Attemped to precache unknown particle system

[Cyberen]

I'm working on my map, and it uses a custom particle effect. It works fine in-game but every time I load the map the console is flooded with the following:

Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_purple_large_sparks"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_purple_red_outer_main"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_purple_blue_outer_main"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_purple_blue_outer"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_purple_outer_main"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_distort2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_main"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_sparkles2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_ring"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_ring2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_sparks2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_outer_rings"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_distort2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_main"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_sparkles2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_ring"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_ring2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_sparks2"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_outer_rings"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_sparkles"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_large_sparks"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_sparkles"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "wormhole_green_sparks"!
Attemped to precache unknown particle system "blood_impact_red"!

How can I make this go away? Here's the text in my particle file which is named [mymapname]_particles.txt:

particles_manifest
{
"file""!particles/fire_01.pcf"
"file""!particles/wormhole.pcf"
}

They are in the particles folder, attempting to add a particles folder in the custom folder did not work well. Any ideas?

 

[worMatty]

Prefixing particles in the manifest with an exclamation mark causes the server to precache them when the map is loaded. They are presumably unknown to the game because they do not exist in a VPK. When you pack them into the map, this message may stop being displayed, as any assets inside a BSP are mounted when it is loaded. Try it and see, but it can probably be ignored as it's not really an error.

You may also be able to get rid of the message by removing the exclamation mark. That will make the game load them when they are first displayed. This may cause a noticeable frame hitch. If it does, and you want to get rid of that, then you will have to precache them.

A note about precaching.
TF2 servers have a limited number of slots on their string table for particles. When a particle is precached it's added to the table and consumes a slot. When all slots on the server are consumed, no more particles may be cached and any uncached ones will instead be replaced by a red X. Precaching adds a particle to the table for the duration of the entire server session (until the server is restarted) which is a problem if the server runs maps or plugins with a lot of custom particles. You can see the string tables using the `dumpstringtables` command.

This is a problem CSS mappers have been dealing with for a while as their particle effect string table is half the size of TF2's. To combat it, they give their particles specific names so that when their map/plugin is loaded and their effects precached, they take the place of other entries on the list, replacing them and not taking up more precious slots. I suggest you give the following links a read:

https://rafuron.wordpress.com/2015/...-help-to-prevent-the-infamous-particle-crash/
https://gamebanana.com/tuts/14321

 

[Cyberen]

I definitely want to precache the particles, but is there a way I can write out the particles so they're more specific than "file""!particles/wormhole.pcf"? I want to include wormhole_main and wormhole_purple specifically, how would I write that out?