Particle Text Plugin

[killer_refresh]

What result are you getting? Could you post a screenshot of what you see in the Particle Editor preview window and your settings on the ParticleText emitter module? I’d love to pinpoint your specific issue interactively so I can make sure to shore up any inadequacies in the tutorial.

[bigboy2k]

@matt.longest

What result are you getting? Could you post a screenshot of what you see in the Particle Editor preview window and your settings on the ParticleText emitter module? I’d love to pinpoint your specific issue interactively so I can make sure to shore up any inadequacies in the tutorial.

I figured it out but I had to do some digging to figure out the problem. Basically I didn’t have the GPU Sprites active in my particle system (you didn’t include that addition into your tutorial) and then later I figured out how to create the text particle without the GPU Sprite emitter (as you had in your demo level). I recommend you create a tutorial that walks you through the whole process of creating a particle text emitter that uses both GPU Sprites and doesn’t use GPU Sprites. I only say this because your website tutorial is super bare bones and I am sure not everyone is familiar with the whole particle system to the point where they can just pick up this plugin and use it in their work. Thank you for your help!

[bigboy2k]

Do you think you can update your tutorial based on what I said? Thank you!

[killer_refresh]

@bigboy2k

Do you think you can update your tutorial based on what I said? Thank you!

Thanks, yes, I’ve now updated the guide here:
http://killerrefresh.com/index.php/particle-text-plugin
with a note about how to add GPU typedata.

[anonymous_user_7ffea365]

hey, does this plugin work on mobile? i’m running into some errors w an android build on my pixel 2.

[killer_refresh]

Hi Spencer,
The plugin isn’t currently supported on mobile.

Here’s some further context from earlier in this thread:

@matt.longest

Hi Calvin, Particle Text isn’t currently supported on mobile. Based on some brief testing on a single Android phone, the basic Particle Text module works, but the ParticleTextParamComponent does not (meaning: you can get static text, but can’t get the dynamic morphing text). This is about what I’d expect, as the basic Particle Text Module pre-allocates the particle positions in the editor, and the ParticleTextParamComponent calculates them at runtime by rendering out a texture on the GPU. If you’re interested, I can point you to how to compile the plugin for mobile, but I can’t officially guarantee any functionality or performance.

[Wikakoz]

Hi Guys.
Is there any possibility to create text from particles not just destroy text? I want reverese the proces.
I would be gratefull for any help

[killer_refresh]

Yes that’s totally possible! The example project shows this off with the particles flying off the NPC’s body to form “+10xp”. It requires hooking up a particle attractor module to your particle system.

[maffew]

I’m having trouble spawning the Particle System. If I drop a particle system in scene with the ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ it works great! I am using blueprint and have tried ‘Spawn Emitter at Location’ which works great, but then I can’t set the text. I tried adding a ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ and setting the text on that, but it didnt change.
I also tried creating a blueprint actor with the particle system as the root, with a ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ attached. This worked in editor, but once I clicked play and tried to set the text in blueprint, it didn’t update.

[killer_refresh]

@maffew

I’m having trouble spawning the Particle System. If I drop a particle system in scene with the ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ it works great! I am using blueprint and have tried ‘Spawn Emitter at Location’ which works great, but then I can’t set the text. I tried adding a ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ and setting the text on that, but it didnt change.
I also tried creating a blueprint actor with the particle system as the root, with a ‘Particle Text Parameter Component’ attached. This worked in editor, but once I clicked play and tried to set the text in blueprint, it didn’t update.

Hi maffew, could you post some screenshots of your blueprints, or do you have a small project you could zip up where I could see this in action?

[maffew]

@killer_refresh

Hi maffew, could you post some screenshots of your blueprints, or do you have a small project you could zip up where I could see this in action?

Thanks for the quick reply. I managed to get this working by putting a short delay between setting the text param and activating the particle system.
Does the text node in the particle system use the font as an alpha? How easily could this plugin be extended to allow for a greyscale image to be used as a mask instead of the text?

Thanks,

Matt

[killer_refresh]

@maffew

Thanks for the quick reply. I managed to get this working by putting a short delay between setting the text param and activating the particle system.
Does the text node in the particle system use the font as an alpha? How easily could this plugin be extended to allow for a greyscale image to be used as a mask instead of the text?

Thanks,

Matt

Ah, yes, in order to minimize the perf impact, the new text is rendered asynchronously. This means you’ll need a small delay in order to have the new text be used if you have a system that bursts all of its particles at time 0. It ends up being less of an issue for continuous emitters, as there’s only a single frame with particles emitted from the stale locations

The plugin could probably be extended to use greyscale images instead of text with some amount of C++ refactoring. The work isn’t on my roadmap right now, but if you’re interested in digging into it, DM me and I can give you some tips.

-matt

[mhnoni]

Hi
I just download the demo project and its 4.16, i bought the plugin for my project which is 4.15 and its in final stage cant upgrade my project. is it possible you can send me the demo project for 4.15? and hopefully you can add the boom effect which is shown on your video min 00:30 as i couldn’t find it in the demo project.

Most important thing for me right now is XP effect and i spend the last 5 hours trying to replicated it on 4.15 but i couldn’t make it work. not sure if my engine have a bug or what since the demo project your provided 4.16 works fine.

Thanks

[killer_refresh]

Hi mhoni,
Good catch on the BOOM effect. I’ve updated the 4.16 tutorial project to include it: here
What issues are you running into with the XP effect? What result do you get? I can put together a small map in 4.15 that just has the XP effect, as porting entire levels backwards though UE4 versions is a bit laborious.

[mhnoni]

@killer_refresh

Hi mhoni,
Good catch on the BOOM effect. I’ve updated the 4.16 tutorial project to include it: here
What issues are you running into with the XP effect? What result do you get? I can put together a small map in 4.15 that just has the XP effect, as porting entire levels backwards though UE4 versions is a bit laborious.

Hi
Thanks for updating the demo project i will check it.
Regarding the XP i finally able to replicate it so all fine here.
The only problem left I’m facing is setting “text parameter” in 4.15 doesn’t work on real time from the component as it should, i tested it on 4.16 and it works fine but in 4.15 it doesn’t even after i moved the plugin from 4.16 to 4.15 and compiled it there, i found a way by setting it on constriction script but that means i will have to spawn the emitter every time i want to change the text. so could you please check setting “text parameter” for the emitter in 4.15 works on your side? btw its not really important so don’t both much about it if it didn’t work on 4.15 but it will be nice to make it work : )

Thanks

[mhnoni]

OK an update about the 4.15, seems engine version was not the reason why setting text is not working, after some time i found out that setting text doesn’t work on GPU type as same as CPU so for now i will stick to CPU type.

[mhnoni]

killer refresh

Hi, could you please update to 4.21 as soon as you can, since right now i got project i need to publish and 4.20 was not an option as the engine had a lot of VR bugs.
Btw triad to compile it from the source and it the compile was success but when i tried to set text within blueprint and package the project i got compile error on packaging log. seems something changed between 4.20 and 4.21.

Thanks

[killer_refresh]

@mhnoni

killer refresh

Hi, could you please update to 4.21 as soon as you can, since right now i got project i need to publish and 4.20 was not an option as the engine had a lot of VR bugs.
Btw triad to compile it from the source and it the compile was success but when i tried to set text within blueprint and package the project i got compile error on packaging log. seems something changed between 4.20 and 4.21.

Thanks

Thanks mhnoni,
I’ve submitted the 4.21 update to Epic. Hopefully it’ll be available within the next week.
In the meantime, if you’re compiling it from source, you should just have to modify ParticleText.uplugin to change the version:

"EngineVersion": "4.21.0",

I’ve successfully packaged for Windows64 with only that change

[mhnoni]

Thanks a lot again for quick response it worked

BR

[Kamukasha]

I Have no idea how to use this, any help? Thanks!! Ive looked over the tutorial page and the tutoroiral project and so confused. I want it to display after I kill a enemy etc…