Attaching particles to models

[Springheel]

I can dig through some examples and figure this out myself, but hopefully someone could save me some time by pointing me in the right direction.

 

Specifically, I'd like to see how it looks putting flames inside lanterns that use transparent glass. I tried it with a streetlamp using the default D3 flame, and while it doesn't look too bad, the flame bounces around too much for something that would be protected by the wind. Our candle flames don't flicker much at all, so they might be more appropriate.

 

The D3 flame is just a sprite, however, so it can be set as a surface material for a polygon like any other texture. Our flame is a particle. Is there an easy way of attaching particles to models, or can that only be done as a prefab or separate entity of some kind?

[greebo]

I'd suggest creating a func_emitter, which has the particle as "model". Then bind the func_emitter to the lantern.

 

This would technically be a prefab. I think the "def_attach" system could also allow setting this up as entityDef.

[OrbWeaver]

You can do it as a prefab as Greebo suggests, or if you particularly want a single model (and/or you want multiple emitters or precise particle placement), you can use an "emitter polygon" within the model. This is a submesh (possibly a single triangle) which is textured with a material than includes the "deform particle" or "deform particle2" global keywords, which causes a mesh surface to emit particles instead of normal rendering.

[Springheel]

Ah cool, I'll look into that. Thanks Orb.