So what's the verdict, does hiding offscreen entities help? Do offscreen entities count in the surface count, and does hiding them while offscreen make them not count?
Yeah, I've looked at single surface for the particles, but it seems to be a bit of a nightmare for me. I see what you're saying about using pivots, but there seems to be other pitfalls with that technique. While I'm sure they're all fixable, it would take a large cunk of time, and wouldn't alleviate the problem of multiple shots flying through the air adding to the surface count.
Yeah, I've looked at single surface for the particles, but it seems to be a bit of a nightmare for me. I see what you're saying about using pivots, but there seems to be other pitfalls with that technique. While I'm sure they're all fixable, it would take a large cunk of time, and wouldn't alleviate the problem of multiple shots flying through the air adding to the surface count.