Script Operator

The Script operator enables control of particles within the Particle Flow system using a MAXScript script. The script can use any program functionality available to MAXScript.

• Particle View > Click Script Operator in an event or add a Script Operator to the particle system and then select it.

When you add a new Script operator, it contains a default script that slows particles, and then, when they are slow enough, splits off the first 50 particles into a stream traveling in a negative direction on the world X axis, and the remainder traveling in the opposite direction.

Tip: You can use MAXScript to align particle scale with the underlying bitmap, thus providing a “scale bitmap” function. This requires a sandwich with three operators: two Script operators, and a Speed By Surface operator in between. The first Script operator reads the current speed vector into the MXVector channel, thus caching the current speed. The Speed By Surface operator changes the speed according to the underlying bitmap. And the second Script operator reads the speed channel into a temporary variable, restores the speed from the MXVector channel (the cached value), and uses the temporary variable to define the scale. This way, the original speed is restored, and the scale value is defined by the bitmap.

Interface

The user interface appears in the parameters panel, on the right side of the Particle View dialog.

Edit Script

Click this button to open the current script in a MAXScript Editor window.

For detailed information about the MAXScript utility, open the MAXScript Help, available from Help menu MAXScript Help.

Uniqueness group

The Uniqueness setting provides a randomization seed that the script can use or ignore.

Seed

Specifies a randomization value.

New

Calculates a new seed using a randomization formula.