Also I have looked at your TextureAnimations and there is also the same possible issue.

In a number of your particle files (in the directories we have been discussing) the "textureAnimationName"s are in those directories but not in your TotalEffects mods directories

chaosbolt
sparks
sparksphase
sparkspsi
plasma_heavy
plasma_muzzle
plasma_heavyhit
plasma_lighthit
tricity
vividpyro
fireyflair
burst

in actual fact a number of textureAnimationName's (i.e sparks,...) have pathfiles to all 3 directories, that is some particles reference say sparks from the first directory, some from the second and some from the last.

PS: can you confirm that the TextureAnimations in those 3 directories, and those listed, have not been modified, and hence Sins original TextureAnimations are OK to use?

Yes the animations in your TotalEffects dir are

brightfire.texanim

burst.texanim

tricity.texanim

vividpyro.texanim

Let me put it another way.

You have changed fireyflair.texanim, I searched your .particle files and you have used it in

CapitalAbility_Meltdown.particle

Flair_PirateTorch.particle

Now the relevant lines in those particle files are as follows

textureAnimationName "C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\stuff\ForgeTools1.1\ParticleForge\TextureAnimations\fireyflair.texanim"

textureAnimationName "C:\Documents and Settings\Staraptor\Desktop\ModStuff\SoaSE\Modtools\PF\TextureAnimations\fireyflair.texanim"

Also you don't have fireyflair.texanim in your TextureAnimations TotalEffects mod dirs.

Now let say you load Sins with your mod enabled, when Sins searches for the file fireyflair.texanim it will find it in the two dirs above. Fine, however those dirs are unique to your machine, so if I do the same thing on my machine (that is load Sins with your mod) Sins can't find those dirs and will load fireyflair.texanim from the Sins TextureAnimations dir, i.e an unmodified fireyflair.texanim.

This applies to any texture, mesh or animation that you, or Bailknight or who ever has modified and is in a unique dir to your machine. Sins on another PC won't be able to find the files and will revert to the original files in it's loadup dirs

No problem, consider it done. I can now delete all filepath references.

I'm pretty sure it does help speed things up.

One final point before I can complete.

In your Diplomacy mod you have 222 textures

in your Entrenchment mod you have 218 textures

the difference is

cirrus_01.dds
el_0004_35.dds
el_0006_56.dds
gl0006_44.dds

Can you confirm that the 218 common files are identical across the mods, i.e you haven't got unique textures say one's for Entrenchment and ones for Diplomacy. It would save me comparing 218 texture files across your mods.

In the future when you make/use textures (dds) for your particle the TSOP has this to say:

Texture size: height and width should be a factor of 4. Preferably a power of 2.
Alpha channel: textures require a alpha channel.
Alpha channel: alpha channel should not be all white - it would cause graphic errors.

I understand little of .dds stuff, sorry.

I understand channels and how they work, I just do not know how to manipulate them...

PS: if in doubt as to what to make the alpha channel just copy and past the RGB channels to your alphs. Have a look at other dds textures as examples.

Check your PM's. The optimizations are complete.

i get a 404 for both links

Hi Syneptus,

I only put your optimized mod on the Maelstrom website for file transfer to you.

Wasn't aware you were going to link them from there to the community, so when I re-shuffled the website, well ...

Let me know if you what a permanent space ... though I would recommend you hosting your files elsewhere i.e filefront for instance.

I'll have to upload them again as I completely re-organized/cleaned the website. You are welcome to link them from the soase-maelstrom website, I just need to know if they are permanent or temporary...

http://www.soase-maelstrom.com/TotalEffects/TotalEffectsDiplomacy1.011.zip

http://www.soase-maelstrom.com/TotalEffects/TotalEffectsModEntrenchment1.051.zip

I'll leave them there. Uploading now give it 5 mins ... done links tested ok.