Firing particles along an axis other than Z?

Okay, I want to fire particles out of a torus, however the problem here is that the Z-Axis is not the direction in which the hole 'points' so it's no good.

Is there any way to have the particles fire along the X-axis for a torus without using another prim? I know it can be done with acceleration but that's what I'm looking for unfortunately

I suspect the answer is "no", but I figured I'd post anyway to be sure.

try experimenting with an PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE or PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE particle pattern and setting the PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_BEGIN and PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_END parameters to being within .02 of each other; somethnig like: PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_BEGIN, PI/2, PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_END, (PI/2+0.02)

You can probably achieve the effect you want using the PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE, although, I believe that you'll only be able to have it emit from a single point on only 2 of the 3 axis. with PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE, you may be able to get it to emit on the 3rd axis. but attempting to have it emit on only one of the other two usually results in what appears to be two emission points completely opposite each other.

My advice with any particle system: experiment around with it.

I agree with Senuka. I've found that I can get particles to do pretty much anything I want, but sometimes it takes an hour or so of poking and prodding to get it just right.

On the bright side though, in doing this I have accidentally come up with some pretty cool effects that I saved for later use.

I found a great "photon cannon" effect one night totally by accident which inspired a build the next day that turned out great.

It might work -- fooling with velocity or acceleration settings might help -- but you're probably right that the answer is no. You'll probably have to put a transparent prim at the center of the torus with its Z axis pointing the right way. Or use a short hollow cylinder instead of a torus.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to do what you're trying to without another prim.

I agree, as far as I know, without using acceleration or a target prim, the only way to "tilt" the angle of emission is PSYS_SRC_OUTERANGLE, and that rotates around the X axis to cover the Z plane, so a straight line can point out both sides along Y, but never X.

Yep, ended up replacing it with a cut sphere that looked kinda what I wanted instead with it's Z axis pointing the right way

If you do ANGLE_END as PI_BY_TWO and ANGLE_BEGIN as PI_BY_TWO - 0.0001 then you end up with it firing out both ends of the Y-plane, neat but didn't help me in this case.

Also ANGLE_END of PI and ANGLE_BEGIN of PI - 0.0001 lets you fire out the back of a prim if it HAS to be the way it's facing.

It's funnier than that ^^

Using the ANGLE pattern and specifying the same value for ANGLE_BEGIN and ANGLE_END you can get the particles shoot in two streams, with the angle between streams being 2 x the value you provide. I.e.

* value = PI * 0.25 ... results in streams shooting at right angle from each other, and 45 degrees each off the +Z axis
* value = PI * 0.5 (PI_BY_TWO) ... streams are at 180 degrees, shooting along both directions of Y axis
* value = PI * 0.75 ... results in angle of 1.5 PI (3/4th of full circle) and the streams being 45 degree each off the -Z axis

value of 0.0 or PI will result in both streams aligning and shooting towards +Z or -Z, respectively.