You know if you really want to do special effects for 3D of all things, I don't think you want to remain doing it with a software renderer. You'll really want to do it with your GPU hardware.

If you seen in my <a herf='viewtopic.php?p=26041#26041'>Cyber-Crisis thread</a>, NecroDOME gave a great example of how to do explosions for example... but it involved the use of particles and rotations, scaling and blending. All of which run much nicer and faster on hardware.

I'd really recommend looking into either Direct3D, OpenGL graphical APIs. Myself, I like OpenGL's functionality and that it's cross platform. You can either use a set of headers [size=9px](DelphiGL.com, FPC Repository, JEDI-SDL's inculded OpenGL headers, NeHe's headers, etc)[/size] or use a game engine/3rd party library like GLScene, GLXtreme, the really new Phoenix engine, Rage3D, etc.

But then you might like Direct3D (D3D) instead so you can find headers for that at Clootie's site and FPC Repository should have a set or try one of the DirectX-based game libraries that support 3D. Asphyre is the only one I can think of that really does Direct3D for what you want. Anyone feel free to correct me. The current hardware accelerated UnDelphiX might fair better than the older versions but last time I looked into it, it wasn't too great. Last I checked Omega only did 2D.


But anyhow thats my suggestion. Without really knowing what graphics library or API you are using, I find it VERY hard to give you advice though.