Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
7.6.5
T
exTures
for
p
arTiCles
When you make a texture for particles, be careful of the edges on the image; if they are not 100% clear
alpha, your particles will look like they have little frames around them. Creating particle textures for particle
systems is more art than science, but there are a few good tips to remember.
Tip 1
. Unless you require a speciic image for your particle, make the texture as a white pattern
over a transparent background so you can color shift it to any palette you want using the
PSYS_PART_START_COLOR,
<1.0,
1.0,
1.0>,
PSYS_PART_END_COLOR,
<1.0,
1.0,
1.0>
,
line in the LSL script.
Tip 2
. If you need copious amounts of particle low, such as a waterfall, follow this advice from Jopsy
Pendragon and utilize a texture with lots of smaller dots on it rather than one dot in the middle.
The collective presentation will look denser with a lower particle emission rate saving processing time.
Tip 3
. Pay close attention to the duration of the particle's life span; do not let the particle live one bit
longer than necessary for your effect.
Tip 4
. When you have the particles lowing the way you want and you do not think you will need to
copy the object in your build, you might consider the option of deleting the script from the object;
the particles will keep lowing, and you have removed a script from the server load.
Tip 5
. Remember that particle scripts may cause server lag; particles are rendered in the viewer.
A script that creates too many particles may crash your graphics card.
Tip 6.
Jopsy Pendragon, creator of the Particle Lab in Second Life, gave me this tip: “Consider and
tune for the intended 'viewing distance.' For large far-off effects use fewer and larger particles
rather than trying to compensate with quantity. For small up-close particle effects, use small
prims/small object because they won't get rendered for people far away, and won't cause them
unnecessary lag.”
7.6.6
d
esigning
WiTh
p
arTiCles
As a designer, you will probably ind many needs for particles in your builds. It is relatively common to see
them used for ire, fog, fountains, and atmospheric effects, but have you thought of other ways these ele-
ments can be used? Now, it is up to you to push the particle creative boundary outward; they can be made
into the feathers of a wing, the crystal beads on a chandelier, or a glowing moon. Let your imagination push
you to more diversiied usage.
7.7 PROJECT: DESIGNING A COLORED LIGHT AND PARTICLE EFFECT
The goal of this project is to design and build a colored light and particle show for installation in a pre-built
structure called the Sensory Space. When you start to design this kind of thing, you should ask yourself:
What is my central image, my inspiration, for this space? For you, perhaps it the darkness of a womb, the
magniied lens of a drop of water, or possibly the fragrant heart of a rose. If you want this space to be a
volume full of moving light colors, then you may be inspired by the artwork of the Light and Space move-
ment, which originated in California in the late 1960s [13].
For the purposes of this project, the concept of a nebula was chosen; inspiration was drawn from the
magniicent images the Hubble Telescope has sent back to us (http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/nebula/).
