Particles

The Particle Applet allows you to enhance your Zapworks Designer projects by adding visually engaging particle effects. These effects can be easily integrated into your scenes, creating a more immersive and interactive experience for your users.

Accessing the Particles Applet

Adding Particle Effects

In the Components panel, click on the Applets tab.
Click the Particle Applet.
Once the modal opens, select your desired particle to add it to your scene.

We’re always looking for ideas for new particles, so if you have some, please get in touch!

Types of Particle Effects

Particle effects can be used to create a more immersive experience for users by adding dynamic visual elements to your Zapworks Designer scenes. We currently offer five particles for your designs: Rain, Snow, Sparkles, Confetti, and Fire. The table below presents potential use cases for each particle type.

Particle Effect	Description
Fire	Add a fire effect to create a realistic campfire, fireplace, or torch in your scene. This effect can be used in conjunction with 3D models or images to create a more engaging environment.
Rain	Use the rain effect to simulate a rainy day, or to add atmosphere to a scene. Combine the rain effect with images or 3D models of umbrellas, puddles, or raindrops to create a more immersive experience.
Snow	Add a snow effect to create a winter wonderland or a snowy landscape. Combine this effect with 3D models or images of snow-covered objects, snowmen, or snowflakes to enhance the wintery theme.
Sparkles	Use the sparkles effect to highlight something within your scene or add to 3D models of equipment in use to simulate a sparks effect.
Confetti	Use confetti to celebrate a victory or highlight a special moment in your scene.

These are just a few examples of how you can use the Particle Applet to enhance your Zapworks Designer projects. By combining these effects with other Applets, images, and 3D models, you can create truly immersive and interactive experiences for your users.

Customizing Particles

After adding a Particle Applet to your scene, you can further customize each particle type. This is achieved through the Particles tab in the Properties panel.

Accessing Particles properties

Property	Description	Applicable Particles
Material	This dropdown allows you to select different variations of the chosen particle. Each particle type has a set of distinct materials.	Snow, Confetti, Sparkles, Rain
Color	Customize the color of your particles to match the theme of your scene.	All
Color Variation	Further customize the color of your particles by adding colour variations.	Confetti, Sparkles
Intensity	Adjust the number of particles emitted over a given time period.	All
Fall Speed	Modify the speed at which particles fall to create slow-drifting snowflakes or rapidly falling raindrops.	Confetti, Snow, Rain
Orbit Speed	Modify the speed at which particles orbit around their emitter.	Confetti, Rain, Sparkles
Sparkle Speed	Adjust the speed of sparkles for the sparkle particle.	Sparkles
Particle Size	Define the size of your particles. Larger particles can create a more dramatic effect, while smaller ones can add subtle details.	All
Local Particle Scale	Scale the size of particles in relation to their emitter.	Sparkles
Lock Particle Scale	This checkbox allows the size of particles to scale proportionally with the size of the emitter.	Confetti, Snow, Rain
Pause/Play Button	Control the particle emission in real-time within your scene, allowing you to test and adjust your settings.	All
Reset to Default Button	Reset your particle settings to their default values.	All

Controlling Particle Emitters

The particles in your scene come from an object called an Emitter which controls where and how particles are released into your scene. You can control the position, scale, and rotation of the Emitter like all components using the transform controls in the context bar or the keyboard shortcuts W-Move E-Scale and R-Rotate.

Action	Description
Move	Move the emitter to the desired location in your scene.
Scale	Adjust the size of the emitter. If the "Scale Particles with Emitter" checkbox is checked, the particles will scale proportionally with the emitter.
Rotate	Rotate the emitter to change the direction of the particle flow. This is especially useful for creating effects like wind-blown rain, snow or confetti.

By carefully adjusting the properties and positioning of the emitter, you can create a wide array of dynamic and immersive particle effects.

Controlling Particles with Actions

You can control the particle animations using Actions on buttons or images. Simply add a button or image to your scene or in Screen UI . Then navigate to the project properties panel and within the Actions tab, click on Animate Particle in the dropdown list.

Property	Description
Action Behavior	Allows you to `start`, `stop`, or `toggle` the particle animation with an on tap action.
Particle	If you have multiple particle types in your scene, this dropdown lets you select the specific particle to animate.
Play	The Play property provides two options: `Forever` , if checked, will make the particle effect loop indefinitely, and `Duration`. This allows you to specify the duration of the particle effect by entering a time in seconds. This box is disabled if the `Forever` checkbox is checked.