's all your own original work. So kudos to you and keep going.

I think the glowing part is 64x64 and the charred image is 128x128. Can't say for sure since I'm away from my home PC atm. Will see what I can do.

If you're going to carry on with this definitely up the rez if you can as it will look sooo much better. 

[tiqhud]

Not bad at all.

[metalnick]

Ok, I've upped the res to 256. Also Took some more screenies. Although I'd like to have the charred part be animated as well so there could be some kind of glow effect or maybe like an electrical plasma effect like in TWoK shot there. But that is a little bit beyond my scripting abilities.

[Lurok91]

Looking good.   You say you want animated effect?   That's why asked before if these were for NanoFX or stock.  If stock, nothing much can do.   If NanoFX, you have 30+ TGAs to use which would allow you to 'paint-in' any animated fx  (glow, sparks, plasma, anything you want  lol)  like old fashioned cel animation.

[metalnick]

Well the interior is NanoFX and animates. I'm just wondering whether or not there is a way to do the same thing with the surface damage.

[Captain_D]

Wish you luck on this. I made an attempt at it few years back along with some other effects,

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/file/Intresting_Stars_and_Nano_Effects;79371

did an electrical arc, but never figured a way around the edge effect either. Meant to do a version 2, but got side tract around that time and never went back to it. Had actually slipped my mind until I caught this thread.

May get inspired to take a stab at it again sometime, after seeing the good stuff your coming up with.

[CJLarkin]

Ohh nice, this looks great! Fantastic idea, combining the two.

[Lurok91]

Well the interior is NanoFX and animates. I'm just wondering whether or not there is a way to do the same thing with the surface damage.

So are you currently using two separate textures ingame?   The damage texture in Textures and the Nano textures?   If you physically combined the two in a Nano texture, then you would be able to do simple anims on the surface damage. 

[metalnick]

Yeah I had thought of that. But I'm a little fuzzy on how I could do that without scripting it in through NanoFX (Maybe cannibalize/add something from NanoFX to use two seperate series of animated textures for damage inside and out or combine the two like Lurok suggested?  ). But I really like that electrical arc damage texture, D and how you have the little guys flying off  . I'll do some more tweaking and see if I can get something figured out. But yes, Lurok, I am using two different textures. One for the charred area which shows up on the outer hull and the NanoFX textures which show up as the animated glow on the interior.

I've got some ideas that I'll try out as soon as I get home. I don't suppose anyone knows what particular file controls the surface damage texture? I know where the NanoFX one is but can't seem to find the handler for the surface damage texture. I'm using KM with the newest update 2010.02 I think.

[Lurok91]

There's a script 'EffectTextures'  in scripts/Tactical.   At bottom is code:

Code: [Select]

def LoadDamageTextures(Icons = None):

if(Icons is None):
Icons = App.g_kIconManager.CreateIconGroup("DamageTextures")
App.g_kIconManager.AddIconGroup(Icons)

kTexture = Icons.LoadIconTexture('data/Damage1.tga')
Icons.SetIconLocation(0, kTexture, 0, 0, 64, 64)
kTexture = Icons.LoadIconTexture('data/Damage2.tga')
Icons.SetIconLocation(1, kTexture, 0, 0, 64, 64)
kTexture = Icons.LoadIconTexture('data/Damage3.tga')
Icons.SetIconLocation(2, kTexture, 0, 0, 64, 64)
kTexture = Icons.LoadIconTexture('data/Damage4.tga')
Icons.SetIconLocation(3, kTexture, 0, 0, 64, 64)
Not sure if these are the stock textures you're using?  As far as I know, the actual hole/scorch value is handled by the ship script file but willing to stand corrected.

I think in theory one might be able to re-script Nano to use two separate textures but tbh it's one of those things prob best left to experts.  Though no harm in trying    Best to ask at BCS.