Particles System need re-write!

Support Basics & Interface
#1

I’m not sure if this is in the correct place, but here it goes:

Blender’s particles are in bad condition. Not as bad as they could be, but I know the Blender developers are much better than that (the fact that we have Blender today is a testament to Blender’s developers, as Blender used to be a mess in a CVS repository).

First of all, particle deflection is in bad shape. Particles ignore the deflecting object (if someone can help me out here, that would be great), passing straight through it.

Secondly, and this one is a little more complex/fanciful. Particles should probably be volumetric. This would help clouds, smoke, fog, etc. effects look much more realistic.

Also, some raytracer changes are desired. My main annoyance right now is the lack of ray depth above 10. Although it is a good way to keeps new users saze, I would recommend simply complaining loudly at high ray depth values, and asking “Are you sure? (High values could freeze your computer)” at least twice, but I feel that many of my scenes would look better with more ray depth. If someone could please help me find workarounds, or better yet fix these problems I would be much easier off

#2

so when are we to expect your updates/improvements ? :stuck_out_tongue:

#3

First of all, particle deflection is in bad shape. Particles ignore the deflecting object (if someone can help me out here, that would be great), passing straight through it.

Learn how to use it – googling blender+particle+deflection gave this as the first hit.

http://blender3d.org/cms/Particle_interaction.349.0.html

Secondly, and this one is a little more complex/fanciful. Particles should probably be volumetric.

Dupliverts are your friend – you can make particles spheres, cubes, gorillas etc.

Also, some raytracer changes are desired. My main annoyance right now is the lack of ray depth above 10.

I agree it is rather arbitrary although I have seldom used values above 5 myself. Can you not use yafray for this?

GreyBeard

#4

First of all, I have learned all there is to know from the Blender page. I have seen the deflection page serveral times to make sure I’m not missing something, and I’m not.
Second, looking at the second result, http://blender.sixmonkeys.geek.nz/view_photo.php?set_albumName=CaioBrazil&id=particlestest,
just highlights my point.

My particle problems come from a non-Primitive, static (no animation, motion, etc.) mesh, and half of the particles just ignore it. The collision detection only works if the relative speeds of the particles and the deflector are very small. If you get faster moving particles, problems happen.

My Idea for volumetric particles is actually leaning more toward ‘goo’ style particles - similar to the way that meta objects work, but much, much faster. Currently 14 or so crash Blender quite effectively on most computers, except on my 1gb ram machine. And, as I said (in a different wording), volumetric particles are on my wishlist - I don’t care wthere they are in 2.37, or even 2.4. I just want them eventually (We all have features like this, don’t we?)

#5

I have myself some troubles having static particles with deflection. I want to make some “hairs” lie on a floor, but it goes straight through it.

I found out after some googling and searching in this forum that increasing the “key” value of the particle effect can help. Maybe it’ll help you out. Try increasing it a lot (the blender documentation suggest going to 50 for their example).