Point Scale Multiplied by @age Ramp... Need Clarification!

[Acacius]

Hey!

I was wondering if anyone could clarify what exactly is happening here in this image.

My Interpretation: pscale is multipled by a ramp...which is driven by age variable? I know that ramps have values from 0 to 1, and if pscale here is 0.01, then the 0.01 is "1" (max) and 0 is the minimum, right? What I don't get it, how does the "age" play a role here? Let's say 0.37/1.32 = ~0.28. Does this mean that the point will only 0.28*0.01 in size?

The Goal: Here's what I want to happen. "When The particles are just spawning, I don't want them to the full size before frame ~8, and before they "Die off" completely, I yet again want to make them smaller."

...Have I achieved this? I could very well be overthinking, but that's why I'm making this post. I just for some reason can't grasp it ahah, the "age" variable in the whole thing throws me off.

Edit: ...I think it hit me? (Let me know). Basically - age by itself, since it's getting divided, will always be from 0 to 1, and since the "life" of a point always stays the same, the age will naturally increase from 0-1 in it's lifespan. Because of this, The ramp is...no wait... if it's 0.28~, why would it be full size (0.01) just because the ramp shows "1" there? Okay, nvm, Still confused ahah. Gonna go to bed, wake up with a fresh head. Cheers.

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Acacius

[ryew]

Yep, you've got it right.

@age / @life is calculating the Normalized Age, restricting it between 0.0 at birth and 1.0 at death (instead of 0.0 and, say, just randomly 23.786)

That @age result is determining the Position along the ramp called "Point Size" to reference; the screencap is clipped but I assume those points at the top of the ramp are set to a Value of 1.0 so your code will reference that Value at the 0.28 Position along the ramp.

That value at Position 0.28 along your ramp is then being multiplied by the set Point Scale value, which is 0.01, so yes, the result will be 0.01.

* As a side note going forward, you can set the Value of ramp positions to whatever range you want to interpolate with your ramp points (-100 at the bottom of the ramp and 100 at the top of the ramp, for example) .