Opinions Desired Re: Particle Creators

Good day,

I am searching for opinions on two Particle Script creation systems that I have "narrowed" my assessment down to. However, if you know of another that is quite good, I would be eager for your opinion on that one as well.

The two in question are:

Particle Foundry (http://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=982204)

and

Particle Script Generator (http://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=94347)

My criteria is ease of use (which both seem to be on par), and features. Given sufficient time and documentation I can learn either system, but would give preference to the system with the most thorough documentation or ease of use.

If anyone could share their experiences (good and/or bad) of these or other systems, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you kindly in advance.

Elric Anatine

I've paid thousands of Lindens for a number of particle generators and to tell you the truth I don't use any of them anymore. Why?

* Some are way too expensive for what you get.
* Most interfaces are bloated and sluggish, especially after extended use.
* Some don't support all particle settings.
* Some can generate inconsistent results (end result looks different than what you saw).
* Some use proprietary preset notecard formats, which are just an extra step and unnecessary.
* Most won't read in llParticleSystem code as presets.

I needed a particle generator that would read llParticleSystem code directly, have a simple and fast interface, was inexpensive and produced consistent results. I stumbled across a particle generator made my KR Engineering that meets most of my criteria. You can control three different particle systems at the same time and it has a chat interface, which uses commands to change particle settings. This little device blows most of them out of the water. The only thing it doesn't do is load presets. The best thing--it's only $300L! You can find it here, just go upstairs and it's on the balcony...
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Karoastoff/104/189/46

I am not associated with KR Engineering, but I believe it's the best particle generator out there right now, because of its price, its simplicity and its powerful interface. I liked it so much I wrote my own particle generator based on its design and I added llParticleSystem code reading into my own generator so I could read presets directly from the code. Nowadays I use my own (it's not on the market... yet), but you owe it to yourself to buy the KR Engineering particle generator, as cheap as it is.

I also suggest finding the in-world demos for the particle generators you're considering and try them out extensively before buying them. This way you'll know exactly what to expect. If you can't find a demo, ask the creator to show you a demo of the product. I've used one of the particle generators you mentioned and I can honestly say I'm not happy with it.

Hopefully I've helped you make a better decision.

My advice is to purchase none, insted search the scripting library, for particle generators, read lhttp://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlParticleSystem

And visit the particle laboratory in world (search for particle laboratory).

Particle systems arent that hard to do, so rather than rely on a bought product, learn to write your own. Its much more fun that way.

Thank you. The links are helpful.

I have some physical and time constraints and therefore cannot script entirely by hand -- so a little help or a system that does not require recompiling a script for every little change is what I'm after.

Miss Xue's recommendations and assistance has been invaluable.

Thank you, both of you.

Jopsy Pendragon has a new system out called the P Organ, which is a high octane particle creation system. You should be able to demo it at the Particle Lab.

Jopsy = particle god.

I went and tried out the P Organ. Some of the interface is intuitive, but unless I'm trying to be a mad particle scientist, it's not what I'm looking for.

I tried a number of the particle generator tools and I'm going to agree that they are great for casual creation of particles, but that they quickly become limiting.

There is no substitute for spending a day at the Particle Laboratory, perusing and studying the displays and tutorials and then playing with the sample and template scripts in the sandbox there. Once you grok particles, your brain becomes the most powerful particle generation tool there is

One huge benefit of this approach is that I can now look at any particle effect and know almost intuitively what it's parameters are. That in turn has given me all sorts of ideas that have led to variations and extensions on things I have seen. If I relied on some machine to produce particles, that process would be largely impossible.

Thank you. I think I will do that... when I have time. /me chuckles Seriously, I do very much wish to learn so I'll hopefully get to this sooner than later. There is so much in SL to play with we just don't have the time!

Like Yingzi and Beverly, I've long been a "just hack the scripts" kinda guy, however in the last year opening and saving scripts seems to have become a much much slower process.

Creating a particle console is something I've always wanted to do, not everyone is cut out for the challenge of learning scripting, or the somewhat unusual syntax and nomenclature of the llParticleSystem function.

After 9 incomplete and failed attempts, I've managed to make a device that allows me to create, tune and deploy particle effects *far faster* than I ever had been able to with scripting. (and keep in mind I have a huge library of effects of my own private effects to draw from in addition to the free particle templates in the particle laboratory sandbox!).

Now, I use the Porgan 1800 about 50% of the time when I'm working on effects, which for a die-hard scripter like me is something.

Yingzi- I've been thinking about adding a particle param importer, the challenge of course is that there's no telling what format the script may have. It will probably require that the user paste a function, (say jpExportParticleParams) into their script and replace the llParticleSystem([param list]) function with jpExportParticleParams([param list]). Not necessarily the most elegent solution.

Uh. . .I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Particle Magic, which is absolutely free, and has the Jopsy particle template scripts as preloads.

I use this: https://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1279150#reviews and it rocks! You can see the script and get in to tweak it-so you are learning about what you are doing as you work with it. Very easy inetrface, I am no scripter! I have tried several - and of the ones I have tried, this one has my vote. Here is a link to an item I made using its script as a base that I then tweaked to my desired results and used my own texture in: https://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1281259

Alternatively, you can use Zeja Pyle - LSL Particles System script generator which creates scripts on the website.

http://particles-lsl-generator.bashora.com/index.php

I've tried a bunch of these and the Particle Wizard rocks.

http://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=161450

I have Foundry and a few others and the particle wizard is by far the easiest to use.

CC

Well after the thousands of Ls I've spent for particle generators, the best one I found turned out to be FREE and easy to use. Uses basic particle manipulation and is not laggy:

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=674134

Another particle generator to look at is Particle Designer from InkWelle -- see http://www.inkwelle.com/particle.shtml