Hi,

I noticed something strange. When a bomb explodes near water, the crater doesn't appear at all.

I set the crater size to 5x, not sure if that's a problem.

That is normal, yes. Basically if the crater is supposed to hover over water, it won't form at all. I didn't even add this, this is just a feature of the game. Though scaling it up does increase its hitbox to collide with the water, preventing its generation. I had to choose between preventing it from spawning, or it overlaying water and looking extremely goofy, so I went with the former. I can make an option that disables this though. I'll work on that now.

Okay, thanks for the anwser :)

If you are able to do a setting for it that would be great, but no pressure.

It's already done, just update the mod!

Oh wow, what responsiveness!

Unfortunately, 0.9.8 brings more problems than it solves :/

Now, whether the new option is enabled or not, the visual glitches during the explosion and nothing is displayed in the top left quarter...
If the option is enabled *(after checking, this also happens without the check mark), when the centre of the crater moves off the screen, the crater disappears completely and reappears as soon as you get closer...

I've also noticed that the decorations aren't necessarily removed from the crater area. It looks strange to have tufts of green grass in the still-smoking crater.

All of this creates a lot of visual ‘clutter’. I don't know enough about mooding to know if it's possible to fix this or if the way the game works is limited.

when the centre of the crater moves off the screen, the crater disappears completely and reappears as soon as you get closer...

That is how the game works. Unfortunately there's not a single thing I can do about that one. Basically once the collision box is off screen, it's going to blink out of existence. I would recommend lowering the crater scale, or increasing the collision hitbox (I'm pretty sure that affects rendering) so that it stays on screen more easily. Factorio will stop rendering things that the collision box isn't visible from, since that's a waste of resources. The crater is no different.

Now, whether the new option is enabled or not, the visual glitches during the explosion and nothing is displayed in the top left quarter...
If the option is enabled *(after checking, this also happens without the check mark)

I am struggling to understand this part. What's not showing up in the top left corner, specifically? And what option are you talking about? I haven't been able to replicate this issue.

I've also noticed that the decorations aren't necessarily removed from the crater area. It looks strange to have tufts of green grass in the still-smoking crater.

I am assuming you are referring to the temporary particles that exist after impact. They do fade away after 5 seconds or so. Regardless, I did try to see if I could somehow remove that issue but... I don't know what's causing them to exist to begin with. I made the scorch mark display at the same layer as the cursor, that didn't get rid of them. There's nothing in the scorch mark or nuke prototype that generates any particles in any way, so I can't remove what's making them exist either. I have no idea what's causing this nor have I been able to figure out a solution. I've been trying since you posted. Stranger yet, they just don't exist if you disable scorch marks, despite scorch marks having nothing to do with their creation. I've triple checked their prototype!

To help I have taken precise screenshots to illustrate what I mean. With the settings used and each version number in the image name.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/5891e13c-7506-4306-9965-29e477566f4d

That is how the game works. Unfortunately there's not a single thing I can do about that one. Basically once the collision box is off screen, it's going to blink out of existence. I would recommend lowering the crater scale, or increasing the collision hitbox (I'm pretty sure that affects rendering) so that it stays on screen more easily. Factorio will stop rendering things that the collision box isn't visible from, since that's a waste of resources. The crater is no different.

OK, it's sad, but there's no way to change it, apparently. However, the crater remains visible from further away with 0.9.7 than with 0.9.9 at maximum hitbox. I don't know why.

I am struggling to understand this part. What's not showing up in the top left corner, specifically? And what option are you talking about? I haven't been able to replicate this issue.

The option I was referring to was the new hitbox size option, but whether it is enabled or not does not change the issue.

I use a mod to change the explosion animation (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/MushroomCloud2). With version 0.9.7 of your mod, the animation works correctly, but with subsequent versions there is this visual bug in the top left quarter (see screenshots). This mod has not had any version changes in the meantime, so the problem must come from the interaction with versions 0.9.8 and 0.9.9 of your mod. Without this animation mod, the vanilla explosion displays correctly with versions 0.9.8 and 0.9.9 of your mod.

I am assuming you are referring to the temporary particles that exist after impact. They do fade away after 5 seconds or so. Regardless, I did try to see if I could somehow remove that issue but... I don't know what's causing them to exist to begin with. I made the scorch mark display at the same layer as the cursor, that didn't get rid of them. There's nothing in the scorch mark or nuke prototype that generates any particles in any way, so I can't remove what's making them exist either. I have no idea what's causing this nor have I been able to figure out a solution. I've been trying since you posted. Stranger yet, they just don't exist if you disable scorch marks, despite scorch marks having nothing to do with their creation. I've triple checked their prototype!

No, I was talking about natural decorations on the ground, such as tufts of grass and small pebbles. And also tree stumps. Personally, I find it really unpleasant to look at (see screenshots).

However, unlike the first point, I think this one should be possible to fix, right? There are already mods that remove decorations when you place machines (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RealisticDecorationCleanup), so I imagine it must be possible to remove decorations within a radius around the explosion. A radius that could perhaps be proportional to the crater size setting?

For now I'll keep playing with 0.9.7 :)

You definitely should have led with the fact you were using a custom animation, hahaha. That would have helped me figure out how to fix this since it's working fine in vanilla.
That said, uh... I didn't change anything from 0.9.7 to 0.9.9 that should have made these visual bugs happen. Does it still happen when you keep the collision box at default size and have the option for setting a custom collision box size unchecked? I just went and double checked the code now as I typed this and I... legitimately do not see what else could have caused that to start happening other than the collision box modification (Though you did help me notice an unrelated bug that I patched out. Had nothing to do with this though.) I'll see what I can do, but if you could test that for me in the meantime to quicken the pace, I'd appreciate it. I know you said changing the settings didn't do anything, but it's always good to be thorough.

As for the collision box making it worse when it stops rendering off screen, that was only a theory of mine. If that doesn't control how it renders off screen, I genuinely don't know what does. I do know what renders off screen is baked into the game's code and you can't touch that. Or, at the very least, I can't find anything that says you can modify such.

Lastly, I didn't know that mod existed! I'll use it for a frame of reference to see if I can implement the desired effect you want.

Probably won't get on this today due to work. As long as you're satisfied using 0.9.7 for now then I'm pretty sure you won't see that as an issue.

You definitely should have led with the fact you were using a custom animation, hahaha.

Yes, that's for sure, oops. I didn't think of that right away :(

It's not good news for you, but I can confirm that in 0.9.9, with the hitbox option disabled, the visual bug on a quarter of the animation persists...

Probably won't get on this today due to work. As long as you're satisfied using 0.9.7 for now then I'm pretty sure you won't see that as an issue.

No of course it's not a problem, as I said no pressure :)
If you manage to implement this removal of decorations, that would be great, but there is absolutely no rush. You are already extremely fast !

Alright, I got some good news and some bad news!
The good news: I fixed the top left corner visual issue. I'm not sure why, but when I revamped the control.lua a bit, it fixed that issue. So yay!
The bad news: The mod you're using actually creates its own scorch mark that is separate from the built in one, while also keeping the ones I modify. The problem is that theirs is very big as they set the scale and collision size manually and it just overlays all the one the nuke would normally make. So if you use this mod, you can't use things like lifetime or scaling, unless I were to add an override specific for this mod. I don't know if you would like that.

The general news: now that that bug is figured out, I'm going to see what I can do about the decorations.

Hi,
I hope you're doing well.

I'm not sure I understand everything, but as long as it works, I'm fine with it ;)

So if you use this mod, you can't use things like lifetime or scaling

No, the option in your mod to scale the size of the crater image works for me.

Hi,
I hope you're doing well.

I'm not sure I understand everything, but as long as it works, I'm fine with it ;)

So if you use this mod, you can't use things like lifetime or scaling

No, the option in your mod to scale the size of the crater image works for me.
I can assure you it doesn't. Try it with your nuclear mod and have the visual scale set to 0.2, and don't shoot near water. It'll still be massive!

I can assure you it doesn't. Try it with your nuclear mod and have the visual scale set to 0.2, and don't shoot near water. It'll still be massive!

Okay, this is really weird...

Without your mod but with the other one, there is a tiny crater (diameter ~6 tiles) and radioactive soil (diameter ~26 tiles).

If both mods are active, there are actually two craters on top of each other. One that doesn't scale and one that does. This is particularly noticeable at x10.

When playing at x5, it suits me fine, as the duplicate isn't particularly noticeable. The problem for me was the visual issue.

The only thing that's strange is that your crater size for the nuke when you have mine disabled is that its that small. They scale the size of the mark by 4. Otherwise, nothing weird at all about that. The nuke mod you're using makes nukes create a new entity that it defines, that of which my values don't touch. That said, that nuke mod also doesn't get rid of the original scorch marks, aka the ones I modify. It just overlays them with its own scorch mark.

Alright, update is out. It should address everything you had issues with!

I tested it and unfortunately the decorations remain... The grass disappears shortly after the explosion, but the stumps remain. And yet, I checked the box for this new setting.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/94ae0075-e280-4176-8439-b8ab810c4b34

And also, I noticed a tiny error in the changelog: the date for 0.9.10 is incorrect ;)

I asked about the grass particles and you said that was not an issue! None of your screenshots show grass, either! Again, unless you meant the grass that covers it and then fades away shortly.
As for the tree stumps, have you tried shooting the same place twice? So there's a weird issue where if you shoot a bunch of trees, it clears them but the radius of the removed stumps seems preset, no matter what I do. If you shoot them again though, it does clear them. I tried to find a way around this, but I was unable to. I even delayed how long until the stump clear happens! So I don't think I can help with that issue, I am sorry.

EDIT: Never mind, I see what you mean with the grass. Augh, I just want to be done with this! Sorry haha, this has just been driving me up a wall a little bit. So I found a way to clear stumps as well, but it will look janky because basically, if I figured it out right, it happens because the stumps don't exist yet. The shockwave had yet to hit them. So the only way to fix that is to do a clear after the shockwave is over, which makes it look really weird because they all just visibly blink out of existence. If you're fine with it functioning like that, I'll add it. But I think it looks really awkward and not very good.

Sorry, it may also be my fault, I'm not very good at writing in English, it's not my language, so I use Deepl and probably not everything is translated perfectly.

What I call "grass" are all the little decorative elements that are on top of the tiles, such as small pebbles, bushes, and grass. I believe the game refers to these as "decoration" internally. Sorry if there was any confusion about that.

If you're fine with it functioning like that, I'll add it. But I think it looks really awkward and not very good.

If you already have the code written, I think you can put it in the settings. I'd like to try it out to see how it works. The animation mod I'm using creates a big bright flash that slowly fades as the explosion animates. And when it fades completely, the explosion itself is already over, so maybe it won't be annoying that all the decorations disappear at once. But it would be worth seeing how it looks.
In vanilla, I believe it is weird :)

Otherwise, based on what you've told me, I also think we've pretty much exhausted all the possibilities. The last thing I would think of would be to create a "wave of decoration removal" right behind the shock wave, but I imagine that's not possible. And even if it were, it would probably be too much work.

Augh, I just want to be done with this! Sorry haha, this has just been driving me up a wall a little bit.

You don't have to solve everything right away. It should remain enjoyable/interesting to do, not become a chore... that's not the point!
I've spent several hours over the last few days writing these messages, testing them, and taking screenshots. So if it took me that long, it probably took you even longer. Don't burn yourself out <3

Don't worry about it, I'm playing as it is right now, and it's okay if everything isn't perfect.
And if in a few days or weeks, you feel like finding a solution again, then that's cool. And if you end up leaving it alone and don't go any further, that's okay too.

It's just a game after all ;)

In any case, thank you very much for what you have already done.

https://i.imgur.com/mx5GDgh.jpeg

Okay, one last try. I had to change how the removal works because the bigger the scorch mark got, the harder it was to align everything to remove along its size. So instead, I made it so it clears based on the shockwave of the nuke, something that still works fine even with that nuke mod of yours. It does mean there will be a couple stumps and decors around the edge of the scorch mark, but I think (and desperately hope) you should be satisfied with this.

Yes, that's awesome !

With the crater size set to 5, the stumps destroyed by the shockwave stop right in the perfect spot, on the edges of the crater, it's great.
And with all the settings you've added, I think everyone will be able to customise it to their liking.

Once again, thank you very much. You've done a fantastic job !