about particles,. .

[jph_wacheski]

I am wondering about the particle system,. it is quite usefull as is, however some things could be added,. just a couple questions. I am tempted to delve into the source and attempt to make some additions,. first question how tought will that be? things I would potentialy add;

• part_rotation start
  part_rotation velocity
  part_rotation friction

- currnetly I rotate whole part systems and some interesting effects can be done but this is for different effects,. .

• part_scale start-mid-end (independant of part_w _h)
  part_alpha start-mid-end

- these two are very usefull for not haveing parts pop in out,.

• color start-mid-end

-fire, smoke, MANY uses,.

• friction or velocity loss

Just curious if any of this could be done without major changes to the existing code,. guess I should just take a look,. any pointers if I do?

Next question is about performance. How much advantage does a particle system have over using a bunch of objects ? attached is such a system built from objects not useing the built-in part system,. (this shows some effects that I am proposing be added to the current suystem,. rotating, scaleing, alpha fading,. etc,. . ) I assume the particle system would be more efficent at renedering stuff like this,. over this object based method,. true? Cheers.

[VilleK]

I like the ice-storm effect because it is not obvious how you made it from polygons, it has got a nice organic look.

Particles vs Models: A simple model with just UseMaterial,RenderSetColor, RenderSprite in OnRender should be similar in performance to particles. Make sure you remove particles when they go off-screen or completely transparent as fast as possible. Of course with a Update-expression or collisions performance will go down quickly.

The additions you suggest should not be too hard to implement. And it would make cool effects possible. I think I already experimented with Rotation and Acceleration for particles but left it out for some reason. I can take a look at it later.

[jph_wacheski]

thanks Ville,. yup that is my goal here making it a bit organic and less straight forward,. .

Thanks for the obj VS parts performace info. that is exactly what these are,. and the number of objects now peeks around 1k. and runs fine here.

the latest ver. is posted in a new thread here;

viewtopic.php?p=1487#1487

as far as those additions,. I will have a go at the source when I get my site switched over to the new php stuff,. . and likely after I have the first proper demo for the Machine Elves done,. well you may beat me to it,. lol