What are you working on?

[Barnes]

screen space camera based motion blur

[toneddu2000]

That's reaaallyy cool Barnes! But maybe I won't be the only one to say: "A video would be better to enjoy this superb effect more!"

[Barnes]

video? ok, later))))

[toneddu2000]

I don't know if it's superdifficult, but, if you make a video, it would be great to add a GUI slider that enhances/decreases blur at runtime!

[scar3crow]

No screenshot for it, and so it isn't what I am working on now, because I've finished, but the Zerstorer Map Jam should be out tomorrow, including a map by yours truly. Simple, really really rough around the edges, and lacking in a lot of details and polish... ...and texture variety... but packing 88 monsters, a glorious chainsaw run, 3 secrets, and a cheeky elevator.

[Barnes]

[toneddu2000]

[jim]

I've been working on some enemy AI for my flying things. They're like totally random, and yet they're much better at it than me. When they kill the player, they start deathmatching each other. Camera also follows the killer, and then it's killer... and finally there's just one of them left. Their aiming looks so like some aimhack, but kind of glitchy because the angles aren't smoothed.

Now that I've tried some combat, the lack of proper flight aiming/movement becomes very noticeable... maybe all these explosions hide it...

[sock]

[toneddu2000]

sock: awesome effect. Nothing else to say. You think you'll have the time some day to explain to us, poor rookies, how did you achieved the orientation of the particle effect with the ground?
jim: that look messingly fun!:)

[Spiney]

Yeah I used Genetica, the studio version since that one supports animation. It's really not geared towards this kind of stuff though, I just used it because it was convenient for this use case.

[Seven]

Shpuld, your idea to create a documentation/tutorial is very good and I am sure that many people will benefit from it. Even better when toneddu2000 is working on something similar. You might even team up.
Spiney, great tutorial ! Too bad, I suck at painting... But good to know where to look at when the time comes..
Jim, you always post cool stuff. I am enjoying your development a lot.
sock, as always, great ideas and implementation. I am curious and looking forward to what new project they will be used.

toneddu2000, reading your question towards sock: You maybe heard of the 'small mod compilation'. It adds just some little things to Quake. Also some particle effects. As it uses the DP engine as well, you might want to take a look at its source and especially its particle effects (effectinfo).
It has several oriented effects, such as "water ripples" or a similar dust-bashing effect like shown in sock´s video (shamblers foot steps for example). I think we talked about this youtube channel before: https://www.youtube.com/user/seven007009/videos
There are short clips about almost all the things in the 'small mod compilation', also the oriented effects.
I think this one shows one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGR9iTk ... a0YmLJuMdw
This one might also be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdrP07e ... a0YmLJuMdw
The shambler footsteps kicking up dust and debris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nAgxH0 ... a0YmLJuMdw

First of all, please use the DP-wiki (originaly created be Error and thankfully was backed up by Chip here: http://www.quakewiki.net/darkplaces-wik ... reference/ )
Oriented particles, like the "water ripple" needs this syntax keyword:
- orientation oriented
"ignores viewer, turned to velocity"
And the velocity, to tell the particle in which way to "spread":
- velocityjitter 0 0 1
In this case it will spread with z-axis as center, so it will spread towards x and y.
Please search for "effect watersplash" in the smc effectinfo.txt to see the complete effect syntax

Dust or smoke particles are much easier to manipulate, they follow your syntax
velocityjitter 125 125 0 // dust is spread in all directions, except upwards
velocityoffset 0 0 50 // dust is raised...
gravity 0.14 // ... and falls down again
Please search for "effect shambler_foot_dust" in the smc effectinfo.txt to see the complete effect syntax

The smc with current qc source, effectinfo.txt and particlefont.tga is in the 6 MB download (link/thread at quakeone.com).

Particle effects creation was alwas the most interesting /fun thing to do for me. It´s like playing chess: A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.
And do not forget: You do not need to restart the engine after editing the effectinfo.txt. Just type: cl_particles_reloadeffects into console and DP will read the updated effectinfo.txt and will use it immediately. This way you can work with particle effects "live" in the game. Just alt-tab between game and effectinfo.txt and use cl_particles_reloadeffects.

Best of luck and please share your experience with us.

[toneddu2000]

Whoa Seven, Thanks A LOT for all these infos!
I sure will share my progress with the community, as soon I'll have a little free time!

PS: Do you know if there's a method to attach a particle system to a skeletal model bone?
To create a particle effect, can I use textures too?

[sock]

@Spiney, thanks, I suspected you were using the most expensive version, sadly outside of my indie price range.
@Seven, thanks, its slow progress but hopefully in a couple of months I will have a small demo
@toneddu2000, glad you like it, the effect is a combination of things, the glowing ring is a model with a 16 frames of expansion and the rest is particle effects. As Seven mentioned I use the orientation parameter but this is only half of the equation, you also need a good particle effect sheet. Luckily there are a few different versions around which you can use as basis to work from.

Something I posted elsewhere which might be relevant here as well:
DP can have more than 64 particles per image sheet. You can define how many particles per sheet by using the particlefont.txt file. Download from here. The SVN has an example particlefont.tga file as well.

[frag.machine]

@sock: awesome, as usual.
@jim: looking great, very arcadey.