Particles - Rainbow Effect?

Hi all:

I have a particle script I am working on. Can generally get it to work the way I want, but I want to be able to make the rainbow spectrum effect. Been able to make the particles change from one color to another, but only in a smooth shading way - not a rainbow-style.

I've seen this scattered throughout SL, so I know it's possible. Any idea how this is accomplished?


Thanks,
Newfie Pendragon

Most of the rainbow particle effects I have seen in SL were created using a particle emitting prim for each color in the rainbow. Each prim then emits only a single rainbow color, and based on the desired effect, uses another set or prims as targets and a push on the particle systme. (in the case of a typical curved rainbow), or they just trail off in a direction for however long the particles live.

emitter O -------------> O target prim
emitter O -------------> O target prim
emitter O -------------> O target prim
emitter O -------------> O target prim
emitter O -------------> O target prim
emitter O -------------> O target prim

Hope this helps.
McW

I use 2 emiters with a start and end color to get the 4 basic rainbow colors.
If you use PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE you dont need target prims

Toy do you sell your rainbows?

naaa, but do give them away once in awhile

Great suggestions Toy! The few rainbows I have seen that used the targets spanned a fairly good distance. I am not sure how big you can go with the angle method. Of course, I haven't really played around with it much, so I am sure there is a lot that can be accomplished without the use of targets.

Thx for the tips.
McW

Ok. One of these days I'm going to make a one prim rainbow. Two prims shouldn't be required, and fourteen is just wasteful.

you may be able to use just one prim if you use a texture, but since there's just a begining and ending color to a particle I would love to see it done

The gauntlet has been thrown down! I'll be back in a few hours. I have to toy with this particle system thingy, never really done much angle work.

Done!

Sure, I took less time than I said I would, and yes, the rainbow is slightly flawed (it flickers, and the bands get thicker the farther 'down' you go, problems I could solve with time), but I just wanted to prove it could be done.

Anyone want a copy? The flickering should make it OBVIOUS how I did it.

did you just alternate particle systems really fast?

I know that it's not exactly what you're talking about, but I have a particle script that I wrote back in February that cycles through rainbow colours. eg it starts red, changed to orange,yellow,green,blue,purple,red... and does so smoothly, not just jumping from colour to colour. The effect looks pretty good especially when the life of the particles is long. I'll post a picture when I get home.

I also use the same (but slightly modified) script function for the same rainbow effect on prim colour, and hovertext, which also look great.

Of course.

Though your method does reduce the prim count by 50%, I hesitate to embrace this method. I think the vast improvement in appearance which the two prim method enjoys makes it more than worth it.

Besides, I think switching particle systems like that is a very crude gimmick. Maybe... maybe even an... ugly hack? *evil cackling*

Eh, it wouldn't be ugly if I decided to devote time to getting the timing down perfect.

If you didn't want it to be a hack, it'd need to be seven prims large.

Moleculor sent a a copy of his rainbow script just seconds before I completed my own version that also worked. His worked very nicely, I might also add, and only with the one prime. Mine had two prims, but I wanted a targeted particle stream so it came out slightly different.

If anyone would like to see a snapshot of my own results, when I get home tonight I'll upload a snapshot of the particles in action. And to everyone who gave tips (especially Moleculor), thanks!


- Newfie Pendragon

Sure, I'd like to see it! Bring it on!

I want a perdy rainbow.... plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

if someone can explain to me why I cant seem to attatch a pic to here I would show mine........ Yes, I am a blonde !!!

im not blonde.. but i couldnt attach an AV pic for myself last night, it wouldnt let me...

I tried and it didnt show up....... the file is only 209kb so I dont know why it dont seem to work

As promised - one sample screenshot of my rainbow particles!

will try again

both of the previous images are excellent! Is the size of them dependant on the single prim size of 10m?

The sample I put together were actually two 0.1x0.1x0.1 prims, about 3m apart. I've tested them up to a distance apart of 100m, but the further apart they are the more fragmented the particle stream becomes. Probably a bit of tweaking of the spawn rate and particle rate could reduce the amount of that.


- Newfie Pendragon