Chapter 3. Building a Simple Particle System

Particle systems are used in computer graphics for drawing fuzzy-shaped objects such as fire, clouds, and trails of dust. The basic idea for such systems is drawing a large number of small, moving particles and controlling their motion.

Here we consider the basic principles of modeling and drawing particle systems and demonstrating them by building a simple 2D particle system. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• The basics of particle systems

• A single particle

• An emitter

• The attraction, repulsion, and spinning forces

• Graphical user interface

By the end of this chapter, you will have a fully-featured project for experimenting with the particle system.

Note

This is the only chapter where we create custom C++ classes.