CreateEffect allows you to play one of (currently) 17 in-game animations (explosions, the smoke that flies out when something lands, etc.).
Effects are useful for visual flare. For instance when a unit blows up you might want to make a custom explosion.
0: “ShotExplosion”, radiation of yellow dots
1: “MortarShellExplosion” (fixed in v1.77)
2: “BerthaShellExplosion”, large explosion of white sparks
3: “RunnerExplosion”, large explosion of blue sparks
4: “SporeExplosion”, large fiery explosion, with flying debris
5: “TotemExplosion”, large radiation of yellow dots, ending with a vibrating green circle
6: “CreeperAAShellExplosion”, white explosion
7: “UnitExplosion”, fiery explosion
8: “MoveTrail”, white implosion (like a unit that the player chose to destroy)
9: “ShortTrail”, small black explosion (like a mortar shell going off)
10: “SporeTrail”, blue electrical radation
11: “SmokeRingEffect”, dust cloud (like a unit landing from orbit)
12: “ParticleBeamDamage”, long-lasting bright blue-white light
13: “PulseCannonShellEffect”, small black southwest-moving dot
14: “StunnedEffect”, orange static (like a glider being spawned)
15: “TerraModCell”, small orange torch
16: “TotemFiring”, long-lasting large bright blue-white vortex of light
12, 15 and 16 were previously unending animations. For use with CreateEffect, they are now clipped to 30 frames. To specify the desired duration of these effects, or clip any of the other effects short, see
CreateEffectClipped.