Lotus R2 Lite
Community Forums/Showcase/Lotus R2 Lite
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| No screenshots, not many details, etc. What this is is Lotus R2 with features removed. It's still just as effective as a basic particle system, but for free. The features that were removed: Graphing System Sounds Spline meshes Lotus Particle Scripts This has pretty much every feature you can find in Lotus R1 at typically quadruple the speed. Added 'features' that I can think of right off the top of my head are: Active time Movement align (e.g., sparks) Very precise culling Very fast alpha-particle sorting Highly optimized particle update procedure Uses far less surfaces than Lotus R1 Control emitters via entity functions (PositionEntity, RotateEntity, AlignToVector, PointEntity, etc.) Works with render tweening and delta timing Animated Textures DOWNLOAD (212kb) Included are a few examples (test*.bb) and a particle tileset. |
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| I love this. Thank you Noel. |
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| It's free software, so shut your trap and enjoy it. |
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| I love it. When is the full one going to be for sale? |
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 Noel in: Return of the Lotus. |
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| LMAO |
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| Behind Noel is Robert Cummings |
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| The media looks very similar to the media that comes with Particle Candy? Also the snow demo slows to 1 fps within a few second. Radeon 9700 Pro, latest drivers. |
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| As always, this is nice :D Very fast too, therefore removing all my thoughts of switching to another system. So, what exactly do spline meshes do? And can we please have an example of a lotus particle script? |
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| Looks very nice indeed. I also get the slowdown in the snow demo. |
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| The snow demo slows to 1 fps in a few seconds here as well, but seems fine in release mode. |
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| the snow demo slows to 1 fps within a few second. Radeon 9700 Pro, latest drivers. I have a Geforce 3 ti200, latest drivers, and I get upwards of 150 fps. Sounds like a thing with Blitz and supporting ATI cards. So, what exactly do spline meshes do? Same thing they do in R1, move a particle along a mesh's vertices. The advantage is you can position vertices in such a way as to form letters, little symbols, etc. And can we please have an example of a lotus particle script? I'm still working out changes to the syntax, but it'll be close to the same as what's available in R1 as well. And trust me, just copying over the R1 function to do it won't work too well (I tried) ;) Basically:
Deflector Name
Emitter Fire
Proc Weeble
Open Name
Velocity.x += .1
Close
Close
The media looks very similar to the media that comes with Particle Candy? Compare them and you'll find that it's all my own work. As for them looking similar, can't argue with that- Particle Candy's got some nice media, mine is inspired by it.. shame it isn't public domain. Lumivel: Your obsession with me is amazingly deep. |
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| Very nice Noel... Looks very simple to use too, can you explain more about the full version of Lotus R2? Runs staggeringly fast - With debug on, snow demo runs at 280fps (Radeon 9800xt), around 1550fps with it off... |
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| Noel: It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again. lol. |
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| Lovely work noel. It's the best particle system there is in Blitz IMHO. How was jabba? |
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| I have a Geforce 3 ti200, latest drivers, and I get upwards of 150 fps. Sounds like a thing with Blitz and supporting ATI cards. I couldn't really say, but Caff has an ATI and doesn't get the problem, whereas Beaker has a GF4 and does. It's clearly varying between setups though, so drivers could be an issue. I'll try with some different drivers. Having said that, since Beaker found the problem only occurred in debug mode, it sounds more like a Blitz bug than anything else. With Particle Candy not getting any updates in quite a while and not getting any reply to bug reports in months, I'd certainly be inclined to buy the full Lotus R2 if the slowdown can be solved. |
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| First off, thanks for the kind response. Really quite motivational. BloodLocust: Nice for the most part. He did cut off my head and put it on a woman's body, but then isn't that every man's dream? Sybixsus: Yeah, I'd say roll back the drivers little by little and see if the slowdown still occurs. I retested the snow demo with the lite version- fullscreen no debug, 800*600 32bpp, the usual- and got about 900fps average. I have never, ever had a good experience with ATI's drivers (hence why I haven't used an ATI card in five years and don't intend to ever again), so if you have an Nvidia card lying around try popping it in and seeing if there's a signifigant difference (in release and debug). I've tested this with my Geforce 2, Geforce 3, TNT 2 (it ran OK, I'll test it later again once I get Win2k working), and my parent's Radeon 9800 and so far have seen no slowdowns, but the Gf2 and 3 are the only ones on PC's with up-to-date drivers. Anyhow, I need to mention that you don't have to buy R2 if you don't want to. The license allows commercial use and modification given you make those changes available. Caff: Basically, the features I mentioned I had stripped out in the first post will be in the full version, as well as Tokamak support, an editor, more media, etc. (whether most of those will be added via updates over time or on release I can't say- I've been holding off release for a while not to get things done, but if people wanted to buy it now and would be willing to wait for updates I could probably do that). There'll be no speed increment in the full version unless it's a fix to the update procedure in which case those fixes will be applied to the lite version as well, so they remain useable. Like I said, if people wanted to buy it now and get what features are finished already I could probably release it now and sell it to those who want it. It all depends on whether or not those looking at buying R2 can afford to wait to include it in their project(s). Rob Farley: Sorry I didn't respond to your question earlier, was in a rush. My response to Caff should answer your question. Lumivel: Edited your first posts, have you, yes? -_- Like I said, don't whine about lack of documentation for free software. |
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| Sounds great - I know I mentioned this before, and I know as a man with an artistic eye you can do it... My main request for a full-blown version would include lots of premade FX and particle media, even if the FX themselves are pretty similar. I estimate at least 50 different FX - to plugin, tweak a bit, then go. Your system is ready for it by the looks of things. Just need a browser to scan through the different variations. Browse FX, pick one, tweak it, plug-in, and go. A quick, fast and powerful workflow that will tempt any developer. |
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| I agree with Caff. The key is plugin effects, and a hundred of them. I would pay you $50 for it, if it really rocked. People don't want to buy a system where you have to do the hard work. I made that mistake with Blitzplay. |
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| Noel R. Cower: Edit my post? You can't program cereal. |
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| A note: Slowdowns caused for specifically one person in practically all of Noel's single surface stuff is probably due to you having debug mode on. Oh, about spline meshes: Could I make a mesh look like it is shattering by transforming it into a spline mesh and then putting particles all over it? |
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| Yeah, extreme slow-down on the snow demo, but only with debug mode on. With it off, runs very fast. I love this. The water is impressive :o) Good job Noel! |
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| Pickles: If I understand what you're asking correctly, I'd say no. I think what you'd want in that case is to break the mesh and then transform each triangle's vertices independently. |
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