Emitter issues

[Hsoolien]

How would I have a Emitter based class, only spawn emitters when I trigger it?

(ie what settings would I have to modify?)

I'm using an Emitter for a muzzle flash as opposed to xEmitter

[Radiosity]

Take a look at MinigunAttachment.uc, it uses an emitter muzflash now.

[Xyx]

I see a few obvious solutions that I'd very much doubt someone of your experience would not have considered already... but here goes.

Set InitialParticlesPerSecond and ParticlesPerSecond to 0 (zero), and add methods for starting and stopping the emission. The Start method sets the PPS values to whatever you need, the Stop method resets them to 0.

Alternatively...

Completely de-spawn the emitter when you don't need it. This is the way wheel dust and Manta hover dust is handled, so I doubt it is that performance intensive.

[Radiosity]

Why make things more complicated than they need to be?

var class<Emitter>      mMuzFlashClass;
var Emitter             mMuzFlash3rd;

function Destroyed()
{
    if (mMuzFlash3rd != None)
        mMuzFlash3rd.Destroy();

	Super.Destroyed();
}

simulated event ThirdPersonEffects()
{
    if ( FlashCount > 0 )
     {
        if (mMuzFlash3rd == None)
        {
            mMuzFlash3rd = Spawn(mMuzFlashClass);
            AttachToBone(mMuzFlash3rd, 'tip');
        }
        if (mMuzFlash3rd != None)
        {
            mMuzFlash3rd.SpawnParticle(1); // if the emitter needs to spawn more particles
                                                                 //increase this number; for example a muzflash
                                                                 //that spawns a load of sparks. SpawnParticle(20) would work fine
        }
    }
}

defaultproperties
{
    mMuzFlashClass=class'XEffects.NewMinigunMFlash'
}

Simple as that