✨┃vfx-and-particles

[verbal sky]

hi, i was wondering if i could ask for a liltle bit of help, im not sure where to post since my issues is about particle and/or? shaders so i hope its fine here.
im trying to create a bubble particle with mesh sphere and his own material with custom shader, its pretty much working like expected but the idea of putting random hue for each emission seems nice, i've been trying for a while but i dont find much information about this online and i spent quit some time trying by myself already, does someone have some advice please ? idk if i provided enought context.

[warm torrent]

Particle System or VFX Graph?

[verbal sky]

particles system

[warm torrent]

Particle System's modules write color to vertex color, meaning you can use vertex colors in your shader to utilize them
The default particle shader multiplies main texture by vertex color
You can also use custom vertex streams for passing many additional sorts of per-particle data from the particle system to the shader

[verbal sky]

im pretty much a beginner and im not gonna lie, i don't really understand what exactly is "vertex" for unity but i do like the concept of "per particle" .
until now i just tried to find a way to use the random range node to the hue one to alter the sample texture and blindly hope that it would affect bubble one by one

[pulsar galleon]

Hi all, trying to make VFX for "walking/running dust clouds" and I'm having a problem here where I've set the VFX particles to world space in the graph, however when I moved the object the VFX is parented to, only the rotation is copied to the parent and not the position. In other words, the VFX rotate with the parent, but doesn't move. Is this something I have to configure in VFX graph?

actually, im noticing that moving the actual VFX object doesnt move the particles at all...

[ashen robin]

https://i.imgur.com/LYuut4K.png
Something like this is possible if you want the vfx system to also control the amount of particles over a distance. Keep the system in world, but set the position in local coordinates.

[pulsar galleon]

Awesome, thanks so much!!

[viral marsh]

bump

[warm torrent]

Vertices are the points of data that make up the polygons of a mesh
Particle systems are procedural meshes
When you set your particle color from the modules, such as to random color, the particle system writes to the vertices' color attribute
Assuming you're using Shader Graph, you can access it with the Vertex Color node

https://youtu.be/1vZKVlQnwio if you want more than the color attribute, you can also use custom vertex streams for a lot more types of data to use in the shader

[viral marsh]

ok, I've thought of another approach for this

You can use a set position from map, the problem is that I am not entirely sure how I'd set it over time

this is an instant change and I'd like to somehow lerp between 2 maps but I don't know how to do that, any advice would be appreciated!

[stiff topaz]

For people interested into VFXGraph, two short sessions from the GDC2023 are now available:
"How to get the most out of your VFX", (optimization in VFXGraph) :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTLA1tEvTKA&list=PLX2vGYjWbI0TkxPwhWgsBhvj-EwxJDt5x&index=27

And a session related to six-way lighting in VFXGraph:
VFX Graph: Six-way lighting workflow : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNzLQjpg6UE&list=PLX2vGYjWbI0TkxPwhWgsBhvj-EwxJDt5x&index=30

[verbal sky]

ho ok i thought vertex meant something different when talking about shader my bad, so if i take the vertex color node i should put it with the texture sample (with an add i guess ?) i don't know if the hue is still usefull , maybe to be sure it keep the patern of the texture ? but it worked like i hoped thanks !

[warm torrent]

You can add the color if you wish, or use it in any whichever way
Multiply and overlay are most commonly used

[verbal sky]

ho ok, thanks again !

[viral marsh]

Hi, I've made some progress with the particles but I am stuck on a small problem now.
Transition and everything is working but for some reason there are particles flying down when the transition starts and coming back to center towards the end.
In the first part of the video I've shown the setup and in the second it's a transition+slow motion so that you can see it better, thanks in advance.
https://youtu.be/VCLO8YKjGHs

[verbal sky]

hi again, may i ask for a bit more help ? i tried to use the custom vertex and apply a custom data with a random x 1 to 5 so i could create a variating scale for the noise of my texture in shader but it doens't seem to change, the patern iz always the same.

[warm torrent]

Custom1.x (TEXCOORD0.z) would be the Split Node's B, not A, I think
As RGBA is the same as XYZW

Nice looking soap film by the way

[verbal sky]

really ? thanks ! and i though it didn't work since i didn't saw any render in the noise and texture box but you'r right, B was the solution, big thanks again !

[viral marsh]

bump, I still can't figure this one out, if you need some more info I'll provide it

[viral marsh]

interesting, enabling point count and connecting it seems to have fixed the problem 0_o
https://imgur.com/2xfAucy
https://imgur.com/a/x54gvGx

[pulsar galleon]

I think I've angered an eldritch god somewhere:
My particles look perfect in the preview panel, but in the scene, dare I move them for world zero, they spawn in obscene random spots that dont remotely conform to the objects origin... What's happening lol? How do I fix this?

Making a parent gameobject to hold the particles also does nothing

[pulsar galleon]

Figured it out mostly.. LOADS of little L's and W's that change certain aspects of the vfx object position. Apologies for clogging the chat!

[royal oriole]

Hey I’m looking for an easy to understand guide to VFX for complete beginners if anyone has a good one in mind

[coral grove]

Hey guys
One question,
In the previous version of the shader graph whenever we created a blank shader graph.
There was an option to set a target.
There we could choose, Universal or visual.
Later on visual was removed from the target and now is being set from someplace else.

I am looking for an option in the shader graph which will make it compatible with VFX graph.
I am using Unity version 2021.3.21f1

[coral grove]

weirdly enough this was fixed after re-installing the vfx package

[warm aspen]

I have a particle sprite that is white in the middle on a black background

How do I apply this to my particle system?

[acoustic dove]

Am I crazy or is there no way to actually provide a UV coordinate to a texture sampler node in VFX Graph?

[white arrow]

hi i want to make a particle system from this image :

but in the particle system its shows that :

i turned the Alpha is Transparency on but didnt do anything

[warm torrent]

Your material/shader doesn't use alpha transparency, or your texture is imported without any alpha transparency

[white arrow]

but the image is PNG i have to make the alpha transparency on to make the image background transparency ?

[warm torrent]

The image most likely has alpha transparency, since it probably looked transparent to you when you imported it
More probable is that your particle material/shader doesn't use alpha transparency

[white arrow]

thanks , but how do i can make the particle system use the alpha transparency

[warm torrent]

From the particle material

It should be using a particle shader that gives those options you need

[white arrow]

thanks a lot man !

it worked

[viral marsh]

Hi, do I have to keep the vfx object disabled before I want to use the effect and disable it once again when the effect finishes or does it not make a difference?
Asking because this graph lowers my fps noticeably even after it is done emitting so if that's the case I should do what I asked about earlier in the message:

        IEnumerator DieRoutine()
        {
            float lerpPos = 0;
            var startingPos = transform.position;
            _deathEffect.Play();
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
            while (lerpPos < 1)
            {
                lerpPos += Time.deltaTime / 3;
                lerpPos = Mathf.Clamp01(lerpPos);
                float t = NnUtils.EaseInOut(lerpPos);
                transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(startingPos, CheckPoint, t);
                _deathEffect.SetFloat("Transition Position", t);
                yield return null;
            }
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.25f);
            Sanity = _startingSanity;
            _deathEffect.Stop();
            _deathEffect.SetFloat("Transition Position", 0);
            ToggleComponents(true);
        }

[viral marsh]

it's quite a simple question, could somebody take a look?

[ripe pollen]

Hi guys, I'm experimenting an issue, I have the latest version of unity 2021.3, and on a simple Unity URDP project, I show a VFX Graph, on the editor it works fine but on Android it does not appear...

i dont know what to do 😦
i have an Samsung S22 for testing the project..

[warm torrent]

Most if not all mobile devices don't support VFX graph because it has higher graphics API requirements

[ripe pollen]

Yea but i tested on the latest Samsung S22, it can't be a problem no?

[warm torrent]

I don't know the specifics but you should be able to find those requirements based on this and compare to your device
Supporting compute shaders is the important part, I believe

[ripe pollen]

i printed that on the console :

And supportsComputeShaders is on True while maxComputeBufferInputsVertex is on 0 and maxComputeBufferInputsFragment on 24

[ripe pollen]

is there a settings for the project to modify maxComputeBufferInputsVertex ?

[warm torrent]

I believe SystemInfo reports what the hardware/API are capable of
I'm not personally familiar with mobile graphics though

[ripe pollen]

ok thanks anyway, is it possible to Show with the CPU instead of GPU (the vfx graph) ?

[warm torrent]

Not yet, though it's a considered feature
Particle System is your only alternative

[ripe pollen]

https://portal.productboard.com/unity/1-unity-platform-rendering-visual-effects/tabs/9-vfx-graph yea i just saw that, its sad

thanks anyway for your help :))

[warm torrent]

Even with the CPU simulation as an option, it'd be unlikely to be practical in most scenarios
Mass particle effects are something GPUs are orders of magnitude more efficient at than CPUs

[ripe pollen]

Yes, I know, but for graphs that produce simple particles (and very few particles per second) I don't see where the disadvantage could be

[warm torrent]

If the effect is simple, why not do it with Particle Systems? At that scale it'd likely be cheaper too considering the overhead cost of VFX graphs

[ripe pollen]

For exemple my VFX graph was that :

I use the Particle Strip features of VFX Graph :((

[warm torrent]

I see, beziers too
Though it could be tedious this looks like something you could implement with a custom script, or a script + a particle system

[ripe pollen]

Are you sure we can do that with a particle System + a script ?

Like manipulating the particles etc..?

Its that, the problematic :xx

[warm torrent]

I've never done it but it could be a possible option to look into

[viral marsh]

please

[ripe pollen]

You do Mathf.Clamp01(lerpPos); and the while condition is always true so ? no ?

[viral marsh]

check before correcting someone

that's not the case, clamp clamps it to the min of 0 and max of 1

inclusive

the while loop and everything works fine

I asked a very clear question, do I need to do some kind of a cleanup after playing particles

[pulsar galleon]

Having a problem where whenever i move my vfx, the spawnrate jumps to the move. Need to have my vfx spawn at the rate they do when they sit still. Anyone know what's happening here?
https://i.gyazo.com/8bc7dc6e4f8d76e54e77149b40a7bd32.gif

[opal star]

The graph itself is not very complex. One problem that sticks out is the huge capacity. You see when you set the capacity memory is actually pre-allocated for that amount of particles. This is a performance loss. Since you are bursting from a point cache I suggest you set the capacity to the point count. And yea disabling the graph would free up the resources allocated for it. But if you plan to reuse it it might be better to keep it active.

Also sorry I didnt answer about the position maps before I was very busy

[opal star]

You seem like the right person to ask. During GDC a demo for vfx instancing with a mech shooting a whole bunch of spiders and the shots making nice impacts was shown. Im very much interested in looking at this as a sample if possible. Also the complete explosion from the video would be nice too ❤️

[raven vortex]

Hi ! Beginner and particle system and have a question ! I Want to make star particles that rotate in a circular fashion around a center point (like the red arrows in the image) but after tweeking around the parameters can't find a way to make that happen. Can anyone guide me in right direction (which keywords/parameters i should use) ?

[burnt coral]

Try the "Orbital" field in the Velocity over Lifetime module

As well as set a Start Rotation if you want it to rotate while moving around the center point.

[raven vortex]

That's exactly what I needed thank you very much !

[stiff topaz]

So the VFX demo that you saw was related HLSL block. We've created this small and stupid game to stress test the incoming HLSL Features in VFXGraph.
I've been working on the different VFX of this project and will be happy to extract the explosions for you.
The VFX (Impact/explosions) are using the 6-way lit shader for smoke and explosion and the textures are free to use and already available. You can find the link on this Blog Post page: https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/realistic-smoke-with-6-way-lighting-in-vfx-graph

Regarding the demo that you saw it's just a test , but we might push it further and make it available for everyone later on.

[zenith grove]

Is Unity recorder restricting VFX graph functionality in any way or am I doing something wrong? I have made a particle effect that uses the block from the screen. It basically changes the rotation of particles. Everything works well both in scene and game view but once I try to record it using recorder it seems like this block completely stops working

[pulsar galleon]

Wanted to give this a quick bump, ty all!

[compact abyss]

This is my first time using the unity particle system, I want to make an effect of falling leaves being blown by wind. So far I was able to have one particle system emitting leaf particles that rotate as they fall, and each leaf particle has a sub emitter that is supposed to give it a wind trail. I want to make the trail particles rotate with the leaf, thus making the small loop in the image which looks more natural imo. I tried duplicating the trail particle system and moving it around the scene in a corkscrew pattern manually, and it created the look I was going for. does anyone have ideas for how to basically attach the trail particle emitter to some vertex of the leaf sprite so that as the leaf turns, so will the trail particles?

[compact abyss]

thought about my problem a bit - i realized i just need a way to get a reference to the sub emitter that each particle has

[dull obsidian]

thanks for the the insight Orson 🙏 @opal star and for what it's worth, i noticed post game dev conference there is a gif of this mech shooting spider like creatures demo on the VFX graph roadmap item for the custom HLSL block (in progress) https://portal.productboard.com/unity/1-unity-platform-rendering-visual-effects/c/114-custom-hlsl-block
which according to Vita- at Unity this feature is already on a pull request in review. https://forum.unity.com/threads/visual-effect-graph-public-roadmap-now-live.884713/#post-8917499
presumably this is an internal pull request that will appear as a commit on one of the upcoming automated internal/master pull requests that happens every ~2 weeks on the public github repo and then hits a unity alpha release shortly after.

[opal star]

I am more interested in the shooting part than the hlsl blocks. Im just curious how you tie vfx graph to the actual projectiles. It cant be as simple as one instanced graph per projectile right?

I mean tons of vfx driven enemies are also very interesting Im sure I can find a use case for that too🤣

[dull obsidian]

ah, okay. i'm interested to see what is dependent on the HLSL block in that demo and what isn't.

[opal star]

I bet the spiders are

You know your vfx. How would you handle projectiles with the graph?

[dull obsidian]

in most cases i would keep projectiles in c# and/or cpu particle system (fka shuriken) to stay aligned with gameplay logic and largely out of vfx graph simulation (init &update contexts) though likely i would still take those c# projectile positions into vfx graph and only use vfx rendering (output context). and possibly use the C# projectile position as source for some secondary sub-spawner / sub-emitter effects that are cosmetic only and not important to gameplay logic.

[opal star]

Oh yeah our projectiles are c# and moved by the job system. Im interested in using vfx graph for the cosmetic part. How do you output a particle without initing it first? Im not following here

[dull obsidian]

ah my mistake i haven't done this setup in a while. you are correct in suspecting something is off with my thinking lol. one still needs to use some simple "deterministic" initialize and update contexts to set the initial and updated positions but disable the velocity integration and angular integration in the update context (called "Update Position, Update Rotation") and instead use a set position block in the update context to set positions every update from the C# position / exposed attribute buffer (most likely a graphicsbuffer, that has particle attributes that been uploaded from a nativearray.

[dull obsidian]

@opal star i am going off memory and the documentation but i want to test this now to confirm

[jaunty tree]

hello everyone. would anyone have an idea as to how the lightning animation here is done? https://youtu.be/WG5HlDdQz4E?t=8

[ashen robin]

Make some 2D line texture, or use a particle trail then pump up the noise valuessss

[jaunty tree]

Ok, I'll try that

line texture is just a black and white texture with lightning-like lines that you then scroll?

Thanks!

[ashen robin]

yeah, probably the most simplest way, but if you want it to fork then you're looking at multiple systems or some alg/shader stuff

[hidden quarry]

How do you make a particle stay in the scene for longer? I.e, a shell casing that would not disappear fast, but after like 10 seconds.

[warm torrent]

With Particle System this would be the Start Lifetime of the main module

[torpid snow]

im making rain for mobile

will reducing the values of these parameters have any effect on performance?i.e improvement ?

[opal star]

Yeah my initial idea was to stick all projectiles in a graphics buffer and draw them in one graph. Im wondering however if the new instancing option for the vfx graph wont do much of the same and we can simply pool like 500 graphs or something. Thats why I wanted to see how the people at unity handled projectiles with the graph

[naive pulsar]

i want the triangle to rotate over lifetime to the left, what setting do i need in the graph ?

[ashen robin]

Rotate over lifetime?

[naive pulsar]

yes

[ashen robin]

That's the answer ;p

[naive pulsar]

yea but there is no rotate over lifetime there is only a set angle function

and idk how to use it

[ashen robin]

Ah, let me check if unity ever loads

Ok, yeah I swear there was a rotate over time, but I do use the set angle for some of my stuff

[naive pulsar]

@ashen robin and how can i rotate it ?

[ashen robin]

Experiment with it and in the update particle, add to an axis over time.

[naive pulsar]

ok thanks

[ashen robin]

Rather, in update you can just do Add, but in the output you can also do Add angle over life

I think. Little rusty ^^

[naive pulsar]

oh thanks it worked

i just did that

whats the difference between add and set angle?

[ashen robin]

set will always set it back to that angle. You'd usually just use that in the instantiation part of system, unless for some reason you're trying to prevent rotation then you could probably do it in update.

[dull obsidian]

ah okay true glad you brought that up. there is that vfx graph instancing / batching, i haven't tested that yet but i believe there are some settings to tune the instance batch size. i think there are currently a few limitations in features as well like maybe particle strips aren't supported for graph instancing yet? Vita- goes over what was in the first iteration of the feature vs what was planned to make it in the next. not sure how much is implemented in the current master branch / 2023.2 alpha https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-use-vfx-graph-instancing.1301430/

[stiff topaz]

All the Spiders (a lot....), are one Big VFX Graph. each spider are made with particles, Sphere particles for bodies and Strip/trail for the Legs.
The Behavior motion: Cohesion, paths etc is driven inside the VFXGraph thanks to HLSL Blocks.
HLSL Block was also used to retrieves the Hit from Gatling and Explosion if I'm correct.

How to use VFX Graph Instancing

[silent crypt]

Hey mates, I'm not sure if I should ask here, since I already asked in #archived-shaders, but I'm not sure if it is a shader-problem: Basically: I want my shader to be affected by a light-source. Working on 2D. Other Sprites are affected by it. I assume it has something to do with the material Sprite-Lit-Default, but since I added an own material to my new sprite, it seems like this property isn't affected. Is there a way to give an object 2 materials, or do I have to somewhat update the existing one, so it does get affected by the light-source? Or is there any easy "fix"?
Or shoud I ask this question in #archived-urp or #archived-lighting? I can't tell which the correct channel for that is

[hushed wadi]

Can I do something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X79yINOhdo0 in VFX graph? I don't really need collisions... just some tentacle-animation stuff 🙂 with some cool effect...

[dull obsidian]

yes, start with the heads and trails system that is included with vfx graph. then change the output context to a lit output and enable normal bending. you can also do the collisions with sdf and/or collide with depth buffer blocks in the update context

[hushed wadi]

thanks

[naive pulsar]

how can i stop this particle from moving with the camera, in vfx graph particle system

fixed it

[carmine ether]

Hi. Is there a way to like fix the particles not spawning properly with the spawn over distance node? Like, while moving slow it looks good, but at high speeds it appears as if the particles spawned one by one and are too separated from one another

[lone helm]

I need some help understanding particles relative to shaders and textures. I want to make my emmitted particles fade over time, but for some reason I can't get the alpha values to blend properly and my particles just pop out of existence at the end of their lifetime. Attached are some screenshots to show what the particles look like at the end of their life, the configuration for the emitter, the configuration of the color over lifetime module, the configuration for the material, and the configuration for the texture. is it just something wrong with my alpha values somewhere, or am I using the wrong shader?

[warm torrent]

I can't spot any error
Is the gradient we're seeing on Color over Lifetime?

[lone helm]

yes it is color over lifetime

[warm torrent]

Just as a sanity check you should be able to create a new particle system from the GameObject menu with default settings and give that a similar alpha gradient color over lifetime

[lone helm]

ill try it out

[lone helm]

wtf?????? that worked??????????????

actually no

its so weird. Is there something different between emitting particles through the particle systems versus using ParticleSystem.Emit()? Whenever I use a burst, they fade like normal, but whenever i use .Emit(), the albedo doesn't fully work???

IVE FIUGURED IT OUT

my objects explode, and when they do, they disable all visible components and then delete itself after 3 seconds

so what happens is my particle animation is being cut off because the object is deleting itself too early

crazy.

[warm torrent]

Makes sense
This teaches us to preview effects under many circumstances

If all else fails, what usually solves any problem is to make something that works "for certain" such as the default particle effect, and see how the settings or circumstances differ

[lone helm]

so true king

[soft current]

Can anyone help me with using the decals? I will gladly share the issues I have as well as the code

[pulsar galleon]

Having this issue where moving a vfx effect either restarts it or plays it really really fast. When my vfx object isnt moving, the rate is just as intended. But be it in scene view or game mode, whenever it moves it plays at lightspeed.

How can I keep the rate constant even when the vfx object is moving?
https://i.gyazo.com/8ef84d9b08c6a81362b98de6b6e3f0a5.gif

[clear spruce]

How do you handle the changing of the flipbook texture?

[pulsar galleon]

The what?

[clear spruce]

Im assuming you are using flipbook texture to animate the flames or whatever that is

[pulsar galleon]

nope, those are 3 objects with a shader on em

[clear spruce]

What sort of shader?

[pulsar galleon]

Made a bunch of tweaks to the end result of this tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPJQuD93-Ks&t=2s

(including a much lower poly version of the 3d object lol)

[jaunty tree]

Does anyone know how this is done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov8GqA8luCg ?

It does not look like one scrolling texture, since the lightning that goes from player to enemy 1 and the one from enemy 1 to enemy 2 etc look a bit different when you look at it

ah no, apparently a scroll book is used. so is there one single mesh between each of the targets (one fro player -> enemy 1, one for enemy 1 -> enemy 2, etc), and each of them just flips through a texture book?

that would distort it in case the targets have very different distance to each other

[warm torrent]

If you look at it frame by frame (which on youtube you can do with dot and comma keys) it looks like there's multiple rays spawned along the same path, with a slightly different texture
A flipbook indeed, it appears, where each "phase" of the arc seems individually hand drawn

They also overlap in time just a bit, which points to multiple arcs

How the arc "jumps" from one point to next progressively seems to be from different length arcs with a tapering end
In each "step" the arc is longer, but the previous sprite remains for a moment

[ashen robin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NWqTKYEIlU

Grabriel does a good job at at making similar lightning using mostly a bunch of noise and curves with the graph if you don't want to go through a flipbook process

Though that blood lightning looks really stylized which may be hard to recreate without doing some arts

[jaunty tree]

Thanks, that explanation helps me a lot!

And also for the tutorial link 🙂

I think I'll take whatever I can recreate haha, quite new to the area. But it is lots of fun

[rustic saffron]

I'm extremely new to VFX graph, so sorry if it's a simple mistake, but I have the issue that my VFX gets culled on a second camera when the main camera looks away from it. I set the VFX asset's culling flags to "Always recompute bounds and simulate", but that doesn't seem to fix that
How do I prevent the VFX from being culled on the second camera?

[warm torrent]

No crossposting please

[tender vine]

https://youtu.be/Gj_R72oyTfE
How could i make a particle that has a start and end point, and have particles move between them? video for reference.
It doesn't necesarily have to be as advanced as the reference, but i'd like to know where i could start and what i'd need for it.

[warm torrent]

You'd need a path system of some sort
https://youtu.be/hiyv9vZAOvA this tutorial shows how to do it in VFX graph
There's also a particle system solution included but it's not per-particle, which would be necessary for this effect

[tender vine]

mhm...
does he explaint VFX graps? because i don`t know what they are :/

[warm torrent]

The medi-beam is rather simple, just particles moving from start to end via a bezier curve
Uniquely the particle itself is a flipbook animated billboard, with flipbook frames progressing by time, but also with each new particle frame being offset in time as well

[warm torrent]

No, this is not a beginner tutorial to VFX graph, but you may be able to along
VFX graph is a more advanced GPU solution to rendering particle effects

[tender vine]

Oof... then i'd rather stay away from that!
My target device is the Quest 2 and i don't want players heads exploding xD

[warm torrent]

VFX Graph requires a somewhat advanced graphics API so most mobile hardware can't run it at all
To do the same in PS I assume you'd need a way to set individual particle positions to move along the curve outside of the PS since it's not built in functionality

[tender vine]

I could do multiple systems for that, no?

altho it doesn't have to be as... advanced as that!

my goal is
beam go from A to B

and lave it be movable!

so then A moves the beam ofc adjusts and vice versa

[warm torrent]

The same tutorial I linked also shows how to move particle systems / any gameobjects along a bezier path, but not individual particles

If that's sufficient is up to you

Could also be used with a line renderer

[cinder pewter]

Anyone know why my particles collide with the ground but then immediately fall through it ?

[ashen robin]

Uh, perhaps the bounce is set to 1?

I think there's a bit more to that but I remember that being part of the reason

Ah, that's just the amount of force applied. I had a similar problem with that but it's been quite a while since I used the shuriken system.

[tender vine]

i'll look into it, thankk you very much

[ashen robin]

Usually when stuff clips through your colliders you've got stuff traveling too fast. Do the particles even bounce at all or do they just smack into the collider and reset their speed? Some ideas is decreasing the voxel size, and increasing the collision quality would be my guess.

[cinder pewter]

Thanks a bunch that did in fact fix it!

Now I'm just wondering why this isn't changing the emission count of my index 0 burst 😞

[stoic marlin]

how do i fix this weird row of bad transparent particles

you can see it better with fog enabled

[north palm]

Anyone got an idea why this is happening?
the particle weirdly goes to the other side

        {
            var emitParams = new ParticleSystem.EmitParams();
            emitParams.position = startPos;
            emitParams.applyShapeToPosition = true;
            emitParams.startColor = startColor;
            beamParticle.transform.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(direction.normalized);
            beamParticle.Emit(emitParams, 1);
        }```

this is the code that controls it slightly

[fluid lagoon]

what's the camera angle here?

[north palm]

0, 0, 0

[fluid lagoon]

So that thing is rotating on the z axis?

[north palm]

particle system's rotation is confusing
as you can see on the top right

[fluid lagoon]

Basically I think the issue here is you're not providing the second parameter to LookRotation

When you don't provide a second param to LookRotation it assumes Vector3.up

which obviously is a problem when the thing is looking up

Try perhaps direction.normalized, Vector3.back

[north palm]

idek what axis it's rotating on
it's only supposed to
Ah i see

i'll try it out then

[elder latch]

I am trying to voxelize a character model in vfx graph (to make it explode etc.) So far I figured it should be a good idea to prebake a point cache to use for the voxel positions and colors. Unity's built in solution seems to only generate points on the characters hull. Is there any way to generate a uniformly distributed point grid inside the models volume?

[warm torrent]

@tender vine I forgot that another way to make particles sort of move in a "path" is to use external forces
You could place a particle system force field with gravity onto the target gameobject, and then by enabling external forces on the particle system the particles would gravitate towards it

[tender vine]

That sounds brilliant! ill see how i could do that once i get back from work! thanks for the tip!

[prime dome]

hello guys, the vfx graph dosent seem to render any particle on android builds
is there anything im missing

unity version 2021.3.19f1

[warm torrent]

The platform needs to support compute shaders, most mobile devices do not

[prime dome]

so there is not way around it? most phones have opengl 3 atmost and compute shaders should work on them?
some vulkan api phones working but some of them dosent show anything at all.

[warm torrent]

The requiements are

-Support for Shader Storage Buffer Objects (SSBOs). If a platform supports SSBOs, it returns a value greater than 0 for SystemInfo.maxComputeBufferInputsVertex.```

There's no way "around" it, as far as I know, either the platform is capable or it's not

[prime dome]

oh okay, well thank you for the detailed reply,
i guess ill use shuriken instead as it as most of the vfx might not show so its better i roll back.

[stoic marlin]

i found out how to fix it
surface type : opaque instead of transparent
then turn on alpha clipping

[warm torrent]

@stoic marlin Particle Systems have a "sort mode" in renderer for transparent particles

[stoic marlin]

yeah?

oh thanks that seems to also work :)

[tender vine]

Just came home... how does the External Forces module worK?

[warm torrent]

It enables receiving forces from Particle System Force Fields

which are a separate gameobject/component

[tender vine]

ah! oke lemme try!

i uhh... don't get how to use it :/

[prime dome]

I created a a particle effect almost everything is on default and unchanged expect for my material, color and shape

and when my 2 objects crash in to each other I dont see any particles

void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)
    {
        Debug.Log("Collision occurred " + collision.gameObject.name);

        if (!hasExploded)
        {
            Debug.Log("Entering if statement");
            var effect = Instantiate(explosionEffect, collision.transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
            effect.transform.parent = collision.transform;
            hasExploded = true;
            Debug.Log("Particle effect wkring");
            Debug.Log("Collision object wrking: " + collision.transform.gameObject.activeSelf);
        }```

but my console shows that its working

when i hit play nothing happens when my objects collide

but i can see my particles in the scene view

[stoic marlin]

This sort mode only sorts particles in its own particle system is there anyway to fix this

[warm torrent]

Are we seeing multiple particle systems in the video?

[stoic marlin]

yes, but im also working with clouds now and those clouds are particle sytems

[ashen robin]

Should be like a general system render queue somewhere on the component

otherwise I think a urp renderer object may work

[stoic marlin]

i dont want the tornado to be clipping through the cloud like that

i put on another material on it (the one with alpha clipping) but i wanna use the same material as the clouds

[ashen robin]

If by clipping, you mean you don't want them to pop out in front of the clouds sometimes, then you could consider shrinking them quads and adding more of them to the system

An alternative way to create a tornado is making a 3D mesh and doing some shader worker.

Probably quite a few tutorials on that on youtube

[stoic marlin]

yeah thats what i mean, but im not sure shrinkign the quads would really do anything

[long orchid]

I'm having an issue in Unity with my particle system. There are no layers in this project, the particles are visible in the editor mode, the game is receiving the correct input to start emitting these particles and just a few hours ago I had no issue with the particle system. Now when I press play and press LMB the particles don't fire at all. All of the settings in the inspector have not been changed either this just started when I loaded the project.

[ashen robin]

It would lessen how it fades in and out of the clouds, rather being less blotchy, but perhaps it can be solved by removed the culling. I kinda need to fool around with it to really get a better idea.

I've had something similar and solved it using alpha clipping and using a large amount of particles, but the performance wasn't the greatest

[stoic marlin]

also alpha clipping makes it just solid

with like a cutout effect

[ashen robin]

Yeah, but mixing transparent volumetric systems creates problems as you see, so the idea is substituting one with opaques

The reason I was suggesting the 3D model and shader is that the tornado itself would be opaque, but with alpha clipping you can scroll a texture for that illusion of blending

[tender vine]

oh wait, you can comission?

[tender vine]

You mean... make something for you?

[midnight grove]

@dusty creek !collab

[gleaming flicker]

📢 Collaborating and Job Posting

We do not accept job or collab posts on discord.
Please use the forums:
• Commercial Job Seeking
• Commercial Job Offering
• Non Commercial Collaboration

[dull obsidian]

I recommend to look into converting the character model mesh to a SDF (Signed Distance Field) which will typically be represented as a 3D Texture / *Texture3D * or a RenderTexture with dimension set to Tex3D that can then be sampled by VFX graph similar to a point cache. Or maybe you may want to reduce it to a point cache or compact Texture or GraphicsBuffer before sampling / loading the data into VFX graph. You have two options that Unity provides (there are others floating around in the community but these are the most official options and the most well developed that I'm aware of.)

1. There's the VFX Graph's "SDF Bake Tool" which as the name suggests, aimed at baking SDFs that are essentially static but can be very high fidelity and robust. for your use case, the docs say "For Skinned Mesh Renderers, the SDF Bake Tool uses the Mesh in its rest pose." https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/sdf-bake-tool.html

2. And then there is the Unity demo team's "mesh-to-sdf" aimed at real-time SDF generation even for a dynamically deforming SkinnedMesh but limited to a lower detail to maintain real-time performance. Note that this is not a production ready or officially supported feature at this time just something the demo team put together and released in a sort of experimental state. https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/com.unity.demoteam.mesh-to-sdf

[pastel prairie]

why is my graph an annoying volume? I just want a line

I'm under Velocity over time

I don't understand what is going on with this graph either. What does it mean when it's a volume instead of a line

[warm torrent]

Random between two curves, potential result visualized by the "area" between them

[pastel prairie]

bruh it was Curve I was meant to select, not random between curves 😂

now it makes sense lmao

[spiral moth]

Curious if anybody has any ideas how to set something like this up in VFXGraph:
So i want to spawn a bunch of grass clump particles..
But i have a large area to cover and it's way too many particles..
So i was wondering if it would be possible to somehow spawn the grass clumps in to cover the area within the camera view, and then if the camera moves it destroys the clumps no longer visible and spawns in new ones for the area now in view..

I guess the unity Terrain system does something similar for grass and vegetation

So the problems i forsee with this would be:

• everything 😛

• grass clumps would have to have some persistently mapped values for like rotation ( for example if i would normally just spawn them in with random rotations for variation, in this case these rotations would need to be persistent ( and positions actually ) so that when moving the camera away and despawning these out-of-view clumps, they would spawn back in to exactly the same positions and rotations when the camera moves back to those spots in the world again

• i guess this could maybe use a world-space tileable noise or texture, or even sample a large texture map similar to how terrain does it

But i think what i'm struggling with is how to actually implement this in VFXGraph.. is it even possible.

I did a quick test using the WorldToViewport node, checking if the current position on my ground mesh was within the 0-1 normalized screenspace value, and if not then setting Alive to false to kill the particles off.. this worked but was a bit of a crude test and i didn't get to trying how to spawn new particles in for new areas as the camera moves around, which sounds like a bit of a challenge

[rotund sedge]

anyone know any good assets or texture packs or sheets for good realistic blood splattering and popping. im making a mutation animation for a player character and i wanna make it gorey

[slow halo]

how do you make particle sized random

[frigid haven]

I'm using VFX to create a rain effect in a top down 2d game, I ran into an issue where layer ordering is not enough to prevent the rain from showing inside a building, but I cant find a way to have layer masking, am I missing something?

[ashen robin]

Assuming you're using sprite particles then the ordering in the particle system should do it usually. If that doesn't work, you can look into using renderer objects if you're using URP/HDRP.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal%4013.1/manual/renderer-features/renderer-feature-render-objects.html

[obtuse plaza]

I think I'm going insane. Not sure why but particles from assetbundles are really blurry (1st pic) while particels outside of assetbundles are crisp (2nd pic). Is it because the assetbundles were made in a slightly lower version or?...

[elder latch]

Thx for your answer. The mesh to sdf repo looks interesting although a bit overkill in my case I guess. I managed to generate my point cache using blender which has geometry nodes to fill a volume with a grid of points 🙂

[obtuse plaza]

It turns out - YES. It's because the assetbundles were made in an older version. So I guess I'm stuck with the older version of unity?

[frank coyote]

beep

show me the inspector for the material once you've done that

[lilac peak]

i've nothing but i think i get it

[frank coyote]

ah, there is no material

[lilac peak]

i have to select a material that render in front of the skybox right ?

[frank coyote]

i'm surprised you don't just have a big purple blob

yeah, i guess the default behavior is drawing it at a weird time

create a material, then pick... Particles -> Standard Unlit

and set it to Transparent

[lilac peak]

it's an asset from the assets store, the support doesn't answer soooo i'm asking here but maybe they did a weird stuff

[frank coyote]

if the material is marked "Missing", then maybe it wasn't bundled with the rest of the assets

or you didn't import it, or you deleted it

[lilac peak]

it's all good ! you're a king man

[frank coyote]

no prob (:

i've seen that exact issue a few times on VRChat avatar, lol

and in other projects where i was doing weird shader stuff

[lilac peak]

indeed there were all the materials i needed in the packages but it didnt bundled well idk why

[gloomy storm]

Got a question. Is it possible to have the particles of the VFX graph move along a mesh (while said mesh is being animated)?
And if so, how? I cant seem to find any information on this online or the information I do find is fairly limited.

[stiff topaz]

Are you talking about a Skinned Mesh ?

[gloomy storm]

Yes

[stiff topaz]

Well you can easily "pin" the Particles to the Skinned Mesh so that particles follow the Mesh. If you want the particles to circulate/over the surface of a animated skinned mesh it's way more tricky. Do you want them to be stuck on the moving surface, Or to move freely but be stay on the surface?

[gloomy storm]

I want to have them move around on the surface, almost like something is crawling on the mesh

[spiral moth]

Hey @stiff topaz sorry to bother you wondering if you've any idea about this - #✨┃vfx-and-particles message
Not sure if i'm completely barking up the wrong tree with this idea

[stiff topaz]

Curious if anybody has any ideas how to

[tender vine]

don't know if this is ontoppic, but the line renderer is broken when i use alignment transform Z as the option... view works fine but i want it to not always look at the camera

[clear meadow]

I'm fairly new to Unity, just made some rain particles for a game jam project a friend and I are working on.
After troubleshooting for a while trying to figure out what was happening, I came across the conclusion that the collision hitbox for the particles are spherical (and not centered around the center of the particle...?)

I messed around with a few of the settings and a random thing to note is that the collision hitbox scales solely with the Size over Lifetime Y curve (the x and Z curve have no impact on its size) [The size by speed Y axis also impacts the collision for it, but again neither X or Z)

Any thoughts on how to fix this? [Making it so the subemitter particles are actually on the floor instead of hovering above the floor that is [and also hopefully make it so the rain particles dont despawn prematurely cause of the large hitbox]

if anyone knows literally anything on how to fix this or somethin ping me ploz if not dats cool too heheheha

[clear meadow]

nevermind found it after like 15 google searches can line up the radius my b stupid question

for anyone wondering [probably nobody but byeah]

[visual cove]

Hey all, does anyone know how to use VFXgraph to emit particles from a textured mesh ?

You can't just bake a point cache of the texture because that's not wrapped around the mesh ...

and you can't bake an SDF of the mesh because it doesn't care about the texture....

maybe you somehow do both and combine the data inside the VFX graph itself ?

[white plank]

Particles turned pink after adding URP

not sure of what to do, they told me to change the shaders but there's no shaders in this object

fixed

[spice mural]

use another material

[sleek venture]

Hi guys is it possible to put a material on a Timeline? I'm making a attack effect and I want to be able to move the tiling and offset properties at certain points of the attack

[ashen robin]

I would assume it's possible assuming you expose the tiling values on your material

On the vfx graph you could probably just create a curve and change the value over the lifetime

[sleek venture]

I dont know what I'm doing when it comes to using the shader graph so I'm trying to stay away from it as much as possible

I was trying a way to be able to alter the position of my material using the particle system with custom data

but that for some reason is not working (I probably didn't do it correctly)

[ashen robin]

Ah, I'm not sure about changing it with the shuriken system beyond changing the material manually. There's probably plenty of ways though, but usually I just automate it in the shader itself.

There's also the flipbook process which could be used as a pseudo texture scrolling effect

[white plank]

I need to keep myself alway from the particle system, it's too addictive.

[white plank]

Particle editor does not show any particles, but they appear in the project.
Things I have done:

My time setting is not at 0
My material is correctly set
I did try turning on and off the renderer and resimulating

[warm torrent]

Do you need it?
I went for years without knowing there was an editor, and I don't think I've ever seen it working

[white plank]

... it would be nice when I'm doing tests in a crowded enviroment

[warm torrent]

I usually have particle systems as prefabs and open them in prefab isolation mode from the arrow next to it in the hierarchy

Or have a scene for it

[white plank]

I did have a scene for them before, but idunno, just feels like I'm missing a feature :/

[dark kestrel]

Is there a way to kill a specific VFX Graph particle without stopping the entire system?

[frank coyote]

I'm considering using a VFX graph to create hitscan bullet traces (so, a line from one place to another, in its simplest form!)

Does it sound reasonable to have a "fire" event that triggers a Spawn with a burst of 2 particles

which then creates 2 particles in a strip

where the positions come from a pair of "source" and "dest" properties?

i'm a little concerned about how it'll behave with multiple shots in one frame

I understand that there's this "direct link" thing that lets me send attributes per-event

but I'm really fuzzy on it and it appears to only be documented in a random unity forum thread

[dull obsidian]

you should be able to set the position of spawned particles from a mesh and then use the uv vertex attribute(s) from the mesh to then sample that mesh's associated texture and set the color you want the spawned particle to be from say, the albedo texture map. i think this can all happen in the particle initialize context. start here, and you may need to enable vfx graph experimental nodes / blocks https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/Block-SetPosition(Mesh).html

[fiery elbow]

apparently the trigger module from the particle system does not interact with composite colliders. I have tried:

1. setting both the composite collider and tilemap collider in the particle system's collider listt
2. Checking the layer collision matrix

[warm torrent]

Iirc particle system colliders are 3D only

[frank coyote]

yeah, I ran into this problem. I was originally using properties. I switched to sending custom attributes along with the event, but I'm unclear how to have each event use its own attributes

doing it like this, all of the events fired in one frame use the same positions

if I change "Location" to "Current", nothing appears at all

I'm missing something here, I think!

[dull obsidian]

@fiery elbow it seems there is (now) a 2D version of composite collider? https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-CompositeCollider2D.html

[frank coyote]

the tooltip says that "Source" gets the value from a GPU event or spawn attribute

the latter sounds appropriate

                var attr = vfx.CreateVFXEventAttribute();

                attr.SetVector3("Source", firePoint.transform.position);
                attr.SetVector3("Dest", dest);

                Debug.DrawLine(attr.GetVector3("Dest"), attr.GetVector3("Dest"), Color.red, 1f);

                vfx.SendEvent("Fire", attr);

the debug lines all point in different directions, but all of the particle strips are pointing in the same direction

ah! it seems like it's because i use the event to trigger a Spawn context

i plugged Event in directly, and now I get several lines

the idea was to draw four randomly oriented particle strips at once by triggering an 8-count burst

[dull obsidian]

@frank coyote i want to let you know there are some limitations currently on sub frame spawning and updating. this is officially "planned" to be addressed soon on the roadmap.
https://portal.productboard.com/unity/1-unity-platform-rendering-visual-effects/c/101-sub-frame-interpolation
in the meantime you may want to look into peeweek's vfx graph extras. this doc explains the limitations and how he has worked around them (for spawning at least) with custom blocks / nodes that distribute the spawn payload across multiple updates as quickly as possible given the update rate of vfx graph (which can be faster or slower than the render frame rate)
peeweek / thomas iché is one of the original devs of unity vfx graph that is currently working as a vfx artist on a production videogame (endless dungeon) at amplitude studios
https://github.com/peeweek/net.peeweek.vfxgraph-extras/wiki/MultiplexSpawn

[frank coyote]

it looks like I can just do this myself (although it does mean i'll be sending more events...)

pew pew

[frank coyote]

i'll keep this bookmarked tho, thanks

[dull obsidian]

@frank coyote also, (be careful with this of course) but if needed, you can adjust the time step (update rate) settings of vfx graph. i think the fixed time step defaults to 1.0/60 to usually align with 60fps rendering. you could make this say. 1.0/120 or faster, performance budget permitting. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/VisualEffectProjectSettings.html

[warm torrent]

Composite collider is only 2D
Particle System collisions are only 3D
Assuming I'm not forgetting about something

[frank coyote]

I don't need faster updates; I just need to spawn a bunch of things at once

if a weapon fires fast enough to shoot more than once in a single update, I just fire twice (or however many times are needed)

i guess it might look slightly more accurate if the visual effects were updated faster, so that each part of a one-frame burst appears to have been spawned at a slightly different time

i could probably throw in an attribute to offset their lifetime in that case

actually, that's a decent idea..

[dull obsidian]

ah yeah, that's what i mean. if only it were that simple. expect issues if you are using multiple events to determine the number of particle spawned "at once" within a game update / rendered frame. things like increasing the vfx update rate and bursting the events spread across vfx updates as fast as possible is the best workaround for multiple spawn events right now, as far as i know.

however, another way around it may be to batch all of the particles desired to spawn in a single vfx spawn event per update if possible. which perhaps could be managed in C# scripting with a "one in, all out" queue " (one in at a time from user input, etc via a custom c# event system, all out at once in a single vfx spawn event.) but i haven't tried this, i'm just speculating at this point.

[frank coyote]

the only problem I'm having is that, if I plug a spawn event into a Spawn context, it looks like they all get piled up and then executed in one go, thus losing the per-event attributes

that makes sense now, at least

[dull obsidian]

ah yeah i hadn't thought of that in this context, that is a good idea to think the quick bursting may improve it visually for accuracy/ believability

[frank coyote]

so if the game was running at 1 frame per second and I fired 10 shots per second, it'd add 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, ... , 0.9 to the age of each bullet trace

i think this'll be noticeable for very fast-firing weapons that have very short-lived tracers

[dull obsidian]

ah i see

[frank coyote]

my only concern now is that i'm sending a lot of individual events

8 per shot (since i draw four particle strips at random orientations)

[frank coyote]

this seems to work

this is updating the weapon once per second, to exaggerate the effect

[fiery elbow]

that is what i have been using the whole time

[dull obsidian]

ah i see what you mean. though what about this forum post? perhaps this changed? it seems to show particlesystem (fka shuriken) collisions with composite collider 2d / tilemap? cc @fiery elbow this thread seems to have a lot of info on this topic in any case. I'm not an expert on ParticleSystem or 2D. https://forum.unity.com/threads/tilemap-collider-with-composite-doesnt-work-with-particle-system-collision-trigger.833737/#post-5512003

[fiery elbow]

I've seen this post. I tried what they did, fiddling with the options and such, but to no avail. I'm starting to think this is more of a unity bug.

[warm torrent]

@fiery elbow What's the particle Collision module's "Type" set to?

The very first setting of the module

@dull obsidian I was mistaken, didn't remember there was the Mode setting to swap between 3D and 2D

[fiery elbow]

this is the trigger module

I also tried testing with the collision module if that's what you want

[warm torrent]

I forgot the subject was triggers but I guess it doesn't hurt to test with that

[warm torrent]

@fiery elbow You're totally right, composite colliders specifically fail when used as triggers

My bad going on a loop about ultimately unrelated stuff

[brave trail]

Hi, where can I find transparency?

[warm torrent]

"Find" for what purpose? How's this related to VFX?

[brave trail]

Just a project, try to find I want transparency

[warm torrent]

You'd have to explain in greater detail what you're trying to do and what the context is

[signal condor]

hello, i am unable to get graph inspector in the view
i need to make double-sided mesh

[inland tusk]

If you run a vfx graph in a predetermined scene twice and everything is the same, will the graph look exactly the same? Or are they using some random seeds under the hood etc?

[signal condor]

i need to make textures doublesided

[civic bane]

how do you change characteristics of the particle's emission shape via code?

[warm torrent]

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ParticleSystem.ShapeModule.html
Here's an example how to modify it:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ParticleSystem-shape.html

[civic bane]

thanks

[fiery elbow]

Well that's a shame. Looks like I have to scrap my idea then.

[warm torrent]

What is your idea? Maybe there's a workaround

[fiery elbow]

Well I wanted the particles to spawn a blood stain where they land.

I have thought of just using prefabs instead of particles and just spawn them in bursts but I think it's going to be too much work.

[warm torrent]

Can't you use the collider module just as well as triggers for that

/or do you really need a composite collider

I think a tilemap wouldn't need a composite collider, since the composite collider is meant for rigidbodies which doesn't seem necessary for a tilemap

[sharp flare]

I'm having a problem with the particle system, hopefully somebody can point me in the right direction.

I'm spawning some fish using a prefab with instantiation. This prefab has a particle system on it.

The problem is, my fish spawns just outside of the cameras view. This causes the particles to not load, even when the fish enters the camera view.
If I change the spawn point of the fish to inside the camera bounds, the particles load just fine

Also, if I run the game and wait for a fish to come into the camera view without particles, if I switch to the scene tab in Unity and back the particles load like I'd expect them to

[dull obsidian]

by default i believe vfx graph simulation is non-deterministic or at least not guaranteed to be deterministic. if you wish to have deterministic playback that is predictably the same every time or across multiple instances of a visual effect with the same start seed, i recommend reading this document: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/Timeline.html
See also https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/VFX.VisualEffect-startSeed.html

[fiery elbow]

How can I use a callback from a collision module? Also I have tried removing the composite collider but still doesn't work.

[warm torrent]

"Send collision messages" lets you use particle collision events
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ParticleCollisionEvent.html
In my tests, composite colliders did work as long as it wasn't a trigger, and tilemap colliders worked whether they were triggers or not

[fiery elbow]

Oh cool I'll try checking it out.

By the way, the script would still need to be attached to the particle system right?

[warm torrent]

Collision events are called on all involved colliders, which in this case may include the particle system itself but I'm not sure

I've used OnParticleCollision on just the colliders being hit
(Looking at my old script looks like it likely was on the particle system)

[inland tusk]

thank you

[sterile umbra]

Is VisualEffect.HasAnySystemAwake() the proper form to check if a visual system has at least one particle in the scene? Basically, an equivalent of ParticleSystem.IsAlive(true)?

[fiery elbow]

Thank you so much! It works now. I appreciate your time and effort helping me out.

Now I just need to put a spritemask

[signal condor]

neat

[dull obsidian]

take a look at the options here: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ParticleSystemCullingMode.html
and check the discussion here that has some other methods / workarounds if needed: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-stop-my-particle-systems-from-being-frustum-culled.997268/

[sharp flare]

Thanks for the links. I actually figured out that setting Culling Mode to Always Simulate fixed the problem, which your first link also mentions.

I still don't understand why it doesn't work though. These options specifically say the particle system doesn't run while offscreen, but my objects were on screen, they just weren't Instantiated inside the screen.

Always Simulate seems like it's probably not very efficient, but my game is small so I don't think it will matter too much in this case

Edit: I tried the option mentioned in that forum thread, and it worked except it causes the particles the particles to appear very weirdly, in a much wider span that it's supposed to, so I'll be sticking to Always Simulate for now

[native folio]

im having an Issue with my VFX graph. Its a basic tracer fire, with parements for start and end . in the first picture you can see it firing, I set the start to the position of that sphere in front of my player and i set end to the position of the enemy in the distance

it is set for world sim space so im not sure why these coordinates arent lining up.

you can see my graph in the second image

in the 3rd is just proof its set to world
4th is the debug log of the positions being set
(and heres the code that spawns it)

        {
            if (timer <= 0)
            {
                VisualEffect tracer = vfxPool.getObjectFromPool(vfx_tracer).GetComponent<VisualEffect>();
                tracer.SetVector3("start",shootPoint.position);
                tracer.SetVector3("end",data.targetedZombie.transform.position);
                tracer.transform.position = shootPoint.transform.position;
                timer = coolDown;
            }
            else
            {
                timer -= Time.deltaTime;
            }
        }```
Anyone have any idea what Im doing wrong here?

[native folio]

I just noticed that the farther away from origin I am the worse the problem gets

[dull obsidian]

Everyday We Stray Further From Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);'s Point Light

@native folio can you upload the vfx graph file as well or a simple example? i can't look at it right now but I can over the weekend

[native folio]

sure, I ended up fixing it by just spawning the effect at world origin but i still dont understand i thought world position would cause that to not happen?

[zealous ore]

For some reason, my particles are moving in the direction which their parent object is after emission. How can I stop this?

[spiral moth]

Possibly this?

[indigo dome]

Which setting in my particle system do I need to change so that my particles correctly resize when moving toward or away from them? It seems like these always take up the same space on the screen no matter my distance from the lava block.
https://gyazo.com/f0ba8007699d8fe90048990ac5ceb124.mp4

[dull obsidian]

!collab

[gleaming flicker]

📢 Collaborating and Job Posting

We do not accept job or collab posts on discord.
Please use the forums:
• Commercial Job Seeking
• Commercial Job Offering
• Non Commercial Collaboration

[warm torrent]

Keep particle min and max sizes in the Renderer module at default values of 0 and 0.5
Those are only to clamp the screen size after the size has been calculated by other modules

[fallow isle]

Ive never used unities VFX graph before, but how do I play the effect? I have the effect and i reference it in a script where i do Effect.Play() but nothing happens

[fast scroll]

how would i make a particle that looks like liquid nitrogen steam

[icy steppe]

I'm trying to make muzzle flash and when i adding model to VFX i getting just a plane like this, when my model looks like.

[zenith grove]

Any idea on how to make this background trasparent? I tried different blend modes but additictive gave me the most transparency. I got this asset from unity asset store so I assume that it's not the issue with the import or export.

[viral marsh]

find the sprite, enable alpha is transparency, that could be it

[zenith grove]

That worked. Thanks!

[viral marsh]

glad to hear that helped

[frank coyote]

My visual effect component (which is attached in a component's Start method) isn't working until I mess with it in the inspector. Toggling it on and off, changing a random property, or even toggling other random checkboxes all work.

I am very confused!

it's attached in a method that looks like this

    public override void Init(Weapon weapon)
    {
        this.weapon = weapon;
        vfx = weapon.gameObject.AddComponent<VisualEffect>();
        vfx.visualEffectAsset = vfxAsset;
        vfx.SetVector4("Color", color);
        vfx.SetFloat("Thickness", thickness);
    }

that seems fine

I went back to my last commit and it's working fine there. I'm probably doing something goofy somewhere..

[frank coyote]

now this is getting interesting!

I used a coroutine to wait for one frame to assign the vfx asset

if I pause the game, then start it, and then step through a few frames until it's assigned

it works!

if I just start the game, it doesn't work

https://forum.unity.com/threads/vfx-graph-component-does-not-play-on-awake.1118890/ this sounded promising, but I don't think it's applicable

i'm guessing it starts working as soon as OnValidate gets called

i'm baffled

[frank coyote]

if it's relevant, this function is in a POCO that's in a [SerializeReference] field on a Weapon component. The Init method gets called during the weapon's Start mesage

more progress: if I put the visual effect on another object, it's fine

oh my lord, I worked it out

it was my fault

i was being extremely lazy in my "Entity" class and wrote this to make a damage effect work:

GetComponentInChildren<Renderer>().material.SetFloat("_Damage", Mathf.InverseLerp(100, 0, health));

instead of actually getting a reference to the right renderer

this was grabbing the visual effect renderer and breaking it

i guess messing with the visual effect's properties caused it to no longer be targeted by this

this is what i deserve for writing something so awful

[frigid atlas]

does anyone know if it's possible to make particles not move as if time was frozen?

[halcyon junco]

hey, anybody know how in 2d I can make particles appear behind objects? I have cloud particles and they cover every model in there

some of them spawn behind but mainly cover the pipes and bird

[primal ember]

So I have an issue where I set the particle effect I want on the prefab (it is the child object of a gun, and the gun is a child object of the character prefab) but the gun is pointed up in the prefab so when the character starts up the muzzle flash is pointing up and not relative to where the gun is pointing now…what am I doing wrong

[frigid atlas]

I'm using the same tutorial lmao! Set your player to be on order in layer 3, then set your pipes to order in layer 2 and then enter the renderer section of your particles and set order in layer to 0 or 1 (it's what I did and it works though im not sure if it's meant to be a good way to do it?)

[halcyon junco]

i di change the layers but this still occurs

[frigid atlas]

that one (not the one at the top?)

and made it lower than your sprites

[halcyon junco]

oh i didn't know about that

hold on

still not

[frigid atlas]

hmmm idk then sorry

I found that online and it worked well for me

[chilly solar]

Hello! Does anybody here have experience with effekseer in unity?

"CommandBuffer: built-in render texture type 3 not found while executing Effekseer Rendering (Blit source)
UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)"

This is the warning I get when I use a effekseer effect emitter.

[native folio]

oh snap I didnt know you had to change it there, had assumed changing the sim space to world changed the whole thing. Thanks!

[hazy stirrup]

Does anyone know how to make a blood type particle system? Blood comes out and lands on floor, spawns decal? I am currently using URP and got into unity about a week ago.

[dry dove]

Is it possible to "get vertex position" from a mesh in VFX graph?

[paper bough]

Can somebody explain me why is this happening? The sprite just stops and then spped up. I wangt it ot go trought the camera

please

[warm torrent]

Particle max size of 0.5 prevents it from covering more than half of the screen, so it shrinks as it gets closer creating the illusion of "stopping and speeding up"

[paper bough]

yes it stops and just startn going to the right

I want it to go through the camera

[paper bough]

but still, look

[warm torrent]

Is this after increasing max particle size?

[paper bough]

I have tried to chnage values but

[paper bough]

still the same

[warm torrent]

Not start size
"max particle size" in renderer module

[paper bough]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

its wrking thak youuuuuu

@warm torrent Thank you

[kind osprey]

is there some way to make the black transparent?

i want to make the texture into particle

[warm torrent]

Alpha source: from grayscale

[hybrid tiger]

what should i do for a bubble pop particle? Like what options are useful and what should the sprite look like

[halcyon kettle]

Hmm I'm getting an annoying window/editor bug when I have more than one vfx graph tab open: if i navigate around the vfx graph in the first tab, it seems the navigational input has also affected the second tab because when I switch to it I'm usually in some random place or it's just blank and I have to pan/scroll/frame up to get back to it. Does this happen to anyone else? It's pretty annoying if I want to work in two specific places at once D:

[raw flint]

im not sure why there is this white ring around these particles. With alpha is transparency disabled they become jagged artifacts, what I want is for the circles to be one solid color. The darker the value is, the less apparent they are

[zenith grove]

Is there something in VFX graph like Trigger Event on Die (GPU Event) that triggers at the start of particle initiation instead? Or maybe some other way around to achieve such effect?

[gaunt mango]

I'm trying to understand the OnParticleCollision and GetCollisionEvents. Let's say 5 particles hit the floor (during the same frame) and then 3 particles hit the floor in the next frame. My understand is that OnParticleCollision will only trigger twice. So if I run GetCollisionEvents will it return 5 the first time and then 3 the next? Or 5 and then 8?

[midnight marsh]

Hello, I'm trying to spawn particles from multiple positions each frame using a Graphics Buffer. I got the Graphics Buffer working but I'm unsure where to go from here to trigger a spawn for each element in the Graphics Buffer each frame. Any ideas? Thank you

[spiral moth]

Little bit tricky but here's how i currently do it.. so i've made a Subgraph Operator called SampleBuff:

Which looks like:

It would be simpler to spawn one single particle per buffer element, but what i'm doing is for each buffer element spawning a burst of particles..

The stuff on the top left generates a random number based on the BurstCountMax number multiplied by the random number within a range ( normally like 0.8-1.2 or something, just to give variation to the burst amount ).. So the actual current particle index is divided by this burst count ( and converted to int with Floor ) to extract the current buffer index from the current particle index, if that makes sense..

The modulo part just loops around the current particle index to give a 'local' burst index if needed - for example if the burst count is 18 it'll loop from index 0-18..

The GraphicsBuffer itself is updated in an ECS iSystem like this:

ECS stuff isn't required obviously it's just because the game i'm building is built using DOTS.

Oh - important thing is make sure you're Sample Graphics Buffer node is set to your buffers datatype like this:

And ensure your buffer struct is registered like this:

( again, doesn't have to be IBufferElementData, this is just an ECS thing )

I really wish this whole process was easier tbh.. I think there's a way with VFXGraph now to update the graph with a bunch of events on the same frame, but i didn't really like the idea of doing that maybe a few hundred times per frame so just stuck with this approach.

[merry acorn]

Can I use VFX graph without GPU?

[warm torrent]

No

At least whatever components used for graphical processing in the device need to be Compute Shader and SSBO capable

[naive bridge]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@12.1/manual/System-Requirements.html

^ this is for 2021.3

[hybrid tiger]

?

[warm torrent]

It should look like how you want it to look like in your chosen art direction
There really isn't any one answer that can be given

[steel verge]

how do I make my project tab like this?

[warm torrent]

What do you mean "like this"

Looks a lot like how it's by default
Except smaller and pixelated

[zenith grove]

Is there a way to make an exposed property from a capacity value in VFX graph ?

[midnight marsh]

that's awesome, thank you really appreciate it!

[steel verge]

I have this

it shows a big picture

I dont want that

[steel verge]

thanks

[steady wedge]

could you describe whats the problem i mean i see the things you circled, but you didnt say what you want to archive and whats the problem

[hybrid tiger]

i dont really understand drawing particle sprites as whenever i draw one it looks bad when used as a particle

[warm torrent]

Is there a particular way it looks "bad"? Some misunderstanding how to properly make textures for particle materials, perhaps

[hybrid tiger]

probably that yeah

like do i just make particle sprites actual sprites or just shapes?

like a white circle or someting

[warm torrent]

It really depends what style you're going for
Have you been looking at examples or tutorials?

[hybrid tiger]

whjere do i find particle system examples?

[warm torrent]

The internet would be my first option

[hybrid tiger]

ok thank you for the advice

[dry ridge]

Hello, trying to get a handle on the particle system. ROUGHLY speaking, how do I replicate this effect with the missiles in terms of particles and how they emit?

I'm getting my feet wet by emulating particle effects on games that I like

[fast grotto]

Do a lil boop bop beep, make some missiles and ur done

[static tinsel]

Hello everyone! I have problem how to add streamline to particle system?

need like this

but my particle doesn't move down. How to add streamline?

I know that a particle has gravity, but if I turn on gravity, it doesn't work well with that system

[ashen robin]

Assuming you want to do something easy and don't mind deterministic effects, you can take advantage of unity's animator to create a series of routes your objects can travel. From there, you can just tack on some particles systems for the particle trails and explosions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiyv9vZAOvA
Gabriel does something similar using the vfx graph, using set paths.

[clear spruce]

I think vector field would be useful

[dull obsidian]

i don't think so. it's not meant to be changed at runtime due to memory allocation stalls. the idea is to set capacity at the maximum you would ever need (memory budget permitting) https://forum.unity.com/threads/vfx-capacity-and-performance.1013098/

[dull obsidian]

@zenith grove here is another thread discussing vfx graph particle capacity https://forum.unity.com/threads/dynamically-setting-capacity.874216/

[zenith grove]

Oh I see, thanks for the answear

[cosmic girder]

Hi, I'm tryuing to follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NWqTKYEIlU, but I cannot find Output ParticleStrip Quad element in my Unity

any Ideas why?

[ashen robin]

may need to enable the vfx graph experimental package somewhere in the project settings

[sinful badger]

I need some help. I managed to figure out how to emit particles from my skinned mesh renderer, but they're all facing the same way. How do I make the lightning bolt always face away from the mesh it spawns on?

[cosmic girder]

Thank you

[warm stratus]

Guys i have a game build around collecting particles, therefore its build around a particle trigger callback, wich trough codes causes the particle to delete itself suddenly it stopped working 50% percent of the time, i made a debug and it happens to be the case that the particle trigger collider on my player only works sometimes, and is another time just ignored... Does Anyone have a idea what could be the cause of that?

[pallid sluice]

does anyone know how to achieve this transition effect? it's akin to old psx games

[vital eagle]

I've made this animated swirl in VFX shader graph but when I put it into the output node, the resulting vfx in the scene just outputs quads. anyone know what's up?

[compact sentinel]

Hi, Im trying to add a particle trail effect to my enemy which bounces around the screen, kinda like a dvd logo, and Ive implemented the particle system. Only thing is that my particles are mobing in random directions from my enemy rather than acting like a trail behind it, any ideas? Thanks in advance

[spark fog]

Asking for a colleague of mine, how difficult would it be to use VFX graph to spawn particles which link between two of eight given points?

[ashen robin]

Not exactly sure what you mean by link, but you can have multiple different sub systems in a graph, which you can then send in a multitude of coordinate information

[spark fog]

Essentially we want to select a point at random, and shoot a beam to another point at random, and do this many times in succession. The points can move based on the positions of transforms, so I have to be able to update the position data on the fly.

[ashen robin]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@7.1/manual/PropertyBinders.html

[spark fog]

Ah sorry, I should clarify. I've got the property binders set up for some effects already, the trick with this one is just making the beam dart between multiple of these points at random.

Right now the system only supports a single beam going between two separate points, so I have to spawn a ton of them and it's really inefficient. We instead want to bake this down to a single effect that spawns many of these beams.

[ashen robin]

Ah, off the top of my head, you could maybe accomplish something using branch nodes and changing the target position, but I'm feeling like I've tried something similar like that in the past with not much success. I think I managed to do something with events and spawning a whole new particle at each point, but I still felt like that was more effort than just writing the position logic via script for a gameobject and throwing a particle system onto that instead.

But if you are spawning a bunch of particles, it would make sense to try to just make it all work with the graph if possible.

[dry ridge]

Oh that's interesting, I'd love to know this as well

[warm torrent]

@pallid sluice @dry ridge The rendered image is stored as an RT texture and applied as a full screen overlay with partial opacity which makes it fade and "trail"

This creates a feedback loop essentially
So even just a bit of offset/distortion can create swirls and vortexes as each subsequent frame will be distorted again

In the old days it was called "motion blur" though it was a crude approximation in that purpose
Now searching by that only gives you the real motion blur effects

[pallid sluice]

so it's as simple as creating a copy, rotating it and changing its opacity? im assuming it's done recursively

[warm torrent]

Simpler than that, if you're familiar with Render Target textures
Because every frame you show on the texture what was on the screen, including that texture, the recursion occurs naturally

[pallid sluice]

That was very informative thank you

[surreal gale]

Are there other settings I need to tweak to get my VFX Graph to be prewarmed? I put some counts and time on the vfx asset, but it's not prewarming

[dull obsidian]

it sounds like we want to multiply the particles' velocity by the mesh's surface normal vector. the normals should always be pointing away from the mesh's surface.
i don't recall the exact mechanism to do this in vfx graph but that's the basic idea.
the velocity / direction the particle travels is not to be confused with the direction the quad or quad strip trail is "facing" which for many effects should be facing the camera, as quads have no thickness so if they were perpendicular to the camera they would become invisible. this "orientation" is only for rendering and typically independent from where the particles travel in the simulation space.

[sinful badger]

Oh sorry I should clarify. When I said "facing" I meant that the particle effect is a single lightning bolt sprite sheet, and I want one edge of the billboard to face the mesh and the other to face away

Specifically I'm trying to make a lightning aura on my character model

[dull obsidian]

ohhh. can you share a screenshot of what it currently looks like?

[sinful badger]

I think I may have fixed it, or at least found something that works enough for a passing grade

[obtuse palm]

Hi, I'm doing this trail effect, and I switch the Color over Lifetime whenever the ball enters a specific area. My problem is, it changes the entire color of the trail, as in, a part that was gray before switches to purple instantly upon the ball entering the area. Any way I could make a spawned particle behave by its own rules, or is the updating handled by the Particle System?

Or maybe have the Color over Time only change the alpha, and then use the Start Color as base?

[kind hedge]

Hey I want to create a "laser show" effect. I have a loose idea of how I'd make one using quads or triangles as (or even cylinders if I wanted to avoid manual billboarding towards the camera and have them always visible) and then just rotate randomly. Anyone with experience with particle/vfx give me an idea on what properties to look at to achieve a similar effect? To basically animate one "end" of the particle while keeping the other at the effects origin?

[kind hedge]

actually line renderers look decent enough, but I hate that my mind goes to animating this in code since I'm a programmer. But I think I can use the animator to animate arbitrary game objects, will give this a try now.

[neat patio]

whats the best way to start learning and getting used to the vfx graph

[hearty flare]

Thomas Iche's tutorials that are pinned to this channel are a good place

[neat patio]

ok ty

[spare depot]

Hey guys, noob question here. I have some particles being shot when my player hits the ground. It works just fine when the player is facing left but when it flips (using transform.Rotate(0, 180, 0)) the particles don't flip with it and thus are being shot towards the white line instead of the yellow one...

[granite linden]

Hey, we got a problem with the particle control panel flickering when multiple particle systems are selected in the hierarchy

Anyone else seen this and know a solution?

It only happens on one team member's computer, and only when more than one particle system is selected

[dry ridge]

if i haven't already, wanted to thank you for your reply! looking forward to trying this

[dry dove]

Does anyone know how to suppress these warnings from VFX graph?

[surreal gale]

https://streamable.com/bqd2hk I have this issue with my VFX that the velocity seems to be different whenever my VFX is rotated in some specific rotations? It's supposed to be the same no matter what the rotation is. Any idea what could be causing this?

[shy jolt]

Hi guys. I'm making up the interface in IU Builder. Please help me add effects (partial systems). How can this be done? Adding texture render to the background. But the particles are not displayed correctly.

[opaque knoll]

Hi all
I asked a long time ago but it seems this is still the case now?
Is there any alternative to aliveParticleCount that can detect the current number of particle strips?

[jade rose]

Anyone know a fix for this. Im using the particle system but when I press play on the particles nothing shows up.

[cerulean anvil]

Guys is it possible to change shader of a particle on particle die ?

[warm torrent]

By dead you mean destroyed?

[cerulean anvil]

yes when the lifetime finishes

[warm torrent]

So the particles don't exist?
They wouldn't have a shader

[cerulean anvil]

I mean i guess it is better if i explain what i am trying to do, i have a shader that handles rainbow color and rotation. I am trying to add an extra disolve shader into that effect graph so it can disolve on last second of particle lifetime

this is the basic visual effect Graph i am using , and shader graph that handles rainbow colo and rotation and this is the result i have atm. I want to make it disolve at the end

[warm torrent]

You can do it like this with the Particle System
https://youtu.be/1vZKVlQnwio
I'm not familiar enough with VFX Graph but I assume you could find some equivalent way to send data per-particle to the shader
Or use the PS instead, if you don't need VFX Graph's power or unique features
In any case you can't "swap" shaders -within- a particle system, and I assume this limitation applies to VFX Graph as well

[cerulean anvil]

Thanks for the video i will look into it, i asked like "swap" shaders because of this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taMp1g1pBeE it looked pretty simple to do with a shader so if i could just swap it somehow it would be really good ..

[warm torrent]

It would be if you do it per mesh
But since particle effects and vfx graphs are one big procedural mesh where the particles are virtually contained that won't work like so

[ashen robin]

What exactly is preventing you from dissolving it with the shader? If you expose the variables on the shader graph, then you can control the values using over life time curve nodes

[cerulean anvil]

but on this case i have to create both effects in same shader right ?

[ashen robin]

Yeah, you'd have to combine it together

and then control the values

[cerulean anvil]

i am not so sure how to control the value of starting disolving animation since i am beginner would you recommend any document or tutorial for it if possible ?

[ashen robin]

Beyond what you can find in the docs, forums, and youtube, I've not really a good source for the graph lol. All you really need to do though is expose some variable that dissolves it primarily, and then you can stick a one of those curve nodes onto it in the output system there.

Brackys video there uses time for the dissolve, but you want to control it yourself

And do it by a step process instead of something animated

[cerulean anvil]

i guess i will play around a bit xD

[ashen robin]

Yeah, honestly that's how you learn with this stuff

[cerulean anvil]

what if i use trigger on die event ?

Is there any difference to use a GPU event ?

[warm torrent]

What I assume the problem is (or will be) is that you can't make a shader do something per particle unless you give it per particle data, such as with vertex streams
Properties are per shader

But I am jumping ahead a bit with this logic
Maybe having it per particle is not necessary after all

[cerulean anvil]

yes , i do not think i need to use the term "per particle" since i am dealing with only one particle to be honest

[ashen robin]

Ah, yeah I'm not sure how that resolves with multiple particles out at once, I've some ideas I want to test once I get back to creating some more of my own.

As for gpu events, they're usually used for branching into a whole `nother particle system which you can continue using data from. It's good for spawning like an explosion or something that's completely independent from the first.

[cerulean anvil]

good so i can just spawn a disolving circle for my case i guess

[ashen robin]

Pretty handy, graph could use some more of these events since 3 just doesnt cut it lol

Yeah, that you can then use another shader on if you want to do that.

[cerulean anvil]

I guess this might work xD

[ashen robin]

gotta inherit all the position data using the previous attributes

[cerulean anvil]

yes on it

[warm torrent]

Do you really need to use VFX Graph anyhow for so few?

Its power mostly comes from being able to simulate millions at a time

[cerulean anvil]

yes because it will emit lights too if i can handle it

i just started learning things around a day ago so i am trying my best to go step by step xD

[warm torrent]

To my knowledge VFX Graph is not capable of outputting lights, but the Particle System is

[cerulean anvil]

you can do it using a VFX graph particle system

[warm torrent]

What does that mean exactly?

[cerulean anvil]

you can create a simple particle system in vfx graph

[warm torrent]

These are templates

100% different from Particle Systems

Ain't that clear?

"VFX Graph" is GPU particle simulation: extremely efficient per particle but bigger overhead cost, more complex to use and more limited due to being limited to GPU data
"Particle System", formerly Shuriken, CPU particle simulation: simple to use and quick to set up, benefits from other components like lights and colliders as well as collision events, cheap to instantiate but can't easily handle more than a couple thousand particles usually

[ashen robin]

visual scripting for shuriken when

[warm torrent]

I think that would address the biggest limitation of Shuriken which is that using math or reusing variables that drive modules isn't easy
But it might also risk making it more complicated to get into, which VFX graph really suffers from

(e.g. there's force over lifetime and gravity, but you're out of luck if you want gravity over lifetime or another unusual linking of variables)

[ashen robin]

which is funny because it already feels like it's crammed with too many options such that I find myself having to navigate through each of the sub containers to find what I need

[dull obsidian]

"Unity VFX Graph support for CPU simulation and/or GPU to CPU readback to provide feature parity with Unity ParticleSystem fka Shuriken when?" is the unfortunately long-winded question at hand.

we've developed a VFX graph add-on to provide some of this functionality. we're not sure if it makes sense to productise it however as it depends on the use of internal Unity APIs, making it challenging to maintain and support.

it's also great for debugging VFX graph as you can inspect individual particle attribute values and print debug logs or attribute spreadsheets, plot graphs, for individual or even millions of particles.

[ashen robin]

Just got to get some attention and maybe unity will buy it out instead of remaking it

like tmpro

[dull obsidian]

ah that's a possibility, true.

[ashen robin]

mobile is still the market, so cpu simulated isn't going away anytime soon

[dull obsidian]

ah, great point. though unfortunately the add-on isn't able to provide CPU simulation, only GPU to CPU readback (sync or async). though that could still be useful on GPU compute capable mobile platforms to provide close feature parity to particlesystem/shuriken with particle lights and more flexible rendering modes for mobile (as you no longer have to use a vfx graph supported material/shader, you just get a simple buffer with the attributes you can do whatever you want with.)

[ashen robin]

Sounds pretty interesting, ya developing that for a specific game or just a tool in general

[dull obsidian]

it was being developed for general use in experiments, then for an in-development game that to be safe i won't mention, now it's back to general use as a tool for experiments and limited interactive productions use but not for videogames per se since

[ashen robin]

let's see if it outpaces the official vfx graph development haha

I await the release

[dull obsidian]

yeah, exactly. that's the main risk, to accept the chance of getting "sherlocked". so from a business point of view we wouldn't want all our eggs in one basket with products like this. but ultimately it's a win for the entire community to have the tools to achieve our creative goals and see what we want in the world.

[warm torrent]

At least they're all visible at once
I'm pretty biased for Shuriken since it's one of the rare parts of Unity (or development tools in general) that I could just start using without any guides or study
On the other hand with VFX Graph I still can't consistently make it work at all even though I've already made some effects in it by following instructions

Also helps the creative process that you can make functional changes with so few clicks

[woven matrix]

i use alot of waterfalls on my mountains (imagine cascade kingdom from Super mario odyssey amount of waterfalls) they are particles, so they only activate in editor if i open the asset and select each particle inside the asset

is there a faster way to just activate all particles in the scene in editor?

because it's hard to build from my imagination if i can't see what it looks like without having to start a playetst every goddamn second

[dull obsidian]

@woven matrix there is the "always refresh" and something like "show vfx" options in the scene view, in the drop down menus, i think. and in regards to speeding up playtest there are now also "fast enter/exit play mode" options by disabling domain and scene reload in the project settings.

[woven matrix]

damn i swtg every time i get an answear to a question about unity i learn about 5 features the engine has that i've never heard off

ty very much : D

[dull obsidian]

sure thing! the iceberg is quite large at this point lol.

[woven matrix]

hmmm

always refresh doesn't seem to work

and i even think i know why

all parts of the waterfall is inside an empty

and the always refresh keeps the waterfalls i've already activated still active

but it doesn't turn on the ones i haven't touched this instance

[gloomy fern]

How the heck do I use lens flare? No matter what I try I just get the lens flare texture just... 300 meters away from the camera??? Like, off the map

[spiral moth]

that sounds ideal debugging would be really helpful in VFXGraph

[daring loom]

how can Spawn a mesh on the direction that is facing? i wanna span the earth rock with the same angle that is set in the initialize (the angle is random via Set Angle)

[ashen robin]

If you're not setting the position/rotation via gameobject then you need to send that information into it

[red hatch]

Hello guys, what is the proper way to remake this scene transition effect?

[earnest stag]

soo cool

[brave notch]

with a stencil shader

[ivory vault]

Hi I have a particle system for rain and when the playback time is low all the rain drops together pour down once and then never pour for next very few seconds and this cycle continues but gets more constant (better) with increasing playback time and when playback time is 999 the raindrops are falling as expected (consistently and constantly)

[left hearth]

Hello humans, silly question here, I can't see any of my .PLY files in my game tab, I can see them in the scene tab, and the plugins are installed but it won't show up in the game scene 😦
(it's not a clipping issue)

[opal star]

How can I fix the overlap of the particle strip Im spawning in world space https://streamable.com/rp2a6d

I can share the graph too if it's needed

[warm torrent]

I think this is a pretty fundamental problem
Either requiring to smooth/relax the distances between trail geometry vertices, or the points themselves
Some proprietary trail assets aim to address this, but you can at least try the second option with the power of VFX Graph, though I don't know if it can be as effective as the first one

[opal star]

how woul I smooth/ relax the distances ?

I am using the vfx graph

I can try a periodic burst instead of a constant spawn rate

nope that didnt work

[warm torrent]

I don't know, can you compare the point distances and move them based on that?
The solution is raw math with any system I think

[torn tiger]

Does anything speak against using the vfx-graph for grass and some other foliage in my game vs other approaches like meshes with alpha textures or similar?

[warm torrent]

Not that I know of
There's even an official example of interactive grass using VFX graph
Though with that you can't use the familiar ways of optimizing and culling as you can with most other methods

[torn tiger]

Thanks! Checking out the example as we speak. It might be worth it to compare performance. I was just a bit irritated because I found almost no resources/tutorials on grass with vfx graph while there are a lot for other methods. But I will give it a try for sure

[dull obsidian]

@opal star as i understand. unless the path was presimulated / predetermined before it reaches vfx graph, that would require access to neighboring particles, which sadly vfx graph does not allow yet, within a strip or not. there may be some workarounds for this once the custom HLSL block releases but hard to say depending on the predictability of the memory layout and other factors.

@opal star i wonder if some of this could be mitigated with a different blend mode and back face culling? i assume it's set to additive or alpha right now? worst case it might require opaque and dithering blend which would affect quality. alpha to coverage might be possible in forward with msaa to combat this but not sure if that's possible in unity and has performance drawbacks

[opal star]

I did try all the blend mdoes

not sure how to set the culling in the graph

maybe if I do a custom shader graph

[warm torrent]

Opaque with dithering might work since that wouldn't care about self-overlapping polygons

[light garnet]

why is my vfx showing icon

and not the actual thing

how fix

[light garnet]

anyboody

[ashen robin]

https://i.imgur.com/kBJFBpw.png
You can turn off the icon from the gizmo menu in the scene window if that's your only problem

[light garnet]

Its not showing me my vfx

like its not playing

[ashen robin]

Can't really debug it for you at the moment, but I suggest making a whole new system and dragging it out onto the scene to make sure a default system is working

[zenith grove]

Could someone please help me figure out why does my particle strip in VFX graph shakes every few seconds? The issue seems to be occurring only in the inspector and only when some kind of force is applied to the strip. It is the most visible using a noise in the Update block with pumped up values. I tried changing capacity and spawn rate values but nothing seemed to affect this effect

[fast scroll]

how would i make a particle that looks like the liquid nitrogen steam

[prime dome]

im using the particle system for the first time, and i want something like a confetti explosion but all the particles slide way too much. idk how to fix

i tried to use the dampen thing, but then it just sticks to the ground. i want it to bounce and spread a little, but then just stop

[prime dome]

i didnt even see the gravity modifier variable bruh oml

nvm that didnt help

[potent valve]

Hey everyone,
I am looking for VFX/Particle Effect/Shader Freelander. Any idea where I can find any or am allowed to post for the search? Couldn't find a job posting channel in here

[dull obsidian]

it's on the unity forum, not in the discord 😉

[sinful badger]

does anybody know why my dragonball z style particle system setup is playing properly when I test it but when I press the play button to give it an official test, the explosion doesn't trigger the first time I activate it, as if there was some ghost animation of it in the background that had to finish playing before I could trigger it again?

the same happens when I try to use it in vrchat, if I activate the animation, I have to wait several seconds before I can play it again, because the blast attack's lifetime is 10 seconds and if it detonates before then, the game still acts as if it's playing and won't let me turn it off and back on again

also how do I make an audio source follow the projectile?

[rigid thistle]

so as I understand it

I need to make a custom shader, then export a texture from it, then use those textures as particles in VFX graph correct?

also why do my special effects look like this? imported from official particle pack

[potent valve]

thanks!

[potent valve]

check if the render pipeline is compatible with the one you are using

[rigid thistle]

yup

[rigid thistle]

it's using "particle/Standard surface"

[potent valve]

does the package have any patches? execute them if you haven't yet

[tiny heart]

hey guys im creating a game and im doing pickups and power ups .... and i need to put a pickup effect and for some reason idoesnt allow me to put smt that i downloaded, how do i import like effect to unity or import it to be in the assests?

[zenith grove]

Hi, I am trying to set the particles in VFX graph with a help of Property binder to make an effect of collecting coins after colliding with them. However from what I can see, it is not possible to drag the Player's position from a scene into the coin asset. Doing the opposite and placing a Player prefab from the assets into a coin prefab will result in a incorrect position. So the only solution I found is to drag a Player from a scene into each and every coin in the scene since multi-object editing is not supported for Property binder. Does anybody knows any way around it?

[tiny heart]

well i have Similar problem as u have

[zenith grove]

Did you try to put the effects from assets and from a scene?

Because it works for me it is just annoying to insert the Player's position like hundred times manually

[tiny heart]

well

from the scene the effect will just appear and i want it to appear only if the player has collision with it

and i dont have this from the asset

[zenith grove]

Well, then you can either drag it as an object into a scene and disable it. And through something like OnCollisionEnter or OnTriggerEnter enable it. Or you could also serialize it on the object that is supposed to collide with your Player and then trigger it in the same way as before but using something like vfx.Play();

[tiny heart]

oh ok

but how do i disable the effect?

[zenith grove]

You can disable every game object here

[tiny heart]

well i have a problem that if i move into the like power up then it doesnt get destroyed for some reason

[zenith grove]

Do you have any script on it?

[tiny heart]

yea i do

it doesnt work

how do i fix it?

[zenith grove]

Lets talk on priv because the conversation starts to move away from the topic of particles

[tiny heart]

ok

[warped pine]

When I decrease my particle's "brightness" (highest rgb value), it makes the particle appear more transparent.

The alpha is maxed, color by lifetime is disabled, I'm using the standard Particle/Standard Surface shader. Any ideas how to fix this? Looking to make a dark + mostly opaque particle effect

[warm torrent]

That sounds like additive blending
You may possibly want "fade" blending mode instead

[warped pine]

Hmm, now the particle is really dark/faded, even when the color is as bright as can be

The preview of the texture looks fairly bright, but the preview of the material itself is dark/greyish now, and the actual particle is a darker version of whatever color I put in

[warm torrent]

If it's not an unlit shader, then it would be darkened by the scene's lighting conditions

[warped pine]

Oh I see! Thanks
I had to change a couple more settings to make it look right but it’s working now 😁

[toxic umbra]

What is the most simple way i can apply a blur shader to a canvas with sprite renderers attached to it?

I want to apply a shader to the entire canvas, with the fog planes being effected by it

like i know i can use a seperate camera to render the fog to a render texture and apply a shader to the raw image but that sounds needlessly complicated, is there a way i can just render the fog to that canvas renderer and then throw a shader on that?

[ashen robin]

Not too sure about the canvas, but since it's 2D you can probably do some texture masking with custom renderer passes or by using unity's renderer object features

and just use a layer to overlay the effects

[toxic umbra]

is that possible in the built in render pipeline?

[ashen robin]

I'm not entirely sure honestly, I just know both URP and HDRP has some similarities with it all

https://alexanderameye.github.io/notes/scriptable-render-passes/

Says it was introduced to the srp in 2018

[solemn granite]

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/particle-pack-127325 - Has anyone succeeded in converting this package to hdrp?

[dull obsidian]

yes. https://youtu.be/cpkjyBd5BFw

[mortal vessel]

Ok so I'm working on a team we use gitlab as a repo to manage the code for our project. For some reason some of my team members myself included can't see some of the VFX in our game when they play even though others can on identical branches. We are using VFXgraph and have no idea why this is happening any advice?

[ashen robin]

Perhaps the experimental package isn't present throughout all your project settings preferences

[mortal vessel]

Experimental package?

[ashen robin]

It's for the vfx graph to reveal more features on the graph

[mortal vessel]

Also to note the effects appear in the hierarchy for the scene when they play they just don't appear in game

[mortal vessel]

How does one do that

[ashen robin]

It's in preferences

https://i.imgur.com/kHDWWL0.png

[hearty flare]

🗃️ Documentation

Visual Effect Graph
Choosing a particle system solution

📚 Resources

Blog and e-books

• Introduction to VFX Graph
• Realistic smoke lighting with 6-way lighting
• Definitive guide to creating advanced visual effects

Youtube

• Volumetrics: Introduction to raymarching
• VFX Graph Tutorials, Thomas Iché
• VFX Graph Tutorials, Gabriel Aguiar
• Principles of VFX with VFX Graph:
  • Episode 1
  • Episode 2

Git

• VFX Graph Samples
• VFX Toolbox
• VFX-Essentials (Samples)
• com.unity.demoteam.mesh-to-sdf

Particle Effects ✨

• FX For UGUI
• KumoWorks cloud generator

🗺️ Roadmap

Rendering & Visual Effects roadmap

[azure delta]

where is the documentation on custom particle data for built-in? i want to change a float of a shader over its lifetime without worrying about scripting. if thats even possible

[azure delta]

i figured it out

[azure delta]

isnt there a way to fade out the cut-off when a particle intersects with a mesh?

[warm torrent]

Goes by the name "depth fade" I think, works by calculating distance of fragment position to depth buffer position

[azure delta]

So i its done in the shader not the particle system then?

[warm torrent]

Correct

[rigid thistle]

I can't seem to be able to set a shader graph to an output particle mesh

[fast scroll]

how could i make something that looks like this. doesnt have to have gravity, just the steam thing (making a liquid nitrogen tank(dont ask))

[desert latch]

I can't seem to figure out why my particles are flickering. I mouse over the Update Particle, Initialize and Output and it makes it flicker more for some reason. Attached is what's happening.

Any ideas why this might be happening?

I was reading the forums and it seems it might be some kind of GPU problem possibly? but I wouldn't know how to fix that if that's the problem.

[desert latch]

found the solution. doing things by speed seems to break it

[ashen robin]

yeah, I've some weird glitches like slow down and such when just dragging parts of the gui

mostly editor related

[rocky lichen]

Hello, how can i set up a particle effect so that it doesn't look glitchy when rotate the game object it's attached to just like this in the video :

[warm torrent]

Liquid nitrogen vapors are technically clouds with more gravity
You could use the same techniques as you would for smoke but make it brighter, fall with gravity and collide with surfaces

Maybe will need to make the particles smaller to better conform, or use some kind of more accurate smoke simulation

Many ways to do it depending on performance budget and art style

[warm torrent]

Simulation space: world instead of local

[rocky lichen]

ty. It doesn't look glitchy as before now when i rotate the char but the particle effect is not rotated when i rotate the game object it is attached to and it doesn't look like a trail effect as before.

[warm torrent]

Trails aren't meant to rotate with the object they emit from are they

You can't use the exact properties of the local particle system and expect it to look the same with global, because your character is moving fast

You probably want a much shorter lifetime (try 1), zero speed and much more emission over time, or perhaps more fittingly emission over distance

[rocky lichen]

ok, i'll try them but before that what do you think of the trail renderer component? Do you think it's more suitable for this kind of effect? I tried that but i couldn't set the sprite right, it looks weird

[warm torrent]

Trail renderer and particle trails are easier for making smoother and more solid trails but they're stretchy and twisty, so it's not easy to make them work stylistically with pixel art

So probably not in this case

Unless you're also using pixel perfect camera component with the upscale render texture option

That will make them fit right, but the pixel perfect workflow is considered difficult by many

[rocky lichen]

thx a lot 🙏

[rocky lichen]

ok, this looks much more like a trail effect now. I set start lifetime to 1, start speed to 0 and emission rate over time to 200. I noticed 2 settings tab on the particle effect component; rotation over lifetime and rotation by speed, do you think they could help to improve the effect further?

there should be a way to rotate that ski trail sprite

[fast scroll]

thanks, ill try that🙂

[ocean jetty]

i'm trying to replicate some quantum break vfx but it's somewhat weird :

idk how to apply chromatic aberration to specific volume and still visible from outside the bonding box ( layers doesn't work that way does it ? )

see the video i'm gonna send the reference

the npcs have their won chromatic aberration , I don't wnat to create another shader .. I just want some simple post processing overlayed in object mask in layer or something but still be visable from outside the range ( no blending as it breaks the iullsion )

another great example this effect where he shoots projectil and the color desaturate around the enemy , in another words , I want post processing _shader mixer-blender any a asset available in the store can do this without writing custom shaders ? (Voulme based )

I think the keyword here's custom /stencil pass but idk how to do using the built-in rendering pipline

[ashen robin]

Distortion/Refraction shader would probably be easiest

[ocean jetty]

I have distortion shader, urp and hdrp doesn't support grabpass natively, that's why I'm using the built in rp

[ocean jetty]

simply I want to add multiple/ sperated post processing global layers but take affects on local world coordinates ( like spherical or mesh based pp volumes)

I think I might get some results if I excludes object from layers but idk if that would work with particles vfx

[ashen robin]

You could try fooling around with the custom render objects, but otherwise I'd feel like you'd need some custom render passes do what you're trying to do, if not shaders

https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/custom-render-passes-with-urp
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@11.0/manual/renderer-features/how-to-custom-effect-render-objects.html

[ocean jetty]

I don't want urp

[ashen robin]

oooh whoops ;p

[ocean jetty]

nvm , ty , thx

[ashen robin]

render objects would easily solve your question in #💥┃post-processing too unfortunately, but shouldnt be too hard with some shader work too

[spiral moth]

Weirdest and most annoying bug ever.. i appear to require to have added and then disabled 'Set SpawnEvent Spawn Time' in order to force the Set Spawn Time block to do it's job ( without that top block it doesn't write to spawnTime ):

Spent hours trying to figure out why in the hell this wasn't working

2022.2.13

vfx 14.0.6

[pallid kernel]

simple question, how do i get the particle system to stop facing the camera if Mesh isnt working

[dull obsidian]

that's a misconception. URP and HDRP can access camera buffers for these effects in the same way that GrabPass did for Built in RP, and more.

if you are attached to or have a sunk cost bias into using Built-in RP and are willing to write code to glue things together: it's not impossible to achieve with BiRP --but it seems you would prefer to avoid code.

Even if you were a into coding for this, I cannot recommend investing in the past / a render pipeline that isn't actively developed or has much market worth in gaining skills or experience with in 2023 onwards.

All that said... If these effects and low code / no code was my goal, I would either use Unity HDRP and a Fullscreen shader graph with a custom pass or custom post process or URP with a Fullscreen shader graph and a custom post process and/or render objects. You don't need to write code to do most things here in shader graph but you could later if you wanted to go deeper.

HDRP: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition@16.0/manual/fullscreen-shader.html

URP: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@16.0/manual/containers/post-processing-custom-effect-low-code.html

[unkempt topaz]

Hello! 🙂 I have a question in regards to sprite effects (pretty much animations of those). Is there a easy way to store them, for example in a class for buffs and debuffs?

Because I am doing such a system and it seems pretty bulky to do with a large amount of different Animators.

the idea is that each time a enemy suffers from a buff, it should play an assigned animation (its a 2D turn based RPG)

[topaz robin]

is there a way to rotate which direction the particle system is facing

[dull obsidian]

with the built-in particlesystem this is called "Render Alignment" https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/PartSysRendererModule.html

[dull obsidian]

or with Visual effect graph this is called "Orientation / Orient" https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/Block-Orient.html

[topaz robin]

damn i managed to fix it with this thx, btw how do i change the shape of my particles, its currently a rectangle but i wanna change it to my own texture

[solemn granite]

Assertion failed on expression: 'task.vertexBuffer == NULL' - someone know this error?

[finite vine]

How can I make a VFXgraph particle strip follow this kind of pattern?
My plan was to use a force to shoot the particle out straight, then blend their position using an arc circle.
The set position arc circle gives me exactly the curve I need, but how do I blend it with the starting position to get the desired shape?

ok I got it to work, I need some sleep 😩

[dull obsidian]

@finite vine i was going to suggest sample bezier node may work for these things https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@16.0/manual/Operator-SampleBezier.html

or for a bézier curve with more than 4 control points these are the workarounds https://forum.unity.com/threads/sample-bezier-operator-improvements.833035/

[native folio]

I have a question with vfx graph, basically im creating a bullet tracer for raycast based shooting but it looks different depending on the distance to the target (when im shooting offscreen the distance is 1000, otherwise its calculated) im not reall sure what parameters to change to make it look consistent (i prefer the look of the distant shots)

so far i've tried playing with lifetime, spawn rate, and particles per strip

[ashen robin]

Reading the graph is hard on mobile, but by the gif it looks like however you're calculating speed is not normalized. Otherwise use the graphs nodes that include velocity of its own.

[native folio]

In the photo those extra nodes are not connected it was a function I made to get the distance as a ratio of distance/1000.

I'm just not sure how to adjust a sequential line ribbons speed in the first place, is it lifetime I don't see any sort of velocity value

[ashen robin]

Should just be a set velocity node you can toss in the instantiation block

[manic shore]

nvm its because I didnt have a rendering pipline thing set up

[native folio]

Cool thanks I'll look in to it

[ionic wagon]

guys anyone got any idea how to fix these particles

they are so transparent here that they look like they aren't working

in another scene they work like this

[zenith grove]

Is there a way in VFX Graph, Output Particle Mesh to choose randomly between 2 different meshes and assign their probability of spawning? Something like Probability Sampling would fit well but sadly it doesn't work this way.

[frank coyote]

What is the error?

[zenith grove]

From what I understand it is just that the VFX graph is not built for this kind of operations. Currently I just made a separate spawn system for the second mesh but I am wondering if there is any other way around it

[ashen robin]

If I were to go about that, I'd probably do similar and have the probability calculations before spawning the particles

[winged basalt]

Hey how much is vfx graph affecting a games peformance? How many objects with a vfx graph can i use?

[noble osprey]

Hey all, is it possible to have VFX Graph particles render 'on top' of everything else (except UI) in a scene? I have a system that's working but the particles are going through geometry and it's annoying me. lol.

[clear spruce]

It all depends on the graph complexity and particle count. VFX graph even supports GPU instancing these days so the amount of individual particle systems doesnt tell that much about performamce hit. You really need to profile yourself to figure out the exact numbers. That being said, VFX is simulated fully on GPU so simulating thousands of particles will not tank your performance

[winged basalt]

15-20 Systems just a estimate could be more

[clear spruce]

How many of those are you going to use?

[winged basalt]

15-20 Sytems just a estimate could be more

[clear spruce]

Oh wow, discord is so screwed up

[winged basalt]

Oh jup, but its not an extreme amount of particles i am going for

[winged basalt]

Wth

[snow hamlet]

hi

[clear spruce]

Anyway, what was the amount of particles on a system again? (Thanks to discord cant see it anymore)

@winged basalt In any case the total particle count doesnt sound like it would become a problem no matter what. If you are using unity version 2022 LTS or newer, you shouldnt be in troubles (effect instancing supported), on older versions the effect count would become a problem at some point. Profiling is the only way to find out the exact numbers as I said earlier

[winged basalt]

So the amount of systems itself shouldnt matter you say?

[clear spruce]

Of course the overhead will scale about linearly but the cost of single system with max few hundred particles is so low that you can instance quite many of them together

[winged basalt]

The Particle count is really low. We are talking about stylized projectiles like arrows, fire, tornado, slashes in a bullet hell Environment

[zenith grove]

I wouldn't worry too much. I recently finished a school project in which I abused the VFX graph quite a bit, having almost constantly tens or even hundreds of thousands of particles at the same time on the escreen. And despite presenting the game on a GTX 970 school laptop, the game still managed to mantain somewhere between 80 - 90 fps

[winged basalt]

Its not count of particles that i am concerned about its the Overhead of having many vfx systems on their own that could cause Performance issues

[zenith grove]

Well, having multiple graphs is known to be less efficient than having a single graph with multiple systems. But depending on what these graphs are I probably wouldn't be concern with 15 - 20 graphs.

[clear spruce]

That shouldnt be a problem. Im not aware of the implementation but afaik the way the effect instancing works, all the effects are considered as a one bigger system, so theres no need to worry. If you are using 2021 or earlier, then it can become a problem tho

[winged basalt]

Ok thats good to hear

[clear spruce]

Testing yourself is the only way to find out but I wouldnt be worried at this point

[dull obsidian]

it seems that a solution has been found:

Hello, In unity 2021.1 (available in the unity hub) you can add up to 4 meshes on a particle mesh output and use the Mesh Index nodes to create mesh changes behaviors, like a randomization for example.

• Marie_G, Unity Technologies
  https://forum.unity.com/threads/sub-mesh-mask-per-particle.831688/#post-7263376

[zenith grove]

Perfrect! Thanks a lot

[lone elbow]

- In the shuriken particles, is it posiible to manually reposition all active particles? I don't need to target specific ones or whatever else, just loop and apply an expression

[gentle umbra]

I'm looking for a good asset to simulate dust/fluid/particles in 3D? I want to be able to specify a 3D vector field and have dust particles advected around inside of it. I think VFX graph can do this, but I'm using BIRP so unfortunately isn't an option. I'm happy to pay for a good asset!

[torpid fractal]

Anyone run into a problem where Shuriken particles go through an object that has a Mesh Collider? But it apparently hits when you're like 1 cm away?

i'm finding it might be my FBX export settings

[torpid fractal]

My particles are definitely not hitting the mesh... WHEN I export the mesh with armature. Bizarre, not sure what's going on

[earnest tapir]

why are these particles not showing up in game

im rly new to making games

so if its something obvious then thats why lol

[earnest tapir]

nvm found the issue it was the y level lol

[rapid latch]

how wou;ld i make my particles initially inherit its parent's orientation, but not rotate alongside the parent

[prime dome]

idk

[rapid latch]

omg shut up

stop stalking me

• how wou;ld i make my particles initially inherit its parent's orientation, but not rotate alongside the parent

[midnight grove]

!mute 908289249739161650 5d Spamming

[gleaming flicker]

aucticslic#7968 was muted.

[prime dome]

If I want a dust particle every time a character moves, do I need to do .Play() in my PlayerMovement script?

[midnight grove]

You need to do it wherever you want it to start. If it's easiest to do in that script, then go for it.

[rose plinth]

how tf do I change the curves in particle systems

[ashen robin]

You wouldn't child the particle then and instead pass it the information you want from the other particle besides the rotation

[ashen robin]

Yeah, that's pretty much how you'd do it. If you have the system looping then you'd have to also stop it when your character is doing something other than moving.

[prime dome]

Oh that’s simple. Thank you!

[warm torrent]

Emission module also has an emission over distance setting, which could do a lot of the work here

[spiral moth]

So i have a VFXGraph setup, quite simple using a SampleBezier to create this curve from StartPos to EndPos:

What i would like to achieve, is to have particles corkscrew along this path, kindof like this:

I'll post what i have tried, which i thought would work, but doesn't..

Well interesting, after trying many different combinations of things, this seems to work:

So i'm setting the orientation of the circle based on the Tangent from the Sample Bezier..

Ideally i'd like the orientation of that circle to follow the curve ie when the curve dips down towards that last point those loops should tilt around also, if that makes sense..

Atm is seems to just be oriented to world Up ( maybe this is coming from the up field itself but i've tried many variations of this so far to try and get it to work as i'd like )

Well damn..

[ashen robin]

that's pretty neat

[spiral moth]

Simply setting Up to x ( Right ) works

Funny how the moment i finally give in and post for help on this i figure it out.

[ashen robin]

don't worry, my help was going to just give you the motivation you needed to finish it :)

[spiral moth]

Haha thanks! Thankfully i don't give up very easily 🙂

[zenith grove]

Any idea on how can I set the rotation of each particle to look towards the center of its spawner (Circular spawner). Can't use the "Orient: Look at..." because the camera movement affects the actual angle. I saw a possible solution on the forum but it doesn't seem to be working anymore

[spiral moth]

Maybe Orient:Advanced and have the z axis set to dir to cam and y or x axis so to dir to spawnpoint?

[zenith grove]

lets see

[spiral moth]

i think z is generally the axis you want 'facing' the camera.. the other two more useful for actual particle rotation/orientation

[zenith grove]

but wait, do you mean to set the z axis to camera location or direction?

[spiral moth]

Actually i think possibly if you try two orient blocks - first one with lookat camera, second one with specific axis and set that to point to spawner

[zenith grove]

Initially it works. But there is the same issue as I mentioned before. If I tilt the camera up or down, it will aslo tilt the particles

[spiral moth]

Maybe face camera plane?

[zenith grove]

same issue

[ashen robin]

There's that advanced setting that sets the look direction independent from where the camera is facing

[spiral moth]

Still relatively new to messing with these myself but yeah there's definitely a way

[ashen robin]

otherwise maybe updating the angle every update?

[zenith grove]

But particles are basiclly in the same position after 2 seconds

so I need to set the angle only once

[spiral moth]

kindof odd that FaceCameraPlane isn't an option in the drop down, but is an option in the spacebar context list:

[zenith grove]

Mine is there

[spiral moth]

So many odd things with VFX Graph, i can't tell you the time i've thrown into the black hole of figuring things out

[spiral moth]

Which version of unity/graph are you on if you don't mind me asking

[zenith grove]

Ohh don't tell me. I discovered this system maybe 2 months ago, and I think I already spent hundreds of hours in it

[zenith grove]

2021.3.19f1 and graph is 12.1.10

[spiral moth]

Weird then as i'm on 2022.2 and 14.xx

It's an incredible tool but damn is it a bit all over the place

Each time i think i have finally mastered it and achieved unlimited power something really simple and obvious sets me back to square one

I honestly think they should refactor a lot of the code, how it's structured etc etc.. Documentation needs some serious work imo.

[zenith grove]

Found the solution

[spiral moth]

so it's locking the z axis then i guess

[zenith grove]

no idea tbh, but glad it works

[pearl hound]

Is it possible to get the particle position in a shader? Object position dosent seem to work

[dull obsidian]

not sure if you're asking about vfx graph or particlesystem (fka shuriken). either way, it's probably the vertex position ?

[pearl hound]

im using shuriken my bad

What node do I need to get the vertex pos in the shadergraph?

The position node with the object returns the world position or the position related to the particle gameobject not quite sure

[fast scroll]

how do i make it so particles get affected by lighting

[warm torrent]

Use the lit particle shader for your render pipeline

[fast scroll]

in hdrp theres no lit

theres surface that just makes it purple, idk how to solve that

[warm torrent]

It has but it's
secret

[fast scroll]

no way

||show me your ways||

[warm torrent]

If you have HDRP installed, its entry in the package manager should show these samples under the drop down menu

[fast scroll]

oh god i did not know that

i made the smooth circle default material thing myself

for the particles

[warm torrent]

I had to google around for it a bunch first
Then I had to keep googling for it because I kept forgetting where they were tucked away

[fast scroll]

haha fair, also it wouldn't break if i just imported all of them right?

just in case i need them

[warm torrent]

Nope, just an extra folder
There's a lot of good particle shaders included in there

[fast scroll]

alright, thanks :)

[warm torrent]

Extra folders*
I haven't tried each one of the samples though
I assume they won't replace anything but I can't guarantee

At least all the ones called "samples" should be fine, just some extra assets

[fast scroll]

alr

yea ill just get the samples and remember where that menu is if i ever need amything else

ty tho

[solar trellis]

hi,is there anyway to make VFX particle collide with each others? or it can only be achive using unity particle system

in URP

[spiral moth]

Matrix4x4 doesn't appear to show up in Inspector when exposed from VFXGraph ( Unity 2022.2.13 VFXGraph 14.0.6 )

[fast scroll]

any chance it also works with light layers?

[spring portal]

Hey there, currently making a mod for a game (Yes modding is permitted)
It's got this Fire VFX, and my intention is to change the color of the fire. What would be my best method for this?
Obviously I will have to do this at runtime in code, I'm just not 100% sure how.

[warm torrent]

Particle systems should work with light layers just the same as any other gameobject

[warm torrent]

Only within the boundaries of

Do not directly discuss modding or decompiling.
Is it a VFX graph or a Particle System? I'd start by googling for instructions for what you're asking specific to the relevant system
You should be able to find something to start from

[fast scroll]

i cant seem to find the option, for meshes its under the mesh renderer