Simply Maya User Community - View Single Post - Particle replacing without instancing

Well, I got it working with an ugly hack :p If someone can figure out a more sophisticated method I'd be really appreciated.

Here's what I did:
For the per particle creation expression I wrote:

Code:

string $sDupName = ("dup" + particle1Shape.particleId);
string $sNewObj[] = `duplicate nurbsSphere1`;
rename $sNewObj[0] $sDupName;

In the per particle runtime expression I wrote:

Code:

string $sDupName = ("dup" + particle1Shape.particleId);
if(particle1Shape.age >= particle1Shape.lifespan)
	delete $sDupName;
else
{
	vector $vPos = particle1Shape.position;
	setAttr ($sDupName + ".tx") ($vPos.x);
	setAttr ($sDupName + ".ty") ($vPos.y);
	setAttr ($sDupName + ".tz") ($vPos.z);
}

Finally I wrote an expression that deletes all the duplicates when the animation is at start:

Code:

if(frame == 0)
{
	if(`objExists "dup*"`)
		delete "dup*";
}

As I said earlier, this is not a fool proof method because I'm relying on object names. Works for the purpose I need right now though...