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Work in Progress / Smart Particles - do EVERYTHING with particles!

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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 07:50 Edited at: 14th Oct 2005 00:57
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***** UPDATE October 13th, 2005*****
Minor update to correct SmartSlider misbehaviour. See post dated 13th October below.


***** UPDATE July 5th, 2005*****
Tutorial added, see entry below dated 5/7/05 - how to create an explosion


***** UPDATE July 4th, 2005*****
New Version available for download. A couple of known bugs fixed, but more importantly, you can now export one emitter, and up to 3 effectors and 3 colliders.

So you could, for example, now have a wind and a vortex effector, along with a ceiling and a floor collider.

http://www.biglaugh.co.uk/SmartParticles.zip
(Please install the original first, this is just the exe)

Once again, have fun!




[b]for Darkbasic Professional and the Particles Expansion Pack

Beta Version now available... http://darkbasic.biglaugh.co.uk/smartparticles.html

Smart Particles is an intuitive interface for creating particle based special effects. It utilises the power of The Game Creators’ Particles expansion pack, with the simplicity of a graphical interface for designing, creating and exporting fantastic effects.

From vehicle explosions, to lemonade bubbles, the only limit is your imagination.

Every feature in the Particles Expansion pack is available in Smart Particles!



You can test-drive the power of Smart Particles without owning the Particles Pack!
(you will not be able to compile the exported code into your own programs, however)

The beta version will allow you to use he application in full, with unlimited emitters, effectors, colliders, images and all interactions. You will only be able to export source code for one emitter, effector and collider with this version.

SmartSliders: Simply Click and Drag smart sliders to increase and decrease the values. The longer you hold the mouse button down, the faster the values change. Release and Click again for fine-tuning of the values.

REMEMBER! Many of the Smart Sliders have dual functionality, using the Right Mouse Button. Particle size, life, velocity, and mass percentage variation is included in the dual functionality.



Have fun! Full version coming soon!

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dj blackdragon3710
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 07:52
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Looks extremely nice BatVink

<<<<<Used to be "djblackdragon" with being registered in January, 2003, no matter what it says on the left<<<<<
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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 07:53 Edited at: 22nd Jun 2005 07:57
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Showcase also available - demonstrating title effects, The Matrix with particles, Lemonade (yes, you read it correctly, lemonade!), fireworks and deep-space explosions.

http://darkbasic.biglaugh.co.uk/smartparticles.html



The showcase includes a "volumetric" explosion, where the camera travels through the explosion and out the other side. This is where Particle Effects outshine 2D equivalents. Fog, the dust behind a car, the debris of a crash, rain and snow...you can fly right through it!

BatVink
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Dot Merix
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 07:58
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Neat demo

The bubbles appear to sometimes go out of the glass's containment though. Great stuff, i liked it.. Though at the end there i could've sworn it was going to let me fly that airplane for awhile before crashing it into something and making it go boom!



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Chenak
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 10:37
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Those smart sliders are very annoying i only seem to beable to get the highest number or the lowest, if i drag or click slightly it sticks to the high/lowest value. Also you cant see the value you are changing it too very easily, it kind of just flashes there for a second.

Its prolly running way too fast... maybe an option to set the sync rate?
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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 17:53
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Quote: "Those smart sliders are very annoying...Also you cant see the value you are changing it too very easily, it kind of just flashes there for a second."


That's very strange. You should see the value all the time while the mouse button is down. The only issue I have had is when I have put 1000 particles on the screen and increased the size too high. Then the frame rate drops and the sliders are difficult to adjust.

You don't have some kind of over-intelligent mouse do you? The app detects a mouse down, then left and right movement until you release the button again. The sliders always start slow, and increase in speed as the value gets greater/lower in comparison to the original.

BatVink
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Sergey K
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 20:40
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how much fps it takes on that particle effect? i guess alot..

does 1 + 1 is 11?!
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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2005 21:01
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It's very efficient, the've done a good job on the Particles Pack. I have a game with 16 emitters and around 1,000 particles on screen at one time, running at 100 FPS. Without the particles I get...100 FPS!

BatVink
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Chenak
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Posted: 23rd Jun 2005 00:55
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Its a tracker ball
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MikeS
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Posted: 23rd Jun 2005 09:41
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Hi BatVink,

Very nice job you've done with this, I remember talking to you about it awhile back. Worked very well for me, and I didn't have any problems with the sliders.

However, when I tried to export the DBP code, I got an array at line 5410,"could not close nest". The source still exported, but it doesn't work without a minor modification(Didn't export with "endfunction" at the end of the function ).

Other than that minor problem, everything works and looks great. Excellent work.



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BatVink
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Posted: 23rd Jun 2005 19:02
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Quote: "Didn't export with "endfunction" at the end of the function"


I modded this version for demo purposes, to only export one emitter/effector/collider. I must have removed that line too. Thanks for spotting it!

BatVink
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Philip
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Posted: 26th Jun 2005 23:35
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Is this something that you are going to sell for the final version?

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
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BatVink
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 04:57 Edited at: 27th Jun 2005 04:58
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Philip, that's the plan. It will be be low-cost though. I spent around 2 months developing this, realising that the DLL is actually a very complex animal, and getting myself deeper and deeper in as I went! At the same time, I realised that people are barely scratching the surface.

For example...colliders and effectors can interact with many emitters. Not only that, but they have a set of global parameters, such as force for example, and then a set of parameters that are specific to each interaction. Coding the interface to handle this gets complex very quickly.

You can also get colliders and effectors to work together...So an effector can lie dormant until the particles from an emitter hit a collider, then they activate and "strut their stuff".

The time based effectors are very valuable, as long as you can program them correctly. Doing it visually saves masses of time, changing sizes, colour and transparency interactively and seeing the results immediately. That's the whole crux of this...you can do in a few seconds what might otherwise take 10 or more recompiles to get the effect right.

The "rocket" fireworks are a good example. (Yes, the graphics aren't the best, but I'm working on it!). This effect has 2 emitters, attached to multiple effectors. Some of the effectors are time-based, with several keys. The interaction between effector and emitter is different for each firework. It would probably takes a couple of hours to code manually, and even then that would be a direct line towards a pre-conceived idea. The tool lets you "play" and experiment with different effects.

BatVink
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bigbrother 2000
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 05:29
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Great demo BatVink, this will help a lot of people with the pack, great work!

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Philip
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 08:32
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It does seem that EVERYONE has become terribly commercial over the last year. :-(

Still, I don't begrudge people the opportunity to make money. I'm not a socialist. I hope the price will be reasonable though Mr. BatV.

Do bears get a discount? Remember, we are not primates and so as a matter of law do not have money or bank accounts.

Philip

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David T
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 08:39
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I like the sound of those volumetric effects - that might convince me to buy the expansion pack. Before I just thought "hey, I've already got particles...". Will check it out tomorrow

Quote: "It does seem that EVERYONE has become terribly commercial over the last year. :-("


Oh dear... I too have some plans. But I think a LOT of people will like them.

"A book. If u know something why cant u make a kool game or prog.
come on now. A book. I hate books. book is stupid. I know that I need codes but I dont know the codes"
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BatVink
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 19:25
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Quote: "It does seem that EVERYONE has become terribly commercial over the last year. :-("


My personal opinion is that there are a number of tools, dlls and other "stuff" around here that deserve more than a pat on the back. I'm far from being cash-rich, but I'd pay a few quid for quite a lot of things I've seen here in the past 12 months...this community is getting quite talented.

Walaber and his wrapper...Sparky's collision...Geecee's fonts, and many more besides. These guys have worked hard, but I don't think they see the potential in their own work.

I don't necessarily include myself in the above , only time will tell. But don't worry, I'm not looking to retire early, it's more a case of adding an extra achievement to my CV.

BatVink
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BatVink
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Posted: 27th Jun 2005 23:13 Edited at: 27th Jun 2005 23:14
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I've posted a tech demo in Program Announcements that demonstrates how to create infinite rain on a landscape using particles. It also describes how to achieve the effect. Although I used Smart Particles to create it quickly, it's actually a very simple technique as the explanation shows.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=56347&b=5&p=0



BatVink
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Baggers
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 00:11
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Not bad atall, the emmiter should be higher though as if you look straight ahead you can see all the droplets appearing.
Good job at crafting the mood though works very effectivly

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BatVink
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 01:13 Edited at: 28th Jun 2005 01:16
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Update: This demo now does rain and snow. Press "r" and "s" to toggle, one will fade away as the other kicks in.

I agree Baggers, I was trying to do a trade-off of various aspects. Originally, I had all particles being created off-screen above, but then I had to increase the particle life, and as a knock-on effect add more particles. This demo was about minimum particles. Even still, it runs at 130 FPS on my 1.7Ghz laptop, thanks to the Particles pack, rather than my coding...I'm just taking advantage!


By the way, I had this tool in progress when you produced yours, it was a spooky coincidence that we were doing the same thing with completely different back-engines. I have to say, though, I haven't been able to make this do the "glowing" particles that you've achieved yet.

BatVink
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Baggers
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 01:47
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Well the glow effect isnt too hard, its just the texture really.
As usual it's just one picture (find it attached)...id make a fair few a second (eg: 15 particles a second) get the life low, make sure they are rotate randomly when they are made so they look slightly different. I set a high fade value when they start and near invisible at the end.
Whatever the speed they move at, they have to be big enough to blend together and look like one big particle.

I know the fps problem more than well !...its what really makes your stand out well...Im tempted to look into making effects using limbs soon, should be fast and efficient even though i cant do everything with them, they should surfice for basic effects.

By the way I loved the lemonade idea !...I may have to add chaos factor in the next version.
Thanks for the inspiration !

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BatVink
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Quote: "make sure they are rotate randomly when they are made so they look slightly different"


I've asked Mike J if this is possible in the DLL, but not implemented in the interface. The Particles Pack can't rotate the particles.

BatVink
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Baggers
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 02:15
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Ah thats annoying...you you make an emitter in the particle pack with one set image or can you specify or change as it's running ?

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BatVink
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 05:56
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You can change it as it runs, but it changes all instances of it. A bit strange, because changing the colour only changes new instances, and leaves the "alive" particles in their original form.

If you downloaded the showcase, you will have seen "The Matrix" done with particles. This is actually an optical illusion, the images are changed so fast it gives you the impression that there are lots of different letters on the screen. In reality, you are only seeing one character at a time.

BatVink
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Baggers
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Posted: 28th Jun 2005 06:33
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Really ?...wow thats neat, I didnt notice atall !
Im off to look at that again !

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KYP
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Posted: 29th Jun 2005 07:29
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this looks very cool, to bad i only have dbc....

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BatVink
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Posted: 5th Jul 2005 01:31
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***** UPDATE July 4th, 2005*****
[b]New Version available for download. A couple of known bugs fixed, but more importantly, you can now export one emitter, and up to 3 effectors and 3 colliders.

So you could, for example, now have a wind and a vortex effector, along with a ceiling and a floor collider.

http://www.biglaugh.co.uk/SmartParticles.zip
(Please install the original first, this is just the exe)

Once again, have fun!


BatVink
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BatVink
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Posted: 5th Jul 2005 22:12 Edited at: 5th Jul 2005 22:13
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While I was sat in a hotel room in Paris last night, I realised there was a need for a tutorial for this beast. So below I present to you a walk-through of the creation of an explosion. It looks long-winded and complicated, but you could actually do this in 5 minutes once you have mastered the basics.

Tutorial - Making an Explosion
********************************


Add an emitter. Change its type to Spherical. This will create a rounded, volumetric emission of particles.

Set the number of particles to 40. Surprisingly, this is enough to make a convincing explosion. And because you are using so few particles, you can afford to enhance this explosion with additional emitters, perhaps with dark smoke or object fragments.

The emitter radius should be small, around 0.08. We wan the explosion to have impact, by dramatically bursting out from the centre

Set the emitter rate to 40. This will ensure all of the particles are created within the first second of the life of the explosion.

Emitter explosion is set to 1, to force the particles out in all directions.

Set the velocity to 8. This is a very large value for the scale of the explosion, and will create a rapidly expanding effect. Later on, we will ensure the partiles don’t just disappear into eternity . Using the right mouse button, set the variance to 10%.

Set particle mass to 0.03

Set particle life to 3 or 4 seconds, just for now. You can change this later to create explosions of differing lengths. Because we will fade the particles out, we simply need to ensure they last long enough.

In the images tab, add a suitable image. There is an “xplode.png” file in the miscellaneous directory, provided in the download. Once loaded, double-click on it to apply it to the emitter.

Now we have a very strange looking emitter, that looks more like popcorn than a scene from Star Wars. It’s time to add some effectors. Start by adding a new emitter, and change its type to “drag”.

Double-click the emitter in the list box to attach the effector to the emitter. Immediately you will see the “popcorn” starting to slow down as it radiates from the centre. Maximise the drag, and maximize the interactivity.

Next, add another effector, and change it’s type to “Size”. Double-click the emitter in the list box to attach it.

Size emitter require a “timeline”, along which the size will change. Add 3 keys, at 0, 0.15 and 0.65 seconds. Make the sizes 0.02, 0.67 and 2.5 respectively. You do this by selecting the key, and adjusting the time and size with the Smart Sliders.

In the same way, we must now add a color effector. This is not for the color, but for the transparency value that is available. Add keys at 0, 0.85 and 2.5 seconds. Use the transparency slider to create values of 255, 255 and 0.

You should now have a fairly convincing explosion. Don’t worry if you didn’t quite follow the specific details, you can now play with the values and experiment to get different effects. You could change it, for example, to create a fireball that continues to emit flames and never die out.



BatVink
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BatVink
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Posted: 16th Jul 2005 04:56 Edited at: 16th Jul 2005 04:57
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Knocked up this fire trail in 10 minutes, for another thread (http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=57051&b=1&p=0). In Smart Particles, it is created with no velocity. In the program, it is moved with another moving object, and this is the effect. Easy!



BatVink
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Sven B
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Posted: 17th Jul 2005 23:27
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I'm having the problems too with the sliders. When i click the slider, my mousepointer jumps to another place (i can't move it) and keeps increasing really fast, until it stops at the maximum...

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BatVink
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Posted: 18th Jul 2005 17:04
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Strange...I'll have to see what I can do about that. It could be because I'm polling them, rather than checking every cycle.

Is there anything "different" about your screen, like a permanent Windows toolbar at the side? I had a small issue with Blue Gui getting the screen coordinates wrong because of things like this.

BatVink
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BatVink
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Posted: 30th Jul 2005 02:56
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Writing with Particles...

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=58004&b=1



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Kangaroo2 BETA2
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Posted: 21st Aug 2005 13:19
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very nice looking, could make me actually get off my backside and buy the paricles pack

You're doing a great job here BatVink

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Dead Head
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Posted: 21st Aug 2005 18:02
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Looks really good but i'm also having a problem with the sliders, they only jump right up to the maximum and th epointer seems to freeze.

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TDP Enterprises
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Posted: 21st Aug 2005 19:45
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this looks pretty cool

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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Aug 2005 13:51
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Thanks for the comments

It looks like I need to redo the slider concept, given the number of problems people have had with them.

They started life as Windows slider controls. I need to work out how to implement a compact control, but still have plenty of range, and be able to make small changes too.

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Blazer
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2005 05:11
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the editor works great, but which one do I download for it to work in DBP? When I export it makes commands that don't exist.

ex:

MAKE BASIC EMITTER 1001, 30
SET EMITTER PARTICLE COLOR 1001, 255, 255, 255, 255
SET PARTICLE Z SORTING 1001, 0
SET EMITTER RATE 1001, 20

is there a dll I need?

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BatVink
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2005 12:06
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Blazer:
Quote: "You can test-drive the power of Smart Particles without owning the Particles Pack!
(you will not be able to compile the exported code into your own programs, however)
"


The Particles and Cloth Pack can be found using the link below. SmartParticles outputs code for this expansion pack that would otherwise be impossible to create manually...believe me, I've tried!

http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com/?f=clothandparticles

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Torrey
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2005 13:24
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I tested the demo on a work pc running win2k pro. When trying to use the "sliders" the mouse moves to another location on the screen with a tooltip showing the number 1000. If I try to slide the mouse it moves back to the strange location and the number stays at 1000. This happened on every slider except when I added the emitter.

From the way it looks when I'm attempting to use your sliders it highlights the entire frame that contains those sliders like I was trying to drag drop it. If you understand what I mean?

I just took a quick screen shot. In the picture I was attempting to click on "Rate" and slide the mouse in a quick jerk to get a change in value (since it always stays at 1000). Also you can see the "emitter" frame has also disappeared. Most likely because it was in a drag drop state. Not sure why that happens?

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BatVink
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2005 17:09
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Thanks for the feedback, Torrey. On eof the issues I had was that BlueGUI didn't always report the correct mouse position. I'm not blaming Blue, it's probably my misinterpretation of how Blue works with window borders, the desktop etc.

Fortunately, it's one function that controls every single slider; I simply pass the function the Control ID and the desired value range and step value.

So if I can find out what is causing it, it will fix every single slider in one swoop The joys of efficient coding

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Catalyst
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Posted: 25th Aug 2005 08:41
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Hey BatVink, add me to the queue of people having that slider issue.

Looks great other than that!

Also....let me guess. You're using a screen resolution of 1024x768. If you can go to a different resolution, you might find out a bit about the issue....looks like it's assuming actual screen res of that and it's looking for positioning within that box that, at different resolutions, will be in a different place.
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Catalyst
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Okay, I played with it a bit, here's a few comments. First off, maybe try making it run windowed....don't know if that will fix the slider issue, but it might. I feel kinda silly having to change my resolution to 1024x768 to make it run properly.

Next would be the image adding window. If I remove an image, I get a confirmation window asking to make sure I want to remove it, then I get another window telling me some info that I don't think I really need to know...that second one should probably be taken out. Also if I say load an image, then cancel the load dialogue, I get the no image was selected info box, but then I also get a second box saying image does not exist. Again, that second box should probably not be seen.

And then also just a suggestion, something that will reset emitter to default values or just delete it? The + button will add one, but the - button doesn't seem to want to get rid of it.

Other than that, looking pretty good. Maybe some camera controls to look at the particles from different angles?
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BatVink
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Posted: 29th Aug 2005 00:45
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Thanks for more feedback.

Quote: "And then also just a suggestion, something that will reset emitter to default values or just delete it? The + button will add one, but the - button doesn't seem to want to get rid of it."


Almost there. The colliders and effectors can be deleted, just need to add the same functionality for the emitters.

Quote: "that second box should probably not be seen."


Agreed, it's a development thing that I forgot to take out.

Quote: "Maybe some camera controls to look at the particles from different angles?"


Yes, would be nice.

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Posted: 15th Sep 2005 07:48
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Batvink-

I haven't used BlueGUI that much, I'm finally getting into it more. Saw something that I think might be an issue with your sliders. Are you using mousex? BlueGUI's mouseposx looks like it might solve the issue with your sliders only working if the desktop resolution is set to 1024x768.

Or again, just have it be windowed instead of full screen and it should be fine.
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BatVink
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Posted: 15th Sep 2005 10:05
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Thanks Catalyst. I can't remember to be honest, and I haven't found the time to check it out. But this info should encourage me to look again!

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Torrey
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Posted: 15th Sep 2005 11:03
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Just noticed by the title of thread that these particles do EVERYTHING! But can they cut through a boot like the Ginsu knives infomerical on TV?!

The best audio plugin for DarkBASIC Pro!
Plays Ogg Vorbis,MP3,FLAC,uncompressed WAV,AIFF,MOD,S3M,XM,and IT files.
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BatVink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2005 23:46
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Not forgotten...still trying to find time to change the sliders. Not as simple as just tweaking a line of code here and tehre.

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Zotoaster
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Posted: 12th Oct 2005 23:59
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i saw smart particles on google


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BatVink
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Posted: 14th Oct 2005 00:56
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This is a minor update, to hopefully correct the problem with SmartSlider misbehaviours. You will need the original installation, and simply replace the exe.

http://darkbasic.biglaugh.co.uk/SmartParticles.rar

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