---
title: "Particles"
url: "https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/html/TRSOBJECT-REDSHIFT_OBJECT_GROUP_PARTICLES.html"
section_path: "Object Manager > Tags Menu > Render Tags > Redshift Object Tag > Particles"
element_id: "TRSOBJECT"
group_id: "REDSHIFT_OBJECT_GROUP_PARTICLES"
description: "Redshift supports a number of different particle setups that can be rendered inside of Cinema 4D. These include the native particle systems, particles …"
---

## Particles

Redshift supports a number of different particle setups that can be rendered inside of Cinema 4D. These include the native particle systems, particles imported in through Alembic files from programs such as Houdini, as well as plugins like X-Particles. The following settings and the *Particles* Tab will only show up when the *Redshift Object Tag* is a applied to such a particle source. These particles can be rendered out as simple instanced primitives, custom geometry, or using Redshift's native optimized sphere primitive.

![Image: RS_object_tag_particles_cover_image.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/RS_object_tag_particles_cover_image.png)

### Mode

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_MODE`

|  |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ![Image: Point-Instances8139.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/Point-Instances8139.png) | ![Image: SPhere-instances0b97.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/SPhere-instances0b97.png) | ![Image: Quad-instancese103.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/Quad-instancese103.png) | ![Image: Custom-Objectsd7be.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/Custom-Objectsd7be.png) | ![Image: SPheresebb2.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/SPheresebb2.png) |
| *Point Instances* | *Sphere Instances* | *Quad Instances* | *Custom Objects (Pyramids)* | *Optimized Spheres* |

> **Important** *Sphere Instance* and *Optimized Spheres* **Mode** look nearly identical, but the *Optimized Spheres* mode is Redshift's native "point" primitive. *Sphere Instance* is just a mesh sphere created with C4D and instanced with Redshift.

The benefits of using the native sphere primitive (*Optimized Spheres* **Mode**) is that it's very lightweight, even more so than an instance also it can go out of core. Instances are also fairly lightweight in terms of memory, but when you start getting into the millions you can run into out-of-VRAM problems. When working with extremely high counts of particles the *Optimized Spheres* **Mode** is recommended.

> **Note:** *Out of core* means if your GPU runs out of memory, because of scene size, texture size, ect. it will use the system's memory instead.

> **Important:** *Optimized Spheres* may not be suitable for small detail scrutiny and artifacts like particle intersections may become visible when using them. If you notice this when using *Optimized Spheres* please switch to *Sphere Instances* instead.

### Custom Objects

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_CUSTOM_OBJECTS`

This mode allows you to drag & drop objects that will be instanced throughout your particle setup.

> **Note:** The **Distribution** and **Random Seed** options only become available in *Custom Objects* **Mode**. These are effective when using multiple objects.

### Source Objects Visible

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_CUSTOM_OBJECTS_VISIBLE`

When using *Custom Objects* **Mode** you can keep the asigned original objects visible or just use them for the particles.

### Distribution

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_OBJECT_DISTRIBUTION`

There are two options for distribution, *Sequential* and *Random*:

*Sequential* will distribute our objects in a logical order. As you can see in the example below, three different custom objects were used: Pyramid, Sphere, and Platonic. So the first three particles will be a Pyramid, a Sphere, and a Platonic. This sequence is used again for the next three particles and so forth.\
*Random* mode will randomly select through our custom objects for each particle and this will also make use of the **Random Seed** option as you can see in the example below.

![Image: RS_object_tag_particles_custom_sequences.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/RS_object_tag_particles_custom_sequences.png)\
The image on top shows the **Custom Objects** Cone, Cylinder and Cube as applied to a particle stream in Sequencial Mode. The lower part of the image uses the same setup with a Random **Distribution**.

### Random Seed

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_OBJECT_DISTRIBUTION_SEED` · Range: [0..2147483647]

Used only in conjunction with **Mode***Custom Objects* and *Random* **Distribution**. Changing this number allows you to choose another variation of the used objects.

### Scale Multiplier

Parameter ID: `REDSHIFT_OBJECT_PARTICLE_SCALE` · Range: [0.00..+∞]

Use this to scale the shapes used for the particles.

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ![Image: 05-Sizedfa8.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/05-Sizedfa8.png) | ![Image: 1-Sizec1c7.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/1-Sizec1c7.png) | ![Image: 2-Size5c13.png](https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Thumbnails/2-Size5c13.png) |
| *Scale Multiplier .05* | *Scale Multiplier .1* | *Scale Multiplier .2* |