Core Techniques and Algorithms in Game Programming

Chapter 19. Particle Systems

	“Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.”
	--Dave Barry, The Taming of the Screw

KEY TOPICS

• Anatomy of a Particle System

• The Particle Data Structure

• Some Notes on Architecture

• Speed-Up Techniques

• In Closing

In previous chapters, we discussed how to represent many different environments in a computer game. From a dungeon to a vast plain along with its populating characters, we have explored how to decompose graphics into triangle arrays, so they can be efficiently rendered by the graphics subsystem. The more triangles we use, the richer and more engaging the representation. As a clear sign of devotion to triangles, ...