Simulating rain

Question

I am making a game in java and I want to create a simulation of a cloud that is pouring rain. The cloud is supposed to move to the right while raining. Moving the cloud is no problem. It's the rain that I am struggling with.

What I was thinking of doing was with a timer to draw a rectangle, thats supposed to look like falling rain at a random x value inside of the cloud. And then add 1 to the y value of the drop each 100 millisecond. But I don't want to create 100 different rectangles, x variables and y variables for each rain drop.

Any idea how I can accomplish this? Suggestions appreciated!

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It is a 2d game.. Sorry.

Answer 1

I would recommend just storing the values as an ArrayList of objects.

class Raindrop {
    private int x;
    private int y;

    public void fall() {
        y--;
    }
}

Then make an ArrayList with a generic type.

ArrayList<Raindrop> drops = new ArrayList<Raindrop>();

To make each drop fall,

for (int i=0; i<drops.length(); i++) {
    drops.get(i).fall();
}