Post Process, Emitters, and Help - Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation - page 197

The General area of the Emitters tab contains options for changing various
properties of your emitters, as follows:

n Max particles : The maximum particles that the emitter will use. Increas-
ing this figure does not necessarily display more particles on-screen, this
will depend on what other options you configure (such as spawn rate
and lifespan).
n Spawn rate : The rate that the particles will be created. The higher the
number, the closer the emitter will be to using the maximum particles.
The higher the spawn rate, the more particles are displayed onscreen.
n Lifespan : How long the particle will live. The lower the number, the
shorter the lifespan (which means they exist onscreen for a set period of
time before disappearing).
n Initial size : The initial size of the particle.
n Size change : The size that you want the particle to change. Making this
figure higher will give the particle a zoom out effect.
n Initial alpha : The initial alpha value that will be used for the particle;
the value ranges from 0 to 1. A value of 0 means that the particle is
transparent while a value of 1 means it will be displayed without any
transparency.
n Blend mode : Defines how the colors within the particles will be blended.
There are three options available Normal, Multiple, and Add. Normal

displays the original texture; Multiple takes pixels from the top and bot-
tom of the image and merges them together; Add adds the values of the
pixels and displays the resulting value.
n Alpha change : This determines the amount of transparency change over
time.

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Note

The more particles on-screen, the more PC performance your game will require. In many cases,
you can get the same effect by using fewer particles which means your game will perform better.
Be sure to test the use of particles in this way to find the best effect/performance ratio for your
game.