ezQuake Manual: Particle effects

This feature and manual page has been inherited from the FuhQuake client made by A Nourai aka 'fuh' (#fuhquake on Quakenet irc).

Introduction

This client has the option of using visually enhanced particle effects for explosions, rocket trails, teleport splashes, gunshot effects and more.

The new effects are visually superior to the old effects but may have an impact on FPS (especially on lower end systems).

The new effects are off by default. You can turn them on by setting the variables below to 1. Use cfg_save (read config_manager.txt) to save/load your settings.

Customising Particles

The following variables use the new visually enhanced particles when set to 1 and use the old system when set to 0. All of them default to 0.

gl_part_explosions	determines particles used for explosions.
gl_part_trails	determines particles used for (rocket etc) trails.
gl_part_spikes	determines particles used for spikes (nailgun etc).
gl_part_gunshots	determines particles used for gunshot (etc) effects.
gl_part_blood	determines particles used for blood effects.
gl_part_telesplash	determines particles used for teleport splashes.
gl_part_blobs	determines particles used for blob explosions (EMP's).
gl_part_lavasplash	determines particles used for lava splashes (Spy Gren).
gl_part_inferno	determines particles used for pyro flames in TF.

Fps Variables

The following variables control the behaviour of the new particle effects. They do not effect the old particle effects.

gl_bounceparticles: Controls whether sparks rebound off walls. Bouncing particles look nicer, but may eat up CPU.
gl_clipparticles: Setting this to 1 will limit the number of blended particles close to you. This gives a big FPS increase when blended particles take up a big proportion of your screen and challenge your video card's fillrate.

Credits

The particle engine has evolved from the QMB particle engine. QMB is a quakenet (not quakeworld) quake engine developed by DrLabMan. Feel free to check it out at http://qmb.quakepit.com/ .

FAQ

Q1. What are Blop Explosions and Lava Splash?: A1. These are really only used in teamfortress. Blob explosions are what happens when an EMP grenade explodes (and when a spy grenade first explodes). LavaSplash is the red stuff a spy's gas grenade creates. LavaSplash also happens sometimes in dm when the map ends.
Q2. I lose a lot of FPS with when using the new QMB effects. WTF?: A2. Tough. Good things come at a price.
Q3. The new effects don't look so good. WTF?: A3. Make sure you have ezquake/pak0.pak (should have been installed when you installed the .exe's).
Q4. What about axe effects ?: A4. There's a lot of effects in quakeworld, especially when you consider custom mods like teamfortress. Hence it is impossible to have a variable for every effect. Things which do not have variable (like axe effects) are controlled by the gl_part_gunshots variable.
Q5. I have set the gl_part_* variables to 1 but I still get the old particles. WTF?: A5. Make sure you've installed ezquake/pak0.pak from the zip file/installer you downloaded from the web. Inside that pak file are some particle textures that are important.

Last update: 01.01.1970 00:00 UTC
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