Hey everyone! I’m working on a cool project and need some help. I want to draw 1,000,000 tiny dots on an HTML5 canvas using just vanilla JavaScript. No fancy libraries or frameworks.
I’m not sure how to make it perform well. Should I use requestAnimationFrame? Or is there a better way to handle so many particles?
Also, I’d love to add some simple animation, like making the dots move around slowly. But I’m worried it might slow things down too much.
Has anyone tried something like this before? Any tips or code examples would be awesome! Thanks in advance for your help!
I’ve tackled a similar project before, and here’s what worked for me:
For performance, definitely use requestAnimationFrame. It syncs with the browser’s refresh rate, which is crucial for smooth rendering.
To handle a million dots efficiently, consider using an off-screen canvas for drawing, then copy it to the main canvas. This reduces the number of draw calls.
For animation, update dot positions in small increments each frame. Use a simple velocity system, but keep the math light to maintain performance.
One trick I found helpful was to use typed arrays for storing dot data. It’s faster than regular arrays for large datasets.
Remember to profile your code regularly. Small optimizations can make a big difference when dealing with this many objects.
Good luck with your project! It sounds challenging but exciting.
I’ve experimented with rendering large numbers of particles on canvas before, and it can definitely be tricky to get smooth performance. Here’s what worked well for me:
Use requestAnimationFrame for sure - it’s key for optimizing animation loops. I’d also recommend using an offscreen canvas to draw all the dots, then copy that to the main canvas each frame. This reduces draw calls significantly.
For the dots themselves, store their data in typed arrays rather than objects. It’s much more memory efficient. You can use a single Float32Array to hold x, y coordinates for all million dots.
To animate, just update the position values in the array each frame. Keep the math simple - maybe just increment x/y slightly and wrap around the edges.
With those optimizations, I was able to get decent performance with ~500k particles on mid-range hardware. A million might be pushing it, but give it a shot! Let me know if you need any other tips.
yo, been there done that! use requestAnimationFrame for sure, it’s a game-changer. for animation, update positions in tiny steps each frame. pro tip: use typed arrays for dot data, way faster than regular arrays. keep the math simple tho, or you’ll tank performance. good luck dude!