DS2 effects

I don't know of any tutorials for the new effect system. What little bit I could decipher from the codes was how to alter the color/alpha/scale of different settings. Can also see where you apply resistance/gravity to the particles/beams and how to attach the effects to the mesh but I'm a LONG way from understanding all of it.

Since I have a need for some effects that aren't in the game I'll have to document what I find out as I go along.

I need to be able to create ambient effects (used with emitter gizmos for things like water drips, blowing sand etc.) as well as adding them to actors and objects, so I'll cover all those (if it all works!)

Effect modding in DS2 is quite tricky - me too i sadly never have found any documentation.
Although i have modified/recycled effects a couple of times i'm still very insecure about the guessed meaning of some commands and their parameters...

So the most easiest thing is to take an existing effect and to try to adjust it as good as possible.
Indeed water dips should already exist eg. in the mysterious cave in the Northern Greilyn jungle and also blowing sand or hay should appear eg. in the Azunite desert - however the emitters used have rather high lodfi settings normally so it's important to set the details slider above ~80% to see these effect ingame.

OK, time to confess what I'm up to.

I'm attempting to put a region of my Lara map underwater.

I have some swimming animations done, figured out a way to select the swin animations instead of walking ones, and now I'm working on moods and ambient stuff. So I need a "stream of rising bubbles" effect that I can attach to the character or to various other items. I also want a major bubble release for when a chest is opened, that will probably have to be a separate effect, not just a parameter change on the first one. It should just need a particle emitter that creates random sphere particles that then expand as they rise. Adding a slight spiral to the upward path with random direction should finish it off.

To go with this, I also need a mood that has a greenish/bluish light and muffled sound (with bubbles!), but I think I can work that part out from the many examples in the game.

I plan on keeping the animations to a minimum by avoiding any underwater combat and just doing a maze-type flooded dungeon. That also avoids the need to swin up or down, just parallel to the floor - which could have ramps. With a door that is is locked to anyone not wearing a complete set of scuba gear, and the inventory disabled while in the underwater area so it can't be taken off, I think it can all be done within the scope of the existing engine.

I need to check out the ambient fish to see if they'll need any changes to share the same nodes as the character, and maybe add some variants. They are used in the lake at the foot of the falls in Eirulan, for example, which is an area the player can't wade in, so I'm not certain if they have any special properties that let them move there, or if they're just on the far side of a barrier in an area that is "walkable" if only you could enter it.

Swaying weeds should be adaptable from the tree examples. Some foliage may even work in an underwater scene without change. A totally flooded node is just the same as a dry one, there's no water surface in either, but the entry/exit node(s) will need a water surface that can reach over the character's head, so I'll probably have to make at least one new node for the transition.

Can anyone see any problems I haven't thought of?

The spell "Spirit Embrace" features rising spheres, though they are somewhat purplish and rather slow.

The raising bubbles effect should be realizable, however if you can't find pleasant existing effects to modify or combine this may be quite time consuming - hopefully you have a good intuition for these things...

Fishes - i can't imagine that they will make serious problems. You should be able to place them where required, they will swimm then by default (swimming is their default/idle animation).
Probably you just have to add lf_hover as terrain movement permission. This is required to make them swimming (a bit higher) above ground (not all fish template have this set already).

To enjoin the player from using/opening the inventory: There is indeed a skrit command RCSetCanManipulateInventory() but i never have used it so far, thus not sure what all is restricted (changing spells, picking up items, ...)
Alternatively you could drown the player's char when taking off any piece of the gear gear/set and if still in an underwater-node/-area (this would be a nice lesson not to do this again :evil:).
By the way, it would be maybe a good idea to spend some thoughts too how to treat the teleportation spell.

About all the node related things in your plan i can't say anything - i'm so bearish handling nodes...

However, good luck! - all that sound like a really funny idea!

MP restricts inventory manipulation when the character is a ghost, so I should be able to get the same limitations for a swimming one. I just hope that doess not include opening chests. The "reward" is planned to be a quest item, which appears in the Journal, rather than the inventory.

Town Portal spell may get eliminated from the map anyway. I've already removed the teleporter nodes from the region maps I've re-used, and left only a small number of teleport links between unconnected regions, some of which I may even replace with elevators later (which are really very similar). DS1 got along fine without the teleports by having merchants along the road, so you didn't always need to return to town for supplies. I think I prefer the old way.

Drowning the character would require an underwater version of the die animation, which is more work.

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Giovanna, I found a piece of effect script labelled "bubbles" in the Aquatic Embrace cast effect (just below the Spirit Embrace in the file) which appears to be very close to what I need, except for the cylindrical pattern. Thanks for pointing me close!

Three words: scuba tank ornament.
^^

I already changed her shield grip to the middle of her back for the backpack, so the Scuba Tank is another "shield" to her (and shows equipped in that slot). Mask = helmet, fins = boots as usual.

And I already made them, and created the templates, and tried her out, swiiming and equipped, in DS Animation viewer.

There should be an image attached, but right now I can't see it, so I've also posted a copy at http://dslcv1-458.fast.net/ds/images/lara_scuba_test.jpg You should be able to recognise the location from the mini-map.

Makes sense, and looks good. I said ornament because I was thinking about a nice wet-suit / scuba tank combo (like the quiver ornament on armor)... but I guess that wouldn't work too well with your separation of shirt / shorts.

The problem with ornaments in general is that you have limited ability to use them independently. They are great for adding details to an NPC, where you can add an ornament directly to the template, or enhancing an armor, so it's really a different mesh than the base one, but those two are all you can do.

If I made the tank an ornament of a wet suit, then it could only be used with the wet suit, and unless there was a separate template for a wet suit without tank, it would always be worn when the suit was worn. You can only have an ornament on body armor, although the ornament can be applied to the head hands or feet, it is equipped/removed with the body armor.

There's no provision for an ornament in inventory, or in the paperdoll slots. When I first noticed the quivers, I tried for a while to find a way to put on/take off a quiver, but I had to give up. The number of replaceable submeshes seems to be built into the engine too much to allow further separation of the armor. FWIW I tried using ornaments and paired templates as a way of separating shirt from shorts, but the complications of not having ornaments supported by the paperdoll UI proved too big a hurdle. I imagine a DSDLL could do it, but I took the easier way and stole the amulet slot.