Can't instance particle system? Try this.

Source Filmmaker9 views1 min readby penguin252View on Steam ↗

Problem

Lately while using SFM, I’ve noticed that there’s been an issue with using particles. Specifically, whenever I try to “Instance Particle System,” nothing seems to happen.

Until I noticed this console error:

"Could not execute the command: dmxconvert -allowdebug -i "[Steam Folder]/sourcefilmmaker/game/[Your Particle]" -ie binary -o "[Steam Folder]\sourcefilmmaker\game\[…] \_temp_conversion_file_.dmx" -oe binary -of pcf Windows gave the error message: "The system cannot find the file specified."

This was really annoying and I had no idea how to fix this. Until I came across a discussion thread where someone was having the same problem. And user atari916 seems to have found a solution. After following his instructions, my particles are now working! This seems to be becoming a more frequent problem. So, I decided to post this guide just in case anyone else is having this problem.

Solution

Basically, you want to edit your system environmental path. Which just tells windows where to find executables. You will likely need admin privileges for this.

Step 1

Go to start and type "environment variables" and click the first result. Again, click environment variables.