Particle Emitters 1 (the ones that emit models)

[BlinkBoy]

I ask myself who knew about them or who have ever used them?

Some of you may not know it, by they are kind of hidden. Art Tools doesn't support them and we know few information about them. However, enough to give them a good use. I recently made NeoDex .78 support them fully, the next preview you'll see is the first model I have exported with them.

Here's a sample:

You may be asking: what's so uber about them?

well they can:

• Emit models instead of images, given a lot more control on the particles.
• work Cone-Like instead of Plane-Like, so on, you can produce different effects with them which aren't possible with BlizzParts2. An example is: Shockwave effects.
• they can use custom models.

some of the wc3 models which uses them are:

• All the dragons
• Some missiles, like the LightningBolt.
• Most of the models in the SharedModels folder within wc3 are used as particles.

However, they have their downsides:

• Their polycount depends on the particles they use(the model's polygon_count*number_of_particles).
• They have few flags and lack a lot of feutures which Part2 have.
• All their angles are in radians instead of degrees.
• Only the Stand animation of the model is played.
• All the replaceable textures are white. Therefore, team color is white and team glow is a white plane.
• Uses max coordinate system instead of wc3's coordinate system for animations.
• If a model is made only out of this type of particle emitters, magos will erase it at converting it to mdx. (solution: use other converter)

Here's a sample of the Shockwave effect:

<EDIT>
Now here's how they work:

 

[Kwah]

That's pretty cool. I can't say I've ever actually looked at them before.

 

[BlinkBoy]

That's pretty cool. I can't say I've ever actually looked at them before.

yeah, you could see them when you kill a dragon in wc3, you'll notice some bones and flesh falling down.

I need to speak with Ralle so the model be parsed and be asked to submitters.

Edit: Attached the 3 models.

Import Little_Rock with this Path: "Little_Rock.MDL"

 

[Kwah]

I need to speak with Ralle so the model be parsed and be asked to submitters.

Is it just me or does that sentence make no sense?

 

[BlinkBoy]

Is it just me or does that sentence make no sense?

oh ups, left the context within me, xD.

I'll rephrase: I need to speak with Ralle so any model with this kind of particles be submitted to the site correctly with the particle-models attached to the main rar file.

 

[HappyCockroach]

Oh my god, you wen't farther than THE BLIZZARD ART TOOLS!!!
I believe that shortly the tool hierarchy will change:
3dsmax 6+ > 3dsmax5 + art tools > gmax > etc etc etc
really, that's just amazing.

btw, you mean that I can EMIT models that are found in the mpq?

 

[Kuhneghetz]

Never have examined this Partical Emitter 1 thingy, but damn, this feature looks actually very cool and useful.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Oh my god, you wen't farther than THE BLIZZARD ART TOOLS!!!
I believe that shortly the tool hierarchy will change:
3dsmax 6+ > 3dsmax5 + art tools > gmax > etc etc etc
really, that's just amazing.

btw, you mean that I can EMIT models that are found in the mpq?

download the shockwave model. It emits a buff model inside the mpq.

 

[Callahan]

This is great.
Now I'll try to update my destructible to emit small rock model instead of rock particle.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Okay guess what time is it?

Peon Fly Away Time!:

and who said PEON MASSING wasn't UBER?

Btw, I'm still investigating something on this type of particle emitter. If you guys notice, there's a flag called "EmitterUsesMDL", it can be changed to "EmitterUsesTGA", however, I can't get it to work with images (tried both tga and blp).

 

[Kwah]

I'd be interested to see more info on what anims can/do play.

 

[Callahan]

I tried it and it works like a charm
My destructible pillar emit rock 8D


My destructible bamboo emit bamboo shatter 8D


It lack some useful functionality of emitter2 but emitting model is so nice.
You can even trick making it emits a model that emits particle.

 

[HappyTauren]

I knew about those, but was always too lazy to use them.

 

[BlinkBoy]

I tried it and it works like a charm
My destructible pillar emit rock 8D
View attachment 58708

My destructible bamboo emit bamboo shatter 8D
View attachment 58709

It lack some useful functionality of emitter2 but emitting model is so nice.
You can even trick making it emits a model that emits particle.

I have made it emit models with part2 and ribbon emitters to produce a uber leet effect in the past.

 

[Kuhneghetz]

It's also useful when you want to make a custom death animation for a skeleton. You know, when their bones get seperated piece by piece.

 

[Direfury]

Epic stuff, man. I'm definetely going to use this.

 

[skrab]

I know about them but i never used them really.
There was once but i never published the model.
The feature is pretty cool.

 

[TDR]

It's also useful when you want to make a custom death animation for a skeleton. You know, when their bones get seperated piece by piece.

You can do that with Reactor really easily.
I knew about these bastard particles but not how to use them. But did you have to make this right when I'm not interested in wc3 modeling anymore? ...meanie...
Anyway, can this thing emit animated models?

 

[D a w n]

I knew that they existed but I did not even knew how they work.
Thank you for telling us blinkboy

 

[Callahan]

You can do that with Reactor really easily.
I knew about these bastard particles but not how to use them. But did you have to make this right when I'm not interested in wc3 modeling anymore? ...meanie...
Anyway, can this thing emit animated models?

It can play only one animation usualy it's just spinning.
And their angle seems to be fixed to 180°

 

[HappyTauren]

You can do that with Reactor really easily.
I knew about these bastard particles but not how to use them. But did you have to make this right when I'm not interested in wc3 modeling anymore? ...meanie...
Anyway, can this thing emit animated models?

Yeah, though only plays "Stand" animation.

 

[Devine]

Seen it in magos ... Opened it ... but I never really knew how they worked =P

 

[TDR]

Yeah, though only plays "Stand" animation.

good enough

 

[BlinkBoy]

TDR: why using reactor for wc3? it would create a lot of keys and add a lot of crap to the model file, make it very big. It's better to leave that for things not wc3-related.

Callahan: it isn't fixed on 180º, it uses radians instead of degrees.

Here's the chart on how they exactly work:

I wish someone could make them emit images for the shake of God. (There must be a wc3 model within war3.mpq [RoC mpq] that has a particle emitter 1 with TGA).

[correction on last note "it isn't invert but shuffle the 2 values"

 

[HappyCockroach]

I like radians. They are real measures. =P
btw, why looking for Image emitting? Wouldn't this be a task which BlizPart can get rid of?

 

[BlinkBoy]

remember that this particle emitter works Cone-Like, while BlizzPart2 works Plane-Like. If you would want shockwaves of images, you would be forced to use BlizzPart1 since BlizzPart2 can't produce that effect.