Particle System Renderers

render_animated_sprites

This is the "ordinary" renderer. It draws floating animated sprites.

animation rate

Rate at which to animate particles. Normally this is in seconds (???), however if "Use animation rate as FPS" is set to 1, it will use tics as it's animation rate instead.

orientation_type

How each particle is aligned relative to the camera.

0: Billboard (face-on)

1: Fix Z (upright)

2: Fix X (flat)

orientation_control_point

All particles inherit their orientation from this control point.

Todo: Is the position of the CP used, or the actual orientation?

Confirm:Non-functional in Source 2007/9?

use animation rate as fps

Flag that indicates whether the animation should be in seconds (???) or tics (normal FPS rate).

render_rope

Renders all particles in the system into one continuous "rope", the smoothness can be adjusted by changing texel_size and subdivision_count. Killing particles will cause the rope to instantly flick to adjust the rope to remain continuous, so random lifetimes and continuous emitters can look poor, depending on the effect (this only applies to pre-L4D2 particle editors).

render_screen_velocity_rotate

Unknown.

render_sprite_trail

Renders animated sprites with trails based on their velocity.

render_blobs

render_blobs + Constrain particles to a box

Template:2009 add Renders particles as blobs of liquid. This is not the effect used by Portal 2's paint, but is similar to it (possibly a prototype?).

The material used should be opaque, and ideally have $phong enabled.

render_models

Template:2009 add Renders 3D models instead of particles.

render_project

Template:2009 add Unknown. Draws projected textures?