Particle Universe can't load particle systems

[AbiCgail]

I have been troubleshooting with my Ogre game project. The Particle Universe plug-in seems to be crash in PUSystemManager.cpp because it is not loading with Ogre’s dynamic lib system. Also it does not work if you load it as a regular DLL. I tried all the possible ways that I could but nothing happened. What should I do? Please help me to solve it as soon as possible.

[Ronchi]

After reading your question it reflects that your pManager variable is in Null (0x00000001) Fact. Initialize it and use it properly so that you can create a particle system with it. First set a breakpoint at the line of code as per the following:

ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* ssys = pManager->createParticleSystem
("hit1", "hit1" , GSYS->GetSceneMgr());

the ParticleManager constructor initialized it like this -

ParticleManager::ParticleManager()
{
pManager = NULL;
pnode = NULL;
}

[Steyn]

According to me the ParticleManager.h file looks like this:

Copyright (c) 2010 Yunus Kara

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.
*/

#include "StdAfx.h"
#include "ParticleManager.h"
#include "GraphicsSystem.h"
#include "xml/tinyxml.h"
using namespace Ogre;

template<> ParticleManager* Ogre::Singleton<ParticleManager>::ms_Singleton = 0;

ParticleManager* ParticleManager::getSingletonPtr(void)
{
	return ms_Singleton;
}

ParticleManager& ParticleManager::getSingleton(void)
{  
	assert( ms_Singleton );  return ( *ms_Singleton );
}

ParticleManager::ParticleManager()
{
	pManager = NULL;
	pnode = NULL;
}

ParticleManager::~ParticleManager()
{
	Finalize();
}

void ParticleManager::Initialize()
{
	//get mgr
	
	pManager = ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystemManager::getSingletonPtr();

	//create node
	pnode = GSYS->GetSceneMgr()->getRootSceneNode()->createChildSceneNode("ParticleManagerNode");

	//read xml & load sets
	DataStreamPtr data = ResourceGroupManager::getSingleton().openResource("particles.xml");
	String str = data->getAsString();
	TiXmlDocument doc;
	doc.Parse(str.c_str());

	if (!doc.Error())
	{
		TiXmlNode* node;
		node=doc.FirstChild();
		node=node->FirstChild();
		TiXmlAttribute* att;
		for (;node!=0;node=node->NextSibling()) 
		{
			if (node->Type() == TiXmlNode::ELEMENT)
			{
				//get params
				String name = "";
				String system = "";

				if (strcmp(node->Value(), "particle") == 0)
				{
					TiXmlAttribute* att = node->ToElement()->FirstAttribute();
					while (att)
					{
						if (strcmp(att->Name(), "name") == 0)
						{
							name = att->Value();
						}
						else if (strcmp(att->Name(), "system") == 0)
						{
							system = att->Value();
						}
						att = att->Next();
					}

					if (name.length() > 0)
					{
						//create
						ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* psys = pManager->createParticleSystem("hit1", "hit1" , GSYS->GetSceneMgr());
						pnode->attachObject(psys);
						psys->prepare(); // added according to documentation, no effect yet
						//finally add
						syss[name] = psys;
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
	else
	{
		throw Exception(Exception::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND, std::string(doc.ErrorDesc()) + " : particles.xml", __FUNCTION__);
	}
}

void ParticleManager::Finalize()
{
	//remove pnode
	pnode->detachAllObjects();
	GSYS->GetSceneMgr()->getRootSceneNode()->removeAndDestroyChild(pnode->getName());
	pnode = NULL;

	//traverse all systems and delete all
	std::map<Ogre::String, ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem*>::iterator it;
	it = syss.begin();
	while (it != syss.end())
	{
		//remove
		ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* psys = (*it).second;
		psys->stop();
		pManager->destroyParticleSystem(psys->getName(), GSYS->GetSceneMgr());
		it++;
	}
	syss.clear();

	//clear mgr.
	pManager->destroyAllParticleSystems(GSYS->GetSceneMgr());
	pManager = NULL;
}

void ParticleManager::Update()
{
}

void ParticleManager::ShowParticle(String name, Vector3 pos, Vector3 dir)
{
	ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* psys = syss[name];
	psys->getTechnique(0)->getEmitter(0)->position = pos;
	psys->getTechnique(0)->getEmitter(0)->setParticleDirection(dir);
	psys->start();
}

void ParticleManager::HideParticle(Ogre::String name)
{
	ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* psys = syss[name];
	psys->stopFade();
}

[Vandam]

The pManager is ParticleManager type and a pointer to an object. As soon as you call the createParticleSystem() method, means that you are asking that object to do something. As the pManager is not pointed to a valid object, there's nothing to make the request to. For that you have to create a ParticleManager object and point pManager before you can call any methods through that pointer. The easiest way to do is assign a “new ParticleManager” to the pointer. If you do this then you have to manually delete that object.

[Shreevats]

You have to create a new particle. To create a new particle in the “new ParticleManager” you have to do some coding. As creation of a new particle is done by means of the ParticleSystemManager .Use the following code to procede:

ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystemManager* pManager =
ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystemManager::getSingletonPtr();
ParticleUniverse::ParticleSystem* pSys = pManager->createParticleSystem(“mySys”,
“nameOfTemplateScript”, mSceneManager);
mNode->attachObject(pSys);