Game Development Community

Particles almost impossible to see.

by Lukas Joergensen · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 05/14/2012 (9:11 am) · 8 replies

I have a problem with all my particles, when they are watched from the ground and up they are very visible.
Watching them from the top and down to the ground they are getting faded out alot.
I am using scattersky.
Is this because the particles treats the scattersky as a black background and therefore is much more visible with scattersky as background?

You can see it in this video:

Look at the particles with the terrain as a background, they are almost completely faded away!

Particle data:
datablock ParticleData(voidParticle : DefaultParticle)
{
   inheritedVelFactor = "0";
   textureName = "art/shapes/particles/ember.png";
   animTexName = "art/shapes/particles/ember.png";
   colors[0] = "0.160784 0.0392157 0.203922 1";
   colors[1] = "0.666667 0.0980392 0.815686 0.573";
   colors[2] = "0.454902 0.00392157 0.607843 1";
   colors[3] = "0.792157 0 1 0";
   sizes[0] = "1.04167";
   sizes[1] = "3.125";
   sizes[2] = "2.08333";
   sizes[3] = "2.08333";
   times[0] = "0.145833";
   times[1] = "0.291667";
   lifetimeMS = "563";
   lifetimeVarianceMS = "562";
};

Emitter data:
datablock ParticleEmitterData(voidSphereEmitter : DefaultEmitter)
{
   particles = "voidParticle";
   ejectionPeriodMS = "1";
   ejectionVelocity = "0";
   ejectionOffset = "5";
   thetaMax = "0";
   blendStyle = "NORMAL";
};

#1
05/14/2012 (11:13 am)
Possibly a result of the "soft particles" feature. Try adjusting the softnessDistance in the emitter, it defaults to 1. Setting it to 0 should turn the feature off.
#2
05/14/2012 (11:32 am)
Nah doesn't help it.
Although, i do not see any changes really from softnessDistance 1000 and 0, is this normal? Maybe the softnessDistance is malfunctioning?
#3
05/14/2012 (11:48 am)
To be honest I never tested the usability of the softness feature. Don't really recall any comments about it in the forums either...
#4
05/14/2012 (12:13 pm)
I thought softness had to be 1 'cos zero causes issues ... and anything above 1 makes it ... funny ...
#5
05/14/2012 (12:33 pm)
Yeah I found the same thing the other day. 0 softness distance causes it to be invisible over terrain.
#6
05/14/2012 (12:34 pm)
Actually setting it to 1 solved it! Turns out it is set to 1000 by default and zero does cause issues indeed! :)
#7
05/14/2012 (12:42 pm)
Ah, I didn't notice that you're deriving from the DefaultEmitter which does set/override the softnessDistance to 1000. In source the default is 1, which is what I was going by.
#8
05/14/2012 (12:48 pm)
It also looks like the softness on/off property had been removed at some point along the way, so the feature is always on. Setting the distance to 0 means it starts fading at the emitter's depth compared to the scene.