Particle Editor

The Particle Editor lets you view and edit particles for Petroglyph's games.

Download

To run, just unzip the archive to a location of your choice and start ParticleEditor.exe.

Please download and install the latest DirectX runtime if you have trouble running the program.

Manual

A particle file (.alo) can be opened by the Particle Editor by:

  • Dragging it on ParticleEditor.exe.
  • Dragging it on the 3D window if the editor is already opened.
  • By using the File > Open menu command.
  • By selecting one of the at most 9 previously files in the File menu.

A Particle Effect relies on two kinds of external files: textures and shaders. The viewer will find the installation directory of Empire at War and/or Forces of Corruption and use those to locate the required textures and shaders. These are searched for in all MegaFiles referenced in MegaFiles.xml, as well as the Data\Art\Textures and Data\Art\Shaders directories. These locations are the same as the location where the game searches.

Once the particle editor has been opened, you can view the scene and move the camera by panning (left drag), rotating (right drag) or zooming (mouse wheel or ctrl+drag).

You can spawn particle systems by shift+left clicking anywhere on the ground.

For a more detailed tutorial on editing particles, swgbex made a great tutorial.

Changelog
v1.4:Fixed a bug with particle system orientation. Orientation is now consistent with the Alo Viewer(2008/06/15)
v1.3:Added german language version.(2008/06/05)
v1.2:Fixed a UI bug and prevented a burst delay of 0 locking up the editor.(2007/05/28)
v1.1:Corrected "Emit mode" option and improved compatability rendering.(2007/05/18)
v1.0:Initial release.(2007/05/15)