This is the early stages of a general purpose particle system for AS3 flash development.

Configurable rule based particle behavior.
Easily extensible
Both a full featured object orientated syntax, and a simplified quick object syntax.

The example below uses the simplified syntax for all of the effects, they can be seen here:

		import com.roguedevelopment.pulse.simple.SimpleParticles;
		[Embed(source="snowflake.png")] 
		protected var snowflake:Class;
		
		[Embed(source="man.png")]
		protected var man:Class;

		[Embed(source="smoke.png")]
		protected var smoke:Class;

		[Embed(source="spark.png")]
		protected var spark:Class;
		
        	SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ image:snowflake , 
        		fade:[9000],
        		minScale:0.1, 
        		maxScale:1, 
        		minAngle:250, 
        		rotateToAngle:true, 
        		maxAngle:290, 
        		pps:10, 
        		gravity:3, 
        		maxSpeed: 105, 
        		minSpeed:60, 
        		lifespan:9000,  
        		x:250, y:300, movement:true });
        													
			SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ image:spark ,   
				fade:[6000], 
				scale:[4000,0.01,1], 
				minAngle:210, 
				maxAngle:330, 
				pps:55, gravity:5, 
				maxSpeed: 140, minSpeed:80, 
				lifespan:6000,  x:250, y:240, 
				movement:true });
				
			SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ image:smoke , 
				xOscillate:[1,900], rotate:[-2,2], 
				fade:[6000],
				minScale:0.5, maxScale:1, 
				minAngle:180, maxAngle:360, 
				pps:35, gravity:-1.5, 
				maxSpeed: 13, minSpeed:4, 
				lifespan:6000,  
				x:250, y:300, movement:true });	
											
			SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ minScale:0.01, maxScale:3, 
				x:250, y:200, 
				pps:80, lifespan:1000, 
				movement:true, minAngle:0, 
				maxAngle:360} );
				
			SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ x:250, y:200, 
				rotateToAngle:true, line:true, 
				size:4, lifespan:4000, 
				movement:true, mouseSwarm:stage});
				
			SimpleParticles.createEmitter({ image:man , pps:50, 
				pointSwarm:new Point(1000,700), 
				rotateToAngle:true, maxSpeed: 110, 
				minSpeed:100, scale:[5000, 0.05,1 ], 
				lifespan:6500,  
				x:20, y:20, movement:true });

Click the example to manually cycle.

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Click image to play.

Various configuration options for the particles
The resulting config-object that those options make, you can pass that to SimpleParticles to create the effect in your application.
A live preview of the particle effect

The demo only has a handful of rules in it, but they show off a good chunk of the possible functionality you can get from the SimpleParticles interface. One of the biggest limitations of the explorer is there's only a few images embedded for you to make particles out of. To use one of these particles in your app, do something like this:

		import com.roguedevelopment.pulse.simple.SimpleParticles;
import com.roguedevelopment.pulse.PulseEngine;

...

PulseEngine.instance.root = this;
SimpleParticles.createEmitter( {pps:10,x:153, y:286,image:spark, 
    movement:true, minSpeed:199, 
    maxSpeed:216, minAngle:211, 
    maxAngle:219, minScale:0.8, 
    maxScale:1, pointSwarm:[100,100], lifespan:5000} );

This component is licensed under the MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.