Scripting for C++

I prefer Lua as a scripting language. It can be a little tough to bind to C++, but there are helper libraries out there.

If you want to start simple, then you could also load a plain text file with one line per variable and use that to tweak your particle system.

Either way that you go, you're going to need to write some code. I think that with a simple text definition file for your particle system, you can get away with less code than binding Lua (or some other scripting language) to your particle engine.

Cheers,

Bob

I thing embedding a scripting lanquage is the easiest solution. I've tried Python myself (not without problems) and it took me about 2 days (about 4 hours not 48 [smile]) of reading the manual and trying (I use c++). To change a variable (possibly a particle behaviour) I use about 50-60 lines. I think using a scripting language is the least coding and the most bug save approche.

which scripting language to use is up to you, I suggest look at them all (and how to embedd them, which looks the easiest).

The approche of Scourage (load a plain text file) is a nice solution too. It saves you learning a scripting language (although changing some variables isn't that hard) and learning to embedd it but it gives you the new problem that you need to make your own "script"-loader.

say your a "script" looks like:
= 5
= 6
etc.

the loader would look like.
look for "<"
see what for token is after it (if invalid: error)
look for "> = " (if not there: error)
look for value and assign it to the corresponding variable.

Link you might use (some might be obvious [smile]):
Python
embedding python
lua
ruby

by the way if you use a scripting language I think it's easier to make one function to change particle behaviour with a enum (id, integer) as argument which property to change because making more function acsessable for the scripting language is much more work than make a id for every propery.

example:
instead of:
ChangeLife(float), ChangeSpeed(float)

ChangePropery(int propery, float value)
{
swith (propery)
case Life:
Life = value
case etc. etc.
}

but this is how I would do it and maby there are beter alternatives.