Particles, Curve Guide, Forces, Multiple Particle Systems

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Particles and Curve Guide and Forces.
Blender 2.56A
Summary Issue
Desired Scenario
To experience Blender working well with two particle systems on one emitter.
…
Actual Scenario
Blender had sporadic failure of curve guide force with 2 particle systems on one emitter.
Blender seemed to work better with 1 particle system on an emitter.
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OPTIONAL READING BELOW
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I have a blender document where the goal is
>> particles are to follow a curve guide
I created a curve
I feel I have sporadic failure and sporadic success.
I do not feel I have been able to obtain enough documentation.
…
I created a curve, named NurbsPath, used the Physics panel and created a Force Field of Type Curve Guide.
(I assume the Physics panel produces force fields)
The Particle emitter respected the Curve Guide with (1) one Partical System. Success.
The Particle emitter acted contrary to my goal with (2) two Particle Systems. Curve Guid not followed. Particles seemed to ignore curve. Failure Sporadically.
When I changed back to one particle system it seemed I had again success.

I used two particle systems because the particles used multiple meshes with colored materials in 2 Groups. Is that reasonable? The particle count for these two groups are set to two different numbers.

I do not understand the purpose of the Particle Panel/ Force Field Weights. Is this the consumer of forces?

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http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Physics/Particles
this documentation states

Field Weights - factors for external forces.

Force Field Settings - ??? TODO !!!

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How does one use the feature
Particles Panel/Force Field Settings
??
A link to any other documentation would be appreciated.

At one point, in desperation, and with lack of knowledge, I added to
the emitter …
Particles Panel/Force Field Settings …
Type 1 value … Charged …
this seemed to help. Perhaps Superstitious.

I did get a fatal crash as well. But I will try to create a reproducible simple example of this for defect reporting in 2.56A.

Perhaps an easier question is
Can the Blender user temporarily inactivate a particle system … to temporarily ease workload on the computer? I am not seeking permanent deletion.

…
I may not understand the overall framework for forces.
I have searched and some documentation at Blender.org … I am still looking for more.
Is there only one set of forces in some global space? Or is it layered?

2

I’ll use this thread, the more recent of the duplicate threads.
Attach a blend file where you don’t have two particle systems working.
One plane with two particle systems and a curve guide seems to work as expected.
http://www.screencast.com/users/blenderwho/folders/Jing/media/3b4e8e1c-e8ac-4666-9cb6-021a713ec144
The particle field weights affect the strength of the force. 1 = full effect of the force, 0 = no force effect. This you can adjust for each of the different types of forces.

Can the Blender user temporarily inactivate a particle system … to temporarily ease workload on the computer? I am not seeking permanent deletion.

Either reduce the number of particles to zero or just delete the particle system. To add it back use the + sign to make a particle system and then just like materials and textures, just select the system you previously deleted from the drop down list.

Attachments

2particles_curveguide.blend (534 KB)

3

Marklew
Thank You

Accidental Duplicate Message elided.

Cpu relief.
I will be careful with that solution …
I suppose I must mark the deleted system as… <keep on file write>.

Multiple Particle System
I must test again and simplify the multiple particle system to produce example.

4

One thing to be aware of. I have set the particles to be emitted from faces randomly. You may only see one set of particles but in fact there are really two but both are being emitted from the same position at the same time one on top of the other so it looks like there is only one set of particles. To overcome this give each particle system a different seed value (below the particle system name). This will give each particle system a different randomness.

5

Marklew
I followed your idea
and created a new simple example from scratch … with different colored icosahedrons.
Success in this simple case.
If I can recreate the failed case I will submit file.
I have saved the file many times over to same name.
Now I have a different particle/curve guide issue.
I must search that issue here and perhaps submit new question.