Particle Effects+
This addon currently requires the "x86-64" or "dev" branch!
This is due to core functions (Get/SetShouldSimulate) not being available in the main branch until the next Gmod update. To switch branches, right-click on Garry’s Mod in the Steam library, then go to Properties > Game Versions & Betas.
Adds all particle effects from all mounted games and addons to the spawnmenu as spawnable objects.
Features:
- Particles are used for all sorts of different visual effects – explosions, fire, weather effects, bullet tracers, smoke clouds, water splashes, blood splatters, electricity, dust and debris, unusual effects and more. Gmod already comes with hundreds of effects by default, while games and addons can add thousands more.
- In the spawnmenu, you can browse effects from any mounted game or addon in the "Browse Particle Effects" dropdown, search for them by name in the search box, and add them to your own custom spawnlists just like props. Also includes pre-made custom spawnlists for some games (Gmod, HL2, TF2, CS:S, HL:S, Portal), organized like prop spawnlists to make it easier to find the effects you want.
- This addon automatically parses all mounted .PCF files, getting a list of all effects and what functionality they have; this means that newly added effects from any game, addon, or update should work right out of the box, without any hassle for devs or players. Also supports non-PCF effects using the util.Effect function, though these ones do need to be defined manually in code (devs see here).
- In the context menu (hold C), right-click a spawned effect (or a model it’s attached to), and select "Edit Particle Effect" to edit settings on the effect – restart or pause it in place, turn it on and off with a key, control how often it repeats, and set effect-specific settings like color control points.
- Includes a Particle Attacher tool (found in the Render category) to attach effects to models and their attachment points. Effects are also attachable with the Advanced Bonemerge Tool, which can attach them to any bone of a model, and move and rotate them freely (recommended for TF2 unusual hat effects).
- Also includes 3 "Special Effect" entities that control particle effects in useful ways – Tracer Effects fire particles out like bullets, Projectile Effects launch models with attached particles, and Beam Effects make particles work like a laser pointer. All 3 of these can be used with any particle effects, have a ton of customizable options, and can be attached or bonemerged to models themselves.
- All effects are 100% dupe and save compatible.
FAQ:
- How can I hide the big arrows, numbers, and rings on effect control points?
Control point helpers are only shown when you have the physgun or toolgun out. You can also hide them by unchecking Draw Effect Rings in the Drawing tab of the C menu. - How do you remove or edit effects attached to yourself?
If you select yourself with the Particle Attacher tool, it’ll show a list of effects in the tool’s control panel, which you can click on to open an editor for them in the C menu. From there, you can detach the effect from yourself. - Why do tracers and projectiles start to disappear when I tell it to spam a whole lot of them?
The convar sv_peplus_particlesperent sets a hard limit on how many effect instances (or projectiles) a single entity can have active at once, to try to prevent crashes from insane particle spam. The default is 32 (which is still a lot), but you can set it higher at your own risk. - How do I increase the "Particle Effect limit" in multiplayer?
You can set the convar sbox_maxpeplus in the console, or open the spawnmenu and go to Utilities > Admin > Sandbox Settings to control it with a slider.
Known issues:
- Some obscure effects may have control points that work unintuitively. Usually, that’s because these effects were only intended to be used by their developers in some very specific way, not spawned as decorations – that’s just how they were designed, nothing to be done about it.
- Loading a large number of PCF files (from either mounted games or addons) will increase map startup times as this addon processes them all; more to read = longer load times. I’ve optimized this where I can, including caching info to the data folder to make subsequent loads over 75% shorter, but it can only read thousands of effects so fast.
- If an effect is attached to a model (with either our Attacher tool or Advanced Bonemerge), attaching that model with Easy Bonemerge will break the effect (merge-via-constraint turns the effect entity into a melon prop)
- Existing particle effects on the map (from map ents like info_particle_system and env_fire, or spawned by other addons) may be removed if this addon loads a conflicting effect with the same name. Map effects can be restored by resetting the map with "Clean up everything" in the admin options.
Github page: https://github.com/NO-LOAFING/ParticleEffectsPlus
