FX & How Far You Can Push Them

[Spellbound]

Alright, quick question: can you get special effects the level of Dota2 in warcraft3? For example, Wisp's Guardiand Spirits are rather fancy. How viable are they?

*Discuss*

 

[Talavaj]

What exactly on the spirits ? The trail ?
That can be done with ribbon emitter and if I understand ribbons right it can be animated to distort its thickness, transparency and color, so getting a fluttering rainbowy trail is possible I think.
You would have to ask Blink for more details or read more about the particular effect here.

 

[Spellbound]

Mainly the trail, but another concern is how taxing FX like that can be.

 

[Talavaj]

Not taxing at all, fancy ribbon emitters are very common. JASS spells that use many particles are way more taxing.

Abilities crushing wave/carrion swarm or charm have big ribbons, change a peasant model into those and drag it around in the editor to see how the ribbon goes.

 

[BlinkBoy]

all those effects are possible actualy. Using tail particle emitters and billboarded ribbon emitters.

 

[Spellbound]

Oh well that is good news then, not that I know how to make any of those, but it's good to know

 

[Callahan]

Nah not everything is possible.Dota 2 might use some technology that wc3 engine don't have.
You can always attempt to make a look-a-like effect with what you have in wc3 engine but it won't be as good.
Many Dota 2 effect use physics engine like a cape or a mantle or wisp tentacle that react to unit movement that is not possible in mdl format.
Shadow mapping that project on the ground real time shadow the shape of the unit.

You can attempt to reproduct these effect with triggers and script but it has nothing to do with modeling then.

 

[Spellbound]

Well reaching anything close to what DotA2 effects are like would still be pretty amazing.