New particle system
A new particle system was implemented; the particles are now round instead of square. The BEAM effect is a lot faster and GameStudio Professional Edition uses instancing now, allowing the creation of 10 times more particles without lowering the frame rate.
function vec_randomize (VECTOR* vec, var range)
{
vec_set(vec,vector(random(1)-0.5, random(1)-0.5, random(1)-0.5));
vec_normalize(vec, random(range));
}
function particle_fade(PARTICLE *p)
{
p.alpha -= 1 * time_step;
if (p.alpha <= 0) p.lifespan = 0;
}
function particle_fountain(PARTICLE* p)
{
VECTOR vTemp;
vec_randomize(vTemp, 5);
vec_add(p.vel_x, vTemp);
vec_set(p.blue, vector(random(155), random(155), random(255)));
set(p, MOVE | BRIGHT | TRANSLUCENT | BEAM);
p.alpha = 100;
p.size = 2;
p.gravity = 0.3;
p.event = particle_fade;
}
action particle_generator() // attach this action to a small model
{
set (my, INVISIBLE | PASSABLE);
while(1)
{
effect(particle_fountain, 100, my.x, vector(0, 0, 7)); // generate 100 particles / frame
wait(1);
}
}
video_alpha
Gives the the transparency factor of the engine window. Can be used to fade the engine window in and out.
function quit_game()
{
while (video_alpha > 0)
{
video_alpha -= 1 * time_step; // 1 = fading speed
wait (1);
}
sys_exit(NULL); // shut down the engine
}
function quit_startup()
{
on_f10 = quit_game; // press the F10 key to shut down the game
}
ent_for_file (file_name)
Returns a pointer to the entity with the given file name.
TEXT* sprites_txt = // create a text that can store up to 100 strings
{
strings = 100;
}
function brighter_startup() // increases the ambient of all the tga files from the game folder
{
var i = 0;
while(i < 100) // first of all, let's reset the text strings
{
str_cpy((sprites_txt.pstring)[i], "");
i++;
}
i = 0;
txt_for_dir(sprites_txt, "*.tga"); // now load all the available tga sprite names in the strings
while (str_cmpi((sprites_txt.pstring)[i], "") == 0) // run until all the tga sprites have been processed
{
you = ent_for_file((sprites_txt.pstring)[i]);
if (you) // got a tga file here?
{
you.ambient = 100; // then increase its ambient to 100!
}
i ++;
}
}
