Lifetime
The Lifetime property defines the maximum and minimum ages a newly emit particle will. When a particle is emit, a random lifetime is chosen uniformly. Lifetimes are stored on a per-particle basis, so if this value is changed, existing particles will stay “alive” until their randomly chosen lifetime is lived. The bounds for this property should be in the range [0, 20]. By default, ParticleEmitters will have a lifetime of 5 to 10 seconds. A lifetime of 0 will prevent particles from being emit in the first place.
it is important to pick a sensible Lifetime and ParticleEmitter/Rate so that you don’t have too many particles being rendered at once. Long lifetimes and high emission rates are a quick way to cause performance issues. If you need many particles, pick a balance of lifetime and rate. To instantly remove any presently emit particles (perhaps ones with absurdly long lifetimes), you can call ParticleEmitter/Clear.
Code Samples
Creating a Particle Emitter from Scratch
This rather lengthy code sample shows how every property of a ParticleEmitter can be set, including DataType/NumberRange, DataType/NumberSequence and DataType/ColorSequence properties. Below is how the ParticleEmitter should after every property is set. Try playing around with the different properties to customize how the effect looks!
local emitter = Instance.new("ParticleEmitter")
-- Number of particles = Rate * Lifetime
emitter.Rate = 5 -- Particles per second
emitter.Lifetime = NumberRange.new(1,1) -- How long the particles should be alive (min, max)
emitter.Enabled = true
-- Visual properties
emitter.Texture = "rbxassetid://1266170131" -- A transparent image of a white ring
-- For Color, build a ColorSequence using ColorSequenceKeypoint
local colorKeypoints = {
-- API: ColorSequenceKeypoint.new(time, color)
ColorSequenceKeypoint.new( 0, Color3.new(1, 1, 1)), -- At t=0, White
ColorSequenceKeypoint.new(.5, Color3.new(1, .5, 0)), -- At t=.5, Orange
ColorSequenceKeypoint.new( 1, Color3.new(1, 0, 0)) -- At t=1, Red
}
emitter.Color = ColorSequence.new(colorKeypoints)
local numberKeypoints = {
-- API: NumberSequenceKeypoint.new(time, size, envelop)
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new( 0, 1); -- At t=0, fully transparent
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new(.1, 0); -- At t=.1, fully opaque
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new(.5, .25); -- At t=.5, mostly opaque
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new( 1, 1); -- At t=1, fully transparent
}
emitter.Transparency = NumberSequence.new(numberKeypoints)
emitter.LightEmission = 1 -- When particles overlap, multiply their color to be brighter
emitter.LightInfluence = 0 -- Don't be affected by world lighting
-- Speed properties
emitter.EmissionDirection = Enum.NormalId.Front -- Emit forwards
emitter.Speed = NumberRange.new(0, 0) -- Speed of zero
emitter.Drag = 0 -- Apply no drag to particle motion
emitter.VelocitySpread = NumberRange.new(0, 0)
emitter.VelocityInheritance = 0 -- Don't inherit parent velocity
emitter.Acceleration = Vector3.new(0, 0, 0)
emitter.LockedToPart = false -- Don't lock the particles to the parent
emitter.SpreadAngle = Vector2.new(0,0) -- No spread angle on either axis
-- Simulation properties
local numberKeypoints2 = {
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new(0, 0); -- At t=0, size of 0
NumberSequenceKeypoint.new(1, 10); -- At t=1, size of 10
}
emitter.Size = NumberSequence.new(numberKeypoints2)
emitter.ZOffset = -1 -- Render slightly behind the actual position
emitter.Rotation = NumberRange.new(0, 360) -- Start at random rotation
emitter.RotSpeed = NumberRange.new(0) -- Do not rotate during simulation
-- Create an attachment so particles emit from the exact same spot (concentric rings)
local attachment = Instance.new("Attachment", script.Parent)
attachment.Position = Vector3.new(0, 5, 0) -- Move the attachment upwards a little
emitter.Parent = attachment