http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70GhO6z5aKM

josepezdj wrote:
Zivi, have you tried pakrating it into the bsp altogether with the particle and check in game after removing the local stored files? Maybe this work, same as embedded sounds that automatically update audio cache...

The problem is that in order to work in game, the particle needs to be listed in particles_manifest.txt. As far as I read, in L4D2 you can create a particle_manifest for the specific map - so that the game just adds the newly created particles to the existing ones. But appearantly this doesn't work in Portal 2.

This seems to mean that you'd have to add the particle to a particles_manifest.txt which you pack into the .bsp then. However, this would overwrite the existing particles_manifest.txt on the user's PC. This probably isn't a proeblem in 99% of the cases - since there will probably not be too many players with custom particles_manifest.txt that get overwritten. Still, it would be much nicer to have a method like for L4D2 where you can safely distribute your new particle for everyone without the need for warnings in the description.

Burnout: looks nice! Mind posting it?

By the way, I've managed to recreate the prop_paint_bomb's appearance using particles, and have a partially-working gel splat that (wherever it spawns) covers the nearest surface within 128 units with...little purple bits of errory smoke.

Burnout6010 wrote:
I've created a little particle system for the futbol dispenser using your tutorial ^^ : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nleDRXjyrKU

Looks good, except for that tag at the top for the free recorder you're using. You might want to look into using this to record games. It's free, and it's what I used to record the tutorial.

http://obsproject.com/

FelixGriffin wrote:
Burnout: looks nice! Mind posting it?

Here you go ^^ : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/950 ... rticle.zip
Be aware, I have not made any lines in the manifest. If you want, here is the exact line to paste (right after "//Portal 2 particles") :

   "file"      "particles/futbol_ray.pcf"

Feel free to modify it and even to redistribute it, just mention me as the original creator.
One last thing you should be aware of too, is that if you want the ray to go up and not on the sides, you should not modify the angles of the "info_particle_system". You will also have to line it up on grid 1, maybe less (by dragging the info_particle_system)
I'll look into making an instance if it's too hard

TopHATTwaffle wrote:
Looks good, except for that tag at the top for the free recorder you're using. You might want to look into using this to record games. It's free, and it's what I used to record the tutorial.

I've always been using DxTory before for it's very good performance, but maybe I'll change now. Thanks a lot !

zivi7 wrote:
The problem is that in order to work in game, the particle needs to be listed in particles_manifest.txt. As far as I read, in L4D2 you can create a particle_manifest for the specific map - so that the game just adds the newly created particles to the existing ones. But appearantly this doesn't work in Portal 2

Yeah I already know that, Chris But what if we try to replace an already exisiting particle by giving it the same name than a stock one and locating it outside the pak01_dir.vpk inside a /particles local folder with its texture files into the same /materials local folder than the original ones are, AND THEN we pack those local files into the bsp using pakrat? ...I think these custom ones will override the stock ones while we run our map

josepezdj wrote:
zivi7 wrote:

The problem is that in order to work in game, the particle needs to be listed in particles_manifest.txt. As far as I read, in L4D2 you can create a particle_manifest for the specific map - so that the game just adds the newly created particles to the existing ones. But appearantly this doesn't work in Portal 2

Yeah I already know that, Chris But what if we try to replace an already exisiting particle by giving it the same name than a stock one and locating it outside the pak01_dir.vpk inside a /particles local folder with its texture files into the same /materials local folder than the original ones are, AND THEN we pack those local files into the bsp using pakrat? ...I think these custom ones will override the stock ones while we run our map

oh good idea, however if you're already paking something, it might as well just be a new particle and manifest

BenVlodgi wrote:
josepezdj wrote:

zivi7 wrote:

The problem is that in order to work in game, the particle needs to be listed in particles_manifest.txt. As far as I read, in L4D2 you can create a particle_manifest for the specific map - so that the game just adds the newly created particles to the existing ones. But appearantly this doesn't work in Portal 2

Yeah I already know that, Chris But what if we try to replace an already exisiting particle by giving it the same name than a stock one and locating it outside the pak01_dir.vpk inside a /particles local folder with its texture files into the same /materials local folder than the original ones are, AND THEN we pack those local files into the bsp using pakrat? ...I think these custom ones will override the stock ones while we run our map

oh good idea, however if you're already paking something, it might as well just be a new particle and manifest

But the game loads the manifest before it loads the map. The packed manifest wouldn't be read.

FelixGriffin wrote:
BenVlodgi wrote:

josepezdj wrote:

Yeah I already know that, Chris But what if we try to replace an already exisiting particle by giving it the same name than a stock one and locating it outside the pak01_dir.vpk inside a /particles local folder with its texture files into the same /materials local folder than the original ones are, AND THEN we pack those local files into the bsp using pakrat? ...I think these custom ones will override the stock ones while we run our map

oh good idea, however if you're already paking something, it might as well just be a new particle and manifest

But the game loads the manifest before it loads the map. The packed manifest wouldn't be read.

ohhh =\ lame
then go with the renaming

In addition to the video tutorial, this is what I'd do:

1. Extract all Portal2 particles from the .vpk file into Portal 2/portal2/particles folder.

2. Extract all particles materials from the .vpk into Portal 2/portal2/materials/particle folder.

3. Some effects will be required to properly see the particles as well. I can't know right now which of them all, but for starters we could extract from the .vpk all inside /effects and materials/effects into Portal2/portal2/effects and Portal2/portal2/materials/effects respectively.

4. Edit the Alien Swarm 'GameInfo.txt" (/swarm/GameInfo.txt) and add a new "Searchpath" line for our materials and effects folders below the last existing line like so:

"SearchPaths"
      {
         "Game"   "|gameinfo_path|."
         "Game"   "swarm_base"
         "Game"   "platform"
         "Game"   "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\materials\"
         "Game"   "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\effects\"

      }

(Ofc each one should check for his own paths... mine is located under E:\Steam for instance...)

1. Now we can edit already existing Portal2 particles and watch their textures properly (I think Alien Swarm textures are v7.5 as well as Portal2 so no hexing needed...). Also we can create new particles effects and store them into an already existing pcf file.

It's yet to be confirmed if we can just add new particles effects into a given pcf file or we should replace any of the existing ones (dunno if there's a sort of index or something that might be controlling this).

I'd like to do a further testing about this and about pakrating a custom particle later today