Computer graphics has always been a major area of interest – and I would like to say expertise – for me.
Within graphics, particles and particle systems have played a big role since the days of the first video games.
It is not uncommon for games these days to often have thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of particles on the screen at the same time. In fact, games without particles are a rare exception.
There are many topics that can be discussed when talking about particles, and I am sure I will cover many of them in the future.
Today I want to introduce the concept of parametric particles.
This is no grand effect, or even overly difficult, but it is a technique that every graphics programmer should be aware of. Even when not using it directly, I have found it useful when thinking about particle simulation.
Further, it provides a stepping stone for simple particle simulation on the GPU, which is a topic I want to cover in the near future.
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