Viewport Display

Reference

Panel:Particle System ‣ Viewport Display

The Display Panel controls how particles are displayed in the 3D View. This does not necessarily determine how they will appear when rendered.

Display As
None
The particles are not shown in the 3D View and are not rendered. The emitter may be rendered though.
Rendered
Particles are displayed the way they are rendered.
Point
Particles are displayed as square points. Their size is independent of the distance from the camera.
Circle
Particles are displayed as circles that face the view. Their size is independent of the distance from the camera.
Cross
Particles are displayed as 6-point crosses that align to the rotation of the particles. Their size is independent of the distance from the camera.
Axis
Particles are displayed as 3-point axes. This is useful if you want to see the orientation and rotation of particles in the viewport. Increase the Display Size until you can clearly distinguish the axis.

Note

Particles visualized like Point, Circle, Cross and Axis do not have any special options, but can be very useful when you have multiple particle systems at play, if you do not want to confuse particles of one system from another (e.g. in simulations using Boids physics).

Color

The Color Menu allows you to display particle’s color according to certain particle properties.

None
Particles are black.
Material
Particles are colored according to the material they are given.
Velocity
Color particles according to their speed. The color is a ramp from blue to green to red, Blue being the slowest, and Red being velocities approaching the value of Max or above. Increasing Max allows for a wider range of particle velocities.
Acceleration
Color particles according to their acceleration.
Amount
Specifies the percentage of all particles to show in the viewport (all particles are still rendered).
Show Emitter
Make instancer visible in viewport.