SW3 - remove dust clouds and/or further reduce the graphics
 

I've played SW1 several years ago and several days ago I tried SW3. The problem is that my laptop meets the requirements and everything runs ok .. unless I get near or into those *** clouds of space dust. When this happens, the FPS drops to 5-7-10. I can hardly point to the enemy :)

I edited the main configuration file: forced 16bit graphics, lowest level of detail, the resolution is 1024x768. What I noticed is the options for background, planets, reflection, etc.

Can anyone help me with adjusting the four Z..... options so I can remove the dust clouds or at least preserve some background and lights, because till now every my setting results in pitch black space.

Thank you!

What is "four Z"?
You can remove clouds but you have to change location script file for each sector separately. Look into ../Data/Scripts/Locations. Inside location.script you will find LoadCloud function. Disable it and you won't see clouds any more.

Hmm, that should help me too. Same story as lanelor, my laptop plays the game quite well for most of the time, except for the fog/clouds.

Big battles are a pain too, but oh well.

Thanks, Goblin Wizard, but there is a problem. I deleted every line in the scrips and the game still renders the cloud. Could it be that because I use a save the game remembers the original map?

These are are "four Zs'" I mentioned in the configuration file "main". I still try to find a good set for those, but with the clouds things should be fine.

ZBufferBPP = 32
ZFarPlane = 800.0f
zTransparLenght = 200.0f
ZTranspar = 400.0f
ZNearPlane = 0.1f

Yes. Saves contain information about sectors you visited.

http://rapidshare.com/files/39212394...louds.exe.html

This is the Locations folder from SW3->Data->Scripts->Locations. All clouds are deleted. Just make a back up copy and replace the Locations folder.

I don't suppose we could fix the root cause and mod the actual LoadCloud() function itself?

LoadCloud() function is a base function, fixed in exe. You can't change it.
---- EDIT ----
It's not entirely true. In the Main.ini there is EditClouds = 0 parameter. When changed to 1 editor should start but I've never tried this. There is full guide inside ../Data/PFX/DustFX/Editor Description - Russian.zip. Disabling LoadCloud function is probably faster and easier than modifying all those cloud files.

Manual edit of each location was the best I could do.

In Data\Scripts there is a file - system.lst. This is a list of scripts to be run (I think) and there is a line "create_clouds.script". Deleting it didn't do anything.

You are lucky. "create_clouds.script" contains two external functions which are not used in the game. If you try this with other scripts you'll get a lot of errors/CTDs.