Alternatives to multiple sprite batches for achieving 2D particle system depth

Posted by Ergwun on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Ergwun
Published on 2012-05-10T14:08:15Z Indexed on 2012/06/10 4:48 UTC
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Filed under:

XNA

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2d

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sprites

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particles

In my 2D XNA game, I render all my sprites with a single sprite batch using SpriteSortMode.BackToFront and BlendState.AlphaBlend.

I'm adding a particle system based on the App Hub particles sample. Since this uses SpriteSortMode.Deferred and BlendState.Additive, I will need to have two SpriteBatch.Begin / SpriteBatch.End pairs: one for 'regular' sprites, and one for particles.

In my top-down shooter, If I want to have explosions appear under planes, but above the ground, then I believe I will have to have three Begin/End pairs, first to draw everything under the explosions, then to draw the explosions, then to draw everything above the explosions. If I want to have particle effects at multiple different depths, then I'm going to need even more Begin/Endpairs.

This is all easy to code, but I'm wondering if there is an alternative way to handle this?

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