particle illusion was indeed used for several of the explosions, although the program is not geared for making 'sheets' of explosions, you have to do that yourself and the alpha can be a real pain. The other way to do it is to use the pyro code from a few newsletters ago and simply capture images, this actually allows you more freedom than particle illusion as you can write code to capture the explosions directly to sheets ready for use. The upshot of writing your own particle systems is this, you can use the particle code to either make 'sheets' or just use the particle system directly for more dynamic bursts of particles.
people should really take more intrest particle simulations and visualizations because it's how most games actually behave at heart. the invaders in steves tutorial can be looked at as an ordered particle system, constraind by rules. the same is true for any kind of game that relies on moving objects spawning, transforming, interacting and dying according to a set of rules. This is how I basically view most games now, as interactive particle simulations.
this is especially true of 'retro arcade' games that have masses of high speed enemies and bullets being spawned, interacting and dying.
I'll be showing you more particle systems of an interactive nature in future newsletters. There are also some pretty advanced particle simulation plugins for DBP. the main 2 that spring to mind are Cloth and Particles from TGC, and snowy's particle DLL.
Dark Physics also has a particle simulation engine which allows for much deeper interaction of particles in a proper 'physical' sense. Using Dark Phyics you can take particles to a whole new level of interaction.
The asteroids game that was in the newsletter is basically 3 interactive particle simulations, one for the rocks, one for the bullets, one for thrust particles, the explosions and 'shrapnel' are both non interacting simulations or processes, they simply play out their part in the scene then die.
Taking the particle approach to games making will definatley make the process of creation easier for a lot of coders who get bogged down in sprawling code. particle systems tend to be small chunks of code that are easily managed and very logical to read through. each particle system is a self contained unit that can be developed seperatley from the main game.
In an effort to understand the wider cosmos, scientists first had to learn about the fundimental building blocks that matter is composed of, This is also true for games, Particles are your game making 'essence', the more you understand the particle systems at a games heart, the more you understand games and how they actually work.
If you need inspiration for particle systems, look no further than the night sky, its a particle simulation that is governed by a set of 'simple' rules that leads to enormous levels of interaction and subtle complexity, much the same as the apparent complexity that arises out of the simple rules that govern your games interactions.
Did I mention I like particle simulations? lol.
thanks, Grant.
Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
