Patent ID: 8203560

Claim:
A method for use in rendering, comprising: receiving an input particle system, an instancing program, and a number indicating a maximum number of particles to be stored in memory; providing an input particle count representative of at least a portion of the input particle system to at least one operator for the instancing program; running the at least one operator in a prediction mode prior to any particles being generated, to predict the size of an output bounding box by generating an output particle count corresponding to each operator without running the at least one operator to generate output particles; and determining a final output particle count, in view of the output particle count corresponding to each operator, wherein the predicted size of the output bounding box is representative of the final output particle count; comparing the final output particle count to the number indicating a maximum number of particles to be stored in memory; and spatially splitting an input bounding box representative of the input particle count in response to the final output particle count being greater than the number indicating a maximum number of particles to be stored in memory.