Render

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render

The Render Panel controls how particles appear when they are rendered.

Note

Cycles supports only Object and Collection render types.

Common Settings

Scale
Todo.
Scale Randomness
Todo.
Material
Set which of the object’s materials is used to shade the particles.
Coordinates System
Use a different object’s coordinates to determine the birth of particles.
Show Emitter
When disabled, the emitter is no longer rendered. Activate the button Emitter to also render the mesh.

Render As

None

When set to None, particles are not rendered. This is useful if you are using the particles to duplicate objects.

Halo

Halo are rendered as glowing dots or a little clouds of light. Although they are not really lights because they do not cast light into the scene like a light object. They are called Halos because you can see them, but they do not have any substance.

Path

The Path visualization needs a Hair particle system or Keyed particles.

B-Spline
Interpolate hair using B-splines. This may be an option for you if you want to use low Render values. You loose a bit of control but gain smoother paths.
Steps
Set the number of subdivisions of the rendered paths (the value is a power of 2). You should set this value carefully, because if you increase the render value by two you need four times more memory to render. Also the rendering is faster if you use low render values (sometimes drastically). But how low you can go with this value depends on the waviness of the hair (the value is a power of 2). This means 0 steps give 1 subdivision, 1 give 2 subdivisions, 2 –> 4, 3 –> 8, 4 –> 16, … n –> n2.

Timing

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render ‣ Timing
Type:Hair
Absolute Path Time
Path timing is in absolute frames.
End
End time of the practical path.
Random
Give the path length a random variation.

Object

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render ‣ Object
Instance Object
The specified object is instanced in place of each particle.
Global Coordinates
Use object’s global coordinates for instancing.
Object Rotation
Use the rotation of the object.
Object Scale
Use the size of the object.

Collection

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render ‣ Collection
Instance Collection
The objects that belong to a collection are instanced sequentially in the place of the particles.
Whole Collection
Use the whole group at once, instead of one of its elements, the group being displayed in place of each particle.
Pick Random
The objects in the group are selected in a random order, and only one object is displayed in place of a particle. Please note that this mechanism fully replaces old Blender particles system using parentage and Instancing Verts to replace particles with actual geometry. This method is fully deprecated and does not work anymore.
Global Coordinates
Use object’s global coordinates for instancing.
Object Rotation
Use the rotation of the objects.
Object Scale
Use the size of the objects.

Use Count

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render ‣ Collection ‣ Use Count

Use objects multiple times in the same groups. Specify the order and number of times to repeat each object with the list view that appears. You can duplicate an object in the list with the Plus button, or remove a duplicate with the Minus button.

Extra

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Render ‣ Extra
Parents Particles
Render also parent particles if child particles are used. Children have a lot of different deformation options, so the straight parents would stand between their curly children. So by default Parents are not rendered if you activate Children. See Children.
Unborn
Render particles before they are born.
Died
Render particles after they have died. This is very useful if particles die in a collision Die on hit, so you can cover objects with particles.