A problem with particles in Magos

[Xzife_TD01]

Whenever i try to put a particle on a WC3 model (a hydra, for example) After I finish setting the values, what texture, etc. No matter what I set the values to, the particle emitter is never visible, then when i try to save it it comes up with an error (unable to save (name) unknown extension ""!
Anybody know whats wrong?

 

[xXMephistoXx]

Whenever i try to put a particle on a WC3 model (a hydra, for example) After I finish setting the values, what texture, etc. No matter what I set the values to, the particle emitter is never visible, then when i try to save it it comes up with an error (unable to save (name) unknown extension ""!
Anybody know whats wrong?

I don't know about the particle thing, but try following th tutorial inside Magos carefully, edit something your self and see if it worsk. Remember to set it to animate in the animation manager, else you don't see any particles...
Well, the saving thingy is Magos's fault, whenever you save in Magos, you have to write the extension too. Like YourModel.mdx

 

[HappyTauren]

i can help you. you have to fill all fields to make it function. your rate is probably 0/0 or you havent checked HEAD and TAIL checkboxex. Change emisson rate to some value (i prefer 50), visibility to 0 and make sure that you have checked (under "misc") the size of texture. if you use something like "clouds8x* blablabla" you should make sure that it has 8 columns and 8 rows. it should fix it up.

 

[Xzife_TD01]

WOOT thanks HappyTauren and xXMephistoXx, both of u helpd alot. One more question though, how can I move my particle emitter? Do I put it in a differant category in the node manager? Iv tried useing the move up and move down commands, but it seems to stay in the same general place.

EDIT: (first things first, i got the whole movement of particles thing sorted out, a friend showed me how) Secondly, im running into another rather perplexing problem (to me anyways). Say I use the texture textures\star.blp...it has no 4x4 or 2x2 ect, so i should just leave the columns as they are, at 1, but after editing the values, picking my colors ect. I animate the model to see what my particle will look like, and it appears as these huge ugly squares with the star texture on them. Whats wrong?
And one last thing, is there any way to make particles fade when their life span has expired rather than having them dissapear instantly? Doing that makes it look very choppy. Thats about the half of it. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[HappyTauren]

?and it appears as these huge ugly squares with the star texture on them. Whats wrong?

!wrong is: you have to either use ALPHA or ADDITIVE filters.

?is there any way to make particles fade when their life span has expired rather than having them dissapear instantly?

!yes: set their lifespan to lower value

?how can I move my particle emitter?

!i dont kow how, i juse create a new particle emitter and redo all the data.


hope that helped

 

[Xzife_TD01]

Thanks, it helped a lot. However, I have one final question, how can i make particles emit only at a certain stage of an animation (say during a units spell animation) but be dormant otherwise? Is this possible in magos, or must I use a differant program?

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

SLOW DOWN! Happy's post is not exact on some things.

?and it appears as these huge ugly squares with the star texture on them. Whats wrong?

Use the filters (setting is under the texture field). BLEND will alpha out any parts marked as "transparent" just like the "transparent" filter, however blend and transparent are very different. Or you can use ADDITIVE to "alpha" out any black parts. ADD ALPHA will NOT work the same way. MODULATE will do the opposite, that is, alpha out white parts.
Experience with different filters to understand exactly how they work.

?is there any way to make particles fade when their life span has expired rather than having them dissapear instantly?

What Happy said is false. There are 3 segments (the little parts where you choose color and alpha, etc...). Make the last one have 0 alpha, and it will fade. This is because the texture starts out at segment one, then goes gradually to segment two, then gradually to segment three.
There is a "time" setting. This is the percentage of time it takes for a particle to go from segment one to segment two. Setting it to 0.5 makes the particle go from each segment in equal time. 0.9 for example makes the texture go slowly from segment one to segment two, but very quickly to segment three. And vice versa for a setting like 0.1.
Again, experiment a little.

?how can I move my particle emitter?

Edit the node. There are two edit buttons. one is for the emmiter setting's, the other is for the node/emitter's placement.

trust me, I know Magos' more than I know my pocket.

However, I have one final question, how can i make particles emit only at a certain stage of an animation (say during a units spell animation) but be dormant otherwise?

use the visibility setting. Make it animated. here's an explanation I hope you will understand.

Each animation has a certain amount of frames. For example:

Stand - 01
Start: 0
End: 5000

This anim goes from frame 0 to 5000. WC3 uses 930 frames per second. Make sure no two anims start or end on the same frame.

So if I have two anims:

Stand 01
Start: 0
End: 1000

Death
Start: 1001
End: 3000

To make my emmitter seen only on the stand animation, I have to write this in the "animated" window:

0:1 (1 means the emmitter is visible, 0 means it isn't. This means the emmitter will play on the stand animation until its told to stop. In this case I don,t want it to stop during the stand anim, but on the death anim)
1001: 0 (the emmitter is "hidden" at the exact beginning of the death animation)

OR, if you want the emmitter to only appear for a fraction of a second during the death anim (so you can get a blast and not a stream of particles) I can do this:

0:0 (the emmitter doesn't appear during the stand anim)
1001: 1 (the emmitter appears at the exact same time the death anim starts)
1200:0 (the emmitter stops emmiting DURING the death anim)


I hope I was clear...

 

[Xzife_TD01]

Your knowledge of magos is jaw-dropping to say the least, and helpfull to boot. Thanks for your time, and yes, your explanation of particles at certain parts of animations was very clear. Thanks again for all the help

EDIT: I know i said the last question was it but i ran into a strange problem >.<. All of the sudden my particles stopped working in-game. All of my previous work emits fine, but nothing I make shows in-game anymore. How can I fix this?

 

[HappyTauren]

1. your model must have at least one animation
2. you have to set Visibility = 1

um.. doesnt work ingame?