Particle

Particles are lightweight objects which are not synchronized in a network game. This means that on the one hand you can create huge amounts of particles without slowing down the game too much but on the other hand there are only limited options for control of particle behaviour. If the particles are not sufficient for a given effect you have in mind, you can always use true objects instead.

If a particle is defined in a ocd group, any object definition located in the same group is ignored.

Particles are not stored in savegames and are designed for temporary visual effects only.

This component contains the properties of the particle - as DefCore.txt does for object definitions.

Section [Particle]

Value	Data type	Description
Name	String (max. 30 chars)	Name of the particle definition. This name is also used to refer to this particle type in scripts.
Face	4 integers	Target rectangle for the graphics within Graphics.png. See particle graphics.

The coordinates for the source rectangle within Graphics.png of a particle specify the first phase of the particle graphics the other phases should follow to the right and can be continued in the next row. The animation length is then automatically determined from the image size.

Each particle has different attributes like position, lifetime, size and more. These are set by script when creating the particle.

The following properties can be contained in a proplist passed to CreateParticle. For an example, see CreateParticle

You can assign either constants to the properties (f.e. R = 200) or use certain value provider functions (f.e. R = PV_Linear(200, 0)). Available value provider functions are: PV_Linear PV_Direction PV_Random PV_Step PV_Speed PV_KeyFrames PV_Wind PV_Gravity

Particle definition proplist

Name	Values	Description
R	0 to 255	Red part of the color modulation.
G	0 to 255	Green part of the color modulation.
B	0 to 255	Blue part of the color modulation.
Alpha	0 to 255	Alpha part of the color modulation.
Size	pixels	Size of the particle in pixels.
Stretch	factor	The vertical stretch of the particle. 1000 equals no stretch.
Phase	Index of phase	The displayed phase of the particle from the Graphics.png. The index starts at 0 and will be wrapped.
Rotation	0 to 360	Rotation of the particle.
ForceX	Integer	Force in x-direction that is constantly applied to the particle's speed. Can f.e. simulate wind.
ForceY	Integer	Force in y-direction that is constantly applied to the particle's speed. Ca f.e. simulate gravity.
DampingX	0 to 1000	Damping of the particle's speed in x-direction. 1000 means no damping, 0 means instant stop.
DampingY	0 to 1000	Damping of the particle's speed in y-direction. 1000 means no damping, 0 means instant stop.
BlitMode	0 or GFX_BLIT_Additive	The particle's blit mode. Currently only additive blitting is supported.
CollisionVertex	0 to 1000	The offset of the particle's hit point relative to its width. When set, the particle will collide with the landscape. 0 means the particle will collide with its center.
OnCollision	PC_Die, PC_Bounce, PC_Stop	Defines what happens when the particle collides with the landscape.
Attach	bit mask	Defines the attachment of the particles to the calling object. Can be a combination of ATTACH_Front, ATTACH_Back, and ATTACH_MoveRelative. For example ATTACH_Front | ATTACH_MoveRelative