[sldev] Re: Questions on the particle system

[Dale Glass]

On Sunday 02 December 2007 22:17:41 Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> I think that the key point here may be to remember that particles not
> being rendered still need to be tracked, so that (for example) the
> smoke from the campfire behind you blows past you. 
That makes sense, but IMO it doesn't make sense to limit it. Tracking 
particles off-screen can't be that much work. It's rendering what involves 
a performance hit. My understanding of "particle limit" is that if set to 
say, 4096 that means maximum 4096 *on the screen*


> The other thing to 
> consider is that it's probably smarter to sort particle systems by
> the area they cover, so that a nearby but small system isn't given
> priority over a system that's further away.
Why? It's actually pretty much the reverse of my sense of priorities.

If I'm looking at something that's near, like say, a candle, I want to see 
the candle in its all full detail glory. Whatever is going on far away is 
far less interesting.


> Before spending a lot of time on this, you probably need to see if
> the problem you're trying to solve is still a problem, and... if you
> want it in your own viewer without Windlight... whether you can't
> just lift the code from there. Also, note that both Nicholaz and I
> have spent a lot of time digging into this already.
Hmm, will have to take a better look, but I still get the feeling of that 
I'll end up writing something as it seems we disagree on the specifics. 

Guess one way to see the best way to handle it is to compare what it's 
going to end up looking like :-)
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