User:Crush/Particle Engine Tutorial

This will become a tutorial for creating particle effects. Still in the conceptualisation phase.

Basics

• how does the engine work
• where are the files for what purpose
• how can particle effects be added to maps
• how can particle effects be added to NPCs

Blinking

Basic particle effect which creates a box of blinking particles.

• Basic emitters
• position-x, position-y, position-z
• lifetime
• output
• image

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <effect>
  <particle> 
   <emitter>
    <property name="output" value= "1" />                              <!-- We want one new particle per game tick -->
    <property name="lifetime" value= "10" />                           <!-- we want each particle to survive for 3 game ticks -->
    <property name="image" value="graphics/particles/star-medium.png"/><!-- We want the particles to look like white stars. -->
    <property name="position-x" min="0" max="32" />                    <!-- We want the particles to be spawned in an area 32 pixels wide...-->
    <property name="position-y" min="0" max="32" />                    <!-- ...32 pixels deep and...-->
    <property name="position-z" min="0" max="32" />                    <!-- ...32 pixels high.  -->
   </emitter>
  </particle>
 </effect>

Exercise: Make a box with the double size and with a different particle:

Water Fountain

Moving particles with physics.

• horizontal- and vertical-angle
• power
• gravity
• Killed by floor contact

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <effect>
  <particle> 
   <emitter>
    <!-- no position-bla this time - all particles are spawned at the same point. -->
    <property name="output" value= "4" />                  <!-- This time we need some more particles-->           
    <property name="horizontal-angle" min="0" max="360" /> <!-- launched in a full horizontal circle -->
    <property name="vertical-angle" value="45" />          <!-- launched in a fixed vertical angle -->
    <property name="power" value="3" />                    <!-- Initial speed of 3 pixels per tick -->
    <property name="gravity" value="0.1" />                <!-- Accelerated by 0.1 pixels per game tick to the ground -->
    <property name="image" value="graphics/particles/orb-medium.png"/><!-- This time we use the orb sprite. -->
   </emitter>
  </particle>
 </effect>

Exercise: Make a "Firehose" which launches the particles in a narrow stream:

Fireball Fountain

• Nested emitters
• bounce
• animation

Orbiting Spheres

• acceleration
• momentum
• die-distance
• dyeing

Smoke puffs

Demonstrates the use of nested emitters for pulsating effects using the nomads pipe as an example

• fade-in
• fade-out
• Negative minimum output for irregular output
• Using nested emitters for timing purpose

Triangle in circle

• Using nested emitter for circular and linear effects
• Using trigonometrical calculations for creating geometric shapes.