[Closed] Problem Attaching Particles to Point Helpers

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Hello

I have been trying to get a pflow system to add a particle at the position of an animated point object, which I have managed to get working but only in the viewport. This is then used as part of an Afterburn setup to render a cloud rising. However when I render the sequence I get a stationary cloud. If I render a frame by moving the time slider to that frame and hitting F9 it works OK and the cloud has moved?! It is only when I render the sequence that it fails. Any ideas? I have placed the afterburn pflow object in the event and checked the particle scale and particle orientation bit. But still no luck.

Harry

8 Replies

HCompston

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Well I have tried to get a little further with this…But failed miserably. If the answer is easy I cannot see it.

Any one have any ideas?

Harry

rdg

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

This one bugged me a long time

you need re-get the postion at avery frame.

something like:


	tStart = pCont.getTimeStart() as float
	tEnd = pCont.getTimeEnd() as float
	timeDif = tEnd as integer
	timeDif /= ticksperframe
at time timeDif ...

I searched and asked a long time, till I asked Bobo who gave m the hint to rework the sampe scripts in the maxhelp.

Georg

HCompston

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Hi RDG

Thanks for the info. Can you remember which of the scripts in the help he asked you to re-work? I wouldnt mind working through that myself. I have already looked extensivley in the manual but with no luck

Thanks

Harry

rdg

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

I rewokred all of them.
But this is used anytime you reference external = not pflow geometry.

Georg

HCompston

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Fair Enough

Thanks again for the help Georg

Harry

HCompston

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Hi RDG

I worked your code into mine and it workd great. However I am now in the process of trying to work out how this works. Here are my thoughts I would appreciate if you could tell me if I am on the right track.

on Proceed pCont do

(
tStart = pCont.getTimeStart() as float – gets start time for event
tEnd = pCont.getTimeEnd() as float – gets end time for event
timeDif = tEnd as integer – converts the event end time to an integer

–print timedif
timeDif /= ticksperframe – converts the Endtime to frames
– print timedif
partcount = pCont.NumParticles()
count = My_Points.count
at time timedif – runs through the following code at each frame i.e. like a loop???
for i in 1 to count do
[size=2](
pCont.particleIndex = i
pCont.ParticleTM = My_Points[i].transform

)
)
[/size]Thanks

Harry

rdg

Jun 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Hi Harry,

I interpret the first three comments like you did.

at time timedif

is a statement that ‘moves’ max to the time specified.
Pflow seems to run unconnected to the rest of max with a higher framerate (= subsamples) so you need to tell max which frame you want the geometry to be accessed.

Look in the help for “at time” for a better explanation.

Georg