Getting more particles in engine

Question

I followed rbwhitakers tutorial on making a particle engine and I'm wondering how to get more particles on the screen. I was thinking that the "total" variable would do it but it doesnt. Is this something I'm doing wrong in the method or a hardware problem?

private Particle GenerateNewParticle()
    {
        Texture2D texture = textures[random.Next(textures.Count)];
        Vector2 position = EmitterLocation;
        Vector2 velocity = new Vector2(0, 10);
        float angle = 0;
        float angularVelocity = 0;
        Color color = Color.LightSkyBlue;
        float size = (float)random.NextDouble();
        int ttl = 100;

        return new Particle(texture, position, velocity, angle, angularVelocity, color, size, ttl);
    }

    public void Update()
    {
        int total = 100;

        for (int i = 0; i < total; i++)
        {
            particles.Add(GenerateNewParticle());
        }

        for (int particle = 0; particle < particles.Count; particle++)
        {
            particles[particle].Update();
            if (particles[particle].TTL <= 0 || particles[particle].Position.Y > 550)
            {
                particles.RemoveAt(particle);
                particle--;
            }
        }
    }

Im creating rain but I want it to be really heavy rain. Right now it just looks like a heavy sprinkle...I guess I would call it.

            particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2((float)rand.NextDouble() * (graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width), 0);

Answer 1

    for (int i = 0; i < total; i++)
    {
        particles.Add(GenerateNewParticle());
    }

This is being called once per particleEngine.EmitterLocation assignment. This means you're creating 100 particles in the same location every frame.

Try this:

    for (int i = 0; i < total; i++)
    {
        particles.Add(GenerateNewParticle());
        EmitterLocation = new Vector2((float)rand.NextDouble() * (graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width), 0);
    }

You may need to make graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width available in this scope somehow.