Re: [pygame] is there a way to optimize this code?

[Ian Mallett <geometrian@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 2:50 AM, Hugo Arts <hugo.yoshi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My gut says this is most definitely the fastest way to go for small
numbers of snow flakes.
I suspect there is a certain point at which the numpy approach by Ian
wins out (especially if you can
optimize that a little more like Ian suggests, though I don't know
enough about numpy). 

What I like about the OP's approach, and about the numpy version of it, is that it's perfectly scalable to any number of particles.  The program as I modified it runs ~30 fps--but it runs about 30fps whether you add random particles 8 or 128 times (yes, I tried.  Incredibly dense snowfall piles up extremely quickly and is neat to see).  I suspect a approach that keeps track of all the particles individually might start out faster and degrade, especially if done with unoptimized Python.  

I also agree with the profiling bit.  About 99% of your main loop was those nested for loops.