- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
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- 9,730
Credits: @Hermit for Filter Mode research; @tillinghast for animated Gravity error; @GhostWolf for Time & Sort Primitives Far Z definitions, and PE2 Alpha Key functionality; @doom_sheep for Squirt-Visibility interaction
This SD Magos'-centric thread attempts to document Particle Emitters 2.
Orientation axes are Warcraft 3's.
X - Forward
Y - Rightward
Z - Upward
Velocity = Distance covered; influenced by speed, variation, and gravity
Required: A pre-1.29 copy of the game containing the old MPQs that Magos' Editor can navigate.
* = Not observable in Magos', and will have to be tested in-game.
VISIBILITY Toggle: 0 turns off emission, while values over 0 turn it on. | ||||
EMISSION RATE The amount of particles generated per second. The interval between emissions is capped at ~0.05s (?). Going past this threshold will emit those excess particles in bulk. Emission rates below 1 will only create particles if the sequence is longer than 1 second. Visibility and Emission Rate react differently to animation, and so are useful for different situations. For sequences during which they're blank; similar to Geoset & Material Alpha Animations, Visibility toggles on, while Emission Rate results in 0. For convenience - if you want an emitter turned OFF for a minority of animations, animate Visibility. If you want an emitter turned ON for a minority of animations, animate Emission Rate. | ||||
SPEED By default, causes the particle to move towards its Z. This direction can be changed through emitter or parent rotation. Animated changes in speed will only affect newly emitted particles; thus gravity is the only way to accelerate. | ||||
VARIATION The percentage of randomness with which the particle can deviate from its base speed. 1 means speed can go down to zero, or double; and 2 means it can go -1x negative*, or triple. High variation can lead to bottleneck emission when used with Latitude. | ||||
LATITUDE Angles to which the particles will fly, deviating from the emitter's facing direction. A value of 90 means the particles will go towards a semi-spherical area, while 180 removes angular restrictions.
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WIDTH - Along the X Axis (frontward/backward) LENGTH - Along the Y Axis (left/right) Width and Length determine the rectangular field in which particles are spawned. Magos' Editor displays these properly with MDXs, but not so with MDLs, where they are reversed.
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GRAVITY An accelerating force that points downwards in the absence of Model Space rotations. Negative values will make the particles go up. Magos' will not save animated Gravity in MDX; only in MDL. Nor will it open any MDX with animated Gravity. |
Flags
UNSHADED* - Will be unaffected by the game's lights. Generally always on for effects. The 'sun' comes from the south west by default. |
UNFOGGED* - Will not be tinted nor shrouded by terrain fog. |
LINE EMITTER* - Whether or not the particles will fly towards two axes instead of three. By default, checking this means the particles will fly YZ. With Latitude, the angles will expand sideways. Example usage in Thunder Clap, where it's used with an emitter rotation to make the particles fly XY. Rotation: { 0, -0.707107, 0, 0.707107 } |
SORT PRIMITIVES FAR Z* - Renders the furthest particles on top. |
MODEL SPACE* - Whether or not the particle moves and rotates with its parent nodes and the model. Model Space sees extensive use in Radiance. |
XY QUAD - Whether or not the particle will be rendered as a flat, one-sided plane facing the Z axis. For consistent rendering, XY emitters require both Latitude and Velocity at 1 or higher; they might not be visible otherwise. XY Quads will rotate to XY angles within Latitude.* With Model Space, they will change facing according to the node's rotation.* XY Quads see extensive use in Void Disc. |
SQUIRT* - Creates all the particles indicated by the Emission Rate at the first keyframe available per animation, instead of over time. If the opening frame of the animation is not set to 0, it will ignore your frame settings and squirt when the animation begins. Visibility animation may be used for sequence-wide settings, but Squirt cannot be timed properly with that alone. Use Emission Rate for this purpose. Used by War Stomp and Thunder Clap. |
HEAD- The default. When rendering an emitter without Head nor Tail settings, the game will consider it a Head emitter. Leaving the Head box unchecked will hide the particles in Magos' only. TAIL* - Whether or not the particle will be followed by a tail facing its flying direction. Tails consider the texture's left as their front. In MDL, mdlvis saves the head setting properly, while changing tails to heads. If both are checked, it saves them both properly. If neither are checked, it checks heads. In MDX, mdlvis saves both settings properly. Tail emitters see extensive use in Piercing Thrust. |
Segments
Each particle from this emitter will fade through the three colors, sizes, and visibilities (alphas), with each segment's duration decided by <Time>. Particles will not scale with the models they're attached to, even if they're Model Space. Scale will still affect emitters' spawn field and velocity. |
Misc
SPRITES ROWS & COLUMNS - Used to indicate what's displayed for sprite textures, starting from the upper left.
HEAD (Life Span & Decay) - Animates sprite textures for head particles, starting from 0. "Life Span" refers to the transition between Segments 1 and 2; while "Decay" refers to that between 2 and 3. REPEAT - How many times the component repeats its run during the particle's lifetime.
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