[Particles] Weather Effects with Collisions!

[Psy]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPuGZu-Eic8"]YouTube - TF2 - Sawmill Rain Particle Modification[/ame]

If you have been using the Sawmill or Viaduct weather effects, you may have noitced that the particles simply falls through all objects so I've modified the system so the particles no longer pass through solid objects! :thumbup1:

This modified particle system works almost exactly like the ones found in Sawmill and Viaduct.

For Sawmill there are 2 rain effects; env_rain_001_collision (1024 units) and env_rain_002_collision (256 units).

If you have already being using the Sawmill particles then simply append '_collision' to the end of the name that each of your info_particle_systems point to. For Viaduct simply append '_collision' or '_collision_cheap'.

The difference between Viaduct's '_collision' and '_collision_cheap' is that the first allows particles to stay on the surface for a short period of time which is quite expensive whilst the latter kill the particles as soon as it hits a solid surface. Use them wisely.

Update: Added collision to Viaducts snow!

Note - 16th September

Valve have added an option to disable weather effects but unfortunately particles that are flagged as weather are hardcoded. You can read Robin's response here.

How To Install and Pakrat

• Place the particles_manifest.txt in your tf/maps folder
• Rename it to yourmap_particles.txt
• Pakrat the .pcf from your particles folder and the .txt
• Edit the location of each item so it reads as 'particles' for the .pcf and 'maps' for the .txt

You will get console errors for each set of particles along the lines of "unable to precache particle...". Ignore this.

I hope some of you will find this useful.

 

[Nineaxis]

Have to wonder why VALVe didn't do this to begin with.

 

[Backslash]

Amazing. Should make for some great stormy maps!

 

[eerieone]

dude, you solved a massive problem of mine

how often can i click the thanks-button?

 

[Cornstarch]

That is awsome and its going to come in handy!

 

[grazr]

I would have assumed that Valve used a solid brush to apply their presipitation so effectively/accurately.

Valve have a nasty habit of duplicating their effects across models, point entities and solid brushes. Which is confusing to say the least. I can't think of it right now, but they have a dustmote model, but use the regular solid entity in 2fort. (Possibly Well, which still fails to show in the SDK update).

It would be interesting to see how you achieved this. Though i know nothing about particle systems as is.

 

[The Political Gamer]

Premuda is going to look so much better now!

 

[Sgt Frag]

The vid links aren't working for me, how much is a minmal impact? I'm already doing everything I can to squeeze out every fps I can in my map, I don't want to lose more.

Also, will terrain now stop particles? or just objects?

 

[eerieone]

Premuda is going to look so much better now!

already implemented
and i agree times&again, awesome


psy, i got a small idea
would it be possible to make minimal rain, i mean sizewise,
lets say you have a fake leak in your ceiling, and it drips down
something like 50x50 units ?

 

[Psy]

Yep. That would be completely possible. I'll make 128 and 64 versions soon. For now, I've updated the file as I zipped an older version which doesn't have collisions for the 256 version. All fixed now.

As far as I'm aware Sgt Frags, displacements do block rain.

 

[Psy]

I've updated it again with 2 extra sizes; 128 and 64. Each one is named respectively env_rain_128 and env_rain_64.

 

[FR3akIN_OuT]

Thanks Psy! <33

 

[Dr. Spud]

Have to wonder why VALVe didn't do this to begin with.

I'd guess adding collisions is more expensive. But guessing by Psy's video it's really not a big deal.

 

[zpqrei]

I'd guess adding collisions is more expensive. But guessing by Psy's video it's really not a big deal.

Sawmill has like...no DX8 models, so I don't think that was their problem.

 

[Dor]

Im kinda new, and i was wondering how you get the rain to work, i've downloaded and extracted as instructed, but i don't know how to implement it into my level...

 

[Psy]

Place an info_particle_system and under 'particle system name' type env_rain_001_collision.

 

[Dor]

Thanks!

 

[a2h]

This is genius!

But having to add files to every release I do gets annoying for me :/

 

[eerieone]

meh, costs you merely 5 minutes to pack everything up, just keep a list of what custom content needs to be packed in and voilá

 

[eerieone]

ran into some problems, but ace helped me to solve ´em

so FYI:

if you want to pakrat your custom particles and manifest
+ place the particles_manifest.txt in your tf/maps folder
+ rename it to yourmap_particles.txt
+ pakrat the pcf from your particles folder and the txt

to test if it´s working rename your particles-folder, move the txt to another folder and fire up tf2

you will get a small error-message in the console but the particles should be working

@Psy: can you paste that into your OP?