Natural Selection Particle System Guide
Part Seven - Worldcraft Class Info

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Part One - Basic Worldcraft Setup
Part Two - In Game Editing
Part Three - The Basic Sliders
Part Four - Advanced Sliders
Part Five - Generation Shapes
Part Six - Velocity Shapes
Part Seven - Worldcraft Class Info
Part Eight - Worldcraft Flags

Name - This is the name that you give your particle system.  This field is required if you want to be able to edit your particle system in game, or if you want to be able to trigger it.

Generation entity - If you put the name of an entity in this field, the particles will all spawn from within that entity.  It will, in effect, become the generation shape.  Note: entities used in this field may become simplified to rectangular boxes, if they aren't already.

Generation shape - This corresponds to the shape slider (third slider) when the control slider (second slider) is set to generation.  The drop down options are Point, Box, Sphere, and Blob.  Note: If you enter a name into the generation entity field, this option is ignored.  Also note: sphere and blob do not appear to be working as of NSTR2.

Generation shape parms - This field corresponds to the parameters of the generation shape (fourth slider) from the in game editor.  Note: this field does not appear to actually work as of NSTR2.

Generation rate (parts/second) - This field corresponds to generate slider (eighth slider).  The number entered into this field will correspond to the maximum number of particles that will be generated per second.

Particle sprite - This field contains the name of the sprite that you are using.  You can enter a sprite from HL's pak0.pak, or you can browse to a custom sprite using the "..." button.  This field is required for all particle systems.

Animation frames in sprite - This field designates the number of animation frames that the particle should cycle through.  For instance, if you have a 5 frame sprite and enter 2 into this field, only the first two frames of animation will be shown, and they will be repeated and cycled continuously.  Note: Do not enter a number in this category that is more than the number of frames of animation in the sprite, or the game will crash.

Maximum particles - This field controls the maximum number of particles that will be visible at any one time, and corresponds to the maxparts slider (eleventh slider).

Particle size - This field controls the size of the magnification that the particle will generate at, and it corresponds to the size slider (sixth slider).

System lifetime (-1 infinite) - This field controls how long the particle system will continue to produce particles, and corresponds to the pslife slider (tenth slider).  Setting this value to -1 means the particle system will never die, unless it is killed by a trigger.

Particle lifetime (-1 infinite) - This field controls how long the individual particles will remain alive once they have been generated, and corresponds to the plife slider (ninth slider).  Setting this value to -1 means the particles will never die, unless collision is on.  Note: Infinite lifetimes for particles do not appear to be working as of NSTR2.  Also note:  Particles will remain after the system dies.  So, if particle lifetime is 10 seconds, and system lifetime is 5 seconds, the initial particles will live for another 5 seconds after the system dies.

Starting velocity shape - This field controls the shape of the particle velocity.  The values are point, box, sphere, and blob.  This corresponds to the shape slider (third slider) when the control slider (second slider) is set to velocity.

Starting velocity params - This field controls the velocity of the particles when they generate, and corresponds to the parameters of the velocity (fourth slider).

Scale particle over lifetime - This field controls the size that the particles will shrink or grow to over its lifetime, and it corresponds to the scale slider (seventh slider) in game.  Note:  This field does not work with particles with an infinite lifetime.

Particle max alpha - This field controls the maximum alpha that the individual particles will be drawn at.  Basically, this controls the transparency of the individual particles.  A value of one will cause the sprite to be drawn normally.  A value less than one will increase the transparency of the sprite.  Values large than one may increase the opacity of the sprite (I really can't tell).  Suffice it to say that there really won't ever be a reason to increase the particle's alpha.

Render mode - This field controls the render mode of the sprite and corresponds to the render slider (first slider).  The values are normal, trans color, trans texture, glow, trans alpha, and additive.  Note:  Only additive seems to work as of NSTR2.

Generate system on collision - This field controls the secondary particle system that will be generated (if any) when the initial system causes a collision.  Enter the name of another particle system in this field, and that particle system will be generated.  Leaving it blank will cause nothing to be generated when the particles collide.  For this to work, the collision flag must be checked.

Animation speed - This field controls the speed at which the particle will cycle through its animations if it has any.  Increasing this value will cause the particle frames to animate more quickly, while lowering it will cause it to animate more slowly.  If your particle sprite doesn't have animation frames, then this field will not affect your particle system.

Copyright 2002 by Martin Rolek.