Hardcoded Geoset Anim Alphas?

[JetFangInferno]

I'm trying to edit the Thunderclap effect's lightning. For the lightning's geoset animation, I'm trying to increase the alpha to 1.0 instead of somewhere around 0.75. I know that by giving the lightning a dark purple tint the lightning would become less visible because it is additive and dark = invisible. It seems that the geoset anim alpha is hardcoded. In magos, whenenver I changed the value of the alpha, it would reset to the same number even when I saved it and reopened the model. I tried converting the mdx to mdl and editing it from there but when i reconverted the mdl to mdx, it came up with a bunch of errors. Is there any way around this problem?

 

[General Frank]

I'm trying to edit the Thunderclap effect's lightning. For the lightning's geoset animation, I'm trying to increase the alpha to 1.0 instead of somewhere around 0.75. I know that by giving the lightning a dark purple tint the lightning would become less visible because it is additive and dark = invisible. It seems that the geoset anim alpha is hardcoded. In magos, whenenver I changed the value of the alpha, it would reset to the same number even when I saved it and reopened the model. I tried converting the mdx to mdl and editing it from there but when i reconverted the mdl to mdx, it came up with a bunch of errors. Is there any way around this problem?

You might try using notepad, because Magos cannot save geoset anims with alphas neither can save texture animations. It will look like you Magos have saved it correctly, but the truth is it doesn't.

 

[JetFangInferno]

Hmm, seems like I got it to work now Thanks.

 

[HappyTauren]

Keep in mind: to make good geosetanim alpha, click "animated" and then enter the value, this way it wont get borked when you save. Also, to go below 0.75 transparency, you need a material layer that uses blending render mode.

 

[JetFangInferno]

Does this apply to particles as well? For example, additive particles can't be seen under 75% alpha?

 

[HappyTauren]

no, this doesnt affect particles, but NEVER USE "ADD ALPHA" particles, they can either crash the game, not show up at all, or look shitee'. In fact, they don't exist at all, but magos thinks they do.
Since particles use 255 - based system (with zero being the absolute zero and 255 being the max) it doesnt affect them.

 

[JetFangInferno]

Well, I'm having so problems with a model I've been working on. It uses a ton of XY-Quad particles but only a certain amount of them show up. Is there any explanation for this?

 

[HappyTauren]

XY Quads count as normal unbilborded polygons when rendering, thus not all are rendered.

 

[JetFangInferno]

So is there a solution?

 

[HappyTauren]

Kind of, but you would have to use multiple models, executed via particle emitters 1... that would suck...

 

[JetFangInferno]

That's just lame So is there a limit to how many XY-Quad Particles one could use in a model? I used over 10 I think in my model but only 3-4 showed up.

 

[HappyTauren]

Hmm.... what about this, make 30 so 10 would show up? I know it sounds idiotic, but try it.

 

[JetFangInferno]

So you mean I should duplicate my particles multiple times? That doesn't really sound feasible. I think I'll try the Particle 1 method but when entering the path to the .mdl, what path do I use? Something alone the lines of MyModel.mdl or war3mapImported/MyModel.mdl or the exact directory in my folder like D:/Warcraft/...etc?

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

This is total madness. XYQuads don't display because Magos' is borked or whatever; take a real XYQuad emitter from in-game (I like the spellbreaker feedback effect) and poke at it slowly and carefully and all will be well. Be sure to note down what you did if/when it goes awry, though.

 

[JetFangInferno]

Ok the strange thing is that the model I'm using has no XY-Quads at all yet around 3-4 of them show up. The only problem for me to use something like the feedback effect is that I'm not only working with particles but also working with geosets. I'm very poor at geoset merging so I won't know how to transfer the geosets over to the feedback effect. Perhaps if RDZ or HappyTauren could help me with the geoset transferring. However, I wish for the model to be transferred via private message because it is one of my unfinished works and I don't want people to see it yet.