Getting started with the Flame 3D Particle Effects Editor
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Getting started with the Flame 3D Particle Effects Editor
by libbyjix » Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:10 am
Hey all, this is just an info dump for those jumping into libGDX's 3D particle system (both code and GUI editor) but who, like me, had/have no idea where to start. Documentation for how the Flame editor works is sparse to non-existent, at least as far as my searches took me. If there is some guide or video somewhere I would be happy to be redirected to it.
First on the code end, here are two articles I found which explain the fundamentals and architecture of a particle system and how to code one. This isn't libGDX specific but helped me get an idea of what kind of code needs to exist for a particle system to work and therefore aids in piecing together the architecture of libGDX's particle system files on github.
1. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1 ... php?page=2
2. https://www.lri.fr/~mbl/ENS/IG2/devoir2 ... ticles.pdf
Secondly, for the Flame GUI editor to create 3D particle effects here are just a couple things I've found/figured out/learned to get me started making things in the editor:
1) For an explanation of what the different settings mean here is this link: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/2 ... cle-editor. This is actually for the 2D particle editor but all the settings/functionality that is explained for the 2D editor and can be found in the 3D editor works exactly the same. I didn't think to search for the 2D particle editor because I didn't know there was a correspondence between the two editors. Thankfully, I stumbled across this by accident.
2) When I first run the Flame editor .jar file the editor window does not display properly. For the record I'm running Windows 10 Home on a standard 1080p resolution on a laptop. It looked like this:
As you can see, many of the settings are not visible or crushed to the point of unreadability. I had no idea that settings were missing so I was very confused on how to begin using the editor. After fixing it should look like this: (1) emitters area (2) global editor settings (3) influencers types menu (4) loaded influencers settings
3) To use the different region influencers (Single Region, Random Region and Animated Region) you first need to load an atlas:
To learn what an atlas is and how to create one go here: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/Texture-packer. In short, an atlas is simply an image that holds many other images and can reference the sub-images by index. There is a GUI available at the link that lets you create an atlas very easily. Specifically, the Animated Region influencer works by cycling through multiple images that you select out of your atlas over the life cycle of a particle. This is very cool but it took me a second to figure out how the atlas and the Animated Region influencer worked together.
4) Lastly, when using the Polar Velocity setting under the Dynamics Influencer the Polar Angle value will have no noticeable effect until you use the Azimuth setting and rotate the axis from being aligned with y-axis (vertical green arrow). Then the Polar Angle value allows you to rotate particles within the x-z plane (as said in the editor).
I'm still messing around with all of these settings so if any part of my explanations is not completely accurate or if it is just flat out wrong I would appreciate tips, corrections, etc. Hope this helps someone else.
In case the image uploads are removed in the future here is a 2nd source for the images
1. https://mega.nz/#!G59T1ASD
2. https://mega.nz/#!SpsnUQzR
3. https://mega.nz/#!v50TGQCR
First on the code end, here are two articles I found which explain the fundamentals and architecture of a particle system and how to code one. This isn't libGDX specific but helped me get an idea of what kind of code needs to exist for a particle system to work and therefore aids in piecing together the architecture of libGDX's particle system files on github.
1. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1 ... php?page=2
2. https://www.lri.fr/~mbl/ENS/IG2/devoir2 ... ticles.pdf
Secondly, for the Flame GUI editor to create 3D particle effects here are just a couple things I've found/figured out/learned to get me started making things in the editor:
1) For an explanation of what the different settings mean here is this link: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/2 ... cle-editor. This is actually for the 2D particle editor but all the settings/functionality that is explained for the 2D editor and can be found in the 3D editor works exactly the same. I didn't think to search for the 2D particle editor because I didn't know there was a correspondence between the two editors. Thankfully, I stumbled across this by accident.
2) When I first run the Flame editor .jar file the editor window does not display properly. For the record I'm running Windows 10 Home on a standard 1080p resolution on a laptop. It looked like this:
As you can see, many of the settings are not visible or crushed to the point of unreadability. I had no idea that settings were missing so I was very confused on how to begin using the editor. After fixing it should look like this: (1) emitters area (2) global editor settings (3) influencers types menu (4) loaded influencers settings
3) To use the different region influencers (Single Region, Random Region and Animated Region) you first need to load an atlas:
To learn what an atlas is and how to create one go here: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/Texture-packer. In short, an atlas is simply an image that holds many other images and can reference the sub-images by index. There is a GUI available at the link that lets you create an atlas very easily. Specifically, the Animated Region influencer works by cycling through multiple images that you select out of your atlas over the life cycle of a particle. This is very cool but it took me a second to figure out how the atlas and the Animated Region influencer worked together.
4) Lastly, when using the Polar Velocity setting under the Dynamics Influencer the Polar Angle value will have no noticeable effect until you use the Azimuth setting and rotate the axis from being aligned with y-axis (vertical green arrow). Then the Polar Angle value allows you to rotate particles within the x-z plane (as said in the editor).
I'm still messing around with all of these settings so if any part of my explanations is not completely accurate or if it is just flat out wrong I would appreciate tips, corrections, etc. Hope this helps someone else.
In case the image uploads are removed in the future here is a 2nd source for the images
1. https://mega.nz/#!G59T1ASD
2. https://mega.nz/#!SpsnUQzR
3. https://mega.nz/#!v50TGQCR
- libbyjix
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 5:07 pm
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