Notes on Custom Effects FilesThere are currently 3 types of files used to customize WarbirdsIII effects.TGA FilesThe TGA files are images in the Targa format, most with an alpha channel. Alpha channels tell the code how transparent to make effects. You will need a pretty good graphics editor to play around with these. For most effects you will not need to dabble in these and it is advised to try to use the stock ones when you can. However, the only way to change tracers and muzzle flashes is by changing their TGA textures.Tracers use a single file, tracer2.tga. This texture is wrapped around a cylindrical object to produce the tracer. The alpha channel is not used. Muzzle flashes use muzzel1.tga and muzzel2.tga. Muzzel1.tga is the length of the flame and muzzel2.tga is used for the cross section of it. If you need to create your own TGA files, know that their dimension must be a square with the sides a length of a factor of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, ...). EFFECTS.EF3 codeThis file merely handles events from the game and tells the game what routines to run in the ef3.wwm file for each event and how to run them. This allows multiple effects to share the same effects routines. Some of the keywords you may see, and what they mean:
LOOP, repeat the routine until it's not needed anymore DURATION, like a loop, but dictates time duration of effect (seconds?) Ordinance Specific Effects In this file you can also split off effects from their default. For example, all flak burst in the air the same. But, I want a different effect for 88mm. I can add these lines to the file to do that:
PSYS largeflak { ONESHOT } } EF3.WWM codeThis file holds the heart of custom effects and has 3 sections:TGA loading:
TYPE RGBA FILE textures\smoke.tga } Palettes:
TYPE RGBATEST INDEX 0 (0,0,0,0) ... INDEX 255 (255,255,255,0) Particle Systems: OK, here we go with the meat. Here is a line by line discription of parameters you can use:
Then there are optional attractors. They put a force on the effect and move it thusly. In most cases they are used to simulate gravity like on particles that shoot into the air and then fall back down from an explosion:
|
EMITTER puffysmoke {
ON
TYPE STREAM
EMITSHAPE SPHERE
PARAMS (10.000000,10.000000,5.000000)
POSITION (0.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
VELOCITY (0.000000,0.000000,20.000000)
ANGVELOCITY (0.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
VARIANCE 0.200000
ANGVARIANCE 0.000000
DAMPEN 1.000000
ANGDAMPEN 1.000000
PARTICLES 25
RATE 0.444000
LIFE 10.000000
DECAY 1.000000
SIZE 9.000000
GROWTH 6.000000
AUTOSIZE
PALMODE LINEAR
PALETTE smoke
PALSTART 80
PALEND 255
PALRATE 256.000000
COLOR (0.600000,0.600000,0.600000,1.000000)
FADE
SELFILLUMSCALE 0.000000
ALPHA MODULATE
BLEND BLEND
SHAPE PANEL
PANEL 4x4
TEXTURE darksmoke
RANDIMAGE
FRAMERATE 0.000000
MATRIX 0 (1.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
MATRIX 1 (0.000000,0.707107,-0.707107)
MATRIX 2 (0.000000,0.707107,0.707107)
}
| name of emitter it's turned on it's a streamer effected by the RATE command particles appear randomly within a spherical shape the shape is kind of a squashed sphere centered on the emit point being shot upwards no rotation velocity is somewhat random maximum 25 targets shown at any one time every .444 seconds a new particle is created every particle lasts 10 seconds initial size of particle the particle is growing has perspective goes through palette incrementally uses the smoke palette starts at palette index 80 stops at palette index 255 goes through palette pretty fast the TGA file is slightly darkened particle fades out before dieing it emits no light of it's own effect of it's transparency blends in with what it covers it's a square shape has 16 sections in the TGA uses darksmoke.tga randomly displays one of the 16 sections not used since not a movie |
EMITTER flecks {
ON
TYPE BURST
EMITSHAPE POINT
PARAMS (0.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
POSITION (0.000000,0.000000,-1.000000)
VELOCITY (0.000000,0.000000,150.000000)
ANGVELOCITY (0.000000,0.000000,0.500000)
VARIANCE 0.200000
ANGVARIANCE 0.900000
DAMPEN 1.000000
ANGDAMPEN 1.000000
PARTICLES 11
RATE 1.000000
LIFE 4.000000
DECAY 1.000000
SIZE 2.000000
GROWTH 20.000000
AUTOSIZE
PALMODE OFF
PALSTART 0
PALEND 255
PALRATE 256.000000
COLOR (1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000)
FADE
SELFILLUMSCALE 0.300000
ALPHA MODULATE
BLEND BLEND
SHAPE PANEL
TEXTURE seaspray
IMAGE 0
FRAMERATE 0.000000
MATRIX 0 (1.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
MATRIX 1 (0.000000,1.000000,0.000000)
MATRIX 2 (0.000000,0.000000,1.000000)
}
ATTRACTOR attractor0 {
ON
TYPE PLANE
PARAMS (20.000000,20.000000,20.000000)
POSITION (0.000000,0.000000,0.000000)
DIRECTION (0.000000,0.000000,1.000000)
STRENGTH 200.000000
RANGE 2000.000000
}
| emitter name it's turned on it's a burst of particles emits from a single point not applicable 1 foot below emit point has quite a hefty upwards velocity has a some rotation in the Z-plane velocity is slightly random rotation speeds are quite random will burst with 11 particles if not a ONESHOT, will burst every second particles will live for 4 seconds initial size, smaller grows quickly has perspective doesn't use a palette basically no color filtering particles will fade has a slight visibility at night effect of its alpha channel blends in with background shape is a square panel uses seaspray.tga not applicable since not multi-panel not applicable since not movie name of attractor it's turned on it's force is distributed across a plane the plane is a square, 20 feet each side centered on the emit point it's force in this case is pulling down quite a lot of strength a very large range of influence. |