One of the many great things offered in the Source authoring tools is Particle Editor. Waterfalls, fire effects, weapon effects, explosions, and more can all be created with particles. A particle system is a group of particles—2D sprites—with different rules applied to them. You can apply forces, transparency, and even parent particles to other entities.
In this chapter you will learn the following:
Booting HL2 into tools mode
Creating particle systems
Importing particle systems into maps
Creating the particle manifest file
Having some fun with fireworks
The particle effects are created and edited within the game HalfLife 2: Episode Two, but you first need to gain access to the tools menu. Let's get started!