max - turn on a particule spray when an object rotates

L2K

hi all.

I'm trying to "rig" a ship...
i've no problems with sliders to control things, bu I would like to automaticaly turn on a particule spray when the ship banks and cut it when it's stabilized (even at -30A°),
it should be somewhere in the reaction manager, but....

thank you for viewing

any help will be remunerated with a huge hug and a glass of dominican rhum 5years old

citizen

I'm thinking you'd need to script it.

mental|plate

Yup, script is a way to go, i was thinking the same thing the other day, and scripting came to mind....i have no current intention to write the script but i have plans in the future, and if i ever write it, it will be free .

L2K

got it without a line of script.
i'm too bad at scripting.

wanna know how i did ?

aszazeroth

Manually keyframed the entire scene ?!:devil:

Guerrilla

You probably don't need to go scripting. A fairly simple expression for the birth rate might do the trick. Something like initial angle-angle in next frame *multiplier for the particle birth rate should work.

No idea about the actual practical application, but it should work. I think Pete Draper has a tutorial for self-firing engines using expressions, so you can do a bit of googling and see if that helps.

[edit]Ninja posted. Twice.

How did ya do it?

L2K

I linked a dummy to the ship (as parent), and put a spring controller.
I linked a damper on the ship and on the dummy.
in the reaction manager i created states on the spray rate along with the damper height

I hate scripting. But i'd love script.
it's an attraction-repulsion

Guerrilla

That's pretty clever.

aszazeroth

Hehe, indeed, that was a clever solution

mental|plate

yeah, out of the box thinking for shure!

L2K

frak, it works only if the mesh dont move (just rotates).
pfff, back on my problem

in fact, it would be just fine if the spring controler used the parents XYZ and not the world XYZ.
if anyone has an idea how to get the pring relative instead of absolute...

citizen

L2K wrote: »

frak, it works only if the mesh dont move (just rotates).
pfff, back on my problem

in fact, it would be just fine if the spring controler used the parents XYZ and not the world XYZ.
if anyone has an idea how to get the pring relative instead of absolute...

Maybe not full on scripting, but could you wire the flow rate to the change in rotation?

Guerrilla

L2K wrote: »

frak, it works only if the mesh dont move (just rotates).
pfff, back on my problem

in fact, it would be just fine if the spring controler used the parents XYZ and not the world XYZ.
if anyone has an idea how to get the pring relative instead of absolute...

Well, if the rotation bit works, then a quick-n-dirty work-around would be to make a non-renderable dummy object, wire it to the rotation of the ship and link up the springs to the dummy instead of the mesh. Basically the dummy object will rotate identically to the ship, but never move an inch.

Or just give expressions and/or scripting a go.

L2K

waa, thats a pretty good idea guerilla !

i'll try it tonight !