The one thing that I think SC:FA does WORSE than SC is the graphics effects (explosions, lasers, etc.). Some of these SC:FA effects are incredibly glitchy and look horrible when viewed from certain angles or at a distance (regardless of your graphics card or graphics settings).

I'm in the process of modding out these graphical glitches but it's painstaking work.

After doing more work, I'm starting to see a trend. It looks like all the cloud graphics effects dds files are glitchy to some extent of another.

Why GPG would use such glitch graphical effects files is beyond me. While these cloud effects look great when viewed close up, they look horrible as blocky glitched graphics when viewed a certain angles and distances.

Because as you'd been told before(I think), its not that they are glitchy for everyone, just specific card configurations. I know I've never seen it with the 3 cards I've used over the last 5 years.

Mike

I'm using a Gigabyte Windforce Nvidia GTX 670 with the latest drivers. I previously had a Sapphire ATI HD 5850 with the latest drivers.

I saw the same graphics glitches with both graphics cards.

While it's certainly not impossible, I find it highly improbable that 2 different graphics cards from 2 different companies, 2 different chipsets, and spanning a couple of generations of upgrades would produce identical graphics glitches. In this case, I believe it's the SC:FA code, NOT the graphics cards.

Perhaps you aren't viewing the units from the specific viewing angles and distances to see the glitches.

Here are 2 cases that you can try (use SC:FA v3603, with or without Community BugFix Mod):

1. Watch the UEF T2 fighter/bomber (Janus) bomb its targets with its heavy napalm cluster bombs from a ground level perspective medium to far distance away from the target. The napalm fire and smoke produce black squares which gradually give way into fire as you move closer to the impact area.

2. Watch the Cybran T2 Shield Structure as it upgrades to ED3 and higher from a ground level perspective medium to far distance away from the shield structure. The electrical discharge from the emitters produce white squares which gradually way into electrical discharges as you move closer to the shield structure.

Here is a short video which illustrates the 2 test cases I mentioned earlier along with my modded glitch fixes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22WwkA7- ... e=youtu.be

I for 1, would like a mod for these fixes Much more appealing.

I have to agree...

I noticed the glitches too. Concerning the mod it seems LordMang is allready working on it... :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2saF6_ipf9s

Thanks guys! I'm more than happy to share my graphics glitch fixing mod with you all and the community once I'm finished. There are lots of glitches to be corrected.

While it's possible that the glitches are graphics card-related, I'm not entirely convinced that is the case, as I've used several graphics cards and STILL got these graphics glitches in SC:FA.

I think it's possible that those who never got the graphics glitch MIGHT not have viewed the action from certain angles or distances, which causes the glitches to crop up.

Here is a short video showing 2 more graphics glitches that I fixed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcEy7CI ... e=youtu.be

* The Monkeylord's microwave laser emitter has a glitch so I removed it completely. I also replaced it's laser beam with one that's less glitchy when viewed at long range.

* The Fatboy's gauss cannon shells' trails were glitchy so I replaced them with another trail effect, as well as shortening and widening them. This makes the salvos look much more dramatic and glitch-free. I was going for the effect that you see when the Battlestar Galactica (from the re-imagined series) fires its cannon salvos at incoming Cylon fighters or basestars.

I also fixed the glitch in the shell impact effects (caused black squares to appear within the smoke) with one that is glitch-free and looks much more destructive.

Here is a short video showing 2 more graphics glitches that I fixed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmompqlw ... e=youtu.be

* The UEF Janus T2 fighter/bomber had a glitch with its napalm bomb that caused dark squares when viewed from a certain angle and distance. I fixed it and also increased the visibility of its bomb contrails.

The difference is night and day.

* The Aeon Colossus had a glitch with its tractor claws that caused light colored rectangles when viewed from a certain angle and distance. I fixed it and also improved the look of the Colossus' main Phason laser by replacing its choppy look with one that's more refined and streamlined.

Hm, the fix somehow looks worse, it appears the actual shells are not visible anymore?

Thanks for the feedback.

The shells are definitely still there but the viewer's attention is probably drawn by the shells' contrails, which I made stand out more than the original contrails.

I'll experiment with shortening the contrails to see if it makes the salvos appear more "shell-like". I'm against completely removing the new contrails however, as without them, the original shells were not easily seen in-game unless you were up close to the action.

Based on your feedback, I experimented a bit and shortened the contrails by 25%. This gives the salvos a bit more of a shell-look to them and lessens their previous howitzer-look. The effect is subtle but still achieves its goal. However, I won't revert the shells back to their vanilla state, as the shells were almost invisible when viewed from a distance.

Here is a short YouTube video which illustrates the changes (the new version is labeled "Mod 1":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRzVUuo ... e=youtu.be


Although, I didn't state it previously, the goal of my graphics glitch mod is to make SC:FA as visually stunning as possible from any viewing angle persepctive and distance. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I'm sure not everyone will agree with my conceptualization. Still, I'm always open to feedback and criticism.

I agree that the original version of the Fatboy's projectiles in FA is somewhat unimpressive. I like the new trail you made , but why not include the shell itself as well? To me it currently looks more like a blurry, slow energy weapons, rather than a ballistic projectile.

The shell is definitely still there. I didn't remove the shell or alter it in any way.

Regrettably, I don't know how to create a larger, more noticeable shell. It seems that the only way to do so is by creating a larger shell model from scratch, as I don't believe the size of the shell is dictated by simple script parameters.

I think the shell size is actually determined in the Projectiles BP

Thank you! I was wrong and stand corrected. I can now change the size of the shell without creating a new model.


Thanks to your suggestion, I found the code parameter UniformScale in the TDFGauss04-proj.bp file in the '/projectiles/TDFGauss04 folder.


Thank you again for the advice and help!

The SC:FA modding community is fantastic. I really wish I'd been more active in modding back when everyone else was still modding SC:FA. It would have been a lot of fun to be working with all of you as you were creating all your fantastic mods.

This short YouTube video shows the latest glitch fixing changes to the UEF Fatboy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAA_tcMK ... e=youtu.be


I increased the shell's size by a factor of 3. This was the largest size without the shell looking too large for the gauss cannon's muzzle. The new shell's size makes it look much more substantial than the original shell's pea-sized shape.

My thanks again to Spooky for sharing his feedback and Brandon for pointing me in the right direction to give the shell's a larger size.

awesome!

Thank you!

Here is a short YouTube video of the modified Soul Ripper with the glitchy graphics effects removed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIB5Rt5m ... e=youtu.be


* As with the other units, I tried to remove the "cartoonish" colors and replace them with more real-life/realistic graphics.

* I enlarged the Soul Rippers ground rockets and AA missiles so that you can actually see the rockets now (as I did with the Fatboy's cannon shells).

* I enhanced the AA missile contrails so that you can actually see them much better now. Previously, the contrails were so faint that it was hard to see them unless you were zoomed in closely. The aircraft looked as if they were only dancing with each other.

It's amazing how the dogfights look so much more realistic once you can see the AA missile contrails. I took some inspiration from this short YouTube video clip of part of a movie:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6Zh7O6 ... e=youtu.be


Thanks again to the community for the feedback that you've shared.

Just a question: what are all your graphics settings set to?

Hi, I have SC-FA set to the highest graphics setting levels possible when I play, but not for the purposes of these videos (reduces the FRAPS video sizes).

My GPU is a Gigabyte Windforce Nvidia GTX 670 (with the latest drivers) and my CPU is an overclocked i7-920.

I may overclock my 670 one day but for now it has all the power I need for the games I play the most (SC-FA, BFBC2, BF3).

You are using the word "glitchy" wrong or too often . In many cases there don't seem to be any actual "glitches" with the original effects? By which I don't mean that they do not look better after your changes.

Also I have never seen a Czar beam effect that looks that bad, like in one of your videos above. I didn't know it could get so bad on some systems.



I like the changes on the Soul Ripper, my only complaint would be, that you cannot distinguish between missiles trails of the Iridium Rocket Pack and the trail of the Heavy Electron Bolter as easily now. The latter should stay red, imho.