[Resolved] Particle.SetParent crash

[analysis_junky]

I am trying to to test attaching particles to actors. Everytime I try though I get:
Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.


This happens with both TVA and .X Actors

Particle = Scene.CreateParticleSystem();
Particle.SetParent(Actor.GetIndex(), CONST_TV_NODETYPE.TV_NODETYPE_ACTOR, boneIndex, 0);

I have tried -1 and 0 for the last param (iSubIndex)

The boneIndex is from here

//Load the ListBox of all bones
 for (int i = 0; i < Actor.GetBoneCount(); i++)
 {
      lbBones.Items.Add(Actor.GetBoneName(i));
 }

Has anyone got this to work? If so, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[SylvainTV]

Actually you got the parameters wrong :

void CTVParticleSystem::SetParent(int iEmitter,cCONST_TV_NODETYPE eObjectType, int iObjectIndex, int iSubIndex)

iEmitter should be an index between 0 and GetEmitterCount-1.
Object type is ok for actor
iObjectIndex should be Actor.GetIndex()
and iSubIndex should be boneindex

Hope this helps

[analysis_junky]

Thanks Sylvain, it now works perfectly!

[Insomnia]

Particle = Scene.CreateParticleSystem();

For me even this line fails claiming the CreateParticleSystem function not to be member of the TVScene class.

[analysis_junky]

What version of TV are you using. I am using TV 6.5

[Insomnia]

yeah, the 6.5 Prerelease

[analysis_junky]

This is copied directly from the Onject Browser

MTV3D65.TVScene.CreateParticleSystem(string)
TV3D SDK 6.5 - Managed TV3DEngine
Version: 6.5.2823.21213

[Insomnia]

OK I'm just using the TVb3D65, not the MTV3D65, but that one is not even possible to be added to the project, nor can I register it.

[SylvainTV]

What language ?

[Insomnia]

Okay, summary of everything:

I'm using the TVb3D65.dll on VB6. I tried to reference the MTV3D65.DLL (from TV3Demo) aswell, but that seems to be a .NET version, which cannot be used in VB6 obviously. I created a simple smoke effect with SDK\tools\particleeditor\ParticleEditor.exe and try to load it in the game, but the whole programm, including VB6 environment crash during the startup. Same happens when I try to initialize a shader.
Are there any VB6 code examples which work with 6.5. so I can exclude it's a coding fault?

[SylvainTV]

The easiest would be that you post the problematic VB6 code here.
We will able to catch directly what's wrong

[Insomnia]

Okay this is the definition:

Code:

Public Particles As New TVParticleSystem

Then I try it like in the TVDemo Code:

Code:

Scene.DestroyAllParticleSystems
Particles = Scene.CreateParticleSystem("Rauch")

This aborts with the message "Object does not support this Property or Method"
With this line it works:

Code:

Scene.CreateParticleSystem ("Rauch")

Then I want to load the particle effect itself

Code:

Particles.Load (App.Path & "\buildings\Powerplant\smoke.tvp")

This makes the whole application crash, including VB6 development environment. The use of the following two lines to pregenerate has the same effect:

Code:

Particles.PreGenerate -1, 32
Particles.SetGlobalPosition 0, 1, 0

Same problem for the shader stuff, these are the equivalent lines:

Code:

Public Shaders As New TVShader

Scene.CreateShader "Wasser"
GetShader("Wasser").CreateFromEffectFile App.Path & "\maps\water.fx"
WaterMesh.SetShader GetShader("Wasser")
WaterMesh.SetLightingMode TV_LIGHTING_MANAGED

Thanks for your help

[pizzayoyo]

Code:

Particles = Scene.CreateParticleSystem("Rauch")

In VB6, when setting an object to an instance you must use the keyword set...

Code:

Set Particles = Scene.CreateParticleSystem("Rauch")

[Insomnia]

Rather a copy/paste mistake, does not change anything on the issue though.

[PrinceValiant]

If i understand correctly i think you also have same problem of incorrect Particle Editor file. Look at smoke.tvp in particle editor. If it crashes even the Particle Editor then create working one with correct parameters. I also had the same problem. After correcting the *.tvp file Vb crash ended...

Especially if you set directional=true and Randomgenerator=0/0/0 it generates erroneus TVP file...

[Insomnia]

Okay, the TVP file was not corrupted, except a wrong texture name... after renaming that one, the crashes are gone, but the particle system still does not show up, what do I need to do else?

Initialization:

Code:

[...]
Scene.DestroyAllParticleSystems
Set Particles = Scene.CreateParticleSystem
Particles.Load (App.Path & "\buildings\Powerplant\smoke.tvp")
Particles.SetGlobalPosition 0, 10, 0
Particles.Enable True
[...]

Render Loop:

Code:

[...]
Particles.Render
[...]

Thanks for your help!

[pizzayoyo]

You also need to do Particles.Update() next to the Particles.Render().

[Insomnia]

Does not change anything either
Noone ready to write a 5 line application in VB6 with a simple particle effect to demonstrate the correct working to me? That would be very nice!

[analysis_junky]

First of all if initialized correctly you do not have to directly call Particles.Render.

Code:

Sub InitParticles
   Scene.DestroyAllParticleSystems
   Set Particles = Scene.CreateParticleSystem
   Particles.Load (App.Path & "\buildings\Powerplant\smoke.tvp")
   Particles.SetGlobalPosition 0, 10, 0
   Particles.Enable True
End Sub

Sub Render()
   Do
      Engine.Clear
      Scene.RenderAll True
      Engine.RenderToScreen
   Loop While doRender
End Sub

This should be all that you need because the Scene object will take care of rendering the Particle system.

Make sure that you use the correct order in your Render loop, as I have shown above.

Also make sure your camera is in the right place to see it.

Last thing, after making corrections and running it - check the debug log for any errors or warnings.

[Insomnia]

Aaahh, very nice, that works! Thanks a lot analysis_junky, last question about this one: Is there a possibility to scale the system? Except in the particle editor I mean, like we can scale meshes.