Performance Parameters

The PERFORMANCE tab contains controls that relate to the generator's performance characteristics.

The controls are:

• PRE-COMPUTE PLUME. This setting controls how many updates to compute BEFORE the plume is shown. If your purpose is to see a fully-developed plume when the visual is first shown, you should set this value to a number higher than the LIFETIME value. If you want to show the plume developing, you should set this to NONE or a low value.
  
  Numerically, the slider range is 0 to 200.
• REDRAW EVERY FRAME / REDRAW AT INTERVAL. The more CS Effects you have operating at the same time, the more difficulty your processor will have in keeping them all running at top speed. If you have many CS Effects going at the same time, to the point at which it is interfering with interaction, you can set the visual update interval (the slider) to update the graphics less frequently than every (Flash) frame. The number is the frequency, in milliseconds, to update the graphics, so a value of 100 means 10 times per second.
  
  Numerically, the slider range is 20 to 150.
• FASTEST COMPUTATION. The CS Effects particle generator requires a fair amount of computation to perform. By default, we set the quality of the Flash movie to LOW, which means to approximate the drawing of lines, but retain pictures (JPG/PNG/etc.) at a satisfactory viewing level. If you leave FASTEST COMPUTATION checked, the system will set the quality to LOW. If the setting is unchecked, the system will set the viewing quality to HIGH. At HIGH quality, you may see some artifacts in terms of the overlap of particles, so we recommend leaving this box checked.
• NEW PARTICLES IN FRONT. When CS Effects adds a new particle to the plume, it can either add it in front of all the others, or behind the others. By default, we have particles generated in front, simulating a smoke source that is in front of the plume. If this check box is unchecked, the new particles will appear behind the older particles, giving the appearance of the smoke source being behind the plume. A situation in which you want the checkbox unchecked is if you want to simulate particles coming towards you, so the new particles are being generated behind the plume.
• STREAM ACTIVE.  Whether or not the plume is moving.