SpriteBatch vs DisplayObjectContainer

[Ezelia]

Hi,

 

juste curious about the main difference between SpriteBatch and DisplayObjectContainer.

 

is SpriteBatch allways faster ? or there are some cases where DisplayObjectContainer remain preferable ?

[Sebi]

SpriteBatches are always faster but those come with some trade offs.

SpriteBatches only can be 1 layer deep (no children), have no interactions, afaik no filters, the Sprites have to share a base texture, etc.

A DisplayObjectContainer has all pixi features but renders slower.

 

I don't really see why there is no interactions for SpriteBatches tho.

[d13]

It can be difficult to know when to use one over the other.

SpriteBatch is *usually* faster, but not always; it depends on your specific use.

I usually start with a DOC and then, if I feel I need to optimize, tinker around with an SB.

[Sebi]

In which case is a SpriteBatch slower than a DOC?

A SpriteBatch is made for extremely fast rendering (positions, rotations, alpha, scale), it should never be slower than a DOC.

[Ezelia]

Thank you Sebastian

I can see the difference now !

 

I'm making some tests .... and sprite tinting don's seem to be working with SpriteBatch btw

[xerver]

Tints will not work with sprite batch, you have only position, rotation, alpha, and scaling. Anything else is not considered, which is where the speed boost comes from. It uses a much faster shader that forces batching and makes assumptions. The trade off being you don't get the fancy stuff.

[alex_h]

I found that if the sprite being drawn comes from a texture atlas then SpriteBatch is also slower. It works best when drawing a single complete image file, not a rect from an image.

[Ezelia]

thank you xever,

I also started looking at the source code and I have now a better idea on when I should use it and when not.

 

my first question was because I wanted to use it in a particle emitter I'm making for pixi, but it use tinting a lot. so I'll just stay with DisplayObjectContainers for now

[Sebi]

You should still use SpriteBatches for your emitters, at least when it makes sense.

If the current animation is not tinting the particles, then use the SpriteBatch.

I haven't looked into the WebGL SpriteBatch code yet, but for the CanvasRenderer, it is absolutely possible to use SpriteBatch and tint together. You just have to copy the baseTexture frame to a new canvas, create a texture of it, and use that texture for your particle sprites. Whenever you change the tint, you just take the original baseTexture again, tint it, and overwrite your particle texture.

[Ezelia]

I'll try that, but not sure if it'll make performance better.

as I already have some performance issues with tinting.

 

actually, the problem is that when I use tinting, I need a new tint each frame or so ! it's used to fade a particle color from a start color to an end color.

and all particles do not share the same tint at a given time.

 

even with DisplayObjectContainer, I forced no cache for tinting because it's useless and make things worst.

 

I maybe need another aproach for the color variation.

[agamemnus]

Would it be possible to add .pivot to SpriteBatch? (isn't it just a recalculation of position?)