patch time

Hey guys

I had been trying to make copies of a particle system with an iterator for quite a bit, and I finally found a solution. If it helps anyone else as-well even better.

What's the trick? - the particle system's Timebase needs to be set to external
- then just like with Random patches, you publish the Patch Time input from within the iterator and you hook up the time from outside
- you then do some simple math with each of the iterations (this one is important, because each particle system needs it's own time) - i usually use the math expression ( outsideTime + currentIndex*offset ), where offset is just a constant such as 200 or 300

That's it. I've attached the composition and a screenshot, but you can also find them here.

Posted is a working little animation using sprites, iterator and javascript. I want the animation to add the sprites (random size and color) without overlapping, and scroll as the screen fills.

1. Regarding, for ex., sprites filling screen but not overlapping, in javascript (or otherwise, i guess), how can a relationship be set up between queue indices, so current index uses values from previous index (or indices) to determine x position, y position, width and height?

2. Would it be better (faster) to have the random values sampled in js?

3. How can I generate the scrolling, say after the screen fills? Best way? Sometimes I see the "dummy" patch time patch input in js -- what is this for? Am I off the mark for thinking of this re: scrolling in js?

Any help is appreciated.