[Feature] More path functions

[thanasishadow]

I was looking to create an effect where particles spawn randomly on the same level (from XYZ 0|1|0 to 1|1|1 for example (basically the "top" emitter)) and then travel to the center of the face (XYZ 0.5|1|0.5) before falling down (something similar to the enchanting table particles), but with the current path functions this doesn't seem to be possible unless there is some way of getting the particle's position relative to the block that I'm missing. So my first suggestion would be either a way of getting the particle's own position, or a way to move it towards the center of the block.

If I'm not mistaken, the current emitter modes spawn the particle either on any point of a face, or on any point of the entire bounding box. A "point" or "center" mode which causes the particle(s) to spawn at a fixed location (maybe the exact center?) would be nice to have.

Another thing I would love to see would be the ability to rotate paths based on a specified pivot. For example, I wanted to set up a whirlpool/vortex motion, but it doesn't seem to be possible at the moment (unless of course I'm missing a lot of stuff).

Either way, thanks for making this mod. It's still really good for spicing up custom blocks or adding a touch of fancy to the general environment.

P.S.1 - Another thing that came to mind a bit later - "const" or "cons" as an alias for "constant".

P.S.2 - While working some more with path txts, I thought of a few other things that would be really helpful. So I was trying to make half of the particles follow the inverse path of the other half on the X and Z axis. I ended up using the following:
{
mult randomPos -100 0 -100
{
lowLimit -1 -100 -1
}
}
While this seems to be working fine, I wish there were some "cleaner" or more direct ways available such as the ability to utilize if/else statements, rounding (or converting floats/doubles to integers?). Once again, thanks for making this!

[Laike-Endaril]

Yeah, with the current config files, there is not a way to get or set the origin of the particle; you can only control the offset from the particle's origin, and all the modes cover at least a face, if not a volume, worth of randomized possible origin points (none of them are a precise origin point).

.

There is also not a rotation-type path transformer via the config files. In theory, you don't need one, but it could be a pain to accomplish things without one depending on what you want specifically.

Eg. a path file with this...

sin 0.5 0 1 0 0
add sin 0.5 0.25 0 0 1

...creates a circle on the x/z plane

.

And a path file with this...

sin 0.5 0 1 0 0
add sin 0.5 0.25 0 0 1
add linear 0 0.5 0

...creates an upward helix

.

And this...

sin 0.5 0 1 0 0
add sin 0.5 0.25 0 0 1
add linear 0 -0.1 0
mult constant 1 1 1
{
    add linear -0.1 0 -0.1
}

...will create a (rough) whirlpool-like motion, if combined with a particle that has exactly 10 lifetime (because the negative linear has a rate of -0.1, so in 10 seconds, it will reach -1, which when added to the constant 1 outside the braces, becomes 0, ie. the particle has reached the center of the vortex...if it lives longer than that, it will start doing a reverse-whirlpool unless you use a limiter)

It's interesting to experiment with, but for a whirlpool, you'd want all the particles to have their center-of-vortex aligned, which goes back to the first problem you mentioned

.

The extra aliases are not a bad idea

.

I'm not 100% sure what the end goal was on the last bit, tbh. I can't remember if I had any plans for logic functions or not

.

Lastly and most importantly though, you should be able to do literally everything you're trying to do IF you feel like accessing the library directly in java code (ie. if you make a mod that uses Fantastic Lib). It would be a tougher learning curve, but the reason I'm mentioning it is because I'm not doing mod development right now. The backend library has way more capabilities than are currently exposed via the Custom Particles mod

If you decide to look at that, here are some links you might find useful...

The main particle engine files in the library:
https://github.com/Laike-Endaril/Fantastic-Lib/tree/1.12.2/src/main/java/com/fantasticsource/mctools/particles

The main "path (engine?)" files in the library:
https://github.com/Laike-Endaril/Fantastic-Lib/tree/1.12.2/src/main/java/com/fantasticsource/tools/component/path

A (kind of) example of how to use the library can of course be gleaned from the code of the Custom Particles mod

All of this stuff is pretty complex behind the scenes, but it's there if you decide you really want to mess with it, since I'm not sure if/when I'll get back to modding again