PartiEd - Renderware 3 Particle System Editor

PartiEd is a windows app which allows users to open DFF files containing particle systems
and/or geometry, add or delete particle systems, interactively modify the particle system
parameters and save them out again. You can also use PartiEd to create new particle systems
from scratch and save them as DFFs.

3D Studio MAX users will find that they can use the RwParticle plugin to place particle
emitters in a scene, export as a DFF and then use PartiEd to modify the particle parameters.
The sample files house.dff and house.max demonstrate this. However the MAX exporter does
not read back information containing in a DFF so modifications made by PartiEd will be lost
if you re-export. (PartiEd is probably not very useful to you if you have RenderVision
because of this.)

RwParticle is not supported in Maya or SoftImage, so users of these apps will most likely
need to use PartiEd to create single particle systems from scratch, save them as DFFs
and rely on their programming team to place them in a world relative to other objects.
Note that PartiEd will load DFFs exported from these apps, so you can use exported geometry
to gain a sense of scale while creating your particle systems.

Particle systems don't save their names in the DFF file format, so they are simply numbered
in the order they are found in a DFF file, and are listed in the particle system list box.
Selecting a particle system in the list box causes the rest of the dialog to reflect the
values of the various parameters. The New and Delete buttons will create or destroy a particle
system.

Any textures used by your DFF must be saved in a folder with the same name as the DFF file
in order for PartiEd to find them. (They also must be in .bmp .png or .tif format.)  Textures
found to be used by a particle system will be listed in the Textures list box. You can assign
a texture to the currently selected particle system by clicking in this list.  You can load
a new texture to use with the Load File... button (make sure it's stored in a folder with the
same name as your DFF though!)  If you edit the texture while PartiEd is running you can click
the Reload button and PartiEd will attempt to reload the selected texture and allow you to see
your changes.

The sliders should be fairly straightforward. Two points though:

1. Many of the parameter's ranges are unbounded, so the slider may stop before you manage to
reach the value you want.  If you type a bigger number into the corresponding text box, the
slider will rescale its limits to be bigger and you can drag the slider again. (This is
similar to the behaviour of sliders in Maya).

2. Lots of really big particles will bring any machine to its knees. So be careful with the
number, size and growth parameters!

You can navigate your scene via the tool bar buttons and the mouse.  Click a tool bar button
(Magnifier, Rotate, or Hand) and left click and drag in the viewports to zoom in/out,
look left & right or up and down, or truck the camera.

The box button attempts to move the camera to a position such that it can see the whole scene.