i was messing around with the particle generator earlier and i managed to get some pretty good looking fire. I cant want to see what kinds of maps will be comming out in the next few weeks.

could you tell how you did that fire?

thats pretty cool looking, you could even give it smoke and stuff crackling out!

# of particles: -1
delay between shots: 0.0001
particle life: 3.5
particle velocity: 150
velocity variance: 12
gravity: 0.3
sprite: sprites/flames.spr
particle size: 50
red: 100
green: 100
blue: 100
brightness: 190
fade speed: 0.8
scale speed: 1
framerate: 5
Render mode: Additive

Flags
Repeatable
collide with world
animate
start on

put your info_target anywhere between 50-100 units directly above your particle_shooter. Make sure it is aligned directly above or else your fire won't look right. If it looks thin in the middle or you can see individual sprites, move your info_target closer to the particle_shooter until it looks how you want.

hope that makes sense:)

here's the same effect but with a little smoke

I'd like to use this in my map, how would I add the smoke too?

# of particles: -1
delay between shots: 0.2
particle life: 3.5
particle velocity: 80
velocity variance: 12
spin: 10
gravity: 0.0
sprite: sprites/smoke_ia.spr
particle size: 16
red: 40
green: 40
blue: 25
brightness: 190
fade speed: 0.0
scale speed: 2.5
framerate: 2
Render mode: Indexed Alpha

Flags
Repeatable
Affected by force
animate
start on



Make sure to target it to something and give it a unique group ID...this should make a good smoke with/without tweaking

intereasting.. would look good if you added some wood underit and some rocks around it like a camp fire :p

Looks like lag to me.

Pretty looking lag tho :)

Originally posted by DimitriPopov
Looks like lag to me.

Pretty looking lag tho :)

amen to that :p

Originally posted by DimitriPopov
Looks like lag to me.

Pretty looking lag tho :)

Particles are client side effects no lagg but it might drop your fps if you have a crap machine

I will fiddle around with it and see if i can make it even better

hmm... particles... I just tried it myself but where it says "sprite" I can only load models in the particle_generator...

maybe i'm doing something wrong? i'd like to use particles for my maps!!

Originally posted by Inch
hmm... particles... I just tried it myself but where it says "sprite" I can only load models in the particle_generator...

maybe i'm doing something wrong? i'd like to use particles for my maps!!

You haveto manualy put the path to the sprite in because for some reason it only points to .mdl files it is a bug with the fgd

The easiest way to do it is to put an env sprite somewhere and then find ur sprite through the env_sprite then copy/paste the path to the shooter

I fiddled around with the fire for a few mins an managed this

I used 4 shooters (3 for fire and 1 for smoke) but it can be done with just 2

These look more like oilfield fires then say house fires but they still look good it would also look better if i made the smoke a bit darker

http://www.dodstudios.net/uploads/uploads/Fire1.jpg
http://www.dodstudios.net/uploads/uploads/Fire2.jpg

i think they look really sweet...

Originally posted by Duo

Make sure to target it to something and give it a unique group ID...this should make a good smoke with/without tweaking

Just in case you missed it, this is critical if you have more than one particle shooter in your map. If you don't, your particle shooters won't work.

Secondly, I put a fairly large particle shooter in Vicenza at the base of the waterfall and noticed it does not really create much lag or framerate loss. However, putting more than one particle shooter in the same spot (say for a fire with smoke) may increase the chances of lag, especially if they occur in a relatively large open area with higher r_speeds. 2 shooters may not do it, but the more you put in (say 4, 5, 6 or more) the higher the chances of lag in a big open area. More testing is needed of course, but there are a lot of permutations with particle shooters and lag creation.

Originally posted by izuno
Just in case you missed it, this is critical if you have more than one particle shooter in your map. If you don't, your particle shooters won't work.

Secondly, I put a fairly large particle shooter in Vicenza at the base of the waterfall and noticed it does not really create much lag or framerate loss. However, putting more than one particle shooter in the same spot (say for a fire with smoke) may increase the chances of lag, especially if they occur in a relatively large open area with higher r_speeds. 2 shooters may not do it, but the more you put in (say 4, 5, 6 or more) the higher the chances of lag in a big open area. More testing is needed of course, but there are a lot of permutations with particle shooters and lag creation.

You will notice that fps drop on more complex shooters when you get within a certain distance from the sprite but anywhere outside that radius does not affect fps at all

In dod_charlie there is ahuge fps drop when looking toward the shooters

If these shooters were turned off once the shingle was blown then the fps drop would be gone durring most of the gameplay

i think you would get less fps drop if you put the particle shooter into a low wpoly area - like a fire in a house or courtyard.

btw, someone told me they made a water fountain with a drip sprite shooting up - can that be done and not look bad?

Originally posted by NC17
Particles are client side effects no lagg but it might drop your fps if you have a crap machine

Thanks for the info (I map, i think i know that).... :p

And by the way, feel free to buy me a new computer but until then don't give the impression that you are better by calling mine a 'crap machine'. Particle effects are pretty but its killing my fps. Cheers.

-Plato

Originally posted by NC17
Particles are client side effects no lagg but it might drop your fps if you have a crap machine

Actually if you remember we are playing an engine that is a good 5 years old. This engine shouldnt drop my 2 year old computer into the 19fps range. Particle effects do this client side or not. I expect low fps on games like Raven Shield , not Half-Life circa 1998

Originally posted by DimitriPopov
Actually if you remember we are playing an engine that is a good 5 years old. This engine shouldnt drop my 2 year old computer into the 19fps range. Particle effects do this client side or not. I expect low fps on games like Raven Shield , not Half-Life circa 1998


gf3 ti 200, amdxp 2000+, 256ddr and my fps did not flinch with 4 particle shooters going all at once

Originally posted by DimitriPopov
Actually if you remember we are playing an engine that is a good 5 years old. This engine shouldnt drop my 2 year old computer into the 19fps range. Particle effects do this client side or not. I expect low fps on games like Raven Shield , not Half-Life circa 1998

I did not call YOUR machine crap.. i just said you shouldnt get low fps unless you have a fairly crappy machine.... if that aplys to you then its not my fault

There are many variables that can cause FPS drop from the game itself and from a third party program that is running in thebackround. But, none the less it is a widely known fact that particles effects do chew up alot of FPS...thats why dont you see any games using only particles for effects. So, yeah i think everyone will get an FPS drop...nothing to get crazy about.

dod_forest uses a few particle_shooters for the waterfall mist effect and they have a pretty decent refresh rate... they cause no preformence hit even when standing right ontop of the sprites

Mine didn't work. When I put the directory do I need to put the entire line or just sprites/flames.spr?

Did I miss to put somehting so simple that you guys didn't even bother to mention it?

Thanks

particles don't effect most people's machines but some take a pretty hard loss in fps.

ex. smoke grenades in cs.

Originally posted by chuwawa
Mine didn't work. When I put the directory do I need to put the entire line or just sprites/flames.spr?

Did I miss to put somehting so simple that you guys didn't even bother to mention it?

Thanks

Never mind, I forgot that I had turned off particles.