Particle systems
Many tiny sprites that make fire, smoke, sparks and magic.
Effects like dust, sparks, fire and explosions are made from hundreds of short-lived particles. An emitter spawns them with a few random numbers (speed, direction, size, lifetime, colour) and each one updates simply: move, fall, shrink, fade, die. A few tuned values give a huge range of effects.
Try this: Try each preset, then drag the sliders. Watch the live particle count stay bounded.
Pick a preset.
Prompt bit
Works for 2D or 3D in any engine (Unity, Unreal, Godot, web). Paste the short one for a quick fix, or the detailed one when you want it done properly.
Build effects with a particle emitter: spawn at a rate per second with randomized speed, size and lifetime (0.5 to 1 s for sparks), fade and shrink over life, cap the maximum count, and recycle dead particles instead of creating new ones.
Create particle effects (2D or 3D; Unity VFX/Shuriken, Godot GPUParticles, Unreal Niagara, or a simple pooled system on the web). An emitter has a shape (point, circle, cone, mesh surface), a rate (particles per second) and bursts (n particles at once). Each particle gets randomized start values from ranges: lifetime (sparks 0.3 to 0.8 s, smoke 2 to 4 s), speed, direction spread, size, rotation and colour. Update per frame with delta time: velocity += gravity * dt, apply drag, position += velocity * dt, and drive size, colour and alpha from curves over normalized age (fade in quickly, fade out at the end). Use additive blending for fire, sparks and magic, alpha blending for smoke and dust. Cap maxParticles per emitter and reuse dead particles from a pool. Use world-space simulation for trails (so they stay behind a moving emitter) and local space for auras. Stop emitting and let existing particles finish rather than deleting the system. Sort or use additive blending to avoid sorting issues, and keep overdraw low with fewer, smaller particles on mobile.
Where it's used
- Combat: sparks, blood, hit flashes and explosions
- Environment: rain, snow, dust motes and fog
- Fire and smoke: torches, chimneys, burning objects
- Magic and UI: spell effects, level-up bursts, coin sparkles
- Movement: dust on landing, footprints, speed lines
Common mistakes
No max count (an effect left running slowly eats the frame rate), creating and destroying particles instead of pooling, local-space trails that drag along with the emitter, huge overlapping transparent particles that kill mobile performance, and deleting effects instantly so all particles vanish at once.
Writing this with an AI assistant? See our best AI coding assistants for game developers.
Missing a concept? Request one.
