Particle script operators

By brttd · 2014-09-11

Version: 1.0
Date updated: 2014-09-17
Votes: 5

Description

Two script operators for pFlow.

Electric trails (script operator):
Particles move along the edges of a mesh, when they reach a vertex they choose a random edge to go along.
Second version added, which will choose only directions within an angle of a given vector.
A pFlow preset can be downloaded to get a fully working simple setup.
Since the script operator sets the speed of the particles, and detects when a particle is at a vertex, a small script is attached to get the best settings for a mesh.
If you want to change the settings, open up the script operator, and the two settings are at:
line 78 ( testResult = onPoint pCont.particlePosition database 0.5 ) (detection radius)
line 105 ( pCont.particleSpeed = newVector*0.01 ) (speed)

Spawn on edges (birth operator):
Particles spawn on the edges of a mesh, spaced equally based on a distance.
If you want to change the distance, open up the script operator and the distance is at line 15:
pSpacing = 3.0

Additional Info

Electric trails: I recommend setting the particle integration step (pf source, System management, Integration step) to frame for both viewport and render. If it isn't, a particle can change course multiple times per frame.

Spawn on edges: I'm new to script operators, so if you want to spawn the particles at a frame other then frame 0, you are going to have to change the code. Sorry.

Both scripts require an Editable_poly in the scene called "$Particle_surface" (Electric trails), and "$Particle_Spawn_Object" (Spawn on edges). If there are any problems, please say, I have very little experience with using script operators so there are probably many faults with both. Videos below show what electric trails does. Both are using a geosphere, the ones which leave the surface are because some of the edges are longer then others, which allows particles to jump past a vertex. The second video is the direction version, which only allows particles to go along edges within 90° of [0,1,0], which is why they group up.

Videos

Comments (3)

Added new version of electric trails.

brttd · 2014-09-17

Added a edited version of electric trails, which will only allow the particle to choose edges within an angle (90° by default) of a given vector.

Michele71 · 2014-09-13

Thanks for this nice script!! +1 also for me :)

barigazy · 2014-09-11

I have nothing to say. Just "COOL"! +1
Great work.
Cheers!