Dota 2 item particle effects png

Particle Effect Tutorial 1

Simple Sprite Effect

Here we’ll walk through a few steps to create a simple effect in the Particle Editor.

1. If you haven’t already created an addon in the Workshop Tools, do that now.
2. Hit the PET icon to launch the Particle Editor:
3. File menu->New to create an empty new effect.
4. In the Functions window (which should be the central column) click the plus (+) sign next to Renderer.
5. In the list of Renderers, pick Render sprites.
6. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Operator.
7. In the list of Operators, pick Lifespan Decay.
8. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Operator.
9. In the list of Operators, pick Movement Basic.
10. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Initializer.
11. In the list of Initializers, pick Position Within Sphere Random.
12. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Emitter.
13. In the list of Emitters, pick Emit continuously.
14. You should now see a single small particle in the center of the grid in the Preview panel:
15. In the Functions window, select the Position Within Sphere Random Initializer by clicking on it. You will see its properties appear in the Properties panel of the PET.
16. In the speed max property field, type 200 and hit Enter. In the Preview panel, you should now see glowing sprites shooting forth continuously from the center of the grid:
17. Go ahead and save: File menu->Save As. Save the file to [your addon]/particles/test_sprite. vpcf.
18. You’re now free to play around with your effect and modify properties to see how they affect particles’ behavior. Some good candidates include:

• Base Properties->color
• Base Properties->lifetime
• Render sprites->texture
• Movement Base->gravity (try values around -200 in the “z”, or third, field, which defines up/down forces)
• Movement Base->drag (values over 0.5 won’t be much fun unless you raise your speed max property in the Position Initializer. )
• Position Within Sphere Random->distance max (hint: the ground grid is 128×128 units)
• Emit continuously->emission rate
• Emit continuously->emission duration
• Emit continuously->emission start time

Simple Sprite Effect: In-Depth

Now let’s look at what we did there, why we did it, and why it produced the results it did.

1. File menu->New to create an empty new effect.

2. In the Functions window (which should be the central column) click the plus (+) sign next to Renderer.
3. In the list of Renderers, pick Render sprites.

4. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Operator.
5. In the list of Operators, pick Lifespan Decay.

6. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Operator.
7. In the list of Operators, pick Movement Basic.

8. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Initializer.
9. In the list of Initializers, pick Position Within Sphere Random.

10. In the Functions window, click the plus sign next to Emitter.
11. In the list of Emitters, pick Emit continuously.

12. In the Functions window, select the Position Within Sphere Random Initializer by clicking on it. You will see its properties appear in the Properties panel of the PET.
13. In the speed max property field, type 200 and hit Enter. In the Preview panel, you should now see glowing sprites shooting forth continuously from the center of the grid.

Property Defaults in Action

This effect can produce results with just a few Functions because it relies on default properties for many important things: Radius, color, lifetime, rotation, texture, emission rate, and lots of under-the-hood properties.

However, if you’re making an effect for your addon, you’re probably going to want to change some of those defaults. You might even want to specify more complex behavior for some of them.

In Particle Effect Tutorial 2, we’ll look at overriding Base Property defaults with Functions.