This seems to work fine with KMM despite the warning.

@BHunterSEAL
Beta 6_4 works fine with the latest game version, but you will not have have the latest CA balancing changes (1.9.2 CA values).
Sorry for the delay, I will try to update it in few hours. ;)

EDIT :
Oh if you speak about the description, yes thank you I forgot to add KMM on the list.

[    Beta 6_4 updated    ]
- Compatibility to 1.10.x CA build added.

Checking the pack file (Version 3.6 (12/13/2020)) in rpfm I see some invalid references, for example "wh2_skv_death_cloud_impact_variant" or "bullet_vsmall_variant" or "wh2_dlc11_cst_gunnery_grenade_impact_variant". I checked and indeed these are not to be found among the xml files. Any idea what is going on?

@ZeuS
It's false "invalid" tagged references, they refere to external references contained into the main CBE mod.

Concerning impacts, you can found them also into "projectile_impacts_tables", if you place your cursor on the name of the impact column into "projectile_displays_tables", you will be able to see that column also use the "projectile_impacts_tables" keys (not only direct xmls references).

If that can help you to understand the structure of the different CBE mods.
Main mod contain 3 things :
- The main settings and vanilla changes.
- Vanilla references changed by new ones.
- Created key references from nothing for the other addons (like Proper Effects).
That's why Proper Effects crash without the main mod, it need these references. That's also why you can see invalid references into this addon (they refere to external references containing into the main mod).

Submods :
- Contain settings of their respective changes.
- Contain refences that refere to the main mod. (the "invalid" ones)
They are invalid because they refer to external references contained into the main mod, like I said above. :)

hey @Railgun.
Thank you for your response. To give you some more detail, I was simply merging the various CBE parts together. So, for example, the blood part (hence the "bullet_vsmall_variant" reference) with the main mod. Now my understanding is that there should not be any warnings or errors given as long as there are either 1) external xmls that correspond to a reference, or 2) legit references that can be found in another table. In any case, I realize that rpfm might not be checking properly for that. I have not used it in years and I have certainly not checked its documentation or its code to see what it does currently.

What I was trying to do, was to bring all the various parts of CBE together and change things for myself. e.g. I want to make the smoke from gunpowder units to be significantly denser, linger for much longer and also being affected by wind. Performance is not an issue or consideration in my case. I do not care if I have 10 FPS as long as things look right.

If you want to see an example of what I am approximately after check here:
https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?237457-Smoke-and-Blood-Mod-Thread-(Last-Update-28-02-10-Blood-Mod-for-NTW-)-)

Note that for Empire and Napoleon the XML structure is quite different so it would not be a straightforward issue to simply transfer settings to WH2. For the textures I am not sure. This particular mod in fact, contains only a single unwieldy xml file with the settings for everything (rifles, canons etc) as well as for different types of things, e.g. smoke and blood.
Anyway could you point me to the relevant variables in WH2 xmls for smoke density and duration? As it is now I am having trouble even finding the xml for rifles for empire riflemen for example. wh_main_rifle...dust? Which one would that be? Then what are the relevant variables? The emmiter's scale variables? tint variables? I could start going over each xml and trying altering the values in variables until I would figure it out, but that would be really tedious and me reinventing the wheel. I would have to make a change, run the game, create a battle, check, quit, make a change, run the game, create a battle.... you get the idea. You have already done that.

I would immensely appreciate your providing of this info. There seems to be no documentation on the VFX from Creative Assemply. At least I could not find any.

You should have "invalid" references only if they are into a external package, RPFM check issues only on the .pack that you open.
So if they are into another.pack, it won't find them, otherwise you shouldn't have "invalid" references in general.

If you don't care about performances I can suggest you to take a look at the Blood Addon Beta 3 before merging (But you will have a big drop over time because of the number of decals). For now it's the version that cover the most correctly all units, because this version use more global files. I restarted everything from zero with Beta 4 to fix this performance drop issue, I merged the textures and stopped to use global xmls to go on a by units effect instead, but that take time to do, so for now the cover of Beta 4+ is not perfect.

Another small note, if you want to use the WIP Beta 6.4, you can delete every entries of "battle_entities_tables" except the line 450 (wh_main_cavalry_rider_standard_blood) to improve compatibility with other mods. This version is not cleaned of none modified entries because I always work on it.

Anyway, the true subject.
Before starting, in CBE, almost every xmls or effects with the suffix "_variant" are created and not present into vanilla. at the start of the mod I didn't do it, so some don't have this tag, but I started to do that pretty quickly.
Every paragraph in the xmls that have the prefix "libvar_" refers to created library not present into vanilla.

Here you have google sheet that can help you to know what I created or changed from vanilla for the main mod, Proper Effects Addon and Thicker Dust Addon.
CBE Main Mod[docs.google.com]
Proper Effects Addon[docs.google.com]
Thicker Dust Addon[docs.google.com]
In header of each xmls you can also see if it's vanilla edited or a created one.
Keep in mind also that you can hover the column name in RPFM to know where the column will look for its values.

To help you to find what change what.
- When you create a xml, you must add it as a key into "particule_effects_tables" to use it.
- "projectile_displays_tables" and "projectile_impacts_tables" will look their keys into "particule_effects_tables"
- "projectile_displays_tables" can also use "projectile_impacts_tables" keys. So if you don't find the xml that you see into "projectile_displays_tables", look into the"projectile_impacts_tables" that permit to set impacts by type of surface.
- Keys into "projectile_displays_tables" mostly refer to the type of weapon (or ammo), you will be able to know what weapon use what xmls like that.

About xml structures :
You have 2 things, effects and libraries (tagged lib). Effects refer to libraries, libraries contain the global setings of the effect.
So if you change a line into a library (the base), that will apply your changes for all bound xmls (specific effect). But if you edit the lines into a specific effect, that will only change the concerned one.
https://i.imgur.com/GZM0lPM.jpg

Into specific effects you have this sort of values:
By Paragraph :
- name of this group of effects.
- the library used.
- the scaling of them.
- Their orientation (pos_ xyz), sometime also rotation (rot_).
- When they start.
- If they are infinite or not. (works only if infinite is define to true into the library used)

By effects (Keep in mind that these values are additive bellow the library ones) :
- rgba : red, green, blue, "a" is transparency.
- particule lifetime : duration of particle display (can works for density).
- emitter lifetime : for how long you create them (can work for density).

Into the libraries, you can play with much more thing, but it's global to all effects that use that library. Effects into libraries are divided on 3 sections : EMITTERS, BEHAVIOUR_CHAINS, EFFECT RENDER STACKS.

For what you search specificly.
In EMITTERS part:
- For the wind you have : WindVarianceFactor, EffectedByWindFactor.
(this can vary importantly depending of the maps)
- You can play with ParticleInitialSpeed, ParticleDeceleration, Deceleration, DecelerationStartTime, DecelerationAmount and GravityAmount to change the density or the behaviour of the effect.
- You can also found start or lifetime setting and infinite lifetime setting.
- CullDistances and ParticleCullDistances to change the distance where you can see the effect (on close or far view).

in BEHAVIOUR_CHAINS part:
- Textures pathes.
- Base color of the effect (vs_colour).

here we are, I think you have here the basic things. ;)

T H A N K you for your help and your time. I appreciate your help beyond words! :)

Don't hesitate to ask if you need other details. ;)

[    Beta 6_4 updated    ]
- Compatibility to 1.11.x CA build added.

[    Beta 6_5 updated    ]
- Compatibility to CBE 3.8 added.
- Compatibility to 1.12.x CA build added.

Is this still being developed?

No Sorry, I don't play to TWW2 anymore.