Particle Engine problems

[Clayton]

I'm making a particle spray, but I'm having problems with the appearance of the particles, whenever a larger amount is on the screen, the "production" of more particles is basically non-existant for a short period of time, heres my code, if anyone can figure out whats going on it would be appreciated

Turing:

class Particle     export create_new, move, draw, eliminate     const gravity : real := -0.1     var x, y, clr, xv, yv : real     procedure create_new (x_, y_, xv_, yv_, clr_ : int)         x := x_         y := y_         xv := xv_ + Rand.Real         yv := yv_ + Rand.Real         clr := clr_     end create_new     procedure move         y += yv         x += xv         yv += gravity     end move     procedure draw         Draw.Dot (round (x), round (y), round (clr))     end draw     function eliminate : boolean         if y < 0 then             result true         else             result false         end if     end eliminate end Particle var particle : flexible array 1 .. 0 of ^Particle var elements_to_be_removed : flexible array 1 .. 0 of int var x, y, b : int procedure push (element_to_be_removed : int)     var temp : ^Particle     for i : element_to_be_removed .. upper (particle) - 1         temp := particle (i)         particle (i) := particle (i + 1)         particle (i + 1) := temp     end for     new particle, upper (particle) - 1 end push View.Set ("offscreenonly,graphics:max;max") loop     colorback (black)     Draw.Cls     Draw.FillBox (0, 0, maxx, maxy, black)     Mouse.Where (x, y, b)     if b >= 1 then         for i : 1 .. 12             new particle, upper (particle) + 1             new Particle, particle (upper (particle))             particle (upper (particle)) -> create_new (x, y, Rand.Int (-2, 2), Rand.Int (0, 8), yellow)         end for     end if     new elements_to_be_removed, 0     for i : 1 .. upper (particle)         particle (i) -> move         particle (i) -> draw         if particle (i) -> eliminate then             new elements_to_be_removed, upper (elements_to_be_removed) + 1             elements_to_be_removed (upper (elements_to_be_removed)) := i         end if     end for     for i : 1 .. upper (elements_to_be_removed)         push (elements_to_be_removed (i))         free particle (upper (particle))         if upper (particle) - 1 < 0 then             new particle, 0         else             new particle, upper (particle) - 1         end if     end for     View.Update     Time.Delay (15) end loop

[Ultrahex]

Here As Requested Freakman, The Way I Decided to fix.

code:

class Particle     export create_new, move, draw, eliminate     const gravity : real := -0.1     var x, y, clr, xv, yv : real     procedure create_new (x_, y_, xv_, yv_, clr_ : int)         x := x_         y := y_         xv := xv_ + Rand.Real         yv := yv_ + Rand.Real         clr := clr_     end create_new     procedure move         y += yv         x += xv         yv += gravity     end move     procedure draw         Draw.Dot (round (x), round (y), round (clr))     end draw     function eliminate : boolean         if y < 0 then             result true         else             result false         end if     end eliminate end Particle View.Set ("offscreenonly,graphics:400;400") var particle : flexible array 1 .. 0 of ^Particle var mx, my, mb : int var current, high : int loop     Draw.Cls     Draw.FillBox (0, 0, maxx, maxy, black)     Mouse.Where (mx, my, mb)     %Create Particles If Mouse Button Is Being Pressed     if mb >= 1 then         for i : 1 .. 12             new particle, upper (particle) + 1             new Particle, particle (upper (particle))             particle (upper (particle)) -> create_new (mx, my, Rand.Int (-2, 2), Rand.Int (0, 8), yellow)         end for     end if     %For Each Particle     current := 1     high := upper (particle)     loop         if (current > high) then             exit         end if         if (particle (current) -> eliminate) then             free particle (current)             particle (current) := particle (upper (particle))             new particle, upper (particle) - 1             high -= 1         else             particle (current) -> move ()             particle (current) -> draw ()             current += 1         end if     end loop     View.Update     Time.Delay (15) end loop

[ericfourfour]

I'd recommend making a particle engine following this tutorial (credits go to Martin for finding it). I use it every time.

Anyway, Ultrahex fixed it so I thought I'd give you a few pointers (no pun intended).

The particles should not be 'freed' until you are absolutely done with them or you need more memory. The particles should have a flag saying there dead instead. This lowers the amount of times you allocate/deallocate memory already. Next, when you want to create another particle, find a particle with the dead flag. Then all you have to do is reinitialize it. Once again, you have lowered the amount of times you allocate/deallocate memory.

I have a question for Ultrahex. Why did you cls then draw a black box over the screen?

code:

Draw.Cls Draw.FillBox (0, 0, maxx, maxy, black)

Incase you didn't already know, you can set the background colour.

code:

colourback (7) %Black background

What this really does, is it sets the colour that will show up behind text. It doesn't really set the screen background.

What cls does, is it outputs a full screen of blank text.
Kind of like this:

code:

put repeat ("\n", maxrow)

What happens when you output a full screen of blank text with black as the text background? The whole screen goes black.