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118 Chapter 11: Space Warps and Particle Systems
change the Speed and D irect ion sett ings. When
you change a setting, the change is reflected
in the viewports in real time, even during
playback.
Try right-clicking act ions and events and using
Rename to give them custom names. Even with
a custom name, an act ion’s tooltip reveals its
type.
Another facility of the ri ght-click menu is to
add comments to actions and events. Once
you do so, a small red triangle indicates the
commen t’s presence.
Congratulations! You now hav e a working
knowledgeofParticleFlow. Ifyou’dliketotry
some more tutorials, please go to t
his page and
download the 3ds Max 8 Tutorials – Online Help
(or PDF versions) and the S cene and Support Files.
Par ticle Flow FAQ
This topic offers answers to a number of questions
users commonly ask when first learning to use
Particle Flow. The first section contains links to all
the questions, and the subsequent sections contain
the questions and answers organized by category.
Question Lis t
How does Particle Flow handle time? (page 2–119)
WhenIgotoadifferentframe,thesoftware
sometimes seems to freeze for a while. What’s going
on? (page 2–119)
Is there a way to pre-calculate portions of a particle
simulation, as in "baking" the animation? (page
2–120)
What else can I do to optimize performance? (page
2–120)
HowdoIuseParticleFlowtomakeanobject
explode? (page 2–120)
How can I control the accuracy of the Particle Flow
simulation? (page 2–120)
Can I use MAXScript to affect particles? (page
2–120)
CanIusemorethanoneobjectasinstanced
geometr y? (page 2–121)
How can I exclude particles from certain light
sources? (page 2–121)
How do I open Particle View without clicking
Particle View button on the command panel? (page
2–121)
Do I need multiple Particle Views to manage more
than one particle system? (page 2–121)
Can I selectively disable or "turn off" portions of a
particle system? (page 2–121)
I sometimes see events named “Action Recovery” in
Particle View. Where did they come from? (page
2–121)
How do I animate action parameters? (page 2–121)
How can I synchronize an animated bitmap texture
to particle age? (page 2–121)
Do I still need to bind my Particle Flow particles to
space warps? (page 2–121)
How do I make particles follow a path? (page 2–122)
Can I use Snapshot or dynamics with Particle Flow?
(page 2–122)
HowdoIusemotionblurwithParticleFlow?(page
2–122)
How do I use the Particle Age and Particle MBlur
maps with Particle Flow? (page 2–122)
I’m trying to apply Particle Flow to an animation
created with a dynamics system. Why am I getting
strange results such as unexpected spawni ng of
particles? (page 2–122)