Manual control of particle system?

[Taehl]

Quite simply, how do I make Love's particle system emit a particle at a given point? I don't need any of this auto-emission stuff. Just a function like emitParticle(ParticleSystem, x, y). I can't seem to get any regularity out of it by using setPosition, start, update...

[Raylin]

I dunno if this is completely correct... but couldn't you instantiate a new ParticleSystem with a buffer of 1 and set the values accordingly?
From there, you could just make an emitParticle function, yeah?

[Taehl]

I don't know if that would work, but it would certainly chew up a horrendous amount of resources...

[Raylin]

Well, not exactly.
You instantiate the new ParticleSystem in love.load.
Then, you set the position of the system and start and stop it in the function.

[TechnoCat]

I dunno if this is completely correct... but couldn't you instantiate a new ParticleSystem with a buffer of 1 and set the values accordingly?
From there, you could just make an emitParticle function, yeah?

I thought about that as an answer, but then that brings a particle system management problem. So I didn't suggest it.

The idea of starting, updating, and stopping only works if the time passed is long enough to only emit one particle (and not two, or three, or none). The particle system will continue updating the particles if it is stopped I believe. But, you probably already knew that, but were indeed having the emit only one problem.

[Taehl]

So... Are you saying that Love doesn't have a function to just emit a particle? Really?

[Robin]

I guess because if you only need one particle there's no need for a ParticleSystem.

[kikito]

Yes. If you need to move a single particle around, it's just easier to use love.graphics.draw and move the single image yourself.

[Taehl]

No, I need to emit one particle at a given point. I'm going to do this several hundred times as I calculate coordinates. I need to use the particle system because love.draw is too slow for me to add another five hundred or so draws.