Right now, I have a custom particle action & function that allows up to 300 entities (just an arbitrary number right now) created within it. It, surprisingly, wasn't too bad to implement, but I need to improve the movements of the particles and test it out under the same scenario in my level that caused the original problem for me. I'm using very small bitmaps, BTW - 32x32. This seems to make a big difference.

I plan on using my own global var named max_sprite_particles. When I create one, the total is decremented, but in the custom sprite/particle function when I remove one, I increment. I am finding that it does not take as many of them as I first thought to make good looking effects.

If I get this thing running smooth, I'll probably post the custom particle code for other users.

Thanks for your input,
Ron