3D ParticleGen Visual FX

I'm unusual in that I tend to get more excited over new software release to the Steam store than games. I love the learning process of learning a piece of software like Maya, Softimage or Houdini. For $5, I jumped at buying another visual fx tool sight unseen. After using it for a bit, I can pretty much sum up what this software is and what it isn't. First of all, it should be mentioned this software dates from about 2006. Little apparent work has been done on it in that time. The UI really feels it's age. The app consists of a lot of free floating child windows that don't dock (yeah, 2006) but there's a lot of functionality, curve editors to control particle parameters over time, timelines for layering and sequencing groups of these effects, and so on. It's well designed and functional. Particles are rendered in a 3D viewport. So what can you *DO* with the app. Well, it appears this app intended to target the visual effects industry not game development. There's no way to ...

I know this software is only 5 bucks..but.. I still wouldn't recommend it for doing special effects. The UI and program set up seems to be made for Win 95 or even lower. The file system menu seems to be out of order and needs quite a bit of work done to it. You cant even open up a new project under the File menu. On the other hand.. if you would like a effect library to just use as a reference to do in other software.. I would recommend it. It does have a bunch of built in effects you may want to view just to get the feel of how you may do them in other software. Just remember you get what you pay for.

After an afternoon of banging my head against a wall of frustration I have to say this program is not really useful for any kind of compositing or creation of game assets. The information states "Export of depth information and alpha channel", which is technically true. However it ONLY exports alpha channels in DDS format which is a major pain in the ass to do anything with.

DO NOT BUY THIS STUPID THING!!! I CANNOT URGE YOU ENOUGH TO STEER WELL CLEAR OF THIS NONSENSE. I PAID ABOUT £2 FOR THIS, IT FAILED TO DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FROM THE MOMENT IT WAS INSTALLED. STEAM HAD NO SOLUTION. THE COMPANY BEHIND ITS MAKING WENT OUT OF BUSINESS AGES AGO. NINE MONTHS ON AND I FINALLY AM AWARDED MY MONEY BACK, SORT OF, AND I NOW SEE THEY'VE HIKED THE PRICE TO A MASSIVE SEVEN QUID. UNBELIEVABLE. I WANTED THIS THING TO WORK, SADLY IT DOESN'T. IGNORE IT.

Only played with it for half hour. Its got a lot going on, its a bit over whelming, BUT i can see its amazing, especially when you consider the tiny price tag. Fantastic bit of software for the price :) I will be using it to create some cool effects for splash screens for games.

its a great tool and so cheap compared to the rest ,Great for creating in game flash animations/effects for videos and has a quality selection of preset effects

This software would appear to have NO use - I've played with it for a while - there are NO tutorials and if you read their blurb, it puts that problem on you for not reading the manual. There is no examples of how to create one from scratch and what you can export is tantamount to useless. Avoid

Not really playing with this tool yet, but it does do something cool. I just hope it have future updates.

I decided this program is wrong in past. But i finally found a guide which explains how to work with this. Happy to help. Hail me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S2J5Kekdz0 ♥♥♥ I COULD BE HAPPY IF YOU LIKE SOME SCREENSHOTS IN MY GALLERY :) ♥♥♥

I'd forgotten about this software until someone recently triggered a discussion board thread. I strongly recommend you do not buy this. Learn to use Blender for pre-rendered visual effects instead (especially since Blender introduced a node-system which makes particle and material generation far easier to manage and manipulate and I'd have an essay of praises to include here were I more easily distracted). This software is very out-of-date in many regards and practically abandoned. The workflow isn't intuitive and the results are limiting and dated. You'll also need to email TopWare to have your activation reset whenever you upgrade or change machines as they [b]still[/b] do not use the Steam DRM to identify user access despite being on Steam for at least half a decade.