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Discovered relevent information about the computation time of exponents; added 61 characters in body
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Lunin
Lunin
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You'd probably get a close approximation to what you want by utilizing an exponential system.

Make the x based on something like 1-(rnd^value) (Assuming rnd is between 0 and 1) and you'll get a few different behaviors of left to right skewing based on what you use. A higher value will get you a more skewed distribution

You can use an online graphing tool to get some rough ideas on the behaviors different equations will give you before placing them in, or you can just fiddle with the equations directly in your particle system, depending what style is more to your tastes.

EDIT

For something like a particle system where CPU time per particle is very important, using Math.Pow (or language equivalent) directly can lead to a decrease in performance. If more performance is desired, and value isn't being changed in run-time, consider switching to an equivalent function such as x*x instead of x^2.

(Fractional exponents could be more of an issue, but someone with a stronger math background than I could probably come up with a good way to create an approximation function)

You'd probably get a close approximation to what you want by utilizing an exponential system.

Make the x based on something like 1-(rnd^value) (Assuming rnd is between 0 and 1) and you'll get a few different behaviors of left to right skewing based on what you use. A higher value will get you a more skewed distribution

You can use an online graphing tool to get some rough ideas on the behaviors different equations will give you before placing them in, or you can just fiddle with the equations directly in your particle system, depending what style is more to your tastes.

You'd probably get a close approximation to what you want by utilizing an exponential system.

Make the x based on something like 1-(rnd^value) (Assuming rnd is between 0 and 1) and you'll get a few different behaviors of left to right skewing based on what you use. A higher value will get you a more skewed distribution

You can use an online graphing tool to get some rough ideas on the behaviors different equations will give you before placing them in, or you can just fiddle with the equations directly in your particle system, depending what style is more to your tastes.

EDIT

For something like a particle system where CPU time per particle is very important, using Math.Pow (or language equivalent) directly can lead to a decrease in performance. If more performance is desired, and value isn't being changed in run-time, consider switching to an equivalent function such as x*x instead of x^2.

(Fractional exponents could be more of an issue, but someone with a stronger math background than I could probably come up with a good way to create an approximation function)

Source Link
Lunin
Lunin
  • 1.3k
  • 6
  • 9

You'd probably get a close approximation to what you want by utilizing an exponential system.

Make the x based on something like 1-(rnd^value) (Assuming rnd is between 0 and 1) and you'll get a few different behaviors of left to right skewing based on what you use. A higher value will get you a more skewed distribution

You can use an online graphing tool to get some rough ideas on the behaviors different equations will give you before placing them in, or you can just fiddle with the equations directly in your particle system, depending what style is more to your tastes.