can anyone tell me, what will be with blender particle system? are there any projects, or modifications in future?
of course present particle system is nice and hmm… functional, but, some day, maybe it will support raytracer and real shadows (recive and produce them).
any ideas, or informations? 
Yep, I totally agree. It’s high time the particles get some attention.
Most importantly the “birth” and “death”.
I can’t stand how the particles “pop” on and off the screen.
I know you can tweak the textures alpha to fake it, but it’s a real pain in the a$$ and it’s also very time consuming.
I’d also love to see geometric particles(billions of suzannes!) and inter-particle collisions.
I’m a big fan of what we’ve got so far, though.
Keep up the good work!
Have you seen the cvs test blenders?
http://www.blender3d.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=18&sid=a8a30c1fe1d796bf4df8aff9a28a5369
And about particles here :
http://users.utu.fi/jhkarh/prog/bs_part1.html
Ken
[quote]Added also a new particle effector type ‘guide’ which guides the particles near it. Strength value specifies the full effecting radius in which only the nearest guide is used for a particle. After strength radius the effects of multiple guides are averaged based on falloff values and distances from the guides. The speed value sets the speed the guide gives to the particles it effects. A guide must be a curve with ‘CurvePath’ set. The curve length is used as the number of positions the curve is evaluated for the particles."[/qoute]
This can be very useful to create good hair!
Does anybody have an idea if these updates will be included in version 2.40 of Blender?
Personally, when they finally get round to updating the particle system - I hope that it’ll sort out collision problems - and have something which is slightly more comprehensible that “DEFLECTION” - that confuses me somewhat… :-?
P.S. Blender 2.4? When’s that due to be out?
the only thing we seem to lack are shadows.
any news about that?
thank you.
Hi!
Give a look to this page that I wrote several weeks ago:
http://3d-synthesis.com/example_avk_rvk.html
You will be able to create volumetric smoke, clouds, Solid dust clouds, with dust staying on the ground after falling down, fire and much more!
No computing power needed!
Philippe.
hmm, very interesting
but, i think, particle system in blender should be more compatible with blender goodies (raytracer, shadows, volumetrick, maybe more texturing options etc.) . it will be really easier to use particle effects, and more comfortable. todays particles sometimes make some problems with realistic effects in rendering.
i new builds we’ve got great new particle improvements, but they don’t help with rendering, “only” with setting emittors.
so, we must still wait 
And about particles here :
http://users.utu.fi/jhkarh/prog/bs_part1.html
Ken
mother f-
wow… that unborn option really looks good. as asked before will this be implemented in 2.4? I’d love to see it.
but, i think, particle system in blender should be more compatible with blender goodies (raytracer, shadows, volumetrick, maybe more texturing options etc.) . it will be really easier to use particle effects, and more comfortable. todays particles sometimes make some problems with realistic effects in rendering.
i new builds we’ve got great new particle improvements, but they don’t help with rendering, “only” with setting emittors.
seconded.
Can anyone explain how ROUBAL created that "particle effect using AVK?
Syl
Hi!
I’ll try to explain myself…
Particles made with a particle generator are virtual, they use a mesh as emitter, but are not vertice by themselves.
I use real meshes to create particles. It’s not complicated, bu takes some time to be done.
I apply a halo material to a mesh., and make for example a small Ico Sphere level 2.
I add some random by subdividing it with fractal.
I put this sphere at the starting point of the smoke, and insert an AVK Key or An RVK key. AVK is often better, because it allows several positions on the displacement.
For the Speed Ipo, I select Linear and Interpolation. When the effect will be finished, I will set it to cyclic.
Then, I put my cursor some frames further (100 frames for example for a smoke vanishing in 4 seconds), and I insert a new key.
In editmode, I resize and deform the smoke cloud at it’s final position.
I get out of the edit mode. It is done for the shape, and you can run the animation.
Now, you have to set the transparency. You material will be given an Alpha Ipocurve decreasing in time on 100 frames (in this example).
When running the animation, the smoke will dissolve progressively.
For a realistic effect, you’ll have to make several clouds using this method and you’ll shift their Ipocurves in time by steps 10 or 20 frames for example.
Hope this is understandable.
Philippe
But isn’t this already in Blender (DV+particles?)
Hi!
As there is a quote, I’m not sure that the question is for me…
The particle generator needs a huge computing power. The Mesh method using AVK or RVK keys doesn’t.
As duplivert is of course supported by an ordinary mesh, it works with the AVK/RVK method too, and much better… besause Blender often crashes when using a high number of dupliverted objects as particles.
Philippe.
Some interesting news from the UI side:
Log:
Created a new sub-context (“tab”) for all physics related button panels.
There we can find now Particles, Fields & deflectors, Soft Body and Fluids.
This also as preparation for more work on the particle side (becomes two
panels).
Thank you. 
Ok, ROUBAL… Can you elaborate a little on this statement? Maybe a before and after pic.
“In editmode, I resize and deform the smoke cloud at it’s final position.”
Thanks
Syl
Hi!
Better than pictures:
On this page you will find both a movie example and the blend file.
http://3d-synthesis.com/example_smoke_device.html
The red cylinder named Cartridge is only the parent of the 10 meshes which compose the effect. It can be put anywhere, like a real smoke cartridge.
You can resize it if needed too.
You can study only one mesh. For example Smoke device 1.
It has an AVK Ipo and a material Ipo with decreasing alpha.
All meshes are different in order to make the effect more natural.
All the Ipo curves of the different meshes are shifted in time, to make a quite continuous flow.
Hope this helps!
Philippe.
Thanks for the files Philippe. I’m very new to blender so it will take me some time desect to see what’s going on.
Syl
And about particles here :
http://users.utu.fi/jhkarh/prog/bs_part1.html
Ken
Those are some awesome features that I’ve been dying for. How long till it becomes implemented?
As I understand most of it is already here as a patch (see blender.org testing forum and get any “particle patch” build there. )
No, I just wanted to note that there already are geometric particles with default engine.