Basics
The Particle Editor is used to create and edit the components a particle is made of:
The Inspector window is required to use this edit mode. Two tabs are shown for each of these components.
Inspector window in Particle Editor mode
The average workflow to create new particles is to first create a new Emitter and then the related Particle. When entering this edit mode, a temporary particle emitter is placed in front of the camera to convieniently be able to see any changes without having to place an emitter manually. This is removed once leaving the edit mode.
Emitter
The Emitter is the object that fires the particles. In this tab you can find all the properties that determine its dynamics.
Emitter tab
At the top of this tab is a dropdown menu to select which emitter to display. To the right of this are the buttons to create a new emitter and save changes (either to its own file, or into the the current level’s folder)
Property
ejectionPeriodMS
Description
Time between each particle ejection, in miliseconds
Property
periodVarianceMS
Description
Randomize ejection period by this value, in miliseconds
Property
ejectionVelocity
Description
Particle ejection velocity
Property
velocityVariance
Description
Randomize ejection speed by this value
Description
Distance along the emitter’s Z axis from which to eject the particles
Property
ejectionOffsetVariance
Description
Randomize the ejection offset by this value
Property
thetaMin/thetaMax
Description
Minimum and maximum angle on the horizontal plane to eject particles from
Description
Angle on the vertical plane to eject particles from
Description
Randomize angle on the vertical plane by this value
Property
softnessDistance
Description
Distance at which the particles will be faded based on the distance between the particle and scene geometry
Description
Amount of ambient lighting affecting the particle
Description
If false, particles emitted in the same frame have their position adjusted to prevent clumping
Description
If true, particles will be oriented to face the camera
Property
orientOnVelocity
Description
If true, particles will be oriented in the direction they are moving
Description
Particle datablock the emitter will use. Only one datablock is officially supported
Description
Lifetime of each particle (from spawn to removal), in miliseconds
Property
lifetimeVarianceMS
Description
Randomize the particle’s lifetime by this value
Description
If true, the particle’s size will depend on the emitter’s scale
Property
useEmitterColors
Description
If true, the particle’s color will depend on the emitter’s color
Description
Blend mode to use for the particle
Description
If true, particles are sorted from furthest to nearest
Description
If true, particles are rendered from oldest to newest
Description
Optional texture to use for the particle, will override the texture set on the particle
Description
If true, particles will be oriented toward the direction set in the alignDirection property
Description
Defines a direction particles should allign with, if alignParticles is enabled
Description
If disabled, particles are drawn at half resolution. Disabling this could decrease performance for large amount of particles
Property
renderReflection
Description
If true, particles will appear in water’s dynamic reflections
Description
Amount of backlight the particle receives
Description
Enable dynamic lighting on the particle
Particle
In this tab you can find all the properties that determine the particles’ dynamics.
Emitter tab
At the top of this tab is a dropdown menu to select which particle to display. To the right of this are the buttons to create a new particle and save changes.
Description
Amount of physical drag
Description
Amount of physical wind effect
Property
gravityCoefficient
Description
Amount of physical gravity effect
Property
inheritedVelFactor
Description
Amount of emitter velocity to add to the particle
Property
constantAcceleration
Description
Constant acceleration to apply to this particle
Description
Lifetime of each particle (from spawn to removal), in miliseconds
Property
lifetimeVarianceMS
Description
Randomize the particle’s lifetime by this value
Description
Speed at which to spin the particle
Property
spinRandomMin/spinRandomMax
Description
Speed range to use for spinSpeed
Description
If false, particles will use the additive blend mode. Can be overriden by the blendStyle property of the emitter
Description
If true, particle texture can be animated by a sprite. Not officially supported
Description
Framerate of animateTexture
Property
textureCoords [0-3]
Description
Defines the UV coordinates for the particle’s texture mapping. Use, for example, if the texture contains multiple particles packed together
Description
Texture to use for the particle
Description
Animated texture to use for the particle (if animateTexture is enabled
Description
Colors to use for the particle at given times
Description
Size to use for the particle at given times
Description
Time keys used for the colors and sizes properties
