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[*Steppenwolf*]

Hello, everyone! My name is Steppenwolf and I'd like to present to you my LowerParticleEffects mod. I'm calling it LowerParticleEffects because my intention was to design an effects mod using the minimum number of particles while still trying to maintain an immersive and unique look.

LowerParticleEffects is based mostly upon the textures and code of the seminal Plutonium mod. Additional textures were borrowed from CinemaFX, Battle-Sights, and Effects of circles mods. Battle-Sights also provided the code for the extended rocket trails.

This mod was tested on, and intended for, a 4.09m/UP2.01 install only with effects=0. Effects=1 will still work fine, but your effects will have ground shadows. Generating ground shadows will be a little bit more demanding on your system that's all. Try an fps test to see which setting in your conf(effects=0/effects=1) works better on your computer.

***CONFLICTS***

Any mod(or mod pack) that has the class file 8CFCD632574D5B72(Extended rocket smoke trail for LowerParticleEffects). So any mod that has missiles or side winders that use 8CFCD632574D5B72 class file will most likely crash your game when used along side LowerParticleEffects mod.   


What this mod changes:

Aircraft damage smoke(3d)
Aircraft full throttle exhaust(3d)
Aircraft high altitude contrails(2d)
Wingtip stall smoke trails(2d)
Aircraft/ground ballistic impacts and shrapnel
Ground/water explosions
Destroyed vehicle/structure smokes and fires
Full Mission Builder smokes and fires
Ships smoke, gunfire, and damage smoke
Flaks
Rocket/guided rocket smoke
V-1 and V-2 rocket effects
Napalm
Tank dust***tanks no longer create dust while other vehicles don't***
Train smoke ***Disabled train smoke entirely!*** Train smoke is partially rendered/visible when either a fuel truck or static aircraft is destroyed, so it was disabled to save resources. If you want train smoke back just overwrite "SmokeBlack_Locomotive" with whatever substitute you have. File path is Effects/Smokes. With that said, I should probably clarify that ANY file swapping could impair the performance of this mod!

To install:

Just drop the extracted LowerParticleEffects folder into your 'MODS' folder and rename it to whatever will give it loading priority over other, possibly conflicting, effects mods.

Example: _00_LowerParticleEffects

See also: "Using Mods Tutorials" at this site(sas1946).

A very special thank you to:

1C
Carmaster
HolyGrail
Potenz
Sani
SAS
SAS~CirX
Slikk
Socorrista22198
and Wolfighter

Please inform me of any bugs that you might experience with this mod and I'll do my best to fix them.

Best wishes,

Steppenwolf

Here's a preview video of LowerParticleEffects:



Download it here:

https://www.mediafire.com/?ggp7blkv8vc9l51


VERSION 2

Preview video of LowerParticleEffectsV2:



Download LowerParticleEffectsV2 here:

https://www.mediafire.com/?h0n63zfjdvuxou1


VERSION 2.1

This version adds a faster shock wave to the explosions, also a reduced water ring effect(I saw a nice FPS increase here.), and a slightly larger flash effect on aircraft to help with sighting shots at medium to long distances. I also tweaked a few colors on things, but other than that the bulk of this is identical to V2. Most of the changes are very minor, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Short preview video of the additions in LowerParticleEffectsV2.1:

 

Download LowerParticleEffectsV2.1 here:

https://www.mediafire.com/?eh37c1ywz46crc5


VERSION 3

In this version I tried to compensate for the low particles in contrails by slightly increasing the overall effect sizes. I think this has helped to somewhat minimize the 'beads on a string' look to damage smokes. Also new to this version is:
darker ejected shells and animations
muzzle flashes/smokes for planes and vehicles
disables tracer smoke trails for AA(unfortunately this includes some 20mm equiped aircraft)
disables armor main gun smoke trail
and tweaking of other effects

I have also included HG & P's ricochet/2D smoke trail code for .50s, with the smoke parts tweaked by me. Aircraft tracer smoke is now very faint. This is my remedy for the squaring off of the effect by the windscreen. This mod is still only intended for and tested on a 4.09m/UP2.01 install. This mod does NOT change tracers.

Here is a short preview video.



Download here:

https://www.mediafire.com/?v4ii75dozvlkkhm

[CWMV]

Beautiful...NEEDED for DBW!

[Ribs]

Absolutely brilliant! I echo what CWMV said , very much needed for DBW!

Ribs

[wingflyr]

WOW,great effects.

[Mick]

Such a beautiful mod is one of the best ways to put an end to 2011 Steppenwolf ...!! 

THX a lot for sharing and all the best to you and your next mods in 2012 ...!! 

[Königstiger]

Simply brilliant 
Amazing effects, and they seem very realistic

for V2 : In my opinion the smoke could be a bit darker/ black 

Greetings,
Hendrik

[Roger Smith]

awesome will probably need it myself

[crimar]

Hi, Steppenwolf: thanks for your work and sharing with us.

I have found a bug when readind the Black Death track: the game freezes exactly at 1:17 (tracers of IL-2 attacking are seen).

Before testing your mod, I have disabled all other mods with effects, and set effects=0 in conf.ini. I am using IL2 selector 3.06 from SAS on a custom install (not UP2.01).

Not tested further yet.

Cheers.

EDIT: I think that the problem is with the rockets because the IL-2 is firing rockets just after 1:17.

[GilB57]

Hi there ! great mod !

Also found another bug:
Tested on IL2-UP2.01+MDS1.13.
Loaded a mission in  cooperative mode (as host) and game freezed at 100% loading mission.

I finally found that deleting all Front Markers from mission file allowed the mission to be fully loaded and playable... ?!?

[*Steppenwolf*]

Hi crimar,
I'm not sure what that could be??? I've watched The Black Death a thousand times and have had no issues. Are you able to look in the log file? I believe the il2 is also firing its cannons too, so that could be something, but again not sure. I see that you are using selector 3.06. This mod was not tested on that selector or any other. See also below, possibly related???

Hi GilB57,
Have you used Plutonium with MDS1.13? If that worked then the only thing I can think of right now is maybe the extended rocket code is doing something. This might help crimar too. The code is 8CFCD632574D5B72, put a minus in front of it then reload the game. Let me know what happens.

Steppenwolf

[crimar]

By disabling 8CFCD632574D5B72, the game is ok with black Death.
I have found an old mod in conflict with your mod (it uses 8CFCD632574D5B72 too): Armement Aléatoire from Josse (random weapons).
When I disable this one, your mod works well. As I want Josse's mod, I will disable all concerning rocket in your mod to keep all working together.

You made a good work with LowerParticleEffects. Many thanks again.

Cheers.

[*Steppenwolf*]

crimar,
I'm glad to hear you got it working and thank you for the kind words.

CWMV, Ribs, Wingflyr, Mick, Konigstiger, Solo_wing_Pixy, GilB57 - thank you gentlemen.

Best wishes,

Steppenwolf