Creating a particle fountain

In computer graphics, a particle system is a group of objects that are used to simulate a variety of fuzzy systems such as smoke, liquid spray, fire, explosions, or other similar phenomena. Each particle is considered to be a point object with a position, but no size. They could be rendered as point sprites (using the GL_POINTS primitive mode), or as camera aligned quads or triangles. Each particle has a lifetime: it is born, animates according to a set of rules, and then dies. The particle can then be resurrected and go through the entire process again. In this example, particles do not interact with other particles, but some systems, such as fluid simulations, would require a particle to interact. A common technique is to render the particle as a single, textured, camera-facing quad with transparency.

During the lifetime of a particle, it is animated according to a set of rules. These rules include the basic kinematic equations that define the movement of a...