General Half-Life 2/Effects
description
Create a particle effect of falling sprites using the Particle Editor.
keywords
particle, effect, creator, particle creator, particle effects, editor.
Here is a tutorial on how to make a simple particle effect of falling sprites, it's really quite easy to make your own good looking particles for your mod or map.
Opening Particle Editor
- To run the particle editor, run the game with -tools on the commandline and select 'Particle Editor' from the tool menu on the far right.
- To load a map so you can test your particle, look to the console window at the bottom of the screen and type "map <levelname>"
- A helpful command to restart all particle systems in a level - useful when tweaking them in the editor : bind "h" = "ent_fire info_particle_system stop;wait 120;ent_fire info_particle_system start"
CIick File -> New
Click "create" and name it.
Click on those three little dots ...
Choose any sprites or texture you want, but for tutorials sake I'm using this smoke sprite.
Go to the dropdown menu to the left, change it to "renderer" then right click in the empty area and click "add"
Click Render_animated_sprites, then click "open"
Change the dropdown menu to "emitter" add the value "emit continuously"
Notice there is a puff-o-smoke. Be happy, I know I am.
Change the dropdown menu to "initializer" and add the value "Position within sphere random"
Change the value of "distance_max" to 100, notice that our lil' furries have multiplied.
Change the dropdown menu to "operator" add the value "movement basic"
Change the value of "gravity" to "0 0 -60" notice our furries now float.
Change the dropdown menu to "properties" and change the value of "max_paricles" to "100" notice we have less furries, but the float more fluidly
At this point we find, that there is nothing wrong with plain white furries, but the've became slightly monotonous and drab. lets add color.
Change the dropdown menu to "Initializer" again and add the property "Color Random"
Change the values of "color 1" and "color 2" to anything you want. be amazed at your beautiful floating furries.
Finally, save your creation as something appropriate.
See also: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Particle_editor
I hope this has given you a better look at the basics of particle editor, I hope this inspires people to do different things and push the limits.
-Dylan Holcomb