As mentioned earlier, the Main Menubar is divided into File, Edit, View and Help. The following section provides a description of the menu items found in these menu categories.
This brings up a dialog box that allows you to select a new type of effect to edit. In the Type portion of this window, a list of available effects is given to you. To select an effect, click on one of the radio buttons beside the effect type and click on Ok. More information about these effect types is given later in the documentation in the section titled 4.1 Effects Explained .
Loads up an existing effects file (.LUA format) to edit.
Saves an existing effects file (into a. LUA format). If this is your first save, a dialogue box will appear to ask you for a filename to save the file under.
Allows you to save the current effect under a different name. A typical Save As… dialogue box will appear, asking you for a new filename.
Allows you to edit the XYZ position of the emitter along with its scale and length. This option also allows for selecting a marker to use as the position from which the particles will be emitted. This setting is only used to preview the effect, and will not be carried over when the effect is used elsewhere.
A standard Windows palette window will appear which will allow you to choose the background color used in the FX Tool Main Viewer Window. A handy thing that you can use this option for (other than for cosmetic reasons) is that you can try changing the background color if you have difficulty seeing the effect, or to preview how the effect would look like on a certain color that’s in-game.
When selected, this option displays a dialog window that allows you to enter XYZ “gravity” values. The default is a value of “-9.8” for the Y-axis. This option, when used in conjunction with particle dynamics ( Spray and Ring effects only), previews the way in which certain effects will behave with certain gravity settings (which can be set differently when editing a map). As such, this setting is not carried across when the effect is used elsewhere.
When selected, this option displays a dialog window that allows you to enter XYZ “wind” values. This option, when used in conjunction with particle dynamics ( Spray and Ring effects only) previews the way in which certain effects will behave with certain wind settings (which can be set differently when editing a map). As such, this setting is not carried across when the effect is used elsewhere.
This option can be toggled on/off. This determines whether or not the XZ grid in the Main Viewer Window is displayed.
This option can be toggled on/off. This determines whether or not the XY grid in the Main Viewer Window is displayed.
Allows you to toggle your effect’s model on/off, if it has one.
Displays timing information on how long it’s taking to render emitted effects. FX Count displays how many effects are being displayed. FX max displays the peak number of effects. Update and display lists the time (in microseconds) it took to update (move, collide, etc), and display (draw) the effects. These numbers can help indicate performance problems with certain effects.
When activated, it displays the effects in wire-frame mode.
A dialogue window will appear asking you to enter an. SGM file to use. You can browse for these files by pressing the Browse button. If you do this, a standard Open File dialogue window will appear. This. SGM file will act as your emitter.
Fix Random
Toggling this will allow you to scrub back and forth on the time line. This will introduce slower performance from the preview window.
Displays the version information of the FX Tool that you are using.
FX Tool