Particles


This powerful object allows you to easily add to your 3d productions particle-based effects like explosions, fire, smoke, dust, plasma, rain, snow, confetti, etc.

The particle emitter is an object you can place and orient visually in the Virtual Editor.

If the Particles object is linked to another object in the Object List, this will become the particle emitter's parent. Runtime, when the parent moves and rotates, the particle emitter will follow it.



Change

Click this button to select the particle aspect. Several shapes are available for the particles. The default shape is usually the best choice for fire and plasma-like effects. You can make your own particle shapes as follows:

  • By using your favorite paint program, make a picture which includes an alpha (opacity) layer. The alpha map is used to make parts of your picture transparent. See the documentation for your paint program for details about alpha layers.


  • To guarantee compatibility with all systems, the image should be power-of-two-sized, like for example 256x256, 128x512 and so on.


  • Save your picture to .tga, .png or .dds format to the

    C:\3D Rad\3DRad_res\objects\Particles\Data\

    folder.


  • Resize your picture to 128x128 pixels and save it again as a .jpg file to the

    C:\3D Rad\3DRad_res\objects\Particles\Data\Index\

    folder. This image will be used to display your new shape in the Particles object's dialogs and make it selectable among the other shapes available.


    • Animation Frames Per Second

    The Particles object supports frame-based animation as a sequence of images rendered one after the other.

    If a sequence of images is defined for the Particles, as described in the Using image sequences as animated particles section, below, then this value is the initial animation speed.

    Parent bone ID

    When this value is non-zero, and the Particles object is linked to a SkinMesh which is bone-animated, the particle emitter will be attached to the SkinMesh's bone defined by the specified bone ID.

    This feature can be used, for example, to make the fire follow the mouth of an animated dragon. See the example project called SkinMeshBoneParticlesDemo.3dr.

    The bone ID must be a positive, non-zero integer. The first bone in the model is 1, the second 2 and so on. What bone corresponds to a certain ID depends on how the animated model was originally designed.

    Note: the position of the attached particle emitter is relative to the bone position when the animated model is in its initial pose. This may not be the default pose you see in the Virtual Editor. To see the initial pose of all animated SkinMesh objects in the scene, hold the [F] key pressed.

    Parameters

  • If the Working At Start option is not checked, the particles will only be emitted after the object is started by another object, like for example EventOnInput.


  • If the Timer parameter is greater than zero, the Particle object will only work (emit) for the specified amount of time, in seconds. The object can then be re-started by another object, like for example EventOnInput. Run-time, the timer is re-initialized to the specified value whenever the object is started or reset by another object.

  • Render mode. Burn-out rendering technique blends particles together also making them look like bright plasma. Normal mode is typically the best choice for smoke/dust effects.


  • Initial color/Final color. Click the color buttons to open the color picker.


  • Opacity (0-1). The lower the value, the more transparent the particles.


  • Frequency (particles per second) is the amount of particles emitted every second.


  • Lifetime (in seconds) determines how quickly the particles die after they are emitted.


  • Emission range (in degrees). The particles are emitted along directions within the specified minimum and maximum cone-angles. An angle of zero degrees indicates a cone as narrow as a line. An angle of 360 degrees is a cone as wide as the full emission sphere. Emission cone axes (emission direction of a zero-degrees cone) are parallel to the Particles object arrow (as you set it in the Virtual Editor).


  • Speed (min/max, in meters per second), the initial particles' speed. Must be above 0.


  • Gravity (absolute vector). You typically only set the Y (second) value. Earth gravity is about -9.8. The X and Z values allow you to simulate forces moving in different directions than vertical, like wind.


  • Air resistance causes the particles to decelerate after they are emitted. The lower (more negative) the value, the bigger the drag effect. Positive values are supported and cause the particles to accelerate. Zero is invalid and it is automatically converted to -0.001.


  • Scale (initial/final) can be any value above 0, but keep in mind that bigger particles are slower to render.




    • Other dialog controls

    For information about the remaining controls, please click here.




    USING IMAGE SEQUENCES AS
    ANIMATED PARTICLES

    The first image of the sequence must be saved to the data folder as described above (Change section).

    The remaining images must be saved into a sub-folder of the data folder.

    The name of the sub-folder must be the same as the initial image file (omitting the extension).

    The images in the sub-folder must be named by using 4-digit numbers (for example 0001.dds, 0002.dds, etc).

    The extension of the images in the sub-folder must be the same as the initial image (the one saved outside the subfolder).

    For an example, please see 'animation.dds' and 'animation' subfolder, in the C:\3D Rad\3DRad_res\objects\Particles\Data\ folder.

    To see this animation in action please see the demo project called ParticleAnimation.3dr.


    INTERNAL PARAMETERS


    The following internal parameters can be set by using objects like Script:

  • Frequency (particles per second), write only
  • Life-time (in seconds), write only
  • Animation frame. The animation image to display.
  • Frame-rate. Animation speed, in frames per second.


    • LIMITATIONS

    Particle source location on a fast moving/spinning parent object is calculated by a special prediction algorithm.

    When the parent moves on a curved path, the exact position of the source in 3d space can be very complex to calculate accurately.

    This may cause the particle source to appear slightly displaced at times.