Short: Demo of Particle System for OpalVision Architecture: generic ... Carmen Rizzolo proudly presents ... - P A R T A N D P A R T I C L E - A Particle system for OpalVision ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are reading this as a post, rather than a text file included with an animation, you can find this animation in the file PAP-DEMO.LHA on Portal, Aminet and other fine BBSs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank for you downloading the Part And Particle demo anim! I've been hard at work on Part And Particle for several months now, and I'm proud to say it's ready to roll out! Originally, Part And Particle was to be a simple particle system that allowed anyone to create the sparkley (is that a word?) particle effects I made by hand using an paint program. But with all the features that have been added since it's inception, Part And Particle is far more than just a simple particle utility. Part And Particle is modular. You can add as many modules to a Part And Particle project as you like. Each module can have up to 200 new particles generated per frame (The demo anim only has about 20 per frame). A "module" is an element in the animation. For example, the bubbles rising from below in the animation are 3 of the modules. 3 because there are actually 3 different sizes of bubbles in the animation. The particles eminating from a "robotic probe" is another module. Each module in Part And Particle has it's own gravity, wind and behaviour settings. In addition to being modular within a project, you can layer multiple projects for a single animation. This demo anim was made up of 4 projects. The reason for this is only one "source" of particles can be specifies per project, so layering allows multiple sources. The "probes" in the animation define 3 of the sources. Each of the "probes" have particles and lens-flare modules eminating from them. That's right. Part And Particle does lens-flare too. Not true lens- flare, as you would need a 3D system for that, but a very nice effect indeed. You can have your lens-flares "flicker" or vary in intensity from frame to frame simply by turning on an option. This is great for "welding" effects. It was used in this demo anim as well. ABOUT THE ANIMATION: The 32-colour anim included in this archive is busy to say the least. I wanted to cram as many feature elements in the anim as I could. I also wanted to avoid making the anim look too cluttered. Well, I think I might have crossed that border a bit. But this anim wasn't really intended to be fine art, it's intended to demonstrate Part And Particle's features. The lower portion of the screen has bubbles rising from below the screen. The "wiggle" of the bubbles was made simply by turning on the horizontal wiggle. I gave the bubbles a short lifespan so they don't interfere too much with the action above. The box that pops up with the "FOLLOW ME" label demonstrates the "CHASE" feature. Although it's very quick, you'll notice the particles getting sucked towards the red light when it turns on. Also notice that I elected not to have the "FOLLOW ME" light effect the bubbles. PART AND PARTICLE FEATURES: * Interactive AmigaGuide documentation * Easy to use graphic interface that takes full advantage of OpalPaint version 2.3's new programmable requestors. * Add as many modules to a project as you like. Each module has it's own independant gravity, wind and behaviour settings. * Layer up to 15 project for one animation. * From up to 200 new particles generated per module to a new particle once every few frames. * Particles are a series of "brush" images that act like AnimBrushes. You can have them play once then die, or loop, or play randomly or just use the first frame as a static particle. Create your own particles and have them look like anythiny you desire! * Circular, hexagonal, septagonal, octagonal, nonagonal or decagonal lens-flares. Create your own "lenses" and tell Part And Particle where each lens-notch is and what it looks like. * Gravity can pull up, down, towards the center of the screen or away from the center of the screen. Using "Chase," you can have gravity pull towards any part of the screen, and move around in an animation! * Wind can blow left, right, in a clockwise or counter-clockwise whirlwind. * Particles can eminate from a dynamic (movable) coordinate in your animation, or from any side of the screen (example: Rain falling from the top of the screen). * Particles can be thrown at any strength, in any of the 8 "joystick" directions or randomly thrown in any direction. * Particles can be told to "wander aimlessly" in their travels. The effect is similar to flying insects. * Particles can have motion blur. * Particles can wiggle horizontally and/or vertically. * Particles can cast a shadow. * Particles can be told to bounce off the sides of your screen, or "wraparound" to the opposite side of the screen. * You can use a text-editor if you like to tweak projects or copy "module" information from project to project. If you're shy around text editors, you do not need to use them. * Part And Particle is reasonably fast. The complexity of your projects and the speed of your Amiga will influence how fast part and particle is. For this demo animation, my 25Mhz '030 Amiga created a new frame every 5 minutes in it's most complex phase. In the simpler parts of the project, the same machine created 2-3 frames per minute. WHAT PART AND PARTICLE REQUIRES: To run Part And Particle, you will need: * About 5 megs of ram. The more memory the better. * OpalPaint v2.3 or higher * Arexx (or Workbench v2.0 or higher) HOW TO GET PART AND PARTICLE: Send a check or money-order for $99.00 to: Part And Particle c/o Carmen Rizzolo 4820 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. #5 San Diego, Ca. 92117 (California residents add 8.25% sales tax) For more information, call me at (619) 573-0285 or Internet EiMail me at CarmenR@cup.portal.com Part And Particle is a trademark of Carmen Rizzolo. Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc. AmigaGuide is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga. OpalPaint and OpalVision are trademarks of Opal Technology. Arexx is a trademark or William S. Hawes. Other marks are trademarks of their respective holders. Part And Particle is ©1994 Carmen Rizzolo, all rights reserved.