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Variation Specifies the percent of variation of the Tension effect.
Evaluation Coarseness Specifies how accurately the metaparticle solution is
calculated. The higher the coarseness values, the less calculation. However, if
the coarseness is too high, there may be little or no metaparticle effect at all.
Conversely, if the coarseness is set too low, the time for calculation can become
extremely long.
Render Sets the coarseness for metaparticles in the rendered scene. This option
is unavailable when Automatic Coarseness is on.
Viewport Sets the coarseness for the viewport display. This option is
unavailable when Automatic Coarseness is on.
Automatic Coarseness A general rule is to set the Coarseness value between
1/4 and 1/2 the size of the particles. When this item is on, the rendering
coarseness is automatically set, based on the size of the particles, and the
viewport coarseness is set to about twice that of the rendering coarseness.
One Connected Blob When off (the default), all particles are calculated; when
on, a shortcut algorithm is used that calculates and displays only those particles
that are adjoining or contiguous to each other.
NOTE One Connected Blob mode speeds particle calculations, but you should
use it only when your metaparticles form one connected blob, as the label indicates.
That is, all particles' blobs must be touching. For example, if you were to use One
Connected Blob on a stream of particles containing a mass of 10 contiguous
particles followed by a space, then 12 contiguous particles followed by another
space, and finally 20 contiguous particles, one of the particles will be chosen, and
only the mass connected to that particle will be displayed and rendered.
TIP When in doubt, leave this option off. If you think all your particles are
contiguous and want to save time, turn on One Connected Blob, and then display
various frames to see if everything appears.
Object Fragment Controls group
With a particle array, when you choose the Object Fragments particle type,
the items in this group become available, and the object-based emitter is
exploded into fragments, rather than being used to distribute particles.
NOTE To see the fragments in the viewports, choose Mesh in the Viewport Display
group near the bottom of the
Basic Parameters rollout on page 3045.
3058 | Chapter 14 Space Warps and Particle Systems