Info not in help file
This special build is a 32 bit version (Windows 95 and NT 3.51 native).  It can also be run
under Windows 3.1x with Win32s 1.3 or higher.

This evaluation version is limited to objects with a  maximum of 3,000 faces. The registered
version handles objects of unlimited size.

You can create static objects (no animation) by setting the Number of Frames setting in the
Explosion Options dialog to 0.  This is useful for placing multiple (particle) objects.

You can manually control particle scaling by unchecking the Auto Scale option on the Particle
tab of the Exploder Options dialog, and scale using the Linear Scale/Global setting.

I have included a few sample scenes, objects, and textures, and animations (AVI format).  BUBBLE.SCN is and example of using Exploder to create a rising bubble effect.  SNOW1.SCN and SNOW2.SCN are examples of a falling snow effect.  The objects "FLAKE*.COB" are simple single polygon objects textured with a "snowflake" texture (FLAKE*.TGA).  These are used as simple snowflake particles.The objects "BUBBLE*.COB" are simple spheroid objects textured with a transparent surface and simple environments (RAINBOW.T1D and WASTELAN.E2D).  These are used as simple bubble particles.  There are also a couple of "template" objects (RANDGRID.COB and GRID.COB). These are used as particle placement templates (whew) for the particle animation examples.


A few general tips
You may want to load two or three copies of the particle animation object, and offset their position and start times to create a more complex effect.  Experiment with the above techniques; you can get some really great complex effects.

For snow particles, sometimes I use a simple square polygon, and texture it with a small white .tga bitmap that has a radial gradient (circular fade) in the alpha channel.  This creates a smooth, flat circular object from the square polygon when rendered.

When you are creating objects in trueSpace that you plan on importing into Exploder, center them in the universe (Location 0, 0, 0) before you save them as ASCII *.cobs.  This allows Exploder to process the file more effectively.

After you generate a particle animation and load it into trueSpace, animate the texture of the particle object(s).

Certain objects, such as text as text objects, may work better in Exploder if you first triangulate them before saving from trueSpace.  While this is not necessary, it allows Exploder more freedom to process an object containing 'holes'.  When you load the triangulated object into Exploder, sort the object (right to left usually looks good) before processing and saving the object. 



Evaporate effect
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Create an object in trueSpace, save it as an ASCII *.cob, and load it into Exploder.  Open the Explosion Options dialog and set the Min. number of pieces setting to the value that is displayed in the Object Information/Faces box. Click on theClick on the Advanced tab, uncheck X, Y, and - boxes in the Position Axes group.  This will make Exploder project the explosion in an upward (+Z) direction only.  Uncheck the X, Y, and Z options in the Rotation Axes group, and change the Scale Amount/End setting to 0.0001. Next, check the Stagger explosions box in the Stagger Options group, then choose OK to close the dialog.  From the Options menu, select Sort Faces/Top to Bottom, then export the object and load it into truespace for a preview.



Snow/Bubble effect
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See files "BUBBLE.SCN" and "BUBBLES.AVI" for an example of the following technique.

First we need to create a 'random' grid object to be used as the starting position for the snow/bubble objects.

Create a plane with a resolution of 5, go to top view, enter point edit mode, select about half of the points (one at a time !), and move them to 'random' locations. Next, move the plane so it's Z location is -1.0 and save this object as an ASCII *.cob named randgrid.cob.  

Next we need to create the actual particle objects.  For snow, create a simple polygon object, apply the texture of your choice, and save it as an ASCII *.cob name flake1.cob.  Rotate it 'randomly' on the X,Y,and Z axes, save as flake2.cob, rotate again, and save as flake3.cob.

For bubble particles, create a simple sphere, scale it slighly on the X, Y, and Z axes, texture appropriately,save as bubble1.cob, rotate 'randomly' (as above), and save as bubble2.cob, repeat and save as bubble3.cob.

Now open Exploder, open the randgrid.cob object, then open the Explosion Options dialog. Click on the Advanced tab, uncheck X, Y, and - boxes in the Position Axes group.  This will make Exploder project the explosion in an upward (+Z) direction only.  Click on the Gravity/Particles tab and check the Particles box, which will enable the particle option controls.  In the Output Options group, select the Particles only option,l and in the Random scale group, set the Min control to 0.3.  This makes Exploder randomly scale the particles between 1.0 (original scale) and 0.3 (about 1/3 the original size).

Choose the OK  button to close the dialog.  Exploder will now open the Import Particle Object dialog. Click on the filename for bubble1.cob", then while holding down the control key, select bubble2.cob and bubble3.cob, then click on the Open button.  Now we are ready to process and save the animated objects.

From the File menu of Exploder, choose Export, or click on the disk button on the toolbar, and save the aniation as 'bubbles.cob'.  Load bubbles.cob into trueSpace, open the animation panel and click on the Play button for a preview.  If you would like to have the bubbles continuously rise, open the Animation Project Window, click on the Repeat button, then click the animation timeline for the bubble object.

If the particles are not scaled to your liking, change the Global setting in the Linear Scale group of the Particle tab in the Explosion Options dialog of Exploder (whew!), and reprocess the object.

To create the snow effect, follow the above procedure substituting the flake*.cob objects for the bubble*.cob objects when you are prompted to load the particles. On the Advanced tab in the Explosion Options dialog uncheck X, Y, and + boxes in the Position Axes group.  This will make Exploder project the explosion in a downward (-Z) direction only.  This will create a falling effect, as opposed to the rising effect of the bubbles.

For an example of this technique, see the files "SNOW.SCN" and "SNOW.AVI".

