Which is faster?
Everybody seems to think that a single surface particle system is faster than using native Blitz sprites. Well, yes, and no.
AFAIK, using CopyEntity() means that only 1 copy of the mesh/texture is actually used and all subsequent copies are just instances of that entity.
There's a LOT of extra maths behind an SS system, and it got me thinking about whether its *really* worth the hassle.
Individual CopyEntity() beings can have their alpha/color altered, and I don't think it increases the surface count. Theroetically, if you are only using 1 texture for your particles, this should result in one surface being used anyway, and the extra speed would be gained by not having to
- rebuild the SS mesh every frame
- send it to the GFX card (only 1 plane needs to be sent)
- sort out the well known z-order problems
To check out the speed, try creating 3000 planes using CopyEntity() - works fine(?)
Let me know if I'm overlooking something blindingly obvious, but I used such a system in my last game and it worked fine. The only noticable slowdown was when there was a lot of overdraw (fill rate) which you get with an SS system as well.
Everybody seems to think that a single surface particle system is faster than using native Blitz sprites. Well, yes, and no.
AFAIK, using CopyEntity() means that only 1 copy of the mesh/texture is actually used and all subsequent copies are just instances of that entity.
There's a LOT of extra maths behind an SS system, and it got me thinking about whether its *really* worth the hassle.
Individual CopyEntity() beings can have their alpha/color altered, and I don't think it increases the surface count. Theroetically, if you are only using 1 texture for your particles, this should result in one surface being used anyway, and the extra speed would be gained by not having to
- rebuild the SS mesh every frame
- send it to the GFX card (only 1 plane needs to be sent)
- sort out the well known z-order problems
To check out the speed, try creating 3000 planes using CopyEntity() - works fine(?)
Let me know if I'm overlooking something blindingly obvious, but I used such a system in my last game and it worked fine. The only noticable slowdown was when there was a lot of overdraw (fill rate) which you get with an SS system as well.