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[SOLVED] mesh particles rendering


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is there a way to have the current particle materials extended to be able to use 3d meshes as particles as well? what would be the best way for someone to go about it....? 

thank you

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ObjectParticles does not support 3d meshes. Depending on the concrete effect you want to achive some script-based solution via ObjectMeshDynamic might be the best approach (in one of the latest SDK releases even better support for dynamic updates has been added).

 

You could load your mesh geometry into a template ObjectMeshDynamic instance and than copy the geometry for your dynamic particles ObjectMeshDynamic instances.

 

Also it might be an idea to still use a ObjectParticles instance with invisible material for actual particles live and trajectory simulation (e.g. including collisions/clipping) and use ObjectParticles::getParticlePosition() for dynamic positioning of your 3d mesh particles.

 

Just some general thoughts on the topic, maybe you could describe your use-case a little bit more for an even better solution.

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thank you Ulf....basically it is an effect i want to achieve for a meteor's fall but with close up cameras, billboards particles don t seem to give me a satisfying result mostly concerning the volume the emitting particles occupy when close to the cameras...(i don t know if i can explain it properly)... i thought if i was able to have custom meshes along with all the parameters that a particle system has, would give me the result i am after. the idea of mapping the trajectory simulation and the particle positioning updates on instances of ObjectMeshDynamic seems like an idea definitely worth trying.

 

another thing I was also wondering about is whether i can use an object mesh dynamic as as a random particle emitter...? have never tried that.....

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another thing I was also wondering about is whether i can use an object mesh dynamic as as a random particle emitter...? have never tried that.....

 

This should be possible, as there is a ObjectMeshDynamic::getRandomPoint() function in the C++ source which is normally used by random particle emitters to get random surface positions on particle emission

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basically it is an effect i want to achieve for a meteor's fall but with close up cameras, billboards particles don t seem to give me a satisfying result mostly concerning the volume the emitting particles occupy when close to the cameras...(i don t know if i can explain it properly)...

 

In this case another idea might be to use full-fledged physics object BodyFracture as this class already supports shattering basic mesh geometry into smaller pieces automatically including efficent rendering and physical interaction (e.g collisions). Maybe such kind of shattering could be done hidden within the meteor hull so it would look like that shattering pieces evaporate from the meteor's body. 

 

This might give some cool effects especially when combined with some additional particle dust systems, but of course you will have some performance implications (compared to simple billboards). Have a look at the UNIGINE physics fracture samples, there are also  some examples for smoothly fading fracture pieces with time (simulating fracture lifetime comparable to particles) if I remember correctly.    

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