We unfortunately can't do anything curved, so most of the federation ST effects are out. The Klingon effects look more promising.
I will play around with it a bit. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
On another interface related topic, I've been playing around with the color scheme of the map grid trying to see if I can make it less intrusive, yet still be functional enough to use.
After messing with the settings I think I have come up with a version I am pretty happy with.
It's not as visible here, as in the actual game, but the hexes you can see are a slightly darker green than the stock. The ones you have seen, but can not currently see are a still visible, but noticeably darker green (in the shot above these hexes are to the right, but are much less visible than on my monitor).
Hexes you have never seen are a darkish blue color (as seen at the bottom left)
I find it very both very usable, and very fitting for the BlackUI, giving a sense of vastness to the system.
I am thinking to include it as an option when I upload BlackU106 and the Reduced size ships.
Note that this is generally only suitable for Solo games.
It requires a change to the Settings.txt which must be common for all players in a PBW match, so unless all players are using it, you will get an error message.
If you would like to have a go yourself, you can change the following values in your Settings.txt (either stock game or mod of your choice):
Background Grid Hexagon Color Cannot See Never Seen := 0, 0, 45
Background Grid Hexagon Color Cannot See Have Seen := 0, 35, 0
Background Grid Hexagon Color Can See := 0, 90, 0 SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Ok a bit of a progress report on the Reduced size shipsets.
I finished resizing all the stock races and ensuring that class sizes are all consistent between races.
I have also done the following additional empires. (I have only chosen sets that are detailed, non-'cartoony' and have a consistent quality to all ships.)
I was planning to upload these, but during battle testing I notice that killed ships often had explosions around, not on the ships. Not a major issue, but strange nonetheless.
With a bit of investigation I discovered that this is actually controlled by the Base Model Radius (some of you may remember an earlier discussion I had with Ender and Kwok over the function of this).
Making sure the model is properly centered and the BMR is appropriately tight makes the explosion and damage graphics much more accurate.
Its a bit time consuming to correct, but I am getting pretty damn good with the ShipSetViewer, so it shouldn't take me too long to get em all done.
At the same time I am also fixing any problems with firing point and engine glows.
It will be nice to finally have a set of consistent and properly set up ships.
Especially at a more esthetically fitting scale. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
I tried that ModelSizer a while ago and found it not that useful and a bit basic.
ShipSetViewer takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get your head around the syntax it is really pretty useful and powerful, and it allows me to compare a number of shipsets at once for easier comparison.
It also allows me to fix problems with engine glare, and firing points at the same time.
I don't expect that its likely to be such a monster download, as each empire basically only needs the small flag sets and the XFileClasses.txt. Not more than a few hundred KB per race.
For some of the races though I have done some texture recolors to make the sets more stylistically consistent, and made replacement Race portraits to replace some of the dodgier low-res screen grabs. I
I may upload these also if there is interest, but will probably put those as a separate upload. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
I've actually been pondering this quite a bit in Warp 10 Mod. The shipset I'm using for the Vidiians, Interstellar Concordium, is noticably smaller than the others. Back to top
I've actually been pondering this quite a bit in Warp 10 Mod. The shipset I'm using for the Vidiians, Interstellar Concordium, is noticably smaller than the others.
Yeah, often major scale inconsistencies with addon shipsets. You can fix that with ShipSetViewer.
That set also needs some major work on the Engine glows, as they are well out of alignment. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
As I mentioned earlier I was looking into the mechanics of changing the shield effects.
I made a new graphic with an electric blue look and some pulsing energy and lightning effects, but when I tried to get it in the game the colors were all strange neon shades, unrelated to the image I had created.
This reminded me that the graphic I have been using up to now is actually also blue, but as you can see in previous screenshots it is green.
This had me stumped for a while, but after a bit of digging and experimenting it seems that the final color is a relation between the alpha channels of the Shield image, related to the image and/or RGB settings of the particular weapon.
What this means is that with a bit of fine tuning its possible to get different color effects on shield hits for different weapon attacks.
Here, for example is the shield in the intended blue color resisting an APB.
Shortly after that hit, the Amarr ship returned fire with a ripper beam, resulting in a very different energy dissipation effect on the Gorn Shields.
This one shows the shield sustaining a hit from a Depleted Uranium shell.
One thing I hadn't realized before is that the graphic for shield hits from missiles or bolt weapons does not travel with the ship.
A few moments after this picture the fading energy pattern had fallen behind the cruiser.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with these effects, and plan to include them when I upload the reduced size shipsets.
<EDIT>
I have been playing around with a sort of Hex pattern on the shields. Here is an example of a recent, but rapidly fading APB hit using this effect.
Opinions? SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Very nice, Not that you likely want to take the time but why not play with the weapons too? You might be able to add a graphic of sparks or something. Also the hexagons would look better with a dark strip between them and radiating transparencies to make it like areas closer to the blast are absorbing more damage. Back to top
Is it possible to do shield effects that are different for each race? I have no idea how those work. I monkeyed with it last night but the results were underwhelming. My creation would work nicely for some races, but not most. Back to top
Is it possible to do shield effects that are different for each race? I have no idea how those work. I monkeyed with it last night but the results were underwhelming. My creation would work nicely for some races, but not most.
The base pattern of the shield is shared by all ships, though the color and any explosion effects are determined by the weapon.
All of the screenshots above use basically the same shield pattern (though the last one adds a hexagonal filter) but as you can see the final effect is actually quite different
If the different races use different weapons then its possible for them to have different final effects. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
I have just uploaded the most recent version (1.06) of the Black UI mod.
This corrects a number of graphic issues, including a major problem with tactical ground combat.
It also includes most of the tweaks mentioned in the threads above, including the red filter range circles.
The download features only graphic changes and should be compatible with any (non graphic altering) mods.
It does NOT include any of the small stellar or reduced size shipsets material (go to this thread for more development info on that).
http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopict-9413.html
Anyone here still play Starfury?
I dug it out over the holidays, and was shocked at how dated looked. I decided to see if I could do a bit of updating similar to this UI.
http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-67695.html#67695
Worth a look if you like your Space Empires from the seat of a Captain's battle chair, rather than an Emperor's throne. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
I know i am a bit late on posting my thank you to you, Gurachn, I have had SEV shelved for a few years .. But just installed the black UI last night. Love it! Really gave a new breath to SEV. Thanks a bunch for taking the time out to do that. Back to top
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Star Trek has a LOT of those. 
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