Is it possible to do a mod that adds weather effects to the game?
I mean only cosmetic, like in the Sforza campaign in HD Edition where we see rain in the first mission.
Effects like rain, snowfall, blizzard, sandstorms and the like… is that doable in the current engine?
Yes, it is certainly doable. You would need to create sprites, assemble the SLP files and then integrate them into a data mod using Advanced Genie Editor. It would certainly be a lot of work, but it can be done.
Where do you see rain? When exactly?
Imagine a fog coming up and when it clears up you see the enemy has surrounded your base.
I’ve always wanted the ability to add more cinematic effects to the maps, even more additions to the “color mood” tab would be appreciated, or a way to modify or make custom ones with sliders or something.
Sforza 1 from HD Edition (2013 version). You can see a rain effect right away at the start of the scenario (when you’re trying to rescue Sforza’s father from the storm).
So it’s not there in DE, is it? Anyway, I feel like the game should have more weather effects and if anyone makes a mod adding that I’ll be the first to download it.
No, it is not in DE, as stated in the original post.
Or instead of a mod, it could be just a slider where we set the rain/snow/sandstorm density with a disable option for people that don’t like it and/or have potato PCs.
The mod/option would be just cosmetical for immersion. No gameplay mechanics involved.
I am sure it is done by a clever way that using objects and triggers to achieve the rain effect in the old HD scenario.
The general idea of adding weather effects to the game is what I really like. It would be very cool to see aurora in icy map and small dust storm in desert map.
Alright, time to make this happen. If somebody has any starting ideas I’m all for it but I’m going to see how difficult it is to create at least some rain or snow, if not hurricanes and apocalyptic meteor showers. I have some notes on the .json particle files, or at least an incomplete listing of the attributes listed in each of those that control those type of effects in game.
This is just a list of examples of what I’ve seen in those .json files, I am looking for where a complete listing of every available command or value but no promises.
This first part is from one of those effects that has it’s own folder with just a .png, seperate from the ones with .dds in the atlas folder
"AtlasImagesRaw": {
"Format": "textures\\test_move\\p_all_move_%04d.png",
"First": 0,
"Last": 14
},
the rest just use this to specify what images to use, im assuming that the .json files within the atlas folder that specify coords and such from the sprite sheet are required as well.
"AtlasFile": "textures\\atlases\\red_glow.dds",
"ImageFirst": 0,
"ImageCount": 90,
"ImageAngles": 16,
this one has me a little confused atm
"ImageRepeat": 2,
these are just attributes of how it looks, etc"
"Type": "Loop", "Once",
"Duration": 0.5,
"Duration1": 5,
"Duration2": 7,
"Scale": 3.0,
"ScaleSpeed": 0.5,
"ScaleStart1": 0.45,
"ScaleStart2": 0.65,
"ScaleEnd1": 0.1,
"ScaleEnd2": 0.2,
"AlphaStart": 0,
"AlphaEnd": 3,
"Rotation1": 0,
"Rotation2": 360,
"RotationSpeed1": -90,
"RotationSpeed2": 90,
"StartDelay": 0.0,
"StartDelay1": 0,
"StartDelay2": 2,
"StartMode": "Fade",
"StopMode": "Fade", "Complete", "Instant",
"StartDuration": 1,
"StopDuration": 1
"Timer": "Game","Real"
"Layer": "Terrain",
"SortBias":100, -100,
"DisplayLevel": "High", "Medium",
"DisplayInFog": true,
"DimInFog": false,
"FlipH": true,
ones like Duration1 and Duration2 set a range of randomness for that value that the engine picks within so not every instance of smoke or fire or trails look identical
Finding FlipH made my day btw. I’m sure there’s a FlipV but havent seen it, not tested yet. I dont know what the minimum is, but as long as you tell it what images to use, “Type” might be the only absolutely required attribute. The rest are all optional afaik.
Most are self explanatory, look to the stock files for examples of what to use where, as long as you understand how particles and sprites work in general, you’ll be fine. I haven’t managed to crash the game yet messing with these files, but just give it time…
Especially after finding the gem located in the blood files.
{
"AtlasFile": "textures\\atlases\\blood.dds",
"Sprites":
[
{
"ImageFirst": 0,
"ImageCount": 300,
"Type": "Once",
"Duration": 10,
"Scale": 0.2,
"Alpha": 1,
"StartMode": "Fade",
"StartDuration": 1,
"StopMode": "Fade",
"StopDuration": 1
},
{
"ImageFirst": 300,
"ImageCount": 300,
"Type": "Once",
"Duration": 10,
"Scale": 0.2,
"Alpha": 1,
"StartMode": "Fade",
"StartDuration": 1,
"StopMode": "Fade",
"StopDuration": 1
},
{
"ImageFirst": 600,
"ImageCount": 300,
"Type": "Once",
"Duration": 10,
"Scale": 0.2,
"Alpha": 1,
"StartMode": "Fade",
"StartDuration": 1,
"StopMode": "Fade",
"StopDuration": 1
}
],
"Emitter":
{
"Type": "Once",
"Sprite1": 0,
"Sprite2": 2
},
"Timer": "Real",
"Layer": "Terrain",
"IsBlood": true,
"DisplayInFog": true
}
Finally, access to Emitter functionality, seems like it just randomly picks between those 3 sets of data and uses one of them to make the blood a little more varied.
Omg thank you so much for the initiative.
I always thought that weather effects would be a pretty cool idea for the game and it doesn’t even have to make an impact on gameplay.
I am still working on this, I took some time to finish a map I was working on and haven’t done much with the particle effects, but last thing i was working on was modifying the building foundation placement dust cloud into a thundercloud type thing that will be a type of grazing animal or something so it moves around randomly and was also trying to convert the aoe1 .slp for the lightning but haven’t had much luck just finding one I could download.