make a ring of light(particles)?

(I put this in the wrong forum originally)

I have a prim that is a rotating ring. I've set the material to light, but Im still not getting the effect I want.

I'm looking to have the ring look like a rotating ring of light particles, with a kind of diffuse glow to it. Any recommendations?

I made a comet that was basically a rotating sphere with a trailing particle effect. Most likely you can get close to what you want with the particle system.

http://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=llParticleSystem

If you want the particles to move in a circular fashion around the object, there's no easy way to do it. Particles seem to have only one movement vector themselves, and it doesn't change once the particle is emitted (except in the case of PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_TARGET). You can use something like an orbiting emitter prim around your object with PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK set, but the behaviour of the particles doesn't look like they are truly orbiting, unless the particles are emitted with zero velocity or in directions perpendicular to the orbit plane of the emitter prim, and you use a bunch of emitter prims.

Basically, if you want an effect that is like a swirling vortex of particles, like the object create/delete/take/speak particle effect, there's no effective way currently to do it.

I didnt exactly make the ring of light like I wanted, but I still got a cool effect.

If anyone has a way of making a ring of light anyway, I'd love to see about implementing it.

You can always try a rotating, hollow cylinder with an animated texure on the inside and outside surfaces. Still may not look very good as the texture rotates past the limb on either side, but something to try and see how it looks.

I was thinking the same thing. But maybe using a torus would be better?

Make the background of the texture invisible and create a texture of "lights" and then animate the texture to rotate on the torus.

It may look cheesy though....one way to find out!

There are certainly ways to do this as a particle effect. Take a peek around the Particle Labs and Jopsy Pendragon's Cloud Chamber (neighboring - there are elevators from the lab to the chamber) there are a few good demos out showing this kind of behaviour...

This is code that nand noob helped me with. It creates a rotating circle of light.


// Keknehv's Particle Script v1.2
// 1.0 -- 5/30/05
// 1.1 -- 6/17/05
// 1.2 -- 9/22/05 (Forgot PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE)

// This script may be used in anything you choose, including and not limited to commercial products.
// Just copy the MakeParticles() function; it will function without any other variables in a different script
// ( You can, of course, rename MakeParticles() to something else, such as StartFlames() )

// This script is basically an llParticleSystem() call with comments and formatting. Change any of the values
// that are listed second to change that portion. Also, it is equipped with a touch-activated off button,
// for when your particles go haywire and cause everyone to start yelling at you.

// Contact Keknehv Psaltery if you have questions or comments.

MakeParticles() //This is the function that actually starts the particle system.
{
llParticleSystem([ //KPSv1.0
PSYS_PART_FLAGS , 0 //Comment out any of the following masks to deactivate them
//| PSYS_PART_BOUNCE_MASK //Bounce on object's z-axis
// | PSYS_PART_WIND_MASK //Particles are moved by wind
| PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK //Colors fade from start to end
| PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK //Scale fades from beginning to end
// | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK //Particles follow the emitter
| PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_VELOCITY_MASK //Particles are created at the velocity of the emitter
//| PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK //Particles follow the target
| PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK //Particles are self-lit (glow)
//| PSYS_PART_TARGET_LINEAR_MASK //Undocumented--Sends particles in straight line?
,

//PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY , NULL_KEY, //Key of the target for the particles to head towards
//This one is particularly finicky, so be careful.
//Choose one of these as a pattern:
//PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP Particles start at emitter with no velocity
//PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_EXPLODE Particles explode from the emitter
// //Particles are emitted in a 2-D angle
//PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE Particles are emitted in a 3-D cone
//PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE_EMPTY Particles are emitted everywhere except for a 3-D cone

PSYS_SRC_PATTERN, PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE

,PSYS_SRC_TEXTURE, "Water Particle - Mist" //UUID of the desired particle texture, or inventory name
,PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE, 0.0 //Time, in seconds, for particles to be emitted. 0 = forever
,PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE, 1.0 //Lifetime, in seconds, that a particle lasts
,PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE, 0.05 //How long, in seconds, between each emission
,PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT, 20 //Number of particles per emission
,PSYS_SRC_BURST_RADIUS, .5 //Radius of emission
,PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN, 0.0 //Minimum speed of an emitted particle
,PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX, 0.05 //Maximum speed of an emitted particle
,PSYS_SRC_ACCEL, <0.0,0.0,0.0> //Acceleration of particles each second
,PSYS_PART_START_COLOR, <1.0,1.0,0.0> //Starting RGB color
,PSYS_PART_END_COLOR, <1.0,1.0,1.0> //Ending RGB color, if INTERP_COLOR_MASK is on
,PSYS_PART_START_ALPHA, 0.9 //Starting transparency, 1 is opaque, 0 is transparent.
,PSYS_PART_END_ALPHA, 0.0 //Ending transparency
,PSYS_PART_START_SCALE, <.05,.05,0> //Starting particle size
,PSYS_PART_END_SCALE, <0.5,0.5,0> //Ending particle size, if INTERP_SCALE_MASK is on
,PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_BEGIN, 0.50 * PI //Inner angle for ANGLE patterns
,PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_END, 0.50 * PI //Outer angle for ANGLE patterns
,PSYS_SRC_OMEGA, <1.0,0.0,0.0> //Rotation of ANGLE patterns, similar to llTargetOmega()
]);
}

default
{
state_entry()
{
MakeParticles(); //Start making particles
}

// touch_start( integer num ) //Turn particles off when touched
// {
// state off; //Switch to the off state
// }
}

state off
{
state_entry()
{
llParticleSystem([]); //Stop making particles
}

touch_start( integer num ) //Turn particles back on when touched
{
state default;
}
}

So I guess my followup to this now is how to get particles to move along the length of an object. I took a hollow cylinder and cut it so that its open and flat. Basically a sliver about 4 meters long that tapers at 1 end. So I'm wondering if its possible to get the particles to move along its path.

I've been to the Particle Lab, Fireworks Display, and Cloud Chamber. There is no effect which even remotely looks like a "swirling vortex of particles". Particles simply cannot be made to move in a circular fashion with the current implementation of llParticleSystem. At least nothing like the object rez/derez/speak effect.

This fact that you cannot do it is reinforced by the following thread in Feature Suggestions, which is a bunch of folks (including Jopsy Pendragon, btw) asking for just such an effect:

/13/59/88921/1.html

There's a big display on the main floor of the particle lab - it consists of a rotating set of emitters and targets - and looks roughly like this.

But, you're right, rotational velocity is not an inherent part of the particle system - you've got to fake it with prims...