Lets talk about particles...

[picklebro]

I keep coming back to particles..heheh... I'm wondering what can be done with the particles in Doomsday.

I'm currently working on jxui, but as soon as I finish that I'd like to start seeing what I can do with particles and I want to know what I have to work with.

I've seen some really awesome looking particle effects, what with fog, weapons effects, blood effects, teleporter effects etc, (and nothing that follows in any way demeans those awesome .ded's )

What I haven't seen is anything like a lot of swirly stuff or or jagged lines, most of the effects have been blob-based or bubble based, however you want to describe it. Are all doomsday particles based around a sphere? I noticed in DEW there is a lil 'how I made barrel fragments with particles" if you will (thanks ), so I assume other things are possible. Is there more documentation or how-tos when it comes to doing this?

One thing that comes to mind is in the first map in Hexen there are some swirling leaves..I think this is in other maps too...but I thought I could try making that..I have other ideas too, but I find it better to focus on one thing at a time.

Now that I've rambled here is a synopsis of what I wonder at the moment:

1. Can you replace sprites with particles or only add particles to them...and can you add particle images (ie..the swirling leaves using images of leaves)?
2. Does doomsday have different shaped generators?
3. Are there any how-tos for making swirling effects/electrical current effects (is this possible with particles?) If not is it at least possible ( I don't want to try to do something impossible, but am willing to work at it).
4. Would it be possible to do weather effects like rain/snow? I assume so because fog is possible - I just wondered.

I kknow there are frame-rate implications with using particles...but right now I'm wanting to focus on technical possibilities and will focus on gameplay afterwards.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[LK873]

I agree with everything you just said. Care to chat about it? Catch me on MSN and we can talk, a good person to consult on this would be Dani, because he has vast knowledge on how the particle system works (Look at those 1337 torches!).

Oh, BTW, my Email is Ice_Cream_Man_2004@hotmail.com

[picklebro]

after speaking with LK873 a bit, we had an idea and wondered about its plausibilty...

Weather particles (rain/snow/etc)

Make a Map triggered or Flat triggered particle effect using the sky flat for that map and give the particles some gravity.

any thoughts on that?

[sLydE]

I believe one or more of the jDoom Arena maps had rain. Also one of the latest cancelled Doomsday maps over at Wads In Progress also had some sort of weather effect.

[picklebro]

any idea how they were doing it?

[picklebro]

Can anyone tell me if you set a Map triggered particle effect up if you can attach it to a flat in that map?

This would be as opposed to attaching it to a flat and ending up with that flat having that effect wherever it showed up in the game. Specifically it would allow us to make it rain in ONE map if that is possible.

[DaniJ]

No Map triggered particles are spawned at XYZ position within the defined map. This cannot be be used in combination with Flat triggered as the spawn origins would conflict with each other.

This is one of the reasons I made RFEs for "Map Effect Definitions & Wad Interpretation (Effect Conditions)".

[picklebro]

so basically ....wwaaaaiiit for it...waiiiit for it. Cool I can't wait till that RFE and the player generator RFE are implemented (crosses fingers refusing to say 'if') but I guess I could look into other particle FX until then. I think I'm going to try tweaking the heretic gauntlet a bit and then work on a ded for Hexen weapons.

By the way...Are there any how-tos for making swirling effects/electrical current effects (is this possible with particles in doomsday?) If not is it at least possible ( I don't want to try to do something impossible, but am willing to work at it).

[DaniJ]

There is no how-tos but there are a few examples of swirling effects in jHexen's default particles already. You need to use the force sphere.

[mrinsane]

i have that jdoom pa that was canceled dark shadow and me where good friends i havent talked to him since i still have all the files to run it and all