Highlight

A Highlight emitter makes highlights that last a moment: a hit flash on a character, an outline that pulses, a glow seen through walls. It is made by transforming a Highlight. Each emitted highlight is a duplicate of the original, pointed at an Adornee. Its fill and its outline follow graphs over its life.

What it makes possible:

• A hit flash on a character. Emit 1, Lifetime 0.25, Adornee set to the character’s Model. A Fill Transparency graph from 0.2 to 1 and a Fill Color gradient from white to red.
• Crystals that each carry a glowing outline. A Highlight emitter nested in the crystal’s RenderTemplate, with the Adornee row empty.
• A pulse on something the player can use. Mode Animate, Loop on, an Outline Transparency graph of 0, 0.8, 0.
• A ping seen through walls. Depth Mode AlwaysOnTop, Fill Transparency 1, so that only the outline shows.

At a glance

Made from	A Highlight
One particle is	One highlight
Emit count starts at	1
Modes	Emit and Animate
Sections	Emission, Appearance, Events, Advanced
Not present	Motion and Link. A highlight sits on its Adornee and goes where the Adornee goes.

The Emit count starts at 1. A new Highlight emitter makes one highlight at the first press of the Emit button.

What is highlighted

The thing a highlight wraps is its Adornee. The first of these that applies decides it:

Order	Case	The highlight wraps
1	Emission ▸ Adornee is set	That instance.
2	The emitter is nested in another emitter	The parent particle, when it is a Part or a Model. When the parent particle is an Attachment, the part or Model that holds it.
3	The original Highlight has an Adornee of its own, set in Studio’s Properties window	That instance.
4	The original Highlight sits in a part or a Model	That part or Model.
5	None of the above	Nothing. The emit still runs and counts as a particle.

A Highlight emitter that sits in a Folder, with none of the first three cases met, wraps nothing. The plugin does not fall back to the Folder or to the Workspace.

The Adornee is chosen at each emit. A highlight keeps its Adornee for its whole life.

Where a highlight is placed in the Explorer does not change what it wraps. Emit Into moves the highlight and leaves its Adornee alone.

Transform

Transform switches the original Highlight off. It keeps FillColor, FillTransparency, OutlineColor and OutlineTransparency as level graphs, and it keeps DepthMode. The Adornee row starts empty.

Emission

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Mode	List	Emit		Emit or Animate. See Emit against Animate.
Loop	Switch	Off		Shown in Animate mode. Repeats the cycle until switched off.
Enabled	Switch	Off		Shown in Emit mode. Makes highlights at the Rate until switched off.
Rate	Number	10	Highlights per second	Shown in Emit mode. How many highlights are made each second while Enabled is on, or during a Duration.
Lifetime	Two numbers	1	Seconds	How long each highlight lasts. Each picks a value between the two.
Adornee	Instance, picked with *	Empty		The thing each highlight wraps. Any instance can be picked. The row can be cleared.
Linger	Number	0	Seconds	After its life ends, the highlight stays at its last values for this long.
Timescale	Graph	1		The speed of the highlight’s own clock.

The Emit, Delay and Duration boxes on the HUD fire a Highlight emitter as they fire any other. Emission and the HUD describes the shared rows in full.

Appearance

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Fill Color	Colour	The Highlight’s own		The colour of the fill. Drawn as a gradient, it changes over the highlight’s life.
Fill Transparency	Graph	The Highlight’s own	0 to 1	How far the fill is seen through, over the highlight’s life. 0 is a solid fill. 1 is no fill.
Outline Color	Colour	The Highlight’s own		The colour of the outline. Drawn as a gradient, it changes over the highlight’s life.
Outline Transparency	Graph	The Highlight’s own	0 to 1	How far the outline is seen through, over the highlight’s life.
Depth Mode	List	The Highlight’s own		AlwaysOnTop or Occluded. AlwaysOnTop shows the highlight through walls. Fixed for the life of each highlight.

The graphs are read in steps, Anim. Steps times over one Lifetime.

A transparency graph can carry a random spread. A colour gradient cannot.

Take a Fill Transparency graph of 1, 0, 1 and a Lifetime of 0.5 seconds. The fill is invisible at the start, solid at 0.25 seconds and gone at 0.5 seconds.

Events

The Events section works as on any emitter. See Events. A Highlight emitter fired by an event fires in place. An event cannot move it to another position.

Advanced

Row	Kind	Starts at	What it does
Anim. Steps	Number	100	How many times the graphs are read over one Lifetime. Fewer steps cost less and look choppier.
Emit Into	Instance, picked with *	None	Where emitted highlights are placed in the Explorer. It does not change the Adornee.
Pool	Switch	Off	Reuses finished highlights in place of making new ones. For emitters with a high Rate.

Advanced describes these rows in full.

Emit against Animate

	Emit	Animate
What plays	A duplicate of the RenderTemplate for each emit.	The RenderTemplate itself, switched on and pointed at the Adornee for one cycle.
Emit count and Rate	Used. Several highlights can wrap one Adornee at once.	Not used. There is one highlight.
The Emit button	Fires the Emit count after the Delay.	Plays one cycle after the Delay. With a Duration above 0, the cycle repeats for that long.
Fired again while playing	More highlights are added.	The cycle starts again from the beginning.
At the end	The highlight is removed.	The RenderTemplate gets its own values and its own Adornee back, and is switched off.
Loop	Not shown.	Repeats the cycle.

Changing Mode stops the emitter at once. Highlights on screen are removed, and Enabled and Loop are switched off.

With the tools

Tool	Effect on a Highlight emitter
Size	None.
Time	Multiplies Rate and divides Lifetime.

Size and Time describes both tools.

Limits

• Roblox limits how many Highlights are drawn at once.
• With Enabled on, Rate 10 and Lifetime 1 keep about ten highlights on one Adornee. For a steady glow, use Mode Animate with Loop on. That is one highlight.
• All highlights from one emit share one Adornee. To wrap several things, use one emitter for each, or nest the emitter so that each particle is wrapped.
• No Motion rows and no Link.
• Each emitted highlight counts as one particle toward the Particle Cap.