Attaching particles to Moviestorm props, it's a bit complicated

[Ben_S]

How to attach particle special effects to your props

Moviestorm props can have particle effects attached to bones that are part of the prop.

Set object props can have a continious particle effect attached; held props can have a either a duration based effect, or a burst effect, and the effects are triggered by animations.

The existing examples of these behavious are best seen in the props in the Special Effects content pack.

Moviestorm Particle Systems are defined in .mps files; we have a number of them already defined in the SpecialEffects content pack, and they are in Data/fx. These are, like much of moviestorm, xml text files.
These were initially generated in a particle editor in the modders workshop, which unfortunatly doesnt work in the user version. One could make new effects based on existing particle systems, just by tweaking the numbers with copies of the existing effects.
Continious effects are <fuze3d.particles.ParticleFountain> or possibly <fuze3d.particles.ParticleStream>, and the burst ones are <fuze3d.particles.ParticleBurst>.

Props which are to use particle effects use the 'PyroProp' class, instead of the more normal 'Prop' class; this means that objects that would not normally be of the 'Prop' class cannot be made into 'PyroProps' while retaining their normal function. This means that particle effects cannot work with 'Car' or 'AutoAnimate' or 'Door' or 'Window' props.


To make your prop have an attached particle effect, you need to, while making your prop in your 3D package, create a bone that will be the source position for the particles; if you are using sketchup with our sketchup importer, you dont get to create bones, but you get one by defaul.
Then, in the modders workshop, you need to set up your prop as normal, except that you need to change the type from 'Prop' to 'PyroProp'.
You need to set up the template or template and parts as normal, but then you need to edit the .template file (or the .part if you are using parts instead) in a text editor.

Near the end of the template (before the </mscope.things.factory.ModelTemplate> ), add a <bindings> section
an example:

CODE

  <bindings>
    <boneBindings>
        <EffectBinding>
            <name>fire</name>
            <bone>emitter_bone</bone>
            <mpsPath>Data/fx/Barrel_Fire_Small.mps</mpsPath>
        </EffectBinding>
    </boneBindings>
  </bindings>

The name isnt important, except for held props with particles; change it to something apropriate.
The bone is the name of the bone in your model that will emit the particles; you can see the bone names in the modders workshop on the Bones tab.
the mpsPath shows the path to the particle effect, and it's filename; you can use any of the particle effects in the fx folder, although the ones with ParticleFountain or ParticleStream effects will work better than the ones with ParticleBurst effects (as the latter will only fire once).

You can also have a light attached, eg:

CODE

  <bindings>
    <boneBindings>
        <EffectBinding>
            <name>flame</name>
            <bone>emitter_bone</bone>
            <mpsPath>Data/fx/Fireball_Medium.mps</mpsPath>
            <light>
                <type>flicker</type>
                <color>1 0.95 0.4 1</color>
                <halo>
                    <radius>0.8</radius>
                    <offset>0.05</offset>
                </halo>
            </light>                
        </EffectBinding>
    </boneBindings>
  </bindings>

The different types available are 'flicker' or 'standard'. The color is in Red Green Blue Alpha.
The halo goes around the light, and the radius can be changed; the offset affects how far in front of the object the halo is visable.


If your prop is a held prop, then it needs to be set up like this, except that when setting up the animations, events need to be added to the animation transitions, to trigger the particle effects.
Examples can be found for the wand, sparkler and torch, in the Special Effects pack.
The event used is custsom, playEffect, and the number seems to be 1 for one off effects, 3 for duration effects (and the duration effects need a 3 for the stopEffect, too).

[PapaG]

cool one of these days Ill have to try this