Tags: °texture °MTL °SS2
Old version (19 frames):

Image: http://piclair.com/data/uy6wt.jpg

Version 3. 70 frames:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNCPLeuNfz0

version 4. Like version 3 but processed further, less transparent, darker, a bit more "hectic".

Image: http://piclair.com/data/ucxo1.jpg

"vanilla inspired version". 30 frames, 512x512:

Image: http://piclair.com/data/nn3ow.jpg

version 5 (30 frames, 512x512. fairly slow moving, most realistic looking version yet). *updated, should now animate more smoothly*

Image: http://piclair.com/data/krnn1.jpg

Pool Water (resource for mods)

Image: http://piclair.com/data/vqc6t.jpg

frame resolution? you mean the texture size? 256x256.

Added version 3 and a youtube link to how it looks.

frame resolution? you mean the texture size? 256x256.

Then YOU mean "70 textures of animation". 

is it just me, or is something dithery going on with the latest waters? it's like they are not rendered in 32bit or something. linking png screenshot.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6HbtMBk0pYzWVh2VFZzbno0bzg

is it just me, or is something dithery going on with the latest waters? it's like they are not rendered in 32bit or something. linking png screenshot.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6HbtMBk0pYzWVh2VFZzbno0bzg

I think it's because i've darkened the hell out of the textures.. unfortunately this adds artifacts, it doesnt go well together with the transparency. Imo it's no big deal unless you really study it in very close detail. I could also try saving the textures with interpolated alpha, dont know if it would help.

Edit: try V5.. i couldnt spot any artifacts in that one.. it came out pretty good, probably the most realistic version yet.

ZB: "frame resolution" sounded pretty damn strange that's all, wasnt sure you really meant the textures or something entirely different (like a value in the .mtl or something). Can we move on?

Hey vurt, just wondering why you did set an animation rate in the .mtl files? I felt the default SS2/gamesys water animation rate was terrible, so I made sure both .mtl files had "force_ani_settings 1" then I added "ani_rate 60" to both and now the water animates smooth and natural. (this was with water v3)

Hmm, but it does for me. Using your water v3, I noticed that one of your .mtl files doesn't have the line "force_ani_settings 1" so I added it, as well as adding "ani_rate 60" to each. Try adding both of those lines to each of your .mtl files under /fam/waterhw and watch the magic happen. The water looks almost pixel-shader quality on my system now!

As ani_rate sets the animation rate in milliseconds, I've also experimented with ani_rate 30, ani_rate 100, etc. and ani_rate 60 seems to be the best balance. 30 was nice but just was too fast to feel natural.

I didn't realize that until now no one was seeing the same effect I achived last night. You seriously gotta see this in action, it makes a world of difference.

There's no difference between ani_rate 1 and ani_rate 600 when applying it to water, i've tested it numerous times. What you're seeing is most probably placebo. Has anyone else here tried it?

Oh, it's most definitely not placebo. When I set animation rate to 250 it's slow and jerky, and something like 60 or 30 and it animates really fast and smooth. I can tell you have a lot of other mods going on your machine so you might have a conflict somewhere that is creating the issue.

I should note that I have all my mods in a "\mods\ss2mods" folder and I then add this path to my cam_mod.ini file. For example, I put "mod_path mods\ss2mods" to enable all mods in this subfolder.

Don't reinstall just yet. Setting the animation rate for water does work. Post the MTL file you're using here, and/or try putting some other commands in it to verify that it's actually controlling the texture.

Don't forget that the material system allows multiple texture passes. So you can increase randomness by layering two texture sequences with a different frame count. But with that sort of thing comes the need to be aware of how much VRAM your animation is chewing up.

You aren't still using DDfix by any chance are you? At any rate, I hope you can figure it out. I'd like to see this water as you intended it.

Note from /doc/material-format.txt (not really for you vurt but some important info for all modders):
ani_rate <int>
--------------

    Animation rate, specified as milliseconds per frame, for animated textures. Default is 250.
    The "Texture Anim Data" property in DromEd overrides any material setting, unless "force_ani_settings" is
    set. If the texture isn't animated the parameter is ignored. This parameter only has an effect on objects
    where "Texture Anim Data" would also have an effect.

    Ex:
        ani_rate 33


There's then a whole bunch of sweet goodness in the render_pass { ... } section (covers all render passes, etc.)