How long do we expect those kind of effects [such as footsteps] to last, to persist?
TL;DRFootprints currently use short-lived particles, but a dynamic decal system is being worked on that could let such marks persist longer, though the team says it can't promise this will happen.
Yeah, I can nerd out a bit on that. The game has a decal handling system, but there were big improvements made to that. But one side effect of that was that we couldn't spawn footprints the correct way, so to speak. So right now we're spawning them as particles. So it's a particle, but it works and looks like a decal. The other system is much better, because if you stand still, you take one step forward and then one step back, then that footprint, if it's handled correctly in the decal system, since no new decal is being spawned, it can be there for a really long time. But now with the particles, we can't guarantee that. We have no way of dynamically making a particle live longer or shorter. The only thing we can do is one set time or a random time, so to speak. So all the decals for a while will be quite short, because it's very expensive to have long-living particles in a game. We basically want to get rid of them as soon as possible. But in the future, when we get the functionality again, I think they're working on it in Germany actually, then if you shoot at a wall, for example, just with your P8-AR, those bullet holes will stay there for a very long time. But if you're playing a multiplayer match and there's a lot of you shooting, then they're going to stay there for a short time. But that system will handle it dynamically. So depending on what's going on, it's going to stay there for shorter or longer.
So for now, we're using the particle system. They won't persist for very long, but we are working on a decal system that will take over these things, and then they'll be able to persist for much longer. At least that's what we're exploring. We can't sit here and say that's absolutely going to happen, but it's what's being worked on right now.
So basically the system is there, but the decals aren't visible.
Obviously we want them to last as long as possible, but there are performance constraints here, so we are going to find the sweet spots.