Precipitation¶

The Torque 3D World Editor allows you to quickly add different types of precipitation to your level. However, Precipitation is used as a general term meaning any type of particle moving downward. The ability to quickly add rain, snow, or even a sandstorm to your level is built into the editor.

Adding Precipitation¶

To add Precipitation to a level, switch to the Library tab in the Scene Tree panel. Click on the Level tab amd double-click the Environment folder. Locate the Precipitation entry.

Double-click the Precipitation entry.The Create Object dialog will appear.

Enter a name for your Precipitation object. The Precipitation data field allows you to choose a datablock to start with as the basis for your new object. Click the drop down box for a list of available datablocks.

For the Full template, your only choice is HeavyRain so select it then click Create New. Your new Precipitation object will be added to your level, and rain will start falling automatically. The stock datablock for HeavyRain simulates a light shower, so you may not see much rain falling:

The HeavyRain datablock is located in the game/art/datablocks/environment.cs file. Its initial data contains the following:

datablock PrecipitationData(HeavyRain)
{
   soundProfile = "HeavyRainSound";

   dropTexture = "art/environment/precipitation/rain";
   splashTexture = "art/environment/precipitation/water_splash";
   dropSize = 0.35;
   splashSize = 0.1;
   useTrueBillboards = false;
   splashMS = 500;
};

We will get into manipulating the datablock later.

Precipitation Properties¶

Additional properties can be changed with the Inspector pane. To change a Precipitation objects properties using the Inspector Pane click the Scene tab, then click the name of your new Precipitation object. The Inspector pane will update to display the current properties of your new sun.

Inspector¶

name: TypeName. Optional global name of this object.
id: TypeCaseString. SimObjectId of this object. Read Only.
Source Class: TypeCaseString. Source code class of this object. Read Only.

Transform¶

position: MatrixPosition. Object world position.
rotation: MatrixOrientation. Object world orientation.
scale: Point3F. Object world scale.

Precipitation¶

numDrops: TypeS32. Number of drops allowed to exists in the precipitation box at any one time.
boxWidth: TypeF32. Width of precipitation box.
boxHeight: TypeF32. Height of precipitation box.

Rendering¶

dropSize: TypeF32. Size of each drop of precipitation. This will scale the texture.
splashSize: TypeF32. Size of each splash animation for when a drop collides.
splashMS: TypeS32. Life of splashes in milliseconds.
animateSplashes: TypeS32. Check to enable splash animation on collision.
dropAnimateMS: TypeS32. If greater than zero, will animate the drops from the frames in the texture.
fadeDist: TypeF32. The distance at which fading of the drops begins.
fadeDistEnd: TypeF32. The distance at which fading of the particles ends.
useTrueBillboards: TypeBool. Check to make drops true (non axis-aligned) billboards.
useLighting: TypeBool. Check to enable shading of the drops and splashes by the sun color.
glowIntensity: TypeColorF. Set to 0 to disable the glow or or use it to control the intensity of each channel.
reflect: TypeBool. This enables the precipitation to be rendered during reflection passes. This is expensive.
rotateWithCamVel: TypeBool. Enables drops to rotate to face camera.

Collision¶

doCollision: TypeBool. Allow collision with world objects.
hitPlayers: TypeBool. Allow collision on player objects.
hitVehicles: TypeBool. Allow collision on vechiles.

Movement¶

followCam: TypeBool. Enables system to follow the camera or stay where it is placed.
useWind: TypeBool. Check to have the Sky property windSpeed affect precipitation.
minSpeed: TypeF32. Minimum speed that a drop will fall.
maxSpeed: TypeF32. Maximum speed that a drop will fall.
minMass: TypeF32. Minimum mass of a drop.
mMaxMass: TypeF32. Maximum mass of a drop.

Turbulence¶

useTurbulence: TypeBool. Check to enable turubulence. This causes precipitation drops to spiral while falling.
maxTurbulence: TypeF32. Radius at which precipitation drops spiral when turbulence is enabled.
turbulenceSpeed: TypeF32. Speed at which precipitation drops spiral when turbulence is enabled.

Game¶

dataBlock: TypeGameBaseData. Script datablock used for game objects.