Pollen

Docs | Source | FAQ

Summary:

Pollen is an open-source, live updating particle effects library for GameMaker v2024.14.2 based on JujuAdams' Vinyl.

Read the docs or check out the FAQ!

Features:

• A simpler & more flexible interface for creating GM particles in runtime
• Can use Pollen particles & GM particle assets as templates for new particles to reduce boilerplate
• Getter methods for a different approach to data retrieval instead of the particle-info struct
• Setter methods with default args that can be chained together to “build” particles without redundant properties
• A simple 'JSON' format based on Vinyl's Config JSON  for defining particles that can be live-reloaded
• NEW! An optional dbg_view that lets you watch all of a system's properties (including their emitters & types) in real time
• Supports all* of GameMaker’s built-in properties for Types, Emitters, & Systems, + more!

* The only built-in GM functions that I'm aware of which are not included are the "part_system_update/drawit" and "part_system_automatic_update/draw" functions since those still work fine as they are because it's easy to get the underlying gml particle ID's from Pollen. So I don't think it's worth adding wrappers around them. However, I may reconsider this in the future.

Why Pollen?

TLDR: I've always found GameMaker's particle API very clunky to use, especially for larger projects since it requires more boilerplate & lacks native live-update (i.e. 'hot-reload') capabilities. So I figured it would be nice to have a free library out there that’s easy to figure out and gives you different options for creating particle effects and organizing your PFX code.  That's what I aim to do with Pollen.

Read more here!

Limitations:

• Live-updating is only supported on Windows, Mac, & Linux builds
• HTML5 builds do not support using GM part assets as a template
• Compiling with the YYC may result in a crash if using GM part assets as a template and the "Automatically remove unused assets when compiling" option is on (found under 'Game Options' -> 'General')
• Read the FAQ for more info

Alternatives:

Pollen may not be the best solution for you, so here are some alternative libraries/tools that might be a better fit:

• Pulse
• Geon FX
• Particle Editor

Special Thanks:

• Huge shout out to JujuAdams for all the work done on Vinyl and for the GameMaker community in general. This library would not exist without your work, so thank you!
• Also major thanks to CataclysmicStudios for the Tome library which helped generate the documentation site!
• Finally Lorc for the butterfly sprite used in the examples!