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by **Videowarrior** on Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:34 pm

So I've been fiddling with the particle system for a bit and decided I wanted to start working on a blizzard-style map (bunch of snow, wind, etc.) but now I'm having problems with the particle system not actually initializing within my maps.

I'm going to walk you through what I did, let me know if I missed something...

Step 1: I created my custom particle "Blizzard" and named the .PCF file "snowblizzard.pcf"

Step 2: Added the line:

Code: Select all: "file" "!particles/snowblizzard.pcf"

To my particles_manifest.txt file (Which is located at hl2/particles):

Code: Select all: particles_manifest { "file" "particles/error.pcf" "file" "particles/antlion_blood.pcf" "file" "particles/blood_impact.pcf" "file" "particles/water_impact.pcf" "file" "particles/fire_01.pcf" "file" "particles/burning_fx.pcf" "file" "particles/combineball.pcf" "file" "particles/vortigaunt_fx.pcf" "file" "particles/rocket_fx.pcf" "file" "!particles/snowblizzard.pcf" }

Step 3: Created a seamless map (No leaks here!) with nothing but a info_player_start, light_environment, and a info_particle_system entity with the following settings:

Compiled without error's

Code: Select all: ** Executing... ** Command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\bin\vbsp.exe" ** Parameters: -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2" "C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff.vmf" Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Jun 20 2013) 6 threads materialPath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2\materials Loading C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff.vmf Could not locate 'GameData' key in c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\half-life 2\hl2\gameinfo.txt fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides... ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Processing areas...done (0) Building Faces...done (0) FixTjuncs... PruneNodes... WriteBSP... done (0) writing C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff.prt...Building visibility clusters... done (0) Creating default LDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials: skybox/sky_day02_09_hdr*.vmt ! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps. Creating default HDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials: skybox/sky_day02_09_hdr*.vmt ! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps. Finding displacement neighbors... Finding lightmap sample positions... Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Building Physics collision data... done (0) (3189 bytes) Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Compacting texture/material tables... Reduced 9 texinfos to 5 Reduced 3 texdatas to 3 (63 bytes to 63) Writing C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff.bsp 0 seconds elapsed ** Executing... ** Command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\bin\vvis.exe" ** Parameters: -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2" "C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff" Valve Software - vvis.exe (Jun 20 2013) 6 threads reading c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp reading c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.prt 4 portalclusters 4 numportals BasePortalVis: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) PortalFlow: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Optimized: 0 visible clusters (0.00%) Total clusters visible: 16 Average clusters visible: 4 Building PAS... Average clusters audible: 4 visdatasize:44 compressed from 64 writing c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp 0 seconds elapsed ** Executing... ** Command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\bin\vrad.exe" ** Parameters: -both -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2" "C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff" Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (Jun 20 2013) Valve Radiosity Simulator 6 threads [Reading texlights from 'lights.rad'] [45 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad'] Loading c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp Setting up ray-trace acceleration structure... Done (0.00 seconds) 54 faces 316757 square feet [45613056.00 square inches] 0 Displacements 0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches] 54 patches before subdivision 2294 patches after subdivision 2 direct lights BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) transfers 879, max 277 transfer lists: 0.0 megs GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Bounce #1 added RGB(24, 19, 9) GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Bounce #2 added RGB(0, 0, 0) Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0013 sec> FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) FinalLightFace Done 0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes. ThreadComputeLeafAmbient: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Writing leaf ambient...done Ready to Finish Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness ------------ --------------- --------------- -------- models 2/1024 96/49152 ( 0.2%) brushes 8/8192 96/98304 ( 0.1%) brushsides 48/65536 384/524288 ( 0.1%) planes 54/65536 1080/1310720 ( 0.1%) vertexes 83/65536 996/786432 ( 0.1%) nodes 29/65536 928/2097152 ( 0.0%) texinfos 5/12288 360/884736 ( 0.0%) texdata 3/2048 96/65536 ( 0.1%) dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) faces 54/65536 3024/3670016 ( 0.1%) hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%) origfaces 12/65536 672/3670016 ( 0.0%) leaves 32/65536 1024/2097152 ( 0.0%) leaffaces 54/65536 108/131072 ( 0.1%) leafbrushes 40/65536 80/131072 ( 0.1%) areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%) surfedges 280/512000 1120/2048000 ( 0.1%) edges 153/256000 612/1024000 ( 0.1%) LDR worldlights 2/8192 176/720896 ( 0.0%) HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%) leafwaterdata 0/32768 0/393216 ( 0.0%) waterstrips 0/32768 0/327680 ( 0.0%) waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%) waterindices 0/65536 0/131072 ( 0.0%) cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%) overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%) LDR lightdata [variable] 71968/0 ( 0.0%) HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%) visdata [variable] 44/16777216 ( 0.0%) entdata [variable] 907/393216 ( 0.2%) LDR ambient table 32/65536 128/262144 ( 0.0%) HDR ambient table 32/65536 128/262144 ( 0.0%) LDR leaf ambient 55/65536 1540/1835008 ( 0.1%) HDR leaf ambient 32/65536 896/1835008 ( 0.0%) occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%) static props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%) pakfile [variable] 86742/0 ( 0.0%) physics [variable] 3189/4194304 ( 0.1%) physics terrain [variable] 2/1048576 ( 0.0%) Level flags = 0 Total triangle count: 124 Writing c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp 0 seconds elapsed Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (Jun 20 2013) Valve Radiosity Simulator 6 threads [Reading texlights from 'lights.rad'] [45 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad'] Loading c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp Setting up ray-trace acceleration structure... Done (0.00 seconds) 54 faces 316757 square feet [45613056.00 square inches] 0 Displacements 0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches] 54 patches before subdivision 2294 patches after subdivision 2 direct lights BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1) BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) transfers 879, max 277 transfer lists: 0.0 megs GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Bounce #1 added RGB(24, 19, 9) GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Bounce #2 added RGB(0, 0, 0) Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0011 sec> FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) FinalLightFace Done 0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes. ThreadComputeLeafAmbient: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0) Writing leaf ambient...done Ready to Finish Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness ------------ --------------- --------------- -------- models 2/1024 96/49152 ( 0.2%) brushes 8/8192 96/98304 ( 0.1%) brushsides 48/65536 384/524288 ( 0.1%) planes 54/65536 1080/1310720 ( 0.1%) vertexes 83/65536 996/786432 ( 0.1%) nodes 29/65536 928/2097152 ( 0.0%) texinfos 5/12288 360/884736 ( 0.0%) texdata 3/2048 96/65536 ( 0.1%) dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) faces 54/65536 3024/3670016 ( 0.1%) hdr faces 54/65536 3024/3670016 ( 0.1%) origfaces 12/65536 672/3670016 ( 0.0%) leaves 32/65536 1024/2097152 ( 0.0%) leaffaces 54/65536 108/131072 ( 0.1%) leafbrushes 40/65536 80/131072 ( 0.1%) areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%) surfedges 280/512000 1120/2048000 ( 0.1%) edges 153/256000 612/1024000 ( 0.1%) LDR worldlights 2/8192 176/720896 ( 0.0%) HDR worldlights 2/8192 176/720896 ( 0.0%) leafwaterdata 0/32768 0/393216 ( 0.0%) waterstrips 0/32768 0/327680 ( 0.0%) waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%) waterindices 0/65536 0/131072 ( 0.0%) cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%) overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%) LDR lightdata [variable] 71968/0 ( 0.0%) HDR lightdata [variable] 71968/0 ( 0.0%) visdata [variable] 44/16777216 ( 0.0%) entdata [variable] 907/393216 ( 0.2%) LDR ambient table 32/65536 128/262144 ( 0.0%) HDR ambient table 32/65536 128/262144 ( 0.0%) LDR leaf ambient 55/65536 1540/1835008 ( 0.1%) HDR leaf ambient 55/65536 1540/1835008 ( 0.1%) occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%) static props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%) pakfile [variable] 86742/0 ( 0.0%) physics [variable] 3189/4194304 ( 0.1%) physics terrain [variable] 2/1048576 ( 0.0%) Level flags = 0 Total triangle count: 124 Writing c:\users\videowarrior\desktop\dustpuff.bsp 0 seconds elapsed ** Executing... ** Command: Copy File ** Parameters: "C:\Users\Videowarrior\Desktop\dustpuff.bsp" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2\maps\dustpuff.bsp"

And after all that careful placement..

What the hell did I miss? I've also tried the "per-map" manifest files, but that doesn't work either.
I'm trying to get this particle to work for hl2 but I've also tried it with ep2 and I get the same problem. If one of you could help solve this mystery for me I'd love you forever :[]:

by **marnamai** on Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:38 pm

remove the "!", place all your custom particle pcf files in particles folder

by **Videowarrior** on Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:43 pm

marnamai wrote:remove the "!", place all your custom particle pcf files in particles folder

I tried it with and without the "!" and it didn't help (I assumed that the ! would help because it cache's the particle globally) and the particle is in the particles folder.

by **marnamai** on Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:52 pm

Hmm didn't know about "!", is it documented anywhere? Valve hasn't used it if I recall correctly.

I see you're using the steampipe HL2 particle editor, might still be buggy ... have you tried the one from source sdk base 2013?

by **Videowarrior** on Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:03 am

marnamai wrote:Hmm didn't know about "!", is it documented anywhere? Valve hasn't used it if I recall correctly.

I see you're using the steampipe HL2 particle editor, might still be buggy ... have you tried the one from source sdk base 2013?

I'll give it a shot, I'll let you know if using 2013 fixes it.

by **Videowarrior** on Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:17 am

Nope, using SDK Base 2013 still gives me the error "Attemped to precache unknown particle system "Blizzard"

Edit: Actually you know what? I'll try adding the particle and the modified manifest file to the hl2 VPK tree and see if that works, that way we can be sure that the file is getting loaded.

by **Videowarrior** on Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:34 am

LO AND BEHOLD, IT WORKS.

I'll post a tutorial on this in a bit, I guess the whole solution was to simply create a custom VPK file containing the particles. Hell yeah!

by **jimonions** on Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:53 am

Great I had given up on this. Thanks for the fix.

by **ScarT** on Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:14 am

"!" is a flag you can set to the particle gets precached globally whether its used or not if I recall correctly.

by **Sagehorn** on Sun Sep 01, 2013 3:00 am

Weird. I have the same problem, and I was able to "reproduce" that vpk solution only one time. Now it doesn't work anymore, at all. Have the same error messages and made everything according to plan. Hate that sh*t ^^

I'd like to understand the structure/system.. maybe I'm able to understand it then..

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