Wish me luck!

Moleculor

<div class="IPBDescription">I'm about to try a tiny particle map!</div>Wish me luck! I'm going to dive into WC and try my hand at a particle effect I thought of last night. Sure, my sliders don't work, but I've just -gotta- try.... Any tips for someone who's never done this before? I'll be using a custom... uh...thingy.. particle... Do I need to do anything special with it? Place it anywhere special? The inspiration comes from an effect I saw earlier involving projectors and holograms.

Can I change the color on a sprite that already exists?

(And Flayra, are there -any- workarounds for the sliders not working? A certain resolution I should be set at?)



<!--EDIT|Moleculor|Jan. 28 2002,11:14-->

Spooge

Check out this link to Chromeangel's (spelling?) site.  It has some pretty good basics for setting up a particle system.  It doesn't cover everything but it will get you started.

<a href="http://www.chromeangel.fsnet.co.uk/NS/Guide/ABerzerkersGuideToMappingForNaturalSelection.htm" target="_blank">Beserker's Guide</a>

BTY, good luck!

Moleculor

Already checked, and it has nothing on where sprites go, or anything... wait a sec... are sprites NS specific, or are they more of a HL thing? I'm completely new to mapping.

Moleculor

Never mind! Apparently Sprites are HLish, and not NSish... *shrug* I've got my custom sprite maker now, and know where they go!

Time to work on the effect. If I get it working, I'll post a BSP.



<!--EDIT|Moleculor|Jan. 28 2002,11:49-->

Spooge

There should be a "sprites" folder under your NS folder.  Your sprite should probably be in there.  You can select the location within your entity but I would have it look there to be safe.  Also, I've found that not all of the sprites will work with the particle system.  I could be wrong about that (I'm no veteran mapper myself) but here is a link that shows some of the standard Half-Life sprites.  I find it to be very handy.

<a href="http://www.vlatitude.com/resources/sprite_list.php" target="_blank">List of sprites</a>

Moleculor

Oh I've already opened up a sprite, altered it, and turned it into a new sprite.... now I'm in WC... got two rooms.. I think... And a doorway.. I hope... Now to texture... Then create one spawn point and the particle effects...

pielemuis

goodluck molecular, this mapping thing is way beyond my grasp. I treid WC for a while and created 1 room, couldnt make stairs!Oh well mappers will be mappers and gamres ill be... well you get the point.

Flayra

The only workaround I know about for the sliders is to try it on a different computer.  The sliders aren't broken on all computers, just most of them.  For instance, the broken sliders worked perfectly fine on both my computers here.  It's a HL engine problem though, I have no idea what the difference on different machines is.

 Of course, the sliders are fixed in the new NSTR, which, everyone together now, is coming "soon" (though I do mean that with all my heart).

Moleculor

*grin* Well, I got the whole thing to work (with much screaming and yelling in the IRC channel... poor guys... I kept hammering them with questions, and then screaming at WC.. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> ) but all my particles go in the wrong direction, and they're way too bright. I'll have to recreate the sprite, or something, and play around with the numbers.. (What -are- those last two numbers anywho?? Accel/Decel is the only possible use I can think of for one of them... Variable change in size for the other??)

Soon though I'll be able to actually show it off... though I'm not sure I should... it's pointless, and the rooms are three times as big as they need to be and the particle effect isn't really all -that- cool.. <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->

Actually, I may just use the shell of the map to show off my forcefield effect... I hope I can get it to work.



<!--EDIT|Moleculor|Jan. 28 2002,15:26-->

Howling

I am baffled by the complication of setting up a custom particles entity. It crash-dived my puny puter 2 times. :/

*kicks back and waits for NSTR2*

Freestyler

That reminds me.. have to get onto my PS map <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->

Spyder_Monkey

Well, good luck Moleculor, be sure to post your work. Of course, knowing him, it'll be a map made especially for Bob's to have the advantage. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Spooge

Moleculor, did you use a custom .wad?  I got an error that says I'm missing one.  Maybe you'd be willing to share some custom texts?  <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->  Otherwise, could you recompile with the .wad included?  I'd like to see the fruits of all your hard work.

MonsieurEvil

I get this; be sure to zip up your WAD too, or compile with the wad included.



<!--EDIT|MonsieurEvil|Jan. 29 2002,00:08-->

Moleculor

Ok, if you got it to work, please post about it. Otherwise, here's a few screenshots that do -not- do it justice.

Moleculor

2nd

Moleculor

3rd

Silver_Fox

O_o


got some kinda wierd error ...

I sent an e-mail to ... who ever it goes to, but I didnt realise I could type my own text ...

Jacius

Awww that look so sweet, its a shame I can't get it to work in NSTR :'(

I will try editing them to see if I can make them work

-jacius

Silver_Fox

well, it works ...

cant say I personaly cared for it too much though
<!--emo&:(--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('><!--endemo-->

I'm not sure what it was, but I think they just look too .... "pixily"

Silver_Fox

well ... the "Iris" one just ... shut off on me .. like - instantly.

I didnt see any iris effect.
I'll try the other one right now.

Moleculor

The RMF's of three varients of my forcefield effect (with a bad holo effect thrown in)


The shut off instantly problem is a NSTR bug. It's fixed (I hope) in later versions (which I don't -have-)



<!--EDIT|Moleculor|Jan. 29 2002,07:43-->

Silver_Fox

I like the side to side motion

Greedo

Ummm...  are those maps supposed to do anything?  All I saw were your green and red particle systems (which either need new sprites or different scales to look decent), and nothing happened.

Howling

Somebody should start an editing site for NS.

Moleculor

Ok, for those of you who got to download my BSPs last night, thanx for your opinions, but I woke up this morning realizing how much spam I'd created, and I went and deleted them off the board. When I get back from Calc, I'll put them back up.

(And yes Greedo, they do nothing but move, and they're not new. I -suck- as a mapper and a particle system creater.)

Spooge

Don't get down Moleculor.  Your idea might just spark a revolution in mapping history!  Ok, maybe not.  But at least you aren't sitting on your can waiting for someone to map it for you.  This particle system has so many possibilities.  I say, keep the ideas coming.

pielemuis

Hey molecular don't let them get you down, i can only map 2 rooms, thats all i can, so this particle system errrr, don't even know how you use it. Maybe i should get into mapping?
Heck it can't be that bad?
Maybe someone should make a site with a tutor on hwo to make NS maps?