Particles?

The rocket trails, railgun, bulletpuffs etc. in ZDoom seem to use a type of particle system that is not based on sprites. is there any way to make use of this? i want to make a projectile that leaves a trail, but that doesnt use the generic rocket trail (a special colored trail). i'd like to avoid using sprites if at all possible. does anyone know about this?

Don't think so. That stuff is hard-coded afaik.

Yeah it's hard-coded. I've added a couple of scripting functions that can do some customized particle effects in EE, but I never have gotten around to expanding the system like I want.

Ideally you should be able to spawn and have full control over individual particles, but under the ZDoom particle engine there are various difficulties with allowing it.

BTW, the particles are implemented as vissprites, but instead of drawing columnized sprite data, they just draw a small single-color rect. Since they don't have the weight of an attached mobj_t, aren't masked, and can be clipped only on the edges due to their shape, drawing them is extremely fast. Unfortunately, the need for speed makes improving the appearance difficult. I've thought about various ways to support rounded-off particles in EE but have not yet found a good enough solution.

I hate particles.

They always get in my eyes.

I just disable particles and simulate them using my own custom stuff (creating much better looking smoke and flame)

EE's getting new smoke puff and blood effects (actually it already has them if you have the SVN build). SoM did the bullet puff and I did the blood. I think they're a big improvement on the lackluster "splash" effects that seem to have been inspired by Quake 2.

well, for my purposes, they might look better than what's available. I want to make Unreal Tournament Style gore and Gibs. I refuse to use Nash_Gore blood trails, because its not the style I'm shooting for.

EDIT: steevo, do you have any blood sprites you can donate? i dont wanna just use little 1x1 red pixels