Continuous particle effects

[sonosublime]

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to make a particle 'reset' and go off again? eg. if I have someone being shot repeatedly in the same place and would like to have blood effects continually appear. Or when I have someone firing an automatic weapon and would like the muzzle flash to go off continually.

Is there a way to do this without having to create multiple particle animation sets?

[Pte Jack]

Not that I am aware of, besides, not every gun shot is going to occur at the exact same instance if they were grouped...

[TheFrozenMonkeyKing]

I often use the blood_trail for blood that just keeps on coming. And for the muzzle I often resize the minigun_constant_core

[sonosublime]

I've tried out the blood_trail (droplets) particles, but is there a way to extend it? I've tried increasing the emission and lifetime, but the effect still only lasts for ~2 secs.

Also, what is the difference between normal and 'dx80' particle files?

[Chris!!]

Normal particles are, as the name implies, normal. Dx80 on the other hand are used by low-end computers, uses cheaper/fewer effects.

[sonosublime]

Thanks for the reply.

Do you know is there is a way to extend the particle effect? Increasing emission and lifetime does not seem to do anything. Is blood_trail not a continuous effect?

[TheFrozenMonkeyKing]

I don't think that is possible.

[Chris!!]

Inside the particle editor under "Emitter" there should be a thing called "emit_continously". Go to emission_duration and change it to 0 so it will loop.

[sonosublime]

Where exactly do I do this? In the particle editor tool? Should I create a separate copy of the particle before I start messing around with it?

[Chris!!]

Right click on your particle and select "Instance Particle System", this will allow you to edit the particle. Now right click on your particle again and select "Show in Element Viewer > Particle System".

Under "particleSystemDefinition" click on the [...] button and follow the instructions of my previous comment.

[sonosublime]

Sweet, that's awesome! Thanks for telling me how to do that. Is it possible to change all particle systems so that they emit continuously like this? And are there any downsides to changing a particle's emission_duration to 0?

[Chris!!]

Originally posted by sonosublime:

Sweet, that's awesome! Thanks for telling me how to do that. Is it possible to change all particle systems so that they emit continuously like this? And are there any downsides to changing a particle's emission_duration to 0?

You can't change all particle's emission duration at once, you'll have to do it one at a time. There is no downside of changing their emission duration to 0, haven't encountered any issues.

[sonosublime]

Sorry to revive this old topic, but could someone please tell me how to make impact particles emit continuously (i.e. when someone is hitting the wall with an automatic weapon).

I would like to make the impact_concrete particles go off continuously, but in the particle editor, there is no 'emit_continuously' under 'Emitter'. There is only 'emit_instantaneously'.

[sonosublime]

Bumping

[Pte Jack]

Go into the particle, find the Lifetime random initiator. change lifetime_max to .002 and lifetime_min to .002... See if that does something for you. you may also have to set the setting for the random initiator for the 2 child particles as well. Same fields, .0002 and .0002.

[sonosublime]

Thanks for the response. In the particle editor tool, I created a duplicate of 'impact_concrete' (in the TF2 'impact_fx' particles folder) and tried decreasing the lifetime_max/min values. The smoke bursts appear to happen more frequently, but still nowhere what I need to simulate automatic gunfire striking a wall.