jacksonmj:

Sandwichlizard:

The program already keeps track of what pixels are on what layer

If you're talking about TPT rather than a graphical design program, then no it doesn't. It only keeps track of the location of particles in the topmost 'layer'. That's why stacked particles don't work reliably.

 

The only practical way to implement layers in TPT (as suggested in the first post) is not with stacked particles, it's basically with several separate simulations running at once, as described by minecraft-physics. The big problem with this is speed (though it would be easy to make the separate simulations run on different CPU cores if they're only linked by a particle that transmits sparks between them, but not everyone has huge numbers of cores, so this isn't a full solution to the speed problem if you want much more than two layers).

 yes, my comp struggles with more tha two to three TPT windows (it is a slow amd sempron with 1 gb ram and nonexistant graphics)

probably max 3 layers can be implemented for 2005 made comps, so it should be OK for most comps