Viewable distance from particles

I'm new to particles and am wondering what it is that determines how far away you are from a particle system before you can see it.

I have a waterfall that I bought that has particles that can be seen from about 100m away. The waterfall that I'm building with my own particles I need to be very close before they "turn on", about 20m.

Is there something I can do to make my particles visible from a greater distance?

I'm not sure about this.. but I think particle renders are based on the visibility of the prim GENERATING the particles. small prims have a tendency to not render unless you're close to them. So if your fountain source is tinyish, then you're going to have this render problem (I had a similar problem with traffic cones on a race track)..

the trick is to either make your fountain source prims larger, or LINK THEM to a larger prim that renders at a greater distance. Small prims are rendered at long distances if LINKED to linksets that render. (*this was how I solved the cone problem).

Thanks so much! I linked my emitters to the mega prim rock in my waterfall and I can see it from far off now. Just what I was looking for.

The distance from which you can see the particles is related to the LOD of the prim

from wiki:
LOD = 'Level of detail' (LOD) is a term used in game development which refers to a method where an object will change in mesh detail based on its distance from the camera. In Second Life, virtually everything uses LOD techniques, including things like objects, avatars, textures, trees, and even land.

Generally, if you can not see the prim due to LOD then you will not see the particle emission either.

In particle work, there are a number of tricks and tips to getting the particles seen at a distance, and at a decent quality.

An easy and effective solution is to make the emitter prim BIG, alpha and phantom. On my home sim I have a rainbow that can be see from 2 sims away using a 10x10x10 sphere. On the 'Meteor Impact Simulation on the Surface of Mars' exhibition, the particle explosion can be seen rising many hundreds of meters high. I achieved this using a 10x10x10m sphere with six smaller spheres linked within it.

Ofc, for something like a waterfall, you do not need to handle anything like these viewing distances, but using alpha phantom prims and experiementing with the size will yield you the solution you are looking for.

Also for particle work, it definately helps to have very good graphics, and to have particles set to 8192 within the viewer