I finished writing a good visual effects editor called SpellEditor and in this topic I will tell you in detail how to use it correctly and all the main aspects of its work.


So, download SpellEditor from the resource manager, install it, and then run it through the Gothic Starter.
The main window will appear and the test world and control panel window will be loaded.
Here it is.


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The window has 2 different areas, Particle Fx and Visual Fx.


Let's start with a description of Particle Fx:
Dyn button - Switches the visualization of the effect to a rotating vob, for setting traces, and other dynamics. (around the pentagram)
Stat button - Switches back to static vob. ( at the center )
Play button - Plays the effect, at the center of the pentagram.
Save button - Saves the current instance to a script with its recompilation.
New / Load button - Creates a new instance, or loads an existing one.

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PfxEditor button - opens the effect properties window.


The field for entering the name of the instance, when creating a new one or loading an existing one.


List of ALL available particle effects in the game.


Effect editing order:


Launch the editor.
Wait for the loading of the world and appearing of all the lists.
Press the PfxEditor button, the properties window will appear. (resize the window as you like).
Select some effect from the Particle Fx list, for example IRRLICHT.
Press the New / Load button, the properties of the selected effect will appear in the properties window.
In order to play the effect, press the Play button in the center of the room, our effect will appear.


This is how it should look like.


Change the effect and save.
Go to the properties window
Make changes, let's say we change the color from white to green-red. (ColorStart ColorEnd)
Press the Save button, the instance will be changed or a new one will be created in the PfxInstMagic.d file (_work \ Data \ Scripts \ System \ PFX)
Then rendering will be disabled and scripts will be recompiled.
To play the instance again, you need to load it again by name \ list, and click Play
Below is the result of our simple operation.

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IMPORTANT!


The peculiarity of this particle editor is that the instance is saved directly by means of the script engine of the game, that is, the saving goes to the original script file, and then the entire particle effects script is recompiled.
To do this, all your effect scripts must be located in the _work \ Data \ Scripts \ System \ folder of both Pfx and Vfx






Now let's find out the work of the Visual Fx editor.
Control Panel:

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The Visual Fx section has 3 buttons:
V-Fx editor - Opens the visual effects properties windows.
New \ Load - Creates a new visual effect, or opens an existing one for editing.
Play \ Update - Play \ update the previously loaded effect.
Save - Saves the visual effect to the VisualFxInst.d file and recompiles the VisualFx.DAT file


The Emitter Keys section contains controls for the effect keys, I will not describe it in detail.




These keys are essentially used in any spell 3 keys INIT, INVEST, CAST
Init - Initialize the spell (when in hand)
Cast - launches a spell at the target.
Invest - works in the process of investing (charging) a spell.


The editor window is shown below.




To switch to VFX editing mode, follow the instructions below:
Press the V-Fx editor button on the control panel
Select an effect from the list for example SPELLFX_PALHOLYBOLT
Press the New \ Load button to load the effect or create a new one.
After loading the effect, 2 npc will appear in the world, the Target and the Source (Origin & Target)
To control the camera and switch to a more convenient viewing angle, use the F3 button (free camera mode)
To play the effect, press the Play \ Update button in the right hand of the Origin NPC, a visual of the spell will appear.
Well, let's launch our spell at the target by clicking the Cast button in the keys section.




To save, the Save button is used, here, as in the case of particles, the script is saved and DAT file is recompiled, only here the effect is not removed from the world after saving.

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Well, that's all actually a little later, let's look at an example of creating a simple spell from scratch. Very short, to get yourself with the basics, the controls are basically the same as in the spacer speleditor, only more better.