P5LIVE realizes particle systems with real per-element p5.Vector state, making the concept portable from GLSL-fake to genuinely simulated

A particle system is physics-sim applied to a population: many small independent elements each with position, velocity, and per-tick update. Before the 10-framework sync, particle-system was GLSL-only and fake — implemented statelessly as hashed point patterns or metaballs, not as a real simulation. P5LIVE adds real per-element p5.Vector state, taking the concept from single-framework to portable (realizable_in: [glsl, p5live]). The key distinction is whether each particle’s history (velocity, accumulated force) persists across frames — it does in P5LIVE, it does not in GLSL.

Examples

GLSL: particles are procedurally computed from uv each frame — no memory. P5LIVE: an array of Particle objects each carrying .pos and .vel, updated each draw().

Assessment

Explain the conceptual difference between a GLSL particle effect and a P5LIVE particle system. What does real per-element state enable that procedural generation cannot?