INSIDE 3DS MAX® 7 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Summing Up

Particle Flow is such an open-ended system that the possibilities are limited only by the user's ambition and patience. Certain strategies are advisable to work around the CPU-intensive nature of PF calculations, but given that, particles can be made to behave in nearly any manner imaginable, moving and interacting with scene objects in realistic or fanciful ways. Particle scripting gives very fine control over most particle parameters and offers an avenue for passing control from particle systems to scene objects, as well as allowing scene objects to trigger Particle Flow events.

In this chapter, we have explored particle effects in several varietiesas trailing geometry, as instanced recursive effects, as expandable glows, and as explosive effects. Any of these techniques could easily be applied to varied situations. It is not difficult to imagine, for example, the biplane's flight path trail being modified to provide a visual "swoosh" effect for a swinging sword, or for the attached and trailing fire setup to be used for a pair of glowing, phosphorescent eyes.

If you wish to continue your exploration of Particle Flow in this exercise, consider the following challenges:

• Create an omni light to coincide with the lightning's flash. Use scripts to move it to the position of each bolt in turn, and to turn it on and off.

• Increase the Noise applied to the biplane's path, and turn on the flames and smoke from the start, increasing the size of the fire with each strike.

• Create a new version of the biplane broken into several pieces, and at the lightning's impact hide the main biplane, spawn the pieces, and send them off on separate paths.

Particle Flow is not restricted to realistic particles by any means. Consider the elaborate graphical intros played on many news and sports programsparticle systems are often used with no reference to physically accurate forces. Given the unrestricted nature of Particle Flow, using particles in max should be approached with a mind-set guided not by the default configuration of the Super Spray particle system, but instead by the user's unfettered imagination.