reasonable free/cheap particle editor?

rooster

we're in the middle of an engine overhaul, but in the awkward position of having to make a new game at the same time.. we want a decent particle editor but the coders have their hands full just getting stuff running. So we're looking for some kind of free/cheap 3d particle editor that spits out a format we can use.. any ideas?

now I know bugger all about this really just looking for suggestions, someone mentioned maybe using mayas particle system but that requires a custom exporter I'd guess? again trying to save as much time as possible so ideally we want to cannibalise something existing

Snowfly

There's an Ogre particle editor beta, also open source like said graphics engine. May be worth checking out?

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8535

Haven't tried it, can't vouch for it, yadayada...

Joshua Stubbles

http://www.wondertouch.com/

You can get the lower end "SE" version for $99

CrazyButcher

but the wondertouch thing is meant for post-processing / offline rendering, not a middleware solution afaik.

Rob Galanakis

[ QUOTE ]
There's an Ogre particle editor beta, also open source like said graphics engine. May be worth checking out?

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8535

Haven't tried it, can't vouch for it, yadayada...

[/ QUOTE ]

BTW, an example of a particle script:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
PEExamples/flow
{
quota 2000
material PE/ringflare
particle_width 1
particle_height 30
cull_each false
renderer billboard
sorted false
local_space false
billboard_type oriented_self

emitter Box
{
angle 73.17
colour 1 1 1 1
colour_range_start 1 1 1 1
colour_range_end 1 1 1 1
direction -0.684313 -0.325257 0.652628
emission_rate 433.2
position 0.590229 14.6031 -13.8853
velocity 13.77
velocity_min 13.77
velocity_max 11.84
time_to_live 10.83
time_to_live_min 10.83
time_to_live_max 10.83
duration 0
duration_min 0
duration_max 0
repeat_delay 0
repeat_delay_min 0
repeat_delay_max 0
width 10
height 10
depth 10
}

affector LinearForce
{
force_vector 2.94504 44.615 -2.90231
force_application add
}

affector ColourFader
{
red -0.2967
green -0.2768
blue -0.7465
alpha 0
}
}
</pre><hr />

The particle editor is very easy to use, but as always, you are going to need to make some particle sprites yourself for it.
I haven't dealt with particle systems extensively, so I don't have a frame of reference, but your programmers should be able to take said particle format and do something with it. It probably won't give you the most high-end particles, but they are nice enough.

rooster

cheers! the ogre one looks quite decent, we're not looking for anything mega flashy and creating our own particle graphics isn't a problem. I'll see what they reckon..

CrazyButcher

http://luxinia.de/index.php/Api/Particle

luxinia also got a scriptable system, though we dont have graphical editor yet...