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164

answers:

2

I am wondering what the fastest approach might be for using Flash/AS3 to render a 2D point plot (sonar lofargram) ; basically screens full of tiny 2D dots using Flash as fast as possible. Any suggestions on where to start? Is Flash capable of displaying 10's of thousands of 2D points (or more) with an acceptable fps?

+2  A: 

Depending on the application, it might be easier without using multiple particle instances and by working with bitmap objects instead.

poke
This. Create a BitmapData object and draw into it using the various methods for that purpose, and then performance will not vary with the number of data points. (i.e. adding a new point will have a constant cost, and displaying the graph will be essentially free regardless of how many data points you show.)
fenomas
It looks like for what you're doing, you could even use BitmapData.setPixel() or setPixels() instead of keeping track of thousands of Sprites for the points.
Selene
A: 

There's a opensource particle framework for Flash called Flint - http://flintparticles.org/

It's been written in such a way to make it "easy" for developers to extend and customise without having to delve into the core code.

If nothing else it should show you the upper limits of Flash's ability to render particles.

There's also a forum where you can post questions ;-)

HTH

jolyonruss