Ways to make particles more efficient?

fogarty

I have ~12 actors in my game regularly spewing particles, and I recently noticed when I turn off the particles, the game runs a lot smoother. What are the things I can do to help alleviate the drag from particles?

Would making the image smaller help?
Would spawning fewer particles help?
Would using set numbers instead of random(X,Y) for things like rotation and speed help?

I don't know how much any of these things matter.

Thanks.

RP

For starters, are you just running the game in the GameSalad viewer window?
Push out an ad-hoc (if you have not done so already) and see how the particles perform there.

Depending on the situation, yes spawning smaller particle images, or fewer can help, anything that causes less process to take place will help, but before you go there try the ad-hoc. Also make sure your particle images are not bigger than they need to be. For instance if they are tiny on screen, the imported images do not need to be 200 x 200 ppi.

Socks

Would making the image smaller help? Yes
Would spawning fewer particles help? Yes
Would using set numbers help? No

+ what RP said about image size, if your particles are 32 x 32 make sure the image is 32 x 32 rather than 128 x 128.

fogarty

Great. Thanks for the advice.

I have made an ad hoc, and I do think my images are bigger than they need to be.