Winchester FX Tool

#41

in the latest build i get an error when i want to edit the hit radius :sad:

i don´t get it to work anymore…maybe i´m just stupid but something seems to go wrong :frowning:

kind regards

anselm

#42

My fault, it’s fixed now. Just redownload it from the link on page 2. Thanks for catching that.

And when you talk about gunshot residue around the impact area, what do you mean by “shape mark”? It sounds like a good way of doing it, but I don’t quite get what you mean. Can you post a screen shot?

#43

just downloaded it again :slight_smile: no prob!

i will post an assemby file soon :slight_smile:

cheers

anselm

#44

@JHayWood - I like the scripts on your website. Thanks for sharing them. The “Edge To Edge” script really helped me out today.

This script looks cool too. Thank you for commenting your code.

Later,

#45

i’m pretty sure he’s talking about the shape mark operator – it basically creates a facing particle that lines up with geometry automatically… it’s good for mapping bullet holes or blood splats. It works great on flat object, but I don’t know how this would work with the displacement, unless maybe you could take the shape mark and use mesher, then displace that.

#46

just got the ground splats going :slight_smile:

i attached the flow below. what i didn´t get going so far is the gunshot residue itself :frowning:

i simply tried some stuff with another UDeflector and the target picked for tests…but didn´t invest much time in gambling around…

the first shape mark has the same values set as the ground shape marks. not too funky…

i attached a veeeeery stripped version of what i think of basicly. maybe someone can deal with it. i got deadlines :eek::shrug::sad: big soooooooooorry

kind regards

anselm

#47

Well how 'bout that, I didn’t even know about the Shape Mark operator. Guess I should read the manual one of these days. :slight_smile:

About using it on the displaced areas, I think it’ll work fine. Change the shape from Rectangle to Box Intersection and it actually conforms to the surface of the object where it hits. Try it on the file PsychoSilence posted and you can see the splats curve around the sphere. Pretty snazzy. I’ll have to experiment with how I can integrate this with the script.

I might have to rework how the whole system is set up though, so that pFlow is used for pretty much everything instead of just the exploding bits. So the “bullets” would actually be particles shot out from the gun and then a script operator would handle all the other setup when the bullet hits the target. It would be extra work, but probably worth it in the long run.

#48

i encountered another problem concerning animated targets. :frowning: since you collapse the target mesh to an edit mesh eventually skinning and rigging will be collapsed too. i allways record animations with pointcache2 so i simply copied the pointcache modifier and pasted it on top after winchester collapsed the mesh then edited some minor position issues with a XForm modifier.

well thinking of it afer all this not really a problem but maybe there´s a way to keep animations on targets. that would be too great :slight_smile:

kind regards

anselm

#49

Yeah, I haven’t tried to tackle deforming meshes yet. It’s on my list, but I just try to make just one thing work at a time to make it easier for me to keep track of what I’m doing. I plan on this being a very robust tool when it’s done, but that’s going to be a while. :slight_smile:

#50

please don´t pick my comments up as pushing :slight_smile:

quality takes it´s time, i know that :slight_smile:

kind regards

anselm

#51

Not at all, it’s good to know what features people think are important. Keep those suggestions coming!

#52

As I mentioned in the Rayfire thread a scene cleaner would be cool, although you script is much easier to clean and rerun with different settings than rayfire.

I do like the particle flow approach much better than parray, much easier to add/change a flow than running through 30 parray panels.

Both of these tools are really sweeet.

BTW Nice to have projectiles:D

#53

Cleaning the scene should be easy enough. One of the to-do items is to create a post simulation tool that will let you change settings quickly, and one of the options there could be to remove the sim objects completely.

I’m in the process of integrating pFlow even more into the whole setup, so that even the projectiles will be particles.

#54

hehe, had a few minutes (literally :slight_smile: ) to screw around… nothing special but fume for the muzzle blast and aburn for impact particles, could’ve spent some more time on a seperate flow for aburn but…

heh, screwed up the aburn keyframe at the beginning ooops…
xvid codec:

#55

Not an official update, but I just wanted to show where I’m at right now. Added Mark Shape operator to pFlow system for impact decals…
winchester_003a.mov

#56

another nice feature ahead :slight_smile:

great to see the progress!!!

#57

awsome stuff! keep up the amazing work and soon there will be a plugin capable of untold of destruction!

#58

Wow James! :thumbsup: Excellent work! I tried it, and it worked great, very impressive! Thank You!

#59

OMG James, that´s freakin´ awesome!! I wish I had that (some!) knowledge in scripting…

Your doing an amazing job!

#60

Okay, finally a real update: winchester_003.ms

New Features:

  • New “Settings” rollout that appears after you’ve created the simulation. This lets you change some of the parameters without having to manually select objects or know how to use PFlow.
  • Checks for existing simulation when the script is run and let’s you either change the settings using the new rollout or delete the sim entirely.
  • Now uses Shape Marks for impact decals.
  • Uses Displace modifiers instead of the Displace space warps which cuts down on scene clutter.
  • Creates one whole PFlow system for each target object. This lets the fragment materials match the object they’re blowing off of, and let’s you adjust settings for each target object independantly.

Known Issues:

  • The gun recoil position keys don’t get removed when you delete the simulation. This will be fixed in the next release.
  • There isn’t any error checking if you delete the simulation using the script, so if you manually remove pieces of before doing that it could throw an error.
  • Changing the initial speed value in the settings rollout to slow down the particle that fires out of the gun will let you see the bullets better, but could make the debris and decals get offset from the displaced impact points. I’ll add an offset value later to fix this.

One thing about the settings rollout, all the values are based on percentages. So initially, they’re all 100. If you want double the number of particles, change the particle count to 200, and so forth. There’s a button to update the pflow systems after you change any of the particle values. Something in the way pflow is integrated with maxScript doesn’t let it update in real-time as you change the settings.

Let me know if you find other issues, I haven’t tried this on a huge range of setups. And let me know if you can think of other ways to improve it beyond what’s already been mentioned. My next step is to add more elements like smoke and give you the option of what to turn on in the setup.