Post AVMyDb45DUlcIoMmjg by bgolus@mastodon.gamedev.place
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 (DIR) Post #AVMyDY6oCuAH8OcQ4G by bgolus@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2023-05-06T01:55:06Z
       
       2 likes, 0 repeats
       
       An interesting Game Dev Fact for tech artists out there. Infamous: Second Son is perhaps best remembered for its incredible and varied particle effects.It only had one particle shader, with no variants. All transparent particles were rendered in a single draw.
       
 (DIR) Post #AVMyDb45DUlcIoMmjg by bgolus@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2023-05-06T01:55:06Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       To be clear. I don’t mean one draw per emitter, or type of particle. I mean _all_ particles. If you’re someone who’s used to using Unity or Unreal, every single particle used one shared material.All the different textures, all the different rendering modes, all one shader.
       
 (DIR) Post #AVMyDcougroxkLHhMu by bgolus@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2023-05-06T01:55:06Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       It relied entirely on dynamic branches in a giant über particle material.Why would they do this? For sorting. They used compute shaders to generate and update the particle position and display data in one giant list, and then they just had to sort that one list.