www.astralax.com

Hi.

I am currently on a project that uses the HGE engine (albeit customized quite a bit) and Magic Particles to handle special effects. However, at the moment, whenever an emitter is set to use an image for its area of emission, the effect fails to render in the engine.

As the current build of the engine is using the standard wrapper without any modifications, I am unsure as to why this happens. However, we are using an older version of Magic Particles (dev), as we are unable to get the latest (1.72) version running properly. Has the image emitter changed since the older versions?

I would appreciate any help that anyone can provide towards resolving this issue.

However, at the moment, whenever an emitter is set to use an image for its area of emission, the effect fails to render in the engine.

Wrapper creates object of HGE for itself. It is possible you have 2 object of HGE now.

However, we are using an older version of Magic Particles (dev), as we are unable to get the latest (1.72) version running properly.

Why? Download new version for beginning.

Has the image emitter changed since the older versions?

Format of ptc-file is changed, but new version loads ptc-files of old versions.

Hi:

Thanks for the reply! Anyway, the reason we're using the older version (1.61) is basically, for some unknown reason, when I install version 1.72, it runs fine for that current session but after a reboot it will fail to load with basically a crash to desktop. Yes I know it's probably a problem on my side but at this point we really can't afford any more delays with regards to switching and running into version incompatibility issues I guess. =\

However, we are not running two instances of HGE, if that's what you mean by having 2 'objects' of HGE. Basically every other emitter works beautifully except for image-area type emitters. It's not absolutely critical that we get this working, but if there's a quick fix for this it would help a bit when we design the special effects.

EDIT: Ok one of the programmers just walked by and I asked him, we're also using the older version of the wrapper at the moment, so I don't think it can handle the newer versions of the ptc files? I'm not sure about this but anyway they are pretty busy with other stuff so I'm trying not to bother them too much.

In any case, thank you for the quick reply!

Hi

Thanks for the reply! Anyway, the reason we're using the older version (1.61) is basically, for some unknown reason, when I install version 1.72, it runs fine for that current session but after a reboot it will fail to load with basically a crash to desktop. Yes I know it's probably a problem on my side but at this point we really can't afford any more delays with regards to switching and running into version incompatibility issues I guess. =\

You can delete configuration of Magic Particles for experiment. Launch regedit.exe and delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Astralax. Also delete folder c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Particles (path for XP on C)

However, we are not running two instances of HGE, if that's what you mean by having 2 'objects' of HGE.

Yes

Basically every other emitter works beautifully except for image-area type emitters.

You should save ptc-file for API mode: File->Save As...(API). You can set field "Save always" in program options too.

In any case, thank you for the quick reply!

You are welcome!

Under my current security policy at work I cannot use regedit and I don't think my IT admin would be very happy about me asking him for that kind of user privileges...I'm an intern. =\

However I checked my program settings. "Save only in API mode" is checked but then when I manually save the emitter using the Save as ...(API) option it works I will just have to remember to do this instead for image emitters, it seems. Strange, but in any case, thank you very much for your assistance on this issue!

Under my current security policy at work I cannot use regedit and I don't think my IT admin would be very happy about me asking him for that kind of user privileges...I'm an intern. =\

I think your admin has to help to you with work. For example, he can delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Astralax himself.

However I checked my program settings. "Save only in API mode" is checked but then when I manually save the emitter using the Save as ...(API) option it works I will just have to remember to do this instead for image emitters, it seems.

Magic Particles save ptc-files in 3 modes:
1) Normal mode - for editor of Magic Particles (by default)
2) API mode - for API only ( File->Save As... (API) )
3) Double mode - universal format for editor and API (field "Save always" in settings).

I advise to you to use variant 3) during developing the game. It needs to save ptc-files in mode 2) before release only.