HCE has a built-in particle cap; Kornmann claims such a limit has been increased with the use of OS. Question is; what's the limit WITH and WITHOUT OS? What's the limit related to? Memory usage (like, you have 12 mb of memory for your particles, so it's related to the sprite itself) or sheer particles number?

The limit was raised by 50% with HAC2, and couldn't get any higher due to inherent limitations of the engine, which leads me to believe OS has a very similar bump.

If I remember correctly, it was from 1000 to 1500.
Edited by Tucker933 on Oct 24, 2016 at 06:33 PM

Are you sure about that? 1000 is a pretty high number

Before Bt took a crack at it, I was always under the impression the limit was 100 (thought someone credible said that at one time). There's actually several limits to particles, depending on whether they're generated by a particle system tag, particle tag, and if the latter, whether that particle has collision.

I don't recall the entire breakdown, but one of the larger limits was 1024 or 2048, and the total limit was raised by 50% with HAC2.

It sounds like a lot, but it becomes easier to believe if you look up a visualization of 100 points. It's terribly low when you're talking particles, and many stock effects are also set to generate hundreds at a time (with significant lifespans).
Edited by Tucker933 on Oct 24, 2016 at 07:46 PM

Stock Halo's particle table has a hard limit of 1024, if this is what you mean.

This sounds like a high number, but it can add up very, very quickly even on stock Halo if you have 10 or more players, as this includes offscreen particles, as well.