Particle System Test

Particle System Test Island

Spec

Overview

• We need an area set aside for testing particle systems.
  • Testing area has been set up and is at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/128/128/27 (Restricted Access - Contact Oz Linden)
• There are two primary tests that we need to run when making changes to the particle system
  • Compatibility Changes should not significantly affect the appearance of particle systems
  • Performance Changes should not reduce the frame rate in dense particle areas

Compatibility area

• Generic particle system tests have been setup here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/223/203/29
  • Each Generic test unit is documented with code snippets and an explanation of the parameter/flag being demonstrated.

In order to test the compatibility of each aspect of particle systems, we need to build the following:

• There should be a series of relatively generic particle systems with individual systems illustrating each of the following flags and associated parameters independently. Each example should be clearly labled.
  • PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK
  • PSYS_PART_BOUNCE_MASK
  • PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK
    • PSYS_PART_START_COLOR
    • PSYS_PART_END_COLOR
  • PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK
    • PSYS_PART_START_SCALE
    • PSYS_PART_END_SCALE
  • PSYS_PART_WIND_MASK
  • PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK
  • PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_VELOCITY_MASK
  • PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK
    • PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY
• There should also be labeled particle systems that illustrate the following parameters:
  • PSYS_SRC_PATTERN
  • PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE
  • PSYS_SRC_ACCEL
  • PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT
  • PSYS_SRC_BURST_RADIUS
  • PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN
  • PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX
  • PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_BEGIN
  • PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_END
  • PSYS_SRC_OMEGA
  • PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE
  • PSYS_SRC_TEXTURE
  • PSYS_PART_START_ALPHA
  • PSYS_PART_END_ALPHA
• Additionally, there should be a sampling of typical particle systems gathered from systems in use in Second Life. At minimum these should include examples of:
  • Fire
  • Smoke
  • Fountains
  • Explosions
  • Fireworks
  • Glitter / "bling"
    • This area is still being built out but will also be located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/223/203/29

Performance

• There should be an area that has a few particle systems emitting the maximum number of particles possible to test total particle count and performance
  • Located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/50/62/31
• There should be an area that has a few particle systems emitting a moderate number of very large particles to test the effect of fill on performance
  • Located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/78/209/27
• There should be an area that has a very large number of particle systems emitting a range of low to high number of particles to test particle allocation and distribution across particle systems
  • Under Construction: Proposed area at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mickopolis/179/80/30