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AppGameKit Studio Chat / AppGameKit Studio Particle Editor Released!

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GaborD
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Posted: 9th Jul 2020 23:27 Edited at: 10th Jul 2020 18:54
I talked to a few programmers, but so far no luck with finding someone to do the conversion.
If any programmer in the community wants to help out, PM me to talk about how much it would cost to
a) clean up the T1 code
b) convert it to T2


@haliop787
The background stays black for your main render after you reset it to the chosen screen color? That would be a weird AppGameKit thing.
I will test this specifically on the weekend. Sorry for the slow reply, in crunch mode for my "dayjob" game currently.
haliop787
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 03:01
Thank you GaborD.
I have actually thought maybe to put a sprite for the background instead of just clearColor but yeah it is a weird bug.
Nadav "Haliop" Rosenberg
Lets make the world great forever.
haliop787
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 03:04
Btw if i can suggest another feature.

Where it comes to sizing , transparency and base color.
It would nice to have the option to do a horizontal flip for those "images" inside the app, sometimes i do it with Gimp if i dont fond anything right.
Nadav "Haliop" Rosenberg
Lets make the world great forever.
george++
AGK Tool Maker
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 08:40 Edited at: 10th Jul 2020 08:40
Hi,
There is a promotion running for the Particle Editor and I don't know if I can create 2D particles with the editor.
All promotion videos are related to 3D and I don't know how efficient and easy is to integrated 2D particles in my game.
Does anyone know if the editor comes with 2D samples and examples?
Thank you
haliop787
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 12:43
It has a new option to take a 3D particle and turn it into a 2D sprite. I am using it right now, and its great.
Nadav "Haliop" Rosenberg
Lets make the world great forever.
GaborD
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 14:55 Edited at: 10th Jul 2020 14:57
@george++ The editor creates 3D effects, but as haliop787 said, there is functionality to render the 3D effect into a texture you can use on sprites at runtime.
Unfortunately, this means if you export to HTML5 or mobile, you need to export with 3D functionality enabled which makes the AppGameKit engine code a bit bigger in size.
A simple example project for this style of effect usage in sprite based games is included. (this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8vvJAkeFk )

You could also use the render to tex functionality to create individual images and then assemble an own spritesheet of the effect and use it as purely 2D animated sprite image. It's a bit clunky but doable.
For the future I am considering adding this functionality directly in the editor so that users can easily bake effects into configurable sprite sheets that can be used without the runtime code or 3D. I think this would be a good addition and make the system more versatile.

@haliop787 I added flipping particle textures and rendered sprite textures to the to-do list. Easy to add and useful, thanks for the feedback!
george++
AGK Tool Maker
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Posted: 10th Jul 2020 18:09
Thank you guys
@GaborD: very detailed answer. This is what I was looking for.
huggy70
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Posted: 14th Jul 2020 19:09
Hi,

let me say this is a great product. I started with AppGameKit Studio just 2 months ago and had that nice effects up and running within very short time.

Just a few things I wonder so far:
I'll have to switch render to "Basic" for the effects to show up properly. Is this correct or are there any settings to adjust for the different rendering engines?

How can I create multiple instances of the same effect? Eg. If I have multiple bullets with nice particle effect I must use gpup_loadEffect() for every bullet?

Thanks!
Spadey
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 14:14
I have just purchased the partical editor and while the editor seems to work fine i can't get anything to show in my own app. (AGK Studio)
I followed all the simple instructions and when i run i see just my app running as normal but without the partical effects.
So thinking i was doing something stupid i open the main.agc example found in the AppGameKit Partical Editor > Runtime folder and ran that and all i see is a blank screen with just the FPS count showing. I check and all the media it references in the code exists in the correct media folder effects/models/shaders and textures folder.

Anyone got any ideas why this isn't working for me?

Thanks
Richard

monotonic
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 15:34
Hi All,

I cannot open this on macOS, I get the same issue as @andy72

Catalina 10.15.6



Has anybody been able to solve this issue?
All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.
Spadey
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 15:36
Hi,

To update from my previous problem i have now got the demo program working correctly but still have an issue when trying to get the partical effects to work in my app.
I have now created a brand new app just to see if i can get them working.

This is the code:



and i get the error message shown in the attachment. (Failed to instance object 0 - object does not exist)

If i remove the


it runs without errors but i'm just getting the blank screen.
I have the effects files in the correct folder : \testingParticals2\media\effects (see 2nd screen attachment)


Can anyone please advise?

Thanks

Richard


GaborD
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 20:04 Edited at: 18th Jul 2020 21:47
@Spadey
Your code is good, it runs for me instantly (including the errormode being set to 2) if I put it in my particle test project. I am running Studio version 2020.04.16 (I think that's the newest) on PC.
Do you have the subfolders (models, noise, shaders) from the Addon in /effects too in the new project? The error message looks like it couldn't load the base particle mesh. You could check what the gpup_init function gives back to your tmp variable, if it's -1, that would mean it can't load something. If it's not -1 then we will have to dig deeper and there is some buggyness going on.

@huggy70
What Studio version are you using and on what kind of hardware? Trying to reproduce the issue, but can't so far. On PC with the newest Studio version Vulkan seems to work fine with the particles. It could be that the Vulkan compilers are not being the same across platforms/versions/export targets/whatever, going to test it more. Hopefully we can pin down the issue you are having.
For multiple instances you can always reuse effects after a bullet expired, so you only need however many will be visible simultaniously. You can also use subEmitters to have up to 8 emitter positions per effect (the overall particle count for the effect should be set high enough though).

@monotonic
I don't compile the Mac build myself, I forwarded the issue.
GaborD
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 20:15 Edited at: 18th Jul 2020 20:48
@haliop787
I tested setClearColor by removing the background from the included 2D demo, it works and resets to the chosen color after rendering the additive effects with black background into the textures.
Newest Studio version on PC, tested both in Vulkan and GL. (See attached screen for an example running in Vulkan).
Not sure why it doesn't work for you, seems like a weird issue. Unfortunately I don't know the Studio inernals, I just work on the Addon. Don't want to guess around based on my total lack of knowledge.

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Spadey
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 21:12
@GaborD

That was it!

Thank you very much for pointing that out to me - i just copied the 3 folders from one of the demo apps and it worked.
I re-read the user guide again and maybe it me but it didn't seem particularly clear that you needed to do that, but its sorted now.


Thanks you again!
GaborD
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Posted: 18th Jul 2020 21:24
Great that it works now!
Yes you are right, the docs are not up to par yet. I will work on them before the next update, especially the runtime segments should be more detailed and clear.
huggy70
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Posted: 20th Jul 2020 12:42
@GaborD
issue with OpenGl vs Vulcan rendering has been solved . I installed a new graphics card ( geforce 1650 ) vs using onboard graphics before As a side effect now gameguru loader is also working (IDE crashed all the time upon start of a converted map).
I guess onboard graphics is not the way to go although worked quite well for my purpose until now .

>>For multiple instances you can always reuse effects after a bullet expired,...
Ok, I must describe better I think: It seems to me every effect must be loaded separately from disc, this I want to avoid. I want to load all particle effects at start of a level at once, not within main loop of the program. So when I need 8 Bullets ( I don't know how many I need at start of the level, 3 for main player, 3 for one enemy perhaps, dont't know...) I want to load the particle effect for a bullet once and use it for all bullets of a kind. Is this possible? Just like I would use LoadImage() and use it with any object I create at runtime with SetObjectImage().

Thanks!
RickV
TGC Development Director
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Posted: 21st Jul 2020 13:44
We have now updated the Mac version so that it has been properly signed so should work for you all. Please let us know in this thread.
Development Director
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monotonic
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Posted: 24th Jul 2020 22:50
Quote: "We have now updated the Mac version so that it has been properly signed so should work for you all. Please let us know in this thread."


Hi Rick,

That works like a charm now, thank you.
All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.
McFish
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Posted: 8th Sep 2020 12:58 Edited at: 9th Sep 2020 08:37
Hi,

I tried getting this single fire emitter working, but for some reason 'gpup_emitterFire' does nothing..



Debug log shows the following: "Tmp = 1 , effect = 0" and "Fire" is logged when i press space, but nothing is shown on screen. If I enable "gpup_setAutoFire" line, the effect is displayed on the screen in constant loop.

Image below shows the content of "media/effects" folder and particle editor settings (generation part)

GaborD
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Posted: 10th Sep 2020 05:53
Could you try it with the delay not being 0.0? Just to see if that's the cause.
I'll look into it and test around, probably some little issue that can be easily fixed.
McFish
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Posted: 11th Sep 2020 06:26 Edited at: 11th Sep 2020 06:27
I changed the delay to 0.2 .. Manually firing the effect still does nothing, but I can see the delay in autofiring version.

Btw. while fixing the possible issue, could I also ask that someone would fix the documentation. Particle Editor User Guide.pdf page 18 mentions 'gpup_runtime_ddmmyy.zip' file, which does not exist (at least not in steam version)
bjadams
AGK Backer
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Posted: 26th Nov 2020 08:31
I just got a new GFX card and have some interest in the particle editor. However I would like to ask again the same question I did 1 year ago: Does it have T2 support now or it's still T1 only?
Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2020 21:35
i know that TGC continues to work on Particle Creator but it is still only T1.
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Loktofeit
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Posted: 6th Dec 2020 21:36
I don't know squat about Tier 2, but I think PAX might be a reasonable solution.

Create your particle effect and save it.
The resulting .PAX file is a text file with all the variables for you to plug into the particle commands in your code.


While it doesn't go to the extent of the official one...

- It's FREE.
- It isn't a pile of intentionally cryptic garbage
- It doesn't pad your app with extra content/files.


Link: https://forum.thegamecreators.com/thread/214264
MadBit
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Posted: 7th Dec 2020 11:59
Try the attachment of this post.
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Xaby
FPSC Reloaded TGC Backer
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Posted: 7th Feb 2021 19:16
I have some questions:

- the 3D Particle editor is called "3D", but you can't move or rotate the view with GUI elements or the mouse, I tried every combination I could think of, like middle wheel, left / right click and in combination with CRTL, ALT or both and SHIFT
the only way I found out was with cursor keys. So not even WASD works.

- AppGameKit Studio Particle Editor updated for 2D Apps!
Posted on Friday 29th May 2020 2:42 PM
https://www.appgamekit.com/news/post/appgamekit-studio-particle-editor-updated-for-2d-apps
How can I switch the Particle Editor to see my particles in 2D? Is there a button or do the controls change?

Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 11th Jun 2021 21:05
unlock
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DVader
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Posted: 12th Jun 2021 00:27
Just purchased this product and looks promising. Played with the demos and found the 3D implementation to be fairly simple, but am struggling with 2D. The user guide has no hints at all on this side, just a list of commands that can be used. Is there any way to show the bare basics needed to load in a single effect for 2D? Would be a lot easier than trying to look thought the included demos. Seems odd to me that 3D is fairly easy, yet 2D is more complex or seems it!

Q6600. Nvidia 260GTX. 8 Gig Ram.
GaborD
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Posted: 15th Jul 2021 23:00 Edited at: 15th Jul 2021 23:05
There is a 2D demo. Should be included in the package.
The reason it is more complex is because it piggybacks on the 3D effects and renders them to 2D textures you can use on sprites.

Here are the important bits from the 2D demo: (the effect is set to invisible so that the actual 3D effect doesn't show up in the cam view. The 2D render function will toggle it on and back off automatically for the render2texture.)

// Load an explosion effect, we will add this to the sprite texture
fxExplosion2 = gpup_loadEffect("explosion7_dirt", 0,0,0,1.0)
gpup_emitterActive(fxExplosion2, 1)
gpup_setEffectVisible(fxExplosion2, 0)

// prepare a texture for the fire effect to be rendered into. 256 is the pixel size of the tex.
imExplosion = gpup_addTex(256)

// Create a sprite that will display the effect
spExplosion = CreateSprite(imExplosion)


And then in the main loop

// Update the particle system. Call this every refresh.
gpup_update()

// If the effect is additive blended, we must set the background to black for the capture
SetClearColor( 0, 0, 0 )

// Render the explosion into the cleared texture
gpup_effect2Tex(imExplosion, fxExplosion, 1)


Hope this helps you to get started with the 2D use of the effects.
3com
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Posted: 14th Aug 2021 00:42
@ GaborD
And how do you do so from GameguruMax?
I recently bought the particle editor days ago, and bring me to the necessity of render to 2d texture, is due to I'm no able to get the way to do a realistic waterfall, here I think if I grab the effect pics then I can work a sprite to mimic waterfall, although it does not make sense to buy an app to make a 3d waterfall, and end up with 2d sprites. IMHO.
So the question raise, is it some way to make a realistic waterfall with the particle editor? if so, how?

Thanks in advance.
3com

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