Help with making particles, please (Q3A)

[Obsessed]

Hi everyone! I need an advise from somebody, who can make such particles, like Hipshot made on his "Rustgrad" level. I have no idea, how could it be done, so I downloaded this thing: http://www.moddb.com/games/world-of-pad ... studio-v11 and followed the instruction (tried several ways). But anyway, in the end, my particles appear (moving!) on a flat surface, which is fully opaque. This damn surface is turning, following me, and making a new (opaque) sheet, when every new particle is spawned.
Could somebody be so kind to tell me, is there another (maybe newer) example of particle-making program? Or is my mistake typical/obvious? Thanks in advance!

[dichtfux]

I guess you could check the shaders file in Hipshot's map.

[Obsessed]

I guess you could check the shaders file in Hipshot's map.

I started with this, simply copying his texture+shader to my .pk3 (compiling my map then), but it didn't work - marked object was solid and "dots" on it were static. You suggest me to compare his shader with generated by this ^ program? Hmm.. thanks, I'll try!

[obsidian]

Make sure you add your shaders to shaderlist.txt. If Hipshot's shaders aren't working, then you have something wrong with your setup, not with the shader.

[Obsessed]

Make sure you add your shaders to shaderlist.txt. If Hipshot's shaders aren't working, then you have something wrong with your setup, not with the shader.

TYVM! Maybe this was my fatal mistake.

[Obsessed]

Make sure you add your shaders to shaderlist.txt. If Hipshot's shaders aren't working, then you have something wrong with your setup, not with the shader.

Alas, it didn't help. I added Hipshot's shader name to shaderlist.txt, copied shader itself to baseq3/scripts, made a .pk3 with Hipshot's textures, scripts (his .shader file named mymap.shader) and made my map with appropriate name (mymap.bsp), where I used 2 textures: particles.jpg and particles2.jpg. And that solids remained opaque and static, anyway.
The only thing confused me - bsp couldn't be compiled w/o Hipshot's initial shader (hipshot_m8.shader) in the "baseq3/scripts" folder. But if it is there, what is the point for me to put mymap.shader into my .pk3?

[KittenIgnition]

First attempt in copying shaders from someone else is to use their exact shader with no changes, to make sure everything is set up. Only then do you change the name and etc.

So use his exact shader with the exact name and make sure it's in shaderlist.txt

[obsidian]

And you need to recompile your map. Q3Map2 needs to read the shaders listed in shaderlist.txt

[Obsessed]

So use his exact shader with the exact name and make sure it's in shaderlist.txt

Thank you all guys very much, I think, I got it! But this is more interesting than I expected - one (of 2) shader is working stable, but both crash the game, when I try to use 1.00 scale for particles texture. And this is just random example. Anyway, I moved forward, thank you all very much!

[monaster]

You can also try getting in contact with hipshot via PM and ask him what exact versions of GtkRadiant and Q3Map2 he had used for Rustgrad (he may have noted that in his readme.txt as well) and then try it with these. The other thing to perhaps solve the game crash issue is to make sure you're on the latest version of Q3, which is Point Release 1.32c (if not, click me to get it).

[Obsessed]

You can also try getting in contact with hipshot via PM and ask him what exact versions of GtkRadiant and Q3Map2 he had used for Rustgrad (he may have noted that in his readme.txt as well) and then try it with these. The other thing to perhaps solve the game crash issue is to make sure you're on the latest version of Q3, which is Point Release 1.32c (if not, click me to get it).

Thank you, but I'm on this latest version for many years. And now I'm trying different variations of shaders on a test map, to see what it will be myself. My "flies" are a bit smaller than his. Everything else is the same.

[Obsessed]

I'm sorry for annoying, but I got another trouble and one question.
1) Editor's error "LoadTGA: Only type 2 (RGB), 3 (gray), and 10 (RGB) TGA images supported" does not allow to compile .bsp.
2) If I got rid of this .tga, why my editor keeps looking for it? Where it can find this info, if I removed it from shader and deleted the texture?
P.S. I tried to make my own fog and kept textures in "-###" folder. I successfully made it, when I changed "-###" to "###". Obviously, I screwed up another thing - teleport surface texture (it was in "-###"). I removed "-" in texture folder name and in the shader text, but Q3Radiant keeps looking for teleport texture in "-###" folder!
P.P.S. fog - .tga, tele - .jpg.

[Obsessed]

I guess, I found the answer. My teleport texture worked well being .jpg, but suddenly became illegible. Error text above means "jpg is not supported here", as I think.
..and now .tga doesn't work too, because of "illegal pixel size '16'" in my (worked!) .jpeg, converted to .tga. May this be some modified editor settings?

[sst13]

You should only use:

• TGA 24bit
• TGA 32bit (with 8bit alpha channel included)
• JPG (non-progressive)

If Q3 can't find a *.tga it will automatically look for a *.jpg - so you always write *.tga in shader or model paths.

[Obsessed]

You should only use:

• TGA 24bit,
• TGA 32bit (with 8bit alpha channel included),
• JPG (non-progressive)

If Q3 can't find a *.tga it will automatically look for a *.jpg - so you always write *.tga in shader or model paths.

TYVM! My friend told me about non-progressive jpeg too, but.. 1) I used jpeg first and it worked! 2) I tried to use jpeg-based fog, editor accepted it only after texture folder renaming (it's seems strange for me..), 3) After that, editor became sensual to what I use, jpeg or tga. But I USE THE SAME JPEG!
Anyway, then I tested it, and it is non-progressive. I converted it to .tga, but got "illegal pixel size '16'" then. Tried to make it 256x512, but Q3Radiant still "needs" .tga.
P.S. using this opportunity: your "Iron Hive" r00lz, man!

so you always write *.tga in shader
Wow, it worked! Thank you!! It's really unexpected solution! But it explains, how my initial .jpeg could work. Although, I can't understand, what I did for .jpeg to stop working.