ExGen - Explosion Generator
Community Forums/Showcase/ExGen - Explosion Generator
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| I was looking for a program that creates explosions and special effects for video games. I found two. Particle Illusion - http://www.wondertouch.com/default.asp This is very nice but has a price tag to match. It is however used in feature films so the price i easily justified. Way out of my budget. Texture Maker - http://texturemaker.thegamecreators.com/ The particle editor is a small part of a program I have no use for. The editor isn't bad but is lacking in a number of places that I consider essential. My solution - write my own :)   I have combined the best aspects of each of these products to make something more specific to games. ExGen exports images ready to be loaded as animTextures. You can also change the background colour (not possible in either of the other two apps) which means you can produce textures for things like smoke (multiply blend mode). I haven't added them yet but i intend to add the ability to creating looping animations that could be used for things like chimney smoke, or rain. I also want to add the ability to tile the animated textures. Would people be interested in buying this? I intend to sell ExGen for £10 ($16.50) and wondered what sort of audience I would have. Also what sot of features would people like to see in something like this? Since the screenshots don't tell you a great deal here is the exported animTexture shown being made in the screens above. Note that you can export the textures at any size.  </end advert mode> |
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| Hehe, I wrote an explosion generator in Blitz2 on the Amiga :) It looks nice, but I would need a demo to try out before I bought it. If it isn't flexible enough, I would probably write my own again (or blow up some stuff and film it ;). I like the one in TextureMaker, because you can add the attractors, etc. That kind of thing would be cool. Ohh, and paths would be really nice as well, so you can create complex motions with relative ease. [off topic]Ben, switch over to using the steel skin, on this site :)[/off topic] |
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| Looks very nice! If it was freeware I wouldn't hesitate to use it. But I'd rather make my own than buy it. But that's only me. |
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| but I would need a demo to try out before There will definately be a demo. I will probably make a free version that has limited output capablilities. because you can add the attractors I thought they were cool as well. Have been considering how they would work and may well add them in. Ohh, and paths would be really nice as well I'd thought of this as well (Particle Illusion has paths) but considering the target audience thought it would be a bit overkill. May consider it once I get this one completed. But I'd rather make my own than buy it. But that's only me. Yeah... but you make your own version of everything :) I realise not everyone will want it but the way I'm looking at it is that I want it and if I can sell a handful of copies then great - if not then I have an app that I wanted for myself anyway. |
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| Ben, switch over to using the steel skin, on this site Did you make it. I had a look when I noticed you kept on about it in other threads. It's quite nice but I think I prefer the clean lines of the minimal one :) |
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| Did you make it. I had a look when I noticed you kept on about it in other threads. It's quite nice but I think I prefer the clean lines of the minimal one :) Yes, I made it :) I have gotten a bit carried away, with my enthusiasm haven't I? The minimalist skin, is just a tad too bright for me, after all...Sorry, for getting all off topic.Looking forward to a demo of ExGen! |
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| Looks neat. Are you going to have the option to export the particle playback code as well? (ie. export a folder with animation code and textures). |
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| The app generates animTextures so you can use them however you want. I will be supplying some code that shows how they can be used though. I am considering writing a particle system that makes use of animated textures which, assuming I write it, would be given to anyone who buys the app, possibly just anyone since it's all fairly simple. |
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| Looking promising, when can we expect a demo version? |
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| I like the look of this. I'd pay for it ($20 or so) 'cos it looks like you've put a lot of thought into the design. Must see a demo first though ;) |
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| There should be a demo in the some time this month. Hopefully in the next week or two (but no promises) I added particle trails today so here is the explosion shown above with trails on the sparks - I changed one number to get this.  |
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| Ben, Looks great!! Let me know when you have a demo out. I for one can certainly use such a beast. As someone else said above, I would pay $20-$30 for this as long as you have plenty of features included. I don't know if you have a goal in mind, but, I will give you one :) Create something like (or have features similar to) Particle Illusion - www.wondertouch.com/default.asp Great stuff - Keep up the good work! |
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| I don't know if you have a goal in mind, but, I will give you one :) Did you read my first post? I mentioned particle illusion AND linked to it :) I intend to have many features, lots specific to games - unlike Particle Illusion which is mainly used in film and tv. |
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| Enough talking! Now, gimme ;) |
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| Looks great Ben, I`d definetly buy it :) Jason. |
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Added gravity and looping animations today   NOTE - ExGen DOES NOT create animated gifs (just making this clear ;) The shots above show three types of animation. The first is the standard particle system. Second is a once over loop, which basically restarts the system once the last particle has died so that the trails fade out as the system starts. The third shot shows a continous ever looping system. Hopefully people can use these for something cool :) |
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| But I'd rather make my own than buy it. But that's only me. Seems a daft comment since you are happy to use a very high level language - why not use C++ and write your own language? Nice one BENary Moon :) |
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| Sorry Ben. Wasn't very clear with my last question. What I meant was that will it be possible to export the playback code and particle textures (before they are combined into an animated texture), as an option? Also, will you have some mechanism for (auto) feeding the animated textures back into the system, to create more complex animations? Thus layering the effect of the animations? Hope this makes sense. |
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| What I meant was that will it be possible to export the playback code and particle textures The particle textures are external files (you can define your own textures). You want it to be something like an actual system generator, so you can create and load actual particle systems rather than just animated textures? That was never the intention of the program, but I may consider it. the program is totally 2d (in the way it works - it does use 3d for blending and what not). I don't know. |
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| Ben, I want to see a demo by this weekend :) |
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| I think i can buy it if you put the option that peoples talk in this thread (sorry for the bad grammar...) Good job! |
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| If you missed it there is a now a beta version. I think I should have made the thread title more obvious (mentioned explosions :) ) You can get the beta here http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=27174 |
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| This looks nice, this will be on my wish list for Santa ;c) I will finally be able to quit using this old DOS program for making explosions, lol. |
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| I really, really like this program. One cool thing, though, would be the inclusion of an include file to read a file format saved by the generator, and generate it in real time. |
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| Micheal - thats what I was asking for in my first post. |
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| Isn't that what EPS does??? And its free I believe! |
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| The point is, that you might want to switch from one system to the other, without having to redesign your animations. |
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| White Eagle - Cool Michael - Masterbeaker suggested that above. This system can create thousands of particles and whilst fine in an editor would be too slow in a game with other things to render/ calculate (collision etc). I may include something that loads ExGen files but the whole idea of the app was that you don't need to use a full blown particle system to create nice effects. Also I intend to add an 'attractor' object which will pull particles towards it. This would be hard to translate into 3d. Dweezil - This isn't really like EPS, adding the ability to export a particle system would make it more similar but it has other 'abilities' |
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| Binary_Moon - I mean, an include file that will generate the same effects, but not for use in real time. The textures can be generated proceedurally and saved out when the game is downloaded, and then loaded in again. |
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| Ok - I get that. Not what I thought you meant at all but I can see one advantage to it. You can re render the effects when the game loads at any resolution, which with large textures could keep file sizes nice and tiny. For now I won't be doing this since it's a lot of hassle, but I do like the idea and will see if I can work out an easy/ straight forward way to do it. So that's a definate maybe. At the moment I want to get the core application working properly so that everyone likes it. Once that's out of the way I will look at additional features (I have added a couple of things to the 'wish list' myself :) ). |
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| For now I won't be doing this since it's a lot of hassle, but I do like the idea and will see if I can work out an easy/ straight forward way to do it. Tis a shame, because I would have really liked to use it - the app itself is pure class. |
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| I've had a think and have a feeling I can do it pretty easily. I intend to make a real time particle system that uses systems created with ExGen (it will be up to the user to make it useable in real time) and I can use this to render the textures. It won't be in the first version of the app, but will appear in an update within a month or two of ExGen being released (hopefully - I don't like promising things... just in case). |
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| That would be cool :) 'Tis a very, very nice app, but I am (as always) overly concerned about download sizes - Remix wasn't 2mb by accident! |
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