Originally posted by BabyDuck and i think on hardware particles you cannot use a ramp. Babyduck: Sure you can use ramps with hw particles. Just add rgpPP attribute to the particleShape and map a ramp to it. By default the particle color is then taken from the ramp based on it's age. DukerX: Why don't you use the hardware renderer for the particles and composite it with the other stuff in your scene?