Custom map particles

Overview

If you want to add more elements to your map to build atmosphere or for aesthetic reasons, you can use particles. You probably already are aware of this and know what exactly you want to do.

Find some particles

Get someone to make particles for you as you probably can't do it yourself. Remember the effect name, and place the .pcf in your /particles/ folder, where all the others are.

The necessary entity

Put in a info_particle_system somewhere in your map, and enter in the effect name of what you want to spawn in the Particle System Name field. The control points don't matter unless you specifically did something with them when you made the particle. This can be treated pretty much like a sprite entity.

Making it show up

Make a text file called "particles_your_map_name.txt". (emp_snowstorm_rc3 would be particles_emp_snowstorm_rc3.txt)

Then enter in the location of your particle files in this format:

particles_manifest
{
	

	"file"		"particles/particle_file_name_1.pcf"
	"file"		"particles/particle_file_name_2.pcf"
}

This file should be placed in the "empires/particles/" directory.

Test it

Trial and error, trial and error.

Getting the manifest and the .pcf to other people

Put it in the .res file you make for the server and everybody should get it.

See Also: Advanced Tutorials from the Valve Wiki