We are working hard to get you all a new Beta 17 to test. In the mean time, here are some results of some tests I just performed on saving PRT files with various channel configurations:
1 Million Particles:
Default channels:
*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
*Color float16[3]
*Density float16
*Normal float16[3]
32 bytes/particle
File size: 18,872 KB
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Default, but 32 bit precision:
*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float32[3]
*Color float32[3]
*Density float32
*Normal float32[3]
52 bytes/particle
File size: 24,606 KB
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*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
*Color float16[3]
*Density float16
26 bytes/particle
File size: 11,802 KB
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*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
*Color float16[3]
24 bytes/particle
File size: 11,787 KB
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*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
18 bytes/particle
File size: 11,638 KB
--------------
*Position float32[3]
12 bytes/particle
File size: 10,715 KB
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All channels:
*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
*Color float16[3]
*Density float16
*Normal float16[3]
TextureCoord float16[3]
Orientation float16[4]
ID int16
Age int16
50 bytes/particle
File size: 29,487 KB
Note that the file size difference with or without color, velocity and density channels is very small because of the ZIP compression which loves similar values.
In this example, all particles were following the same direction (default PFlow). Changing Speed to Random 3D caused the file size of
*Position float32[3]
*Velocity float16[3]
18 bytes/particle
to go up from 11,638 KB to 16,545 because the Velocity channel contained data that was harder to compress.
Conclusion:
You are about to get full control over what is being saved to the particle files and in what precision. All channels except Position can be switched between 16, 32 and 64 bit per component. (Position will be fixed at float32[3] for now).
Stay tuned!
awesome!
yeah sounds definitely cool!