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4.10.17 Emitter Mesh Object

Written by Wouter Wijngaards, wouterw@cs.vu.nl.

An emitter particle system is a very general particle system, that can do a variety of things. It is considered mostly deprecated and if possible you should use the new particle system instead. In the future we will extend the new particles mesh object so that all features of emit are supported. See section Particles Mesh Object.

The emitter can be customized to a high degree, using the ‘iEmitGen3D’ objects. Particles are emitted from position you choose, with speeds and accelerations you choose. During their lifetime they age and change as you choose.

Basic Structure

The following SCF class names are used (for csLoadPlugin):

Objects in this plugin implement the following SCF interfaces (acquire with scfQueryInterface):

Factory State Interface

The factory state interface has methods to create new emitter objects, that implement the ‘iEmitGen3D’ interface. These objects return a random 3D x,y,z value. They are used to specify starting position, speed and acceleration for the particles. Several exist:

iEmitFixed

This emitter returns a fixed x,y,z value. Corresponds to a point in space, a fixed speed, or fixed acceleration.

iEmitBox

Returns a value with each component between a min and max. Corresponds to points from a box in space. Use it to variate x,y,z for speed and acceleration, or to get positions inside a box.

iEmitSphere

Returns a point in a sphere. The center of the sphere and a min and max radius must be given. The point is between the min and max radius from the center. Thus you can generate points from a hollowed sphere if you like. The points are evenly distributed across the entire volume of the sphere.

iEmitCone

Returns a point inside a cone. Give a start point, aperture angle, azimuth and elevation just like in the fountain particle system. The points are chosen between a min and max distance from the origin.

iEmitMix

The mix has a set of other ‘iEmitGen3D’ objects, and samples a weighted distribution from them. You can give some other emitgen3ds and a weight for each one. Items with a heavier weight will be asked to return a point more often.

For example, you could add several EmitLine objects to the mix, each with a weight equal to its length. Then the mix will return points from a random line, but those points will be evenly distributed in space.

iEmitLine

Returns points from the line between start and end position.

iEmitCylinder

Give the start and end of the middle line of the cylinder, the two end points. Returns points between min and max radius from the middle line. The points are evenly distributed in space. Also, when the start = end point, points from a circle are returned.

iEmitSphereTangent

The position point that is passed is used to compute a vector that is tangential to a sphere, relative to given origin. Use it to give a speed or acceleration tangential to a sphere. Speed is between min and max.

iEmitCylinderTangent

The position point that is passed is used to compute a vector that is tangential to a cylinder, relative to given start and end of the middle line. Use it to give a speed or acceleration tangential to a cylinder. Speed is between min and max.

Factory Loader

The emitter mesh factory loader has no parameters.

Object State Interface

‘iEmitState’ is the SCF interface that you can use to set/get settings for a emitter object. The definition of this interface can be found in ‘CS/include/imesh/emit.h’ and that's also the header file you need to include in your applications to use this plugin. Using this interface you can access the number of particles, the size of the particles, and various other emitter parameters. You can set:

In addition you can use ‘iParticleState’.

Object Loader

<rectparticles w="" h="" />

Set the width and height of the particles rectangular shape.

<regularparticles sides="" radius="" />

Set the number of sides and a radius of the regular shaped particles.

<totaltime>milliseconds</totaltime>

Set the maximum age in milliseconds.

<lighting>yes/no</lighting>

Disable or enable lighting for the particles

<number>numberparticles</number>

Set the number of particles

<startpos> ...

Give an EMIT object for starting position.

<startspeed> ...

Give the starting speed EMIT.

<startaccel> ...

Give the starting acceleration EMIT.

<attractorforce>forcevalue</attractorforce>

Give the attractor force value.

<attractor> ...

Give the EMIT that makes attracting points (per particle).

<aging> ...
 
<aging>
  <color red="" green="" blue="" />
  <time>time</time>
  <alpha>alpha</alpha>
  <swirl>swirl</swirl>
  <rotspeed>rotspeed</rotspeed>
  <scale>scale</scale>
</aging>

Give a colour red, colour green, colour blue, age time, alpha, swirl, rotationspeed and scale.

<emitfixed x="" y="" z="" />

Fixed (x, y, z) emitter.

<emitbox> ...

Box emitter, min x,y,z, max x,y,z.

 
<emitbox>
  <min x="" y="" z="" />
  <max x="" y="" z="" />
</emitbox>
<emitsphere x="" y="" z="" p="" q="" r="" />

Sphere emitter, origin x,y,z, min, max.

<emitcone x="" y="" z="" p="" q="" r="" s="" t="" />

Cone emitter, start x,y,z, elevation, azimuth, aperture, min,max radius.

<emitmix> ...

Use several ‘emitmix’ keywords in a row to create a mix with several EMITs. Inside each ‘emitmix’, WEIGHT(value) can be used to set the weight.

<emitline>

Line emitter, start, end point.

 
<emitline>
  <min x="" y="" z="" />
  <max x="" y="" z="" />
</emitline>
<emitcylinder p="" q="" />

Cylinder emitter, min, max distance, start, end point.

 
<emitcylinder>
  <min x="" y="" z="" />
  <max x="" y="" z="" />
</emitcylinder>
<emitcylindertangent p="" q="" />

CylinderTangent emitter. Give start, end point, min, max speed.

 
<emitcylindertangent>
  <min x="" y="" z="" />
  <max x="" y="" z="" />
</emitcylindertangent>
<emitspheretangent p="" q="" />

SphereTangent emitter. Give origin, min, max speed.

 
<emitspheretangent>
  <min x="" y="" z="" />
  <max x="" y="" z="" />
</emitspheretangent>

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