hey, In my upcoming plugin you can render realistic particle effects with millions of independent particles, each with their own physics. I've experimented with explosions and the results are stunning. check it out in the Iridium thread in the gallery =D
-mike-
http://www.groundtacticsgame.com/ Alienware m17x R Custom laptop specs: Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad CPU Q9300 2x Nvidia 280GTX 2GB vram 6GB ddr3 memory@ 1333Mhz 512GB SSD 1200p 17' screen runs Crysis Warhead on max settings at 1200p at 90 fps