---
title: "Particle Texture"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/PHX4MAX/124395136/Particle%20Texture"
format: markdown
---
This page provides information on the Phoenix Particle Texture (PhoenixFDParticleTex).

## **Overview**

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 The **Particle Texture** is a **3D texture **that reads particles and colors the positions of each particle in a particle system. It can be created from the** Material Editor** in **3ds Max**.

The Particle Texture can also shade a **Particle’s color** based on **Particle Channels**, such as its **Age** or** Speed**. As a result, you can change the Particle’s color over time, based on the behavior of those Particle Channels.

> ✅ Note that the **Particle Texture** is generated so that each particle is white by default, with the area around each particle having soft edges, that fade to black with further distance from each particle’s position. This area can also use color from another texture, or even use different pieces of a texture for each particle.
> ✅ 
> ✅ If a constant color is used, it can either be the same for all particle areas, or it could come from a certain Particle Channel - Age, Velocity, RGB, etc.

You can also plug the Particle Texture into a Phoenix [Particle Shader's](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAX/pages/124627003) **color map slot**, which would enable you to shade particles as different colors, based on their Particle Channels.

The Particle Texture can also be plugged into a material, and used to shade the surfaces of geometry objects. If you are simulating liquid that creates a **WetMap** particle system over geometries, you can use the Particle Texture as a grayscale mask to blend between two materials, for example, a wet material and a dry surface material. This way, the geometry that is covered by the WetMap particles will appear wet, and the rest of the geometry will appear dry.

> ℹ️ You can also turn particles into a **3D mesh**, by using the Particle Texture as a [Surface Channel texture](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAX/pages/124662515) in the Rendering rollout. This gives you additional flexibility for shading particles, to achieve more advanced effects. For example, you could use the Particle Texture to mesh specific particles based on their RGB color, which would make it possible to create effects like mixing together a solid and transparent liquid, using two meshes.


**UI Path: **||Material Editor window|| > **Material **> **Map Browes** > **Maps **> **PhoenixFD **> **PhoenixFDParticleTex**

![image](media://bdb80326-9f0b-4c6a-b79a-d01f1c281a30)


## **Parameters**

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> Macro (ui-text-box)

> ✅ The **Remap Color** gradient stores its parameters with the *partcolor_p*, *partcolor_c* and *partcolor_i* script names.

> ℹ️ You can render out the **Color From Particle Channel** as a separate render element by using the Phoenix Particle Texture as an input for the [VRayExtraTex ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113575375)render element and turning on **Render as Geometry **in the [Particle Shader](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAX/pages/124627003)'s options.


## **Setup for shading dry and wet materials**

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The Particle Texture can be used to blend between two materials. The examples below illustrate setups when using the default Scanline Renderer or V-Ray for 3ds Max. When using the Scaline Renderer, the Particle Texture is set as the Blend material's **Mask**. When using V-Ray, two different [V-Ray Materials](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113586760) are set as the **Base Material** and **Coat Material** of a [V-Ray Blend Material](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VMAX/pages/113575796). The Particle Texture node is set as the **Blend** map.

This setup can be used when rendering the **Wetmap** particles of the Phoenix simulation. You can use a Particle Texture to read the Wetmap particle system and then blend between two materials - a dry and a wet one.