Fire/Explosion

HI, I need to create a fire effect and an expanding explosion effect in my game. I was wondering if you have any idea on how to do this? It's Direct3D 8.1. Should I alpha blend some fire textures (billboarded) or would be it be viable to create some sort of 3D explosion model, like an expanding sphere with alpha tranparent/changing fire textures ??? -- Oops just realised what I ofcourse need, particle system :-) [edited by - beowulf on September 28, 2002 7:53:54 AM]