Particle Script Creator Program -free download

#1 Very nice! Thank you.

one Note: The Help button links to a 404...

#2 Eh, so.. how am i supposed to know what it looks like before hand? This doesn't seem to useful for myself if it doesn't actually show anythign in real time.

#3 Jana you came just in time! This will be good help for me

#4 I have to agree with Ramen... this is useless if there is no way to see the result of your changes. This is especially useless to the inexperienced developer, since they won't even know what all the properties are supposed to do. For example, "Invert Alpha"... what is that supposed to look like?

As it is, with no realtime feedback, it ends up being a guessing game, even for the experienced. Just a waste of time, IMO.

Dev Jana, fix it up with a realtime view and then you'll have something. =)

#5 Neet. Downloading.

As far as the "noob" issue, There are some realy good books that tell you what is what.

I i do beleave that there is a resorce around here some where with the infromation.

Ill see if i can find it.

#6 Just tryed it out... Very Sweet man. you should get GG to include this in there download.

#7 This program is great!!. Studying those particle scripts helps me figure out whats going. since i never really messed with particle effects much. iQue bueno!!

Thanks! for writing it and giving it away free. oh and if you do make a real-time version please sell-it. it makes it easier for folks to understand something when its free, and it may not do what you want but hey its free. :))

American idol is ruining good manners nowadays:))

#8 Why not use the program thats in TGE/TSE already? I know you have to dig around in the code for it (at least in TSE), but it works visually and I use it to great success

#9 I know this isn't a "full-featured" program. It is simply a utility I wrote in a few minutes to help myself protoype particle scripts. I then go into the scripts and modify them as needed. It was never intended as a public use program. I find it useful and so do my students (once I give it to them - I make them learn how to script particles from scratch first) so I thought I'd make it available for anyone who might use it. If you'll note - I called it a "Particle Script Creator" not a full featured particle effects generator so I'm assuming you know how to use the script once it creates it for you.
Thanks for your suggestions. I will consider them if I ever go back and re-write the program.

~Dev

#10 I actually found it very educational.

#11 Thanks, Mark. The program was made to help my students and me understand particle scripts, not to replace that understanding with automation. I'm glad you found it useful.

#12 @Thomas: Where's that? First time I'm hearing of this...

#13 @BurNinG

Torque already has its own built in particle editor which was broken in 1.4. It's existed for years and was provided by a member of the community. I quite like it and have never had any problems with it.

To fix:
open creator/editor/particleEditor.cs and change:

exec("common/editor/ParticleEditor.gui");

to

exec("creator/editor/ParticleEditor.gui");

Hit F5 to bring the editor up and you can adjust particles in realtime and save the results to a script.

#14 Its not a perfect editor, but things happen in real time at least.

When you hit save, it saves the code in a separate file. Think its in creator/ or creator/editor.

They are client side datablocks if I recall correctly, so you will need to reformat them to server side syntax to use them

But its a much more productive tool than just adjusting values, restart game, put in emitter, find something wrong, restart

#15 You don't need to restart the program to test particle tweaks. You can just modify your particle scripts at runtime and re-exec from console. This is useful for testing particle trails, explosions, and other timed particle systems. The particle editor is better suited to making environmental particles where it's a constant effect.

#16 For those who wish to implement the way Paul suggested , here is one possible way to do it by using key binding

1. Create a server command function in a suitable/prefered server script file

function serverCmdCreateTestParticle(%client)
{
$particle.delete ();
exec("./testParticle.cs");
echo("Creating Test Particle");
%avatar = %client.player;
%eyeVector = %avatar.getEyeVector();
%lookVector = vectorScale(%eyeVector ,10);
%currentPos = %avatar.getPosition();
%newPos = vectorAdd(%currentPos,%lookVector );

$particle = new ParticleEmitterNode()
{
position = %newPos ;
rotation = "1 0 0 0";
scale = "1 1 1";
dataBlock = "testParticleEmitterNode";
emitter = "testParticleEmitter";
velocity = "1";
};


}

2. Bind it to a key in client\config.cs , in this case "k"

moveMap.bindCmd(keyboard, "k", "commandToServer(\'CreateTestParticle\');", "");


3. Dump Torque Particle utility executable in server\scripts\ directory

4. In Torque Particle utility set Particle System Name to "testParticle"

5. In Torque Particle utility, Press "Create Torque Particle Utility" to update changes. This changes will be save in server\scripts\testParticle.cs

6. In TGE press "k" to refresh the changes during game play. The particle will appear at some distance away from where your player is looking

It works for me, and the old Particle editor works as well. I guess which one you like would be personal preference.

#17 Thanks, Tim; wondered where that thing went to...?!! I always feel things are a way for a reason. Was it removed on purpose[because of clientside schema], or is it a simple pathing error?? Just curious. Nothing better than WYSIWYG...

#18 Hey Rex,

The particle editor was not removed on purpose, it was one of many simple errors that made it's way into 1.4. When I mentioned the bug to Ben Garney he stated that the particle editor was no longer officially supported (like it ever was) and that he didn't care for it very much.