The Dripping Stalactite
"The Mountain Trail" contains a small cave where there is a pond into which water drips from stalactites hanging from the cave roof. The water falls in single droplets which splash upon contact with the water below.
The Drip
The drip is made from an altered H20Fountain, a water effect found in the hierarchy under
SFX->WaterFX->H20Fountain.
As with all particle effects, there are two property sets that need to be altered. They are:
properties->SFX->Particles
and properties->SFX->Particle Launch Info
As you can see, there is a lot of information which can be altered to set up a particle effect to your liking. Going through the properties in order, the changes are:
Active: Since the drip is to remain throughout the game, and not triggered, this is left checked.
Particle Render Type: The options for this are:
- Single-Coloured Pixels: Pixels of a single colour.
- Multi-Coloured Pixels: Pixels of varying colours.
- Single-Coloured Squares: Squares of a single colour.
- Multi-Colour Squares: Squares of various colours.
- Single Coloured disc: Disc shaped particles of one colour.
- Scaled bitmap: A bitmap texture applied to particles.
Given that we want to create a drop of water, single-coloured disc is the best choice.
Particle Animation: Choices are:
- Launched One-shot: The effect is launched once and disappears.
- Launched Continually: The effect is continuous.
- Rotating Hollow Sphere: The particles are arranged to form a hollow sphere.
- Rotating Sphere: As above, but the particles fill the sphere.
- Rotating Hollow Cube: The particles are arranged to form a cube.
- Rotating Cube: As above, but filled.
- Rotating Disk: Particles form a disk shape.
- Rotating Circle: Particles arranged in a circle.
- Rotating Pyramid: Particles form a pyramid.
A continual drop of water fits best in the "Launched Continually" category.
Particle Group Motion:
- Immobile: Particle remains in one place.
- Moves with velocity: Entire effect moves in one direction. Useful for something like a puff of steam which you wish to drift away.
- Moves with Vel&Gravity: The effect will move in the chosen direction and fall/rise in line with the gravity.
- Trailing Object: Follows the chosen object around.
- Attached to Object: Is connected to an object in some way.
- Fire and Forget: The effect fires once and is forgotten.
As we wish the effect to stay on the stalactite, set this to immobile.
Number of Particles: The number of particles released per firing. As we require a single drip to fall at a time, this is set to 1.
Size of particle: Given in feet. Experiment until you find a size you like. Mine is set to 0.10 to make it more visible in the B&W setting.
bitmap name: If you're using a bitmap texture, the filename would go here.
Velocity: The speed at which the particles/effect would be traveling in the given direction.
Gravity Vector: The effect of gravity in various directions. The drop falls straight down, so set to -10 in z-axis.
Color (palettized): The color of your particle - chosen from the 256 strong palette. Pick one you find appropriate (see the palette guide)
2nd color: If using multi-colors, this would be the second color used.
3rd color: And this would be the third choice color.
Alpha: I believe this is related to the particle's lighting.
Fixed-group radius: The radius of the entire effect. Leave as is.
Spin/pulse Group: Does the particle spin or pulse (check for yes)?
Spin speed: The speed at which a particle is spun.
Pulse magnitude: The size of the pulse.
Pulse cycle time(ms): How often it pulses, in milliseconds.
Particle fade time: This sets how long the particle takes to fade from view. The length is dependent on the drop. You will need to experiment to get it right.
Launch period: How often the effect fires. In our case, how often the drop falls. Pick time to suit.
animation offset ms: Time, in milliseconds, that the animation is offset from the start.
Group-scale velocity: Not something I have tried.
always simulate (slow): Are the particles in perpetual motion (working when the player cannot see them)?
always simulate group: Is the group of particles always there? Set to yes (checked).
sort particles (slow): There is only one particle, so this is greyed out.
particles start launched: Sets whether or not the particles begin to fall instantly. Set to yes.
The rest is unnecessary for this effect.
Your particle properties should now look something like this:
The particle launch info should be set as follows:
Launch Type:
- Bounding box: The effect is contained within a rectangle.
- Sphere: The effect is contained within a sphere.
- Cylinder: The corrections are held within a cylinder.
As there is only a single drip, the shape can be left as it was - bounding box.
Box min: This should be set to half the size you require, with a negative (-x) number.
Box max: As above, but with a positive number (x). The two values should be identical but opposites due to the symmetrical nature of particle effects. In this case they can all be set to zero as we wish the single drip to fall from the same spot each time.
Min Radius: Used for sphere/cylinder.
Max radius: As above.
Loc unrotated ?: Unknown.
Velocity min: The slowest the particle will move in any given direction. Set to an appropriate negative z-axis speed to make it move downwards. This will affect how far the particle falls in the time it has to disappear.
Velocity max: As above, but a maximum speed.
Velocity unrotated ? Unknown.
Min time: Minimum time for effect.
Max time: Maximum time for effect. - These values tie in with the particle fade time in the particle properties above.
The resultant properties should look something like this:
It is worth taking some time setting these values correctly for your mission. Don't forget that the particle will appear at the center point of the box shown on the screen.
The Splash
The splash is made up of several effects - each a single drop of water - placed together. Each should be set up as above, but with the following alterations.
Size of particle: This should be smaller than the drip to make it seem more realistic.
Particle fade time: This may need to be altered, depending on the setting.
animation offset ms: Set this so the splash occurs when the drop hits the surface of the water.
Velocity min/max: Set this to a positive number and to an amount that makes the splash rise to your liking before it falls again.
Now place the altered particle so that its center is just above the water's surface and perfectly aligned with the drip. Set the P value (bottom left) to 335 so that it leans away from the center. Now clone the effect and rotate the heading by 45 degrees. Clone again and rotate another 45 degrees. Continue to do so until you have 8 particles forming a circle. The combined particles should form a splash effect when the particle hits the water. You may need to alter some of the values to get it just as you wish.
|
