Introducing particle effects
Particle effects are the decorative flourishes used in games to represent dynamic and complex phenomena, such as fire, smoke, and rain. To create a particle effect, it requires three elements: a System, Emitters, and the Particles themselves.
Understanding particle systems
Particle systems are the universe in which the particles and emitters live. Much like the universe, we cannot define the size but we can define a point of origin which all emitters and particles will be placed relative to. We can also have multiple particle systems in existence at any given time, which can be set to draw the particles at different depths. While we can have as many particle systems as we want, it is best to have as few as possible in order to prevent possible memory leaks. The reason for this is that once a particle system is created, it will remain in existence forever unless it is manually destroyed. Destroying the instance that spawned it or changing rooms will not remove the...