Particles - Fixed Positions

Hello! I'm playing around with an endless runner type of game, and wanted to use particles to create a burning embers effect. These embers spawn at random points on the ground, purely for visual goodness, and your character can run right through them.

The trouble is, because of the way the endless runner setup works, the ground and all the objects are moving to the left of the screen, even though to the player it looks like the character is moving right and the camera is following him. Since the embers are constantly moving to the left, it creates a trail of particles behind it as it moves across the screen, which ruins the illusion.

Is there any way to have the particles constantly moving to the left, as well as their spawn point?

Thanks for reading <img src="smileys/smiley12.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I can't see a way of fixing this, so for now I've tweaked the appearance a little bit to make that trail being left behind look as though it's just a windy environment and that the embers are being blown to the right <img src="smileys/smiley20.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

If anyone can come up with anything though, I'd be eager to hear of any possible solutions. I'd really rather the player be running against the direction of the embers, rather than in the same direction. I really don't know why, I just get the feeling it would look better <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

-Silver-

Hi,

why not have your particles in two parts. Make part of it small so there are no embers flying off. Then make another one on top pointing left. As long as the speed of the particles being generated is faster than the direction of travel.

-Silver- Is the burning embers effect something you could achieve with a couple of animated sprites? It may be more efficient, particularly for mobile.

If not, can you post a screenshot to give a better idea of the effect that you currently have?

spongehammer: That was something I tried at first - increasing particle speed with them pointing left (I wanted them pointing left slightly anyway). But because of that increased speed, they SHOOT through the air, really high. The only way of ensuring some of those particles don't shoot miles into the sky, is by limiting the cone angle. And that ruins the effect just as much unfortunately.

rogueNoodle: I probably could achieve it with animated sprites. It'd take a while to have it look as smooth as a particle effect, but it might be worth it. Do iOS and Android devices have problems with particle effects then? If so, I'll definitely hand animate this.

Thanks for the replies <img src="smileys/smiley31.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

-Silver- I think I read somewhere that particle effects should be avoided on mobile devices if possible. Just a performance thing, I think - it would really be something you'd have to test on low-end devices to know for sure though.