The left image is what I need with one important difference:
The photon cannon missile emits constantly blue core particles at a very high rate which last only a fraction of a second.
I, however, need a model which emits just 1 particle which lasts then for 10 seconds.
for better structure I will split my post in three small sections:
What I am looking for exactly
Why it is so useful
What alternatives I found and why they don't work
1. What I am looking for exactly
In short I am looking for a Starcraft 2 model that emits 1 particle instantly which stays at the same position as the model.
In this section I will explain what those particles are and why for example it's not possible to archive the same effect with a sphere.
With particles I mean the 2D images of for example glowing dots a lot of effects in Starcraft 2 are made of. For example fires
are just 2D images of a fire texture that moves up to the sky. Technically the particles are made with a technique called billboarding.
A Billboard is a square polygon with a texture. This square gets always automatically rotated towards the camera so that you will never see it from the side.
If you put for example the image of a fireball on this square it would look like a fireball independent from what side you look at it.
I am looking now for a square billboard/particle so that I can retexture it with the existing square textures. Ideally that particle would also
have a glowing texture component.
2. Why it is so useful
I already mentioned that you could put a fireball image on the particle to create a model that looks like a fireball ingame.
Other uses are:
You would be able to draw an image of pickupable item and use it as an pickupable item billboard/particle ingame (Minecraft does this)
You can make for example hands of units glow in one particular color by adding a round glowing particle to it (To remake for example the bloodlust effect from Warcraft 3)
You could create multiple kind of missiles for tower defence games by just creating or reusing existing images(e.g. a tower that shoots green glowing dots).
You could use the data editor to combine multiple particles into a more complex spell
You could use the trigger editor, to create unique special effects, like for example particles which form certain shapes and interact with their environment
3. What alternatives I found and why they don't work
The photon cannon missile looks at the first glance exactly what I am looking for. However problematic is:
there are additional particles that indicate the movement
the core particle of the missile isn't constant but actually gets constantly created, grows and dies creating an effect as if the
missile gets larger and smaller very fast.
Reducing animation speed does not increase the lifetime of particles, but only the spawn rate
Pausing the animation has no effect
The displayed green bolt of "Stim" is also a single particle but it flashes and doesn't last long.
The nuke target model contains not just a single particle but also a red and white sphere which can't be retextured to be invisible.
If I create a text tag using triggers which contains only an image then this image will always brought to the forground.
The "billboard actor" seems gets only used for the nuke target and seems to have as only purpose to bring the nuke target point before every other model
So I hope that someone with 3ds Max can export me a model which contains just 1 particle which stays at the position where the model is for say at least 10 seconds and vanishes afterwards. The particle should have a diffuse and glowing texture for retexturing.
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And what is with the following exporter plugin for 3ds max?
http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/m3-export-plugin-3ds-max/
According to it's feature list it is possible to import and export particle emitters.
@SoulFilcher: Go
Thanks for the tip. Sadly I searched already for hours in the previewer without success.
@kailniris: Go
The left image is what I need with one important difference: The photon cannon missile emits constantly blue core particles at a very high rate which last only a fraction of a second. I, however, need a model which emits just 1 particle which lasts then for 10 seconds.
Hello,
for better structure I will split my post in three small sections:
1. What I am looking for exactly
In short I am looking for a Starcraft 2 model that emits 1 particle instantly which stays at the same position as the model. In this section I will explain what those particles are and why for example it's not possible to archive the same effect with a sphere.
With particles I mean the 2D images of for example glowing dots a lot of effects in Starcraft 2 are made of. For example fires are just 2D images of a fire texture that moves up to the sky. Technically the particles are made with a technique called billboarding. A Billboard is a square polygon with a texture. This square gets always automatically rotated towards the camera so that you will never see it from the side. If you put for example the image of a fireball on this square it would look like a fireball independent from what side you look at it.
I am looking now for a square billboard/particle so that I can retexture it with the existing square textures. Ideally that particle would also have a glowing texture component.
2. Why it is so useful
I already mentioned that you could put a fireball image on the particle to create a model that looks like a fireball ingame. Other uses are:
3. What alternatives I found and why they don't work
So I hope that someone with 3ds Max can export me a model which contains just 1 particle which stays at the position where the model is for say at least 10 seconds and vanishes afterwards. The particle should have a diffuse and glowing texture for retexturing.