particle chain...

Trying to do a particle chain.. I can get the texture to go from point to point.. but on using the PSYS_PART_TARGET_LINEAR_MASK. for a straight line.. if i take that out and use a just PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP the stream goes point to point but in and upward arc. and we all know chains doind do that..

Help Please!

Apply a downward acceleration on the particles, with PSYS_SRC_ACCEL, <0,0,-0.981>

ok, thanks. still needs tweeks but now i know where i messed up...

Further advice:
1) The particles will move from one point to the other in exactly their lifetime. If you set a max age of 1 second, they'll go from here to there in one second. This means that, ideally, you should update their lifetime after the distance between the two points...

2) The particles can't be easily made to overlap each other perfectly :/ you have to divide the distance between the two points by the length of a particle, then adapt the burst rate and the speed of each particle everytime the distance changes The exact calculation is:

burst_rate * particle_length = distance * lifetime

So depending on the apparent speed you want on the particles (you probably want it to be slow, but not too slow so that the effect starts quick enough) and the distance between start and end, you'll have to make the prim summon particles slower or faster.

thanks.. still needs tweeks.. i'm getting gaps between the particles. problems is it for a moving object so the legnth will change constantly..

A few pirtcle go across then a pause then it goes again..
the distance varies between about 020m to .6 apx mostly towards the low end though

integer flags = PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK;
// flags = flags | PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK;
flags = flags | PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK;
flags = flags | PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK;
flags = flags | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK;
flags = flags | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_VELOCITY_MASK;
//flags = flags | PSYS_PART_BOUNCE_MASK;


llParticleSystem ([ PSYS_PART_FLAGS,flags,
PSYS_SRC_PATTERN,PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP,
PSYS_PART_START_COLOR,<1,1,1>,
PSYS_PART_END_COLOR,<1,1,1>,
PSYS_PART_START_SCALE,<0.0315,0.05,0.4>,
PSYS_PART_END_SCALE,<0.0315,0.05,0.04>,
PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE,1.1,
PSYS_SRC_ACCEL,<0.01,0.01,-0.8>,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN,0.04,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN,0.04,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE,0.01,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT,1,
PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY,id,
PSYS_SRC_TEXTURE,"link"
]);
}

0.6 to 20 m ? Owww, this requires a lot of updates... The best way to make it look consistent is to get the distance often (llSensorRepeat on the specific key ?) and divide it by a constant "speed" for the particles (= burst_rate * particle_length), and use that as the particles' max age. Tweak it a bit to accomodate for the additional length caused by "curving" of the chain.

The faster / more often the distance changes, the more often you need to update the particle parameters (put a check to only update the particles if the distance changed since last time).

Also, poor rendering performance can "hide" particles. Since these are entirely client-side, you can control in your SL Preferences (Adv. Graphics) how many particles to render at most. You might want to bump that up a bit.

Woops my bad.. not sure how i typed 20m.. sound have beeb .20m duh