> > Well the thing that really makes them look computer
> > game-y is the fact that you can see lots of seperate
> > identical textures.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by that. Of course all the textures are made from
> the same pattern, but unique turbulence is added for each particle, so
> they're not identical. Maybe I should also vary the colors a bit?

Are they? Oh, I must be wrong about that!
Okay, well looking at it paused it's harder to spot the individual particles
than I thought, the only hint is that each texture has fairly uniform density
across it, so where they overlap that density is doubled and you can spot the
individual bits. If the texture was more transparent towards the edges then it
would hide this effect better.

> > Plus their motion is such that it gives away where the
> > seperate particles are. i.e. all the fire is either
> > following one motion or another, none of it is inbetween.
>
> I don't understand this either. I don't have a set of predefined paths, all
> the particles react the same way on (inverse) gravity and wind, and besides
> that some randomness is added.

I don't mean a pre-defined path, I just mean each particle moves seperately, so
where two particles move relative to each other you can see that they're
seperate. You see a parallax effect that immediately gives away the fact that
they're seperate.

> I tried using more particles, but it just made the fire and smoke much more
> blurred, because more textures were averaged...

That sounds like it would probably make the individual particles harder to see
:)

BTW, it's still a very nice effect, and anything better would take many times
the render time.

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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