Particles are special entities used by other entities to create visual effects such as lightning, snow, etc.
Particles are defined in .asset files which are found in /Hearts of Iron IV/gfx/particles/.
Adding a Particle
Particle Editor
The particle editor can be accessed by adding exclusively -editor to your launch options in Steam and reverting to 1.11; anything earlier will result in a non functional launcher, anything later will result in a crash upon trying to access the editor. Since the particle editor can't access new particles made by the mod, it is necessary to overwrite vanilla particles, move the edited particles to your mod files, and then verify integrity after you've finished. The particle editor can access any vanilla entity, mesh, or particle; once accessed, the vanilla particle can then be edited to fit your needs.
Adding a Light
Lights are special types of particles that are referred to in entities, for example the muzzle flash of the gun during the combat animation.
Here is a generic example:
light = {
name = "name_of_light"
color = {
r = { <float> }
g = { <float> }
b = { <float> }
}
intensity = <float>, fade
radius = <float>
falloff = <float>
position = {
x = <float>
y = <float>
z = <float>
}
animation = {
name = "name_of_animation"
start = <float>
duration = <float>
repeat = yes
op = <type>
minValue = <float>
maxValue = <float>
curve = {
<decimal> <decimal> <decimal> <decimal> <decimal> <decimal>
#example: 0.000 0.000 0.250 1.000 0.500 0.500 0.750 0.000 1.000 1.000
}
}
}
- name is the name of the light.
- color is the color of the light. The values take decimal RGB.
- intensity is the intensity of the light, and the second value is whether it fades.
- radius is the radius of the light.
- falloff is the falloff gradient of the light.
- position is the position of the light relative to the entity using it.
- animation is animation to play for the light.
Animation
- name is the name of the animation.
- start is the starting position of the curve.
- duration is the duration of the animation.
- repeat determines whether the animation is repeated.
- op determines how multiple sources mix. Can be multiply (MUL), additive (ADD) or absolute (ABS).
- minValue is the minimum value on the curve.
- maxValue is the maximum value on the curve.
- curve is the curve used for the light; each set of two decimals denote an x and y position on the curve graph, the game uses these points to calculate a change in whatever the animation is interacting with. The amount of decimals should always be even; the max y value is determined by "maxValue" argument, the min y value is determined by the "minValue" argument, the max x value is determined by "duration" and the min x value is determined by "start". You can have as many sets of decimals as you want but the last x coordinate must match with the duration and the first must match with "start".