I just noticed that now, too.

EDIT: seems to be every explosion (that is not directly on the floor)? I dunno if this is just placebo or not, tho.

i seen it whenever i hit pipes, maybe they reintroduced noid's particles?

I really like how it looks tho, so whatever happened it's pretty cool imo;
edit; it is realy noticable in MGE, every airshot you hit a giant circle lol

doesn't happen for me, but I'm on dx8

I just checked it in slowmo on a demo, and the ring comes after the explosion, and ye it happens on directs with rockets too

http://snag.gy/aH3OX.jpg

That looks pretty cool, at first I thought maybe they enabled custom particles again with different sv_pure settings but these explosions look cool as f#ck

looks like the soldier is about to use a spirit bomb

watch out

i dont get this and im on dx9 :o

I'm on dx95 you?

if only

wtb

im on 91 ill try 95

Maybe valve changed the particles to show the volume of space that will inflict splash damage, so players can make better decisions regarding explosive weapons

A more likely story is that they just fucked up the particles again, like when crit stickies had that weird giant flashing aura that looked like something you'd see at burning man

TO: shrugger and pharaoh and remedy

i told you it was different you anuses

my cfg disables particle effects :( oh well it looks distracting anyway

explosions are different for me too

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/902128274092003362/011477A8BED38EB0AE0B84D0451AC80A480B62B2/

It looks sweet. I hope they don't change it back

this is so cool! it's like crit rockets in dx8 and how they look like colored fireballs of death

http://snag.gy/oP7zL.jpg

looks very cool, my first thought was they want to show the area of damage but then I realized that would only help the one doing the damage, and so kind of a step backward in the whole nerf demomen thing

So are noids particles working again or is that just valve?

How? I didn't know that was possible.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qr9xo9a9tn6eers/noids.7z

those work

They work again?! omg

Seems to be only for dx_level 95 and higher.

That looks really cool

I will say what I said years ago: using custom particles to increase visibility that would otherwise be blocked by the default particles is cheating. It's like using fullbright skins in a game where fullbright skins aren't supported. Noid made sticky particles that were visible through walls as well as medic beam particles that made the beam show from a million miles away, even through walls. If you think that's considered legitimate, you may as well download a wallhack to go along with it.

so these work on ESEA league servers?

I'd have to argue in the other direction. While visibility can be seen as an advantage, the lack of particles on screen can also serve as a monstrous disadvantage. Being unable to see trails of any projectiles can make them far harder to anticipate. For example, your chances of being surprised by rockets from the flank or behind is significantly increased when you can no longer see the lengthy smoke trail. Without explosion particles, players are at another split second disadvantage of knowing whether someone was just firing near them or not. These particles significantly subdue the signs that most players visually rely on to be the most alert that they can be.

It seems like more than a fair tradeoff, let alone the fact that minimal particles are primarily used by people struggling to get their fps as high as their monitor's hz.

casual, nobody is arguing whether particles are useful or not.