Tweaked the range rings a bit.
Increased the resolution by 50% which gives a slightly finer line, and reduced the shading by 50% making it a bit more subtle.
The shot below shows that the range shading is almost invisible for an individual ship (as can be seen on the periphery), but clearly shows the heavy overlapping fire of the fighter screen and core ships.
This version seems to give almost no fps hit on my machine.
I've also been playing around a fair bit with the background starfield trying to find a level which is visible, but very unobtrusive.
I am pretty happy with this version.
The stars are clearly clearly visible, but don't distract from the ships. This is really important using the reduced scale shipsets so that missiles and flak bursts aren't obscured by too much background fuzz.
In this scene I am using a very tight formation (6x6) for the ships in the lead taskforce, and the light cruiser and central frigate have risen.
With the half-sized models though the rise is much reduced and they still maintain a good looking formation with tremendous PD overlap.
There is still very noticeable rise in the fighter CAP though, and reducing the size of the ships tends to make fighters look a bit big.
I haven't yet figured out how to reduce the sprite size for units in combat, as the Ships_XFileClasses files only seem to deal with the 3d models.
Still, I can definitely live with slightly larger fighters to gain the other benefits of the reduced scale ships. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Managed to sort out the fighter size issue
It turns out the sprite size can be varied by changing the size of the non-black image on the unit combat textue.
Here I have shrunk my G'Urak fighters to match the reduced scale shipset. The stock CueCappa fighters look a bit bloatedly large by comparison.
Its is even possible to reduce the size of the fighters, without losing any of the resolution! By copying the stock image and pasting it onto a double sized canvas you can have it show up in game at full res, with only half the in-game size.
Zooming in on those incredibly tiny fighters shows that they have a fair bit of detail.
Unfortunately, unlike with the ship models, reducing the size doesn't seem to have any effect on the stacking issue. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Had an opportunity to see how the halfscale ships and the shaded ranged rings look in a large scale battle recently.
Even with several hundred ships and hundreds of fighters, 'rising' never became a problem.
In fact, imo the rising that did occur added a 3 dimensional feel to the battle.
Overall, I think the changes make the battle much more cinematic, and go a long way towards sprucing up the look of this old game.
Absolutely fantastic stuff, my compliments!
But I'm a bit confused, what is the most recent version of this super minimalistic UI? And what do I have to do to make it work like on the screenshots? Back to top
Downloaded & tried on my creaking Vista system. No problems so far, very nice.
Domo
Just had a nasty crash on my SEV, had to rebuild everything from scratch.
When I tried re-downloading this link, it failed. Has it been superceded by a newer one? Back to top
My crash was not related to this add on, something else I was messing with.
I've had it installed since my original post on this thread & it's been stable. Back to top
This UI is absolutely fantastic, it really disposes of the irritating stock look, and thus solving one of my gripes with SE V. Yeah!
I'm implementing everything in this thread step by step working onwards from version 1.05 of the Black UI.
- On page three Gurachn mentions reducing all ship size by 50% and reducing beam weapons by 80%. How do I do that, which file(s) do I need to edit?
- Also a bit later he mentions reducing the fighters to match the reduced ships, again; how do I do that?
- And what about the shield thingies? Has he increased them is size of reduced them as well (also which file(s) to edit)?
Hey Timstone,
Glad you like the UI.
To reduce ship size you need to open the (race name)_Ships_XFileClasses.txt and cut the "Starting scale X/Y/Z" values by 50%.
This works for capital ships, but fighter use sprites rather than 3D models in tactical combat so for them you need to reduce the size of the fighter image (top right) by about 50% in the (Race name)_Unit_Combat_Texture.bmp.
As for the shield and beam effects, as I recall correctly they are all found in the BitmapEffects_SpaceCombat.txt
I had originally intended to package all this stuff up and upload it, but there didn't seem to be a lot of interest, and then RL struck.
Good luck and have fun! SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Cool an answer from the master himself!
Thanks for the tips, since I got Space Marine 40k I haven't fooled around with SE V anymore, so I forgot all about the settings.
A bit of a shame there isnt any more demand/interest for this wonderfull UI. It really aleviates a few of the (many) mistakes in this game.
Hmm... quite laborious proces for reducing the ships. Ah well, no pain, no game.
You also modified the overlapping targeting rings during combat (the red ones), how, what, where?
*Timstone goes off to kill a few more orks and making a wishlist for SE VI* Back to top
I'm pretty sure I did reduced size ship sets for all the stock races and a bunch of the cooler extra ones. Its actually not that big a job. The tricky bit is fine tuning the non-stock ship sizes so they look good in comparison to the rest.
As for the targeting rings, that, along with a lot of other interesting stuff is all in the pictures... folders, irc.
I'm afraid I'm a bit caught up with RL stuff at the moment, but give me a little while and I will dig out the old stuff I have and upload it. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
What, not posting! Grr... everyone should post. And thus increasing the userbase of this fantastic game and to compel Aaron to produce another SE (or equivalent).
Yeah, it isn't that difficult to adjust all the ship sizes, but you do have to do all the shipsets you're using.
Thanks for the other pointers.
Good luck with RL, hopefully you're able to post something any time soon.
Top notch! Back to top
Its taking me a bit longer than expected to make the promised updates, but here is the status.
A while back I did reduced scale (50%) shipsets for all the major races and a bunch of the cooler addon ones, basically just by going through each ships XFileClasses.txt and doing the math. I was intending to upload those, but thought I would start up a quick game to check that the scales came out right in game.
Unfortunately, I soon realized there was a potential problem.
Addon shipsets can be all over the place in terms of ship size, and even the stock sets have some shocking inconsistancies. Some had ships that were more than 10x as big as the stock ones! It can really look a bit silly, and difficult to get an idea of ship class during a battle if the sizes ar so far off.
So I started from scratch on converting all the sets. Luckily I found that the ShipSetViewer (awesome utility) allows you to open multiple sets at the same time, so by using one set as a benchmark, I could open the others one at a time and change the sizes so that all were consistant.
It's a bit time consuming, but fairly easy as long as you don't also have to make any adjustments to the ships position, firing points or engine glows (which unfortunately is often necessary with non-stock sets).
Definitely worth it though. The smaller ships just make the battles so much more cinematic. The scale just feels better, not to mention that it removes most of the 'rising' issue in larger battles.
Here's a taste:
"...attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate..."
I should have the stock races plus a number of the cooler, more detailed addon sets ready to upload next week.
Along with these I will include smaller flags, unobtrusive info icon sets, smaller fighters, and in some cases revised race portraits.
Oh, and I will probably upload a final version of the Black UI also. This will feature a few fixes, a few new images (death to the schnorkel-smurf cannons!), revised shield visual effects, finer weapon beams, and the red filter range circles. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Wow, absolutely fantastic!
It's looking great so far. And there I was, thinking the conversions of allt he shipsets was a bit timeconsuming...
I can't wait until you finish the whole Black UI. Keep up the good work, I'm following this thread with a lot of enthusiasm. Back to top
Wow, absolutely fantastic!
It's looking great so far. And there I was, thinking the conversions of allt he shipsets was a bit timeconsuming...
I can't wait until you finish the whole Black UI. Keep up the good work, I'm following this thread with a lot of enthusiasm.
Ok a few more pics...
Shrinking the ships in combat also makes them smaller on the map screen.
At first I saw this as a problem and tried (unsuccessfully) to fix it, but especially with the smaller planets, I think this also adds a somewhat nicer sense of scale to the systems.
Looking at some of my previous screens with ships firing Anti-Proton beams it struck me as a bit off that they should be green.
It seemed to me that based on their component pic they should be more blue, so I changed the image to a bluer, and finer beam.
This Phong destroyer gets a first hand opportunity to appreciate the new scalpel-tight precision of the weapon.
I am thinking to add this to the UI update pack.
Thoughts? SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
Second: flowing beam weapons...
1) Use wider beams again
2) Have 90% of the beam graphic be transparent, so they're about the same visible width as you have now.
3) Add 'features' to the beam using the extra texture space available. Wider pulses, wiggles, rings around the core beam, etc.
4) Sequence the animation to move the features rapidly down the beam.
Third:
Consider changing shield generators into giving armor points and armor regen.
Then have armor be high hitpoint internals which you can place at the edges of your design so it is hit first.
Technically having no "shield" points allows you to put MUCH nicer impact effects on your beam weapons.
Eg:
http://imagemodserver.dyndns.org/other/MM/SE5/Screenshots/Electroflare.png
The hull-hit effect above is composed of a mixture of flares-in-random-directions and expanding rings. Since the beam maintains contact for a while, it generates a few of all the possible effects, for a unique flare each time.
The flares are also specific to the beam weapon doing the attack, so that fighter's red beam shooting north generates a red splash, not cyan.
By contrast, if you have even 1 measly shield point at the time of initial impact, then you only get the same old shield effect no matter what weapon is used. Back to top
Three effects for your consideration:
First: Reactor breach lightbeams on death, such as...
Second: flowing beam weapons...
Third:
Consider changing shield generators into giving armor points and armor regen...
1. Nice! How do you do it?
2. There are already a lot of beams like this in the stock set, no?
3. Nice effect, but I'm not sure I want to make major revisions to the way components actually work.
I think it's possible to get a similar shimmery effect using the current sheild ani's, but unfortunately as you say they'd be the same for all weapon hit types.
Zwo_Dvoongar wrote:
You must make peace with the Gorn at once! At once, I tell you!
Ha, Gorn lover!
If they keep away from systems we desire, they won't have to be exterminated like the reptoid scum they are!
I notice that you don't shed any tears for the poor Phong!
Quote:
Stuff looks good, really good.
Is it okay to switch mid-game?
Yeah, fine.
Changes to the graphic elements have no impact on games in progress. I am constantly monkeying about with this elements, regardless of whatever games I have going, with no troubles.
Update:
The most recent monkeying has been to increase beam speed and reduce duration. The stock version makes lasers look like garden hoses, with their long lazy streams meandering through space. By reducing duration 10x and increasing speed 10x, you get Anti-Protons that flash like diamond scalpels.
A very much more realistic and nasty looking effect.
I'm also tweaking the smoke and explosion effects to make them a bit smaller and less intrusive.
My aim is to get space battles closer to what you can see in the movies, and less like the cartoons.
Ah, yes, one other minor change.
I tidied up the Planet Status Icons a bit by making the background pure black.
Along with the minimalist Flag textures I think it gives a very clean, but still functional look.
This image also shows a slightly revised starfield. My old one was just a subdued version of the stock, and it looked a bit bluish.
This one is adaped from a hubble telescope shot, so it has a better dynamic range.
I toned down the levels so its much less distracting, but still recognizably 'spacey'. SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets
Last edited by gurachn on Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:39 am; edited 2 times in total Back to top
the way I see it the shield hit graphic represents what the SHIELD looks like, not what the beam is.
Makes sense.
I am thinking of changing the shield graphic though.
I'm finding my current version a bit regular.
It's about 16 separate frames so in additition to expanding, shrinking and changing intensity, it would be possible to add flashes or striations, to show the crackling and dissipating energies.
Can anyone point me out any images or vids I could use as a possible model?
Any cool versions from movies, TV, etc? SEV Visual Mods:
Black UI Reduced Size Shipsets Back to top
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