SHOWIEL:

ShowIEL is a free utility that allows you to view particleIllusion effects. With the new version you can now load any particleIllusion emitter library, including the newer libraries created in particleIllusion 3.0.

Although it was originally intended as just a simple means to view what particleIllusion can do, we found out that it was a lot of fun to just "play around" with the various effects. We like fun, but we also like useful tools, so in this new release of ShowIEL we've added a couple of features that make ShowIEL something you can create with. Besides adding a "grab" feature (that saves the current image to a TGA image), you can now turn off erasing, so the particles "paint" themselves across the window.

We were surprised at how cool and useful this feature turned out to be:

How do you use it?

When you run ShowIEL, you'll need to select a particleIllusion Emitter Library file. Then you just click and drag around the window, creating particles as you go. You can change emitters (effects) by using the L and R arrow keys, or by using your mouse scroll wheel. Hit the "H" key to bring up the help menu, which shows the other functions that are available. That's all there is to it.

The downloads above come with a "sampler" library -- it contains a few emitters (effects) from many of the 25+ different emitter libraries that are available for free download (current count is about 1000 emitters).

If you're not one of those who wants to do a lot of reading or searching, you can download all of the emitter libraries released to date in one file.

After downloading emitter libraries (individually, or all in one file) you should unZip them into one folder somewhere, preferably the one where ShowIEL is located (although that isn't necessary). You then load them in ShowIEL by pressing the "L" key and selecting a file.


Did you know that we release a new emitter library every month? Each month's library contains a variety of different effects, all created with particleIllusion 3.0 (of course). As much fun and cool as ShowIEL is, particleIllusion 3.0 is even more so, because in particleIllusion you can customize every effect and add them to your videos or images!


System Requirements

ShowIEL (and particleIllusion for that matter) should run on most modern computers (anything made in the last 4 years) especially if you have a 3D video card that has OpenGL support. If you have a slower computer, a decent 3D card (with drivers that provide basic hardware-accelerated OpenGL) will make a big difference. Actually, even if you have a fast computer, a 3D card with OpenGL support is still very important.