FrenchDecay on 10/9/2016 at 20:04
Hi taffers!
I've been looking up several topics about particles and I haven't been able to find some kind of common limit for the use of particles, and as my computer is not that old I can't really figure it out by myself.
So here's my question :
When would you consider that it is just too much?In my case, I have a main brush (312;312;340) with a crevasse carved in it, and in which there are 3 particles SFX at the same place
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http://www.directupload.net)
Inline Image:
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160910/o44uhnoc.png(
http://www.directupload.net)
Inline Image:
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160910/9kyrjuqx.pngThe three of them have the exact same parameters except for colorsMy computer runs at a smooth 60fps all the time in the area, but I have not tried inserting objects and AIs yet!
Is that too much?
On another note, I have never been looking particles parameters as thoroughly as I probably should have, since most of the time I use what the game has already set. So if you spot something really stupid, please point it out to me!
R Soul on 10/9/2016 at 20:39
The number 25000 jumps out at me, and I don't think spreading them out over 296 x 296 will help. There's still a lot of processing required.
A torch has two particle objects, both with 30 particles, so imagine having 417 torches, or 1,250 since you have 3 of your objects. Definitely too much for a modest computer.
The large volume may also cause rendering problems. It may have been fixed for NewDark, but there have been times when I've seen particles cease from being rendered when their object's centre is a certain distance off screen.
I think a better solution would be to use more objects, but with fewer particles, and make them larger and use bitmaps that mimic the effect you're trying to get. You can also the "fogveyors" we first saw in Hazleshade cemetary.
ZylonBane on 10/9/2016 at 21:01
The only reason I can imagine to use literally tens of thousands of particles is to completely choke an area with some kind of fog effect, but the particle size of 0.3 does not seem to support that notion.
Yandros on 11/9/2016 at 01:35
Agreed. Try a particle size of 3.0 and quantity 1200-1500. You may get a similar effect. Also, if your situation would be suited by a "glowy" effect, then if you set Renderer > Alpha Blend Mode to Add then you can drastically reduce the number of particles and/or increase the alpha slightly to get a comparable effect that is much easier on the renderer.
FrenchDecay on 11/9/2016 at 10:23
I'm using particles to create something similar to snow falling from the ceiling the brush, of course since it's hard to determine the depths of things in Thief, the particles are placed just a bit higher than the player (20 units above the ground).
I changed the quantity to 1250 for each and set Alpha Blend Mode to "Add", I didn't change particles size because I'm assuming size 3 is for fog particles.
As R Soul suggested, I also reduced their bounding box to 64 (X/Y) and split the area with 3 particles groups instead of one bulky group, but it felt a bit contradictory to use more particles groups even if they are smaller, have I misunderstood?
Other than that the effect is the same, so unless I made a mistake in here, thank you all for the quick response!
ZylonBane on 11/9/2016 at 13:12
Why aren't you using precipitation for this effect?
FrenchDecay on 11/9/2016 at 13:57
I thought about it, but the effect I'm looking for is comparable to the snow physics only. I haven't looked that up, but you can't modify precipitation colors can you?
Yandros on 11/9/2016 at 14:07
Of course you can, precipitation just uses a bitmap. You can save any bitmap you want in bitmap/txt and use it as the precipitation. I've seen missions where people made fall leaves fall to the ground under trees.
ZylonBane on 11/9/2016 at 19:34
I've seen C-beams glitter in the dark near Tannhauser Gate.
nicked on 13/9/2016 at 07:57
Precipitation settings can pretty much match any particle settings can't they? Plenty of jitter, slower speed, you can simulate a lot.
