Accumulate Mode
One ball becomes hundreds. Pick how new balls appear, then set how fast the crowd grows and how big it gets.
What Accumulate Mode Does
Accumulate starts with one or two balls and keeps adding more until the arena is full. You choose ONE way for new balls to appear, and the panel only shows the settings that style uses.
A new project starts on Wall hit: every wall hit adds a ball, at most one every 0.5 seconds, up to 100 balls. That fills in about 50 seconds, so a 30 or 60 second clip is still building at the end. Every ball keeps bouncing at the same lively speed for the whole run instead of sinking into a pile.
Picking Accumulate is open on every plan. The Accumulate settings panel in the Engine tab unlocks on Lite.
How New Balls Appear
Pick one style at the top of Accumulate settings. A short line under the buttons says what the chosen style does.
| Style | What happens |
|---|---|
| Wall hit | Every time a ball hits the wall, a new ball appears. |
| Balls touch | When two balls bump into each other, a new ball appears where they touched. Starts with at least 2 balls. |
| Split apart | A ball that hits the wall breaks into smaller pieces, and the pieces break again until they are too small. Starts from one big ball. |
| Steady drop | A new ball drops in on a timer. No hits needed. |
| Escape the ring | A ball bounces inside a ring with a gap. Each ball that slips out adds new balls, and the escaped balls pile up outside. |
| Count to a goal | Like Escape the ring, but balls stay inside and a big counter climbs to your goal, celebrates and starts again. |
| Merge numbers | Numbered balls drop in. Two balls with the same number merge into the next number and grow: 2, 4, 8, up to 2048. |
Tip
- Escape the ring, Count to a goal and Merge numbers each have their own settings section right below Accumulate settings.
Growth Settings
Shown for Wall hit, Balls touch, Split apart and Steady drop.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting balls | How many balls the run starts with. | 1 to 20 | 2 |
| Balls added each time | How many balls each hit, touch or timer tick adds. Several fan out so they never stack. | 1 to 10 | 1 |
| Pieces per split | Split apart only: how many pieces each split makes. | 2 to 6 | 2 |
| Times a ball can split | Split apart only: a piece of a piece stops splitting at this depth. | 1 to 6 | 5 |
| Wait between new balls (sec) | The pace. New balls arrive at most this often, whatever adds them. In Steady drop it is the exact timer. Wait × Max balls is roughly how long the build-up lasts. | 0 to 5 s | 0.5 |
| Max balls | Nothing is added once this many balls are on screen. | 2 to 500 | 100 |
Tip
- To fill a 60 second clip, aim for Wait × Max balls of about 50: for example 0.5 s and 100 balls, or 0.3 s and 160 balls.
When Balls Touch
Balls bounce off each other. With Wall hit or Steady drop you can turn on Merge into a bigger ball instead: two balls that touch become one bigger ball, up to Biggest size (20 to 200 px, default 100).
More
Two extras for Wall hit, Balls touch, Split apart and Steady drop.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old balls fade away | Each ball fades out after a while, so the arena never fills and the run can go on forever. | On / Off | Off |
| Seconds before a ball fades | How long each ball lives. | 0.5 to 60 s | 5 |
| Add balls on the beat | Loud beats in the playing song also add a ball from the centre. | On / Off | Off |
| Beat sensitivity | How loud a beat must be. Lower fires on more beats. | 0.1 to 1 | 0.8 |
Settings in Basics
In Basics, the Mode settings tab shows Starting balls, Balls added each time, Wait between new balls (in milliseconds), Max balls and, for Split apart, Pieces per split. Pick the style in the Engine panel.
Sound
Bounces play a short Pop by default. In a crowded arena the Studio plays at most about 15 bounce sounds a second, so a hundred balls sound lively instead of turning into noise. Pick a different sound or your song under Audio.
Common Problems
The fixes for the problems people hit most.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The arena fills in a few seconds | Wait between new balls is very short or Balls added each time is high. | Raise the wait or lower Balls added each time. |
| Growth stops early | Max balls is reached. | Raise Max balls, or turn on Old balls fade away. |
| Balls pile up at the bottom | Gravity is high or Bounciness is low in the Physics tab. | Lower Gravity or set Bounciness back to 1. |
| Add balls on the beat never fires | No song is playing, or sensitivity is too high. | Play a song and lower Beat sensitivity. |
| Playback slows down as the screen fills | Hundreds of balls are the heaviest thing the engine runs. | Lower Max balls, or turn on Old balls fade away. |
More from BallEngine
Guides, plans and answers for making your videos.
