Source Particle Import 3.0.7

Install: download HoovyTools-ParticleImport-Blender-3.0.7.zip below, leave it zipped, and drag it onto any Blender window. Blender offers a Legacy Add-on install - keep Enable on Install ticked. It replaces 3.0.2; restart Blender afterwards.

Needs Blender 4.2 or newer (developed on 5.2) and your own copy of Source Filmmaker, whose .pcf, .vmt and .vtf files it reads.

New in 3.0.7

• A build that runs into a problem finishes. An effect with a missing material (or any other warning) stopped at the very end with "UnboundLocalError: cannot access local variable 'htlog'" - on every Blender. It now builds and reports the problem.
• Blender 4.2 - 4.5 build the same effects as 5.x. Blender 5 numbers some node sockets differently, and on 4.x random ranges, seeds and integer compares reached the wrong sockets - effects came out flattened or in the wrong place, mostly without an error. Measured over every node type the add-on makes: every socket now matches 5.x.
• The Proxy View stand-in cards are scaled, not turned (sprites and trails).
• More than one SFM on the computer: the add-on uses the install the .pcf sits in, then the one SFM Session Importer is set to, then the one holding the most - not simply the first one found. Materials are looked up in every mod folder of every install, so a pack in another folder or on another drive is found.

Video tutorial: Import Particles into Blender. The preview videos are on the 3.0.0 release.

Source Particle Import 3.0.2

Install: download HoovyTools-ParticleImport-Blender-3.0.2.zip below, leave it zipped, and drag it onto any Blender window. Blender offers a Legacy Add-on install - keep Enable on Install ticked. It replaces 3.0.1; restart Blender afterwards.

Needs Blender 4.2 or newer (developed on 5.2) and your own copy of Source Filmmaker, whose .pcf, .vmt and .vtf files it reads.

New in 3.0.2

• Forces run on the same clock as gravity. Random Force, Pull towards control point and twist around axis took one extra step of force every frame: a Random Force of -950 stopped a 365 u/s launch at 34 units, where Gravity -950 stops it at 70 (the physics answer). Both now reach 70.1, at 24 and at 60 fps, and a free fall under the force matches a free fall under gravity frame by frame. Sparks, debris and kinked beams rise a little higher and fall a little slower - the way the file says.
• Rotation Yaw Random on cards locked to a control point (orientation 2) spins the card in its own plane instead of squishing it. Camera-facing and erect cards keep the squish.
• Yaw Initial and Yaw Exponent are read from the file. A yaw range the file leaves out is a whole turn (0-360), as in Source.
• New operator: Remap Percentage Between Two Control Points to Scalar. Where a particle sits between a start and an end control point (0 to 1), remapped into radius or alpha - how many beams taper from thick to thin. It was skipped before, so those beams drew at full width.

Video tutorial: Import Particles into Blender. The preview videos are on the 3.0.0 release.

Source Particle Import 3.0.1

Install: download HoovyTools-ParticleImport-Blender-3.0.1.zip below, leave it zipped, and drag it onto any Blender window. Blender offers a Legacy Add-on install - keep Enable on Install ticked. It replaces 3.0.0; restart Blender afterwards.

Needs Blender 4.2 or newer (developed on 5.2) and your own copy of Source Filmmaker, whose .pcf, .vmt and .vtf files it reads.

New in 3.0.1 - Ensure PIL

• The add-on loads without Pillow. A Pillow put into Blender by another Python - another Blender version, a system Python, or Load Previous Settings carrying scripts\modules over - stopped the whole add-on with cannot import name '_imaging' from 'PIL', and with it SFM Session Importer's particles. Now only the preview cards need Pillow.
• Tools > PCF Preview > 4.3 Ensure PIL installs Pillow with your Blender's own Python, so it always fits: over the broken copy, else into Blender's site-packages, else into your scripts\modules folder. About 7 MB from PyPI, once - no restart.
• Dev > Wiring > Preview cards says broken or missing and why, with a REPAIR / INSTALL button and the command that does it by hand.
• Create PCF Preview and Whole Folder install it on their way the first time.
• A Text Editor version, # tools/Ensure PIL/Ensure PIL (V1).py, for when the add-on cannot load at all: open it in Blender's Text Editor and press Run Script.

Video tutorial: Import Particles into Blender. The preview videos are on the 3.0.0 release.

Source Particle Import 3.0.0

Install: download HoovyTools-ParticleImport-Blender-3.0.0.zip below, leave it zipped, and drag it onto any Blender window. Blender offers a Legacy Add-on install - keep Enable on Install ticked.

Needs Blender 4.2 or newer (developed on 5.2) and your own copy of Source Filmmaker, whose .pcf, .vmt and .vtf files it reads.

New in 3.0.0

• The HoovyTools sidebar tab, shared with SFM Session Importer, with a ribbon for every tool.
• Calculate Size - how big an effect gets, read from the .pcf without importing it.
• Match .blend reads your scene's frame rate, and a scene with no camera gets one, framed on the effect.
• The Hammer unit grid, simplified: thin lines, 16 units a square.
• A Dev tab: Wiring (what was found, and where), PRINT HELP (one report file to send when something breaks), Configure, Credits and Developer Mode.

Coming from 2.0.0

2.0.0 is the version from hoovytube.com, where it was 0.23.0. Install one version at a time.

The twin, SFM Session Importer, brings in whole sessions with their effects. Video tutorial: Import Particles into Blender. The videos below are the README's previews at full quality.

Source Particle Import 2.0.0

Source Particle Import as it was published on hoovytube.com, as 0.23.0 - renumbered 2.0.0 here, so the versions run in order.

Kept for reference, and for projects that were built on it and would rather not be rebuilt. For anything new, use 3.0.0.

Installs the same way: drag the zip onto Blender. One version at a time.