Particle Illusions 4
by Paul Boland on Jul 2, 2012 at 11:30:28 pm
Hi Folks.
In a recent thread Alan (I think) asked us what features we would like to see added to Particle Illusions. I tried to post a reply but can't for some reason but I can seem to be able to post a new thread so here's my suggestions.
I remember a few years back Particle Illusions 4 was announced but it has never come to be. If it was, what would I like to see added to it to enhance what we already have in Particle Illusion 3?
1. Loops:
I would like to be able to creating loops. Put in an emitter, say how many frames have to transpire before it loops, and BINGO! A looping emitter.
2. Working With HiDef:
Particle Illusions 3 isn't built for working with high resolution video such as HiDef. Because the work area in Particle Illusions works on a 1 to 1 zoom of your video footage (example: a video 800 x 600 requires the work area to be at least 800 x 600 to work with it), working with high resolution video is not possible. If your monitor resolution is HiDef, 1920 x 1080, and you're working with HiDef video, 1920 x 1080, you have zero room to work with. And me, my monitor is 1440 x 900 so working with HiDef is not a runner for me. Particle Illusions 4 needs to be able to either display video at a zoomed out state (50% of normal, 25% of normal, etc), or the work area should be scrollable so larger video footage can be scrolled around enabling us to work.
3. Tag Individual Emitters:
With so many superb emitters in Particle Illusions, trying to track down that one specific one you're looking for can be a daunting task at times! It would be great if we could tag emitters and then pull up a search box and find the one we want.
4. Engine Improvement:
The only improvement that the engine needs is for working with multiple emitters. When you have a scene with lots of emitters in it and loads of particles flying around, it can slow down while you're working to a crawl! Would be nice if that could be looked at.
Other then that, I love Particle Illusions. Keep up the great work!!
Re: Particle Illusions 4 by Philip Knight on Jul 3, 2012 at 7:18:48 am
Every program has its quirks and problems but since I too am a faithful fan of PI, I deal with them. That said, a couple of things that would seems useful:
-- In addition and/or as one aspect to being able to better play background HD and essentially any videos better (not slow down playback to reee-eeally slow workspace viewing even after one tweaks things in the project to help) is for PI to... go 64-bit. I have 16 Gb. DDR3 RAM--I'd like PI to access it.
-- I don't know what the wiring on CPU access is for PI and so maybe it can already deal with multiple cores. But if not, I have 6 actual cores (not virtual) and would like them to be used just as Vegas Pro does.
--- Some way to lock in X and Y scaling for viewing graphical and timeline settings. They always go back to default every time one re-opens the project.
Re: Particle Illusions 4 by Alan Lorence on Jul 3, 2012 at 11:54:45 am
Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!
I'm not sure why you think #2 is not possible right now, unless you're using particleIllusion SE. particleIllusion 3.0 works with HD res projects just fine -- you can scroll around the workspace, and rendering occurs automatically in pIRender (the standalone renderer) when needed for high res output.
Re: Particle Illusions 4 by Paul Boland on Jul 3, 2012 at 8:49:07 pm
Thanks for the reply, Alan. I hope my reply goes up here ok... You said we can scroll the work area in Particle Illusions. I'm using the full version but I don't see any scrollbars or way to scroll around the work area. How do I do this?
Re: Particle Illusions 4 by Alan Lorence on Jul 3, 2012 at 9:04:05 pm
You should also look into the screen layouts (in the view menu). You can set one up so the stage window is as large as possible, and toggle between that layout and the normal one as needed.
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