Particle Effects

Particle effects involve the use of several small images acting on the same set of forces. These particles are created, they move, and they die out. These systems are dynamic and may be used for such effects as explosions, smoke, bubbling liquid and swarms.

In essence, any particle effect needs three key parts: the renderer, the emitter, and the factory. The renderer translates the particle object into a visible object on the screen. The emitter assigns initial locations and velocity vectors for the particles. The factory generates particles and assigns their attributes. There are many different types of each part, and they each have their own parameters.

Creating your own particle effects using code alone may be difficult. A particle effect panel is available to ease through this process. This section will discuss using the particle panel and the large number of variables associated with particle effects.

• Using the Particle Panel
• Loading Particle Systems
• Particle Effect Basic Parameters
• Particle Factories
• Particle Emitters
  • BoxEmitter
  • DiscEmitter
  • PointEmitter
  • RectangleEmitter
  • RingEmitter
  • SphereSurfaceEmitter
  • SphereVolumeEmitter
  • TangentRingEmitter
• Particle Renderers
  • PointParticleRenderer
  • LineParticleRenderer
  • SparkleParticleRenderer
  • SpriteParticleRenderer
  • GeomParticleRenderer