Particles are 2D graphics that always face the camera. Being lightweight makes them interesting to work with in a web-based engine such as Papervision3D. Two ways of using them are:
Billboarding, the technique of using a texture instead of high-poly geometry to cut down on the vertices
Creating organic effects, with the help of a particle system
We walked through some examples to demonstrate how to create particles and how to apply the available materials. MovieAssetParticleMaterial is the only material that you can add interactivity to.
A demo was presented to illustrate that particles don't have to be small. Using BitmapParticleMaterial, we added some billboards representing foliage to the mill model.
We discussed the Flint particle system. Flint is a Flash-based particle system, which also can be used in combination with Papervision3D. It is able to generate, render, and manage particles, pixels, and other do3Ds.
The next chapter will discuss how to add all kinds of effects to your...
