The Source Particle Editor has always been prohibitively complicated for me. That's why in Garry's Mod I made our own particle system.
I don't really want to have to do that again if I don't have to so I've been looking at how we can make the existing particle system work for us. How can I dumb it down so I can use it but retain all the cool functionality.
Here's what I came up with
- Deleting redundant functions
- Naming things more helpfully
- Naming things so they group naturally
- Filling in the help + tooltips
- Putting rarely used options in an Advanced section
- Making the "Base Properties" button more obvious
- Start a new particle with a working particle system
- Switch to "Velocity" instead of "Position Previous"
- Don't always restart system on property change
There's more stuff we can do I'm sure, but I think this will make a good start. It's already dumbed down to a level where I can use it.
attribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'contenteditable' not allowedattribute 'blocktype' not allowedOn the code side particle systems have got pretty easy to work with. You can do this clientside or serverside.
attribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'contenteditable' not allowedattribute 'blocktype' not allowedYou can store the ParticleSystem and update it or destroy it whenever you want.
attribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'class' not allowedattribute 'contenteditable' not allowedattribute 'blocktype' not allowed