Simple Effects

The easiest way of creating particles in your game with GameMaker Studio 2 is to use the in-built effects mechanism. There effects are created using an internal particle system which is basically a very fast method for drawing graphical effects only and as such you do not have to worry about all the details (like memory management) when using these functions. You simply specify the type of effect, the position where it must be created, the size you want it to be and finally, its colour then let GameMaker Studio 2 do all the work.

The following functions exists for creating the built in particle effects:

• effect_create_below
  
• effect_create_above
  
• effect_clear
  

There are also a number of different constants for each of the pre-defined effects that the above functions can use:

• ef_cloud
  
• ef_ellipse
  
• ef_explosion
  
• ef_firework
  
• ef_flare
  
• ef_rain
  
• ef_ring
  
• ef_smoke
  
• ef_smokeup
  
• ef_snow
  
• ef_spark
  
• ef_star
  

Even though these effects are limited in scope and customisation, they can still be used to create some simple, great effects with very little effort. For example by creating a small puff of grey smoke below a moving missile in each step, a pretty convincing smoke trail is created, so even when you are an expert in particles it pays to remember that these effects exists as they can still save you some time.

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