info_particle_system and HL2 effects problem
I've been trying to use some of the HL2 particle effects (specifically some of the water effects) to work with the info_particle_system in portal but I've largely unsuccessful. I was wondering if anyone here has either gotten this to work or has some ideas as to what else I could try.
I've been able to use all of the portal effects without any trouble. But whenever I try the HL2 effects, the particle system displays absolutely nothing. I've tried setting the system to start active, setting it to start inactive then starting it with a trigger, starting and stopping the particle system, and a number of other things as well. From the particle systems total lack of functionaity, I'm guessing that it can't find the HL2 particle effects. I've tried to locate a file with any particle effect information in it so that I could extract and use it, but I havn't been able to locate one as of yet.
If anybody has any ideas or might know what the problem is, I'd greatly appriciate some help.
You need to precache the particle files so Portal can see them. To do this, extract the file "particles_manifest.txt" from the "portal/particles" folder in "Portal Content.gcf".
Once you have the file extracted, you need to edit it to reflect the .prt files that you wish to use. Do not modify the original entries, or Portal's particle effects will no longer work.
Copy the format used in the existing entries to reference the new files.
Place the modified manifest file, and the .prt files you wish to use, in portal's "particles" folder.
You should then be able to use these particles as normal.
Don't forget to pack them in with your bsp when you distribute the file.
Hope this helps. 
Ah very good, thanks for your help. I'll try this out later today.
"Pack them in".
Can you be more descriptive on exactly how best to do that? As I understand it, there are programs to help literally bundle stuff as part of the bsp (so the user downloads just the bsp), but then there seems to be cases where people give you extra directories with materials, etc in them that you have to install in addition to the bsp. (I am not talking about the extra files relating to bonus maps)
Is there really more than one way to do this? Is one way better than the other?
You can use either method, and each has certain advantages over the other.
There are programs that compile your extra content into the bsp. Two examples are bspzip and pakrat.
The advantage of this method is that you only have to distribute one file, and you can't mess up any of the users settings accidentally outside of your map.
The other method is to just distribute the files seperately.
This is only really advantageous if you are working on a map pack with repeatedly used content, and don't want to pack the same content into each bsp, which would increase the overall size of the download.
It is also possible to mess up the user's original game with this method, if you included a modified file that interferes with the original game by having the same filename, but different content.
I recommend going with the first method of packing everything into the bsp, as it is a lot less intrusive, not to mention less work for the end user.
Worked great Nocturnal, thanks for your help.