#✨┃vfx-and-particles | Official Unity Discord | Page 24

low anchor Jun 27, 2019, 11:11 AM

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📎 unknown.png

light siren Jun 27, 2019, 11:14 AM

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Uh, how did i miss the color over lifetime option for trails?... 😮 thanks!
And yes the magicky is right, other people mentioned it as "cartoony", i guess there is really something to it. :)
Thickiness + saturation might help i think, will try when im at my pc again!

light siren Jun 27, 2019, 11:39 AM

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yep, just checked.. i did use the color over lifetime, but i keep forgetting that it supports alpha, so i just gave it a color and moved on 😂 Thanks again

prisma lodge Jun 28, 2019, 3:52 PM

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In the particle system, how can I kind of just move particles around their spawn point?

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Right now they just keep moving away

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but I want them to roughly stay in the same spot

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📎 unknown.png

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got something to work by setting speed to 0 and activating noise

languid pasture Jun 30, 2019, 11:09 AM

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Hey guys
I've been playing around a bit with the VFX graph, and I absolutely love it.
I made the following effect, which I'm quite content with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7-R0NSVpc

However, I wanted to try to see what it looks like if the blocks aren't placed randomly at initialization, but on a grid, so at the flat parts, it looks like one uniform mesh.
I feel like a bit of a doofus, but I can't seem to figure out what block to use to make this happen 😅

YouTube

Daniel Bergshoeff

Playing with VFX

▶ Play video

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📎 unknown.png

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This is what I'm currently using for Initialization

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If anyone can give me a nudge in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it 😊

elfin pilot Jun 30, 2019, 11:57 AM

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try position sequential (You may need to activate experimental blocks in vfx preferences)

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Wont be a circle though but you can probably discard (using set alive false) some particles in init to get a circle

languid pasture Jun 30, 2019, 8:35 PM

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@elfin pilot You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar, thank you for the advice 😃

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I indeed had to active experimental blocks and make use of the Position Sequential

frank garden Jul 1, 2019, 3:48 PM

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Hello ! Does anyone know how I can apply an animated texture on a particule trail with Unity ?

eternal flower Jul 1, 2019, 8:56 PM

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Did anybody try the ellipse and rectangle tools from Unity's Shader graph? I so, would they slow the game down a significant amount compared to rasters?

📎 unknown.png

feral zodiac Jul 6, 2019, 6:36 PM

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any one know how to fix this?

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📎 unknown.png

primal ivy Jul 7, 2019, 12:53 AM

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I went to the package manager and the visual effects graph doesnt show there, can someone help me?

prime dome Jul 7, 2019, 11:13 AM

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Hello i need a suggestion please look in #archived-game-design

neon jungle Jul 9, 2019, 3:23 AM

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@primal ivy u might have to show preview pckges

vagrant juniper Jul 11, 2019, 9:38 PM

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how can i start particle effect via code?

primal ivy Jul 12, 2019, 3:12 AM

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When i create a visual effect graph in my scene and then place it in the hierarchy, the particles wont show from it, can someone help me?

neon jungle Jul 14, 2019, 8:40 PM

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@primal ivy need more information, are you using standard/legacy unity rendering, LWRP or HDRP

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you have to goto Edit > Project Settings > VFX and ensure that the Render Pipe Settings path is appropriate for your project

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it defaults to Packages/Visual Effect Graph/Shaders/RenderPipeline/HDRP but if you are using LWRP it would be Packages/Visual Effect Graph/Shaders/RenderPipeline/LWRP and if you are on a version that supports legacy it is Packages/Visual Effect Graph/Shaders/RenderPipeline/Legacy

You can also add your own custom support for anything, but there is no documentation, it is entirely possible though.

quick quiver Jul 16, 2019, 10:34 AM

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someone bumped the staging package up by 90... https://bintray.com/unity/unity-staging/com.unity.visualeffectgraph/6.99.0-preview

inner linden Jul 17, 2019, 8:59 AM

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@vagrant juniper You can SendEvent or Play/Stop a VisualEffect trough code, see : https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.4/Documentation/ScriptReference/Experimental.VFX.VisualEffect.html
If you are referring to "ParticleSystem", there is an equivalent interface "Play/Stop" : https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.4/Documentation/ScriptReference/ParticleSystem.html

golden robin Jul 17, 2019, 1:51 PM

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Download a dynamic real-time rain FX for Unity for Free!!

Hi,

This is a link to the GitHub of a dynamic rain FX for car windshields. It is free and I hope people download and improve it if possible.
https://github.com/D4N005H/RealtimeDynamicWindshieldWaterFX

Regards,
MrDanO

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This is a demo of the rain FX in my indie Unity3D project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjkCOBWZC1A&feature=youtu.be&t=190

YouTube

FIB Ltd.

Unity Vehicle Nurburgring Test Alpha

ATG:KIsh is a driving simulator software, And here its physics for normal fast driving tested in the Nordschleife - Nürburgring race track. Cars: BMW 4 serie...

▶ Play video

quick quiver Jul 17, 2019, 3:54 PM

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@golden robin just wanting to note that you can't really use GPL for license with Unity, using GPL for project files would require also Unity be GPL licensed which simply isn't possible (Unity licensing doesn't allow relicensing)

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you can use MIT, BSD, MPL, CC-BY though

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or pretty much anything but GPL, LGPL or CC-BY-SA

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btw, I did follow the original thread, didn't immediately realize it was the same thing 😄

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as a side note, I've wanted to do similar effect myself using compute shaders but never had time for it, haven't checked if new visual effect graph would let you do something similar easier either

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one question after looking at the video... why are the pedals in plastic? 😄

golden robin Jul 17, 2019, 5:40 PM

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@quick quiver Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware of this. You seem to know more about this issue, which license do you think is best for this project?

Good to know you've followed it before! Indeed this will save your time a lot by not trying to re-invent a wheel IMO and designing a similar FX from the scratch. Moreover, the community would appreciate if someone could improve it. I personally would try to continue improving it but I don't have time for it!

About the plastic cover... that wheel is expensive! l think it'll remain fresh longer that way.... I guess... lol.

quick quiver Jul 17, 2019, 5:56 PM

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MIT is pretty common pick for projects like that

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it doesn't restrict others from using it but your copyright has to remain there

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issue with GPL is that it "pollutes" everything it touches and it's in general incompatible with commercial game engines

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also since DOTS and burst especially are here, I've also considered doing 2D physics sim for this myself

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one could do the sim so much cheaper and it wouldn't have to be in scene

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you can still represent the windscreen curvature with vector field or basic math to keep the drops flowing in the right direction based on your vehicle speed, you don't need 3D sim for it

golden robin Jul 18, 2019, 6:35 AM

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@quick quiver already tried with Physics2D and found out that its precision is not the best. Had I had more time, I'd have investigated it more.

BTW, Thanks for the info about the licenses. I too think MIT is the best alternative, I'll change it after some more research. Thanks again.

random cove Jul 19, 2019, 2:40 AM

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hmm so I'm having trouble getting the depth collider to work in the visual effect graph (Using LWRP), and there doesn't seem to be any documentation on it

elfin pilot Jul 19, 2019, 10:16 AM

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@random cove Unfortynately, depth collider is not working with LWRP yet, only HDRP

random cove Jul 19, 2019, 5:40 PM

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Thanks, looking forward to it being implemented!

golden robin Jul 19, 2019, 8:13 PM

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360 Video background VFX test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddHxMGeaX8

YouTube

FIB Ltd.

Unity 360 skybox video

Some tests on an early version of "Around The Ground: Kish Island" simulator indie video game. In this test, you'll see Unity's 360-degree video background e...

▶ Play video

dry dove Jul 22, 2019, 1:23 AM

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Looking for some help with a particle system.

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It looks like these particles shouldn't move, but they go move up in world-space Y.

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🤷

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oh nvm

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clearly those curves are setting the velocity 🤦

turbid mango Jul 22, 2019, 2:03 AM

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Looking for an vfx artist to join our team, lil' Shermans fxs need a complete overhaul. DM me, This is for rev-share only.

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https://youtu.be/lBvuQqrGY2U

YouTube

Dabster Entertainment

lil' Sherman - Dev v0.13

Today we release our latest Alpha update v0.2 What's new in the update: New terrain layout. Action tower defense elements of game play are introduced. New en...

▶ Play video

bronze wraith Jul 28, 2019, 12:25 AM

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Anyone else using 2019.3 a10? For some reason I can't see the bounding box or the emission shape of any VFX Graph asset like you could before.
Not sure if it's a VFX Graph bug or the editor itself.

signal gazelle Jul 29, 2019, 12:27 AM

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Does anyone know how I'd be able to make the camera a solid colour without covering it with a panel or something of that sorts?
And if so, how would I be able to adjust the colour with a script?

molten grotto Jul 29, 2019, 9:28 AM

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https://j.gifs.com/0YXMQN.mp4

▶ Play video

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Anyone knows a tutorial on how to make retro glow effect ( or whatever its called ) ?

true shore Jul 29, 2019, 9:39 AM

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you mean bloom?

molten grotto Jul 29, 2019, 9:46 AM

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ye, thanks

royal dagger Jul 29, 2019, 7:01 PM

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@molten grotto you mean this?

📎 unknown.png

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or this "building" effect?

📎 unknown.png

molten grotto Jul 30, 2019, 12:07 AM

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@royal dagger more like the building effect, but they look the same to me ( as u might have guessed i don't know much about vfx )

royal dagger Jul 30, 2019, 12:08 AM

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they are definetly not the same 😄

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one is a burst of particles with varying colours from white to light blue

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the second one i don't really know what it is, if i had to guess, an animation? not sure

fast roost Jul 30, 2019, 3:18 AM

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I have a particle effect that for whatever reason if I change the material color it renders out, if I try to do color by lifetime this effect doesn't work as intended. 😦

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Anyone know why?

sinful monolith Jul 30, 2019, 5:04 AM

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@fast roost if it helps, the colours affect each other. So if you make it blue as a material then fade it white to black, it will actually fade from blue to black because of the base material colour. But you have a lot of control over how a particle shows it’s colour based on the shader of the material.

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If that is what you mean?

fast roost Jul 30, 2019, 5:11 AM

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I have the default color white

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So I was hoping to be able to transition to a darker color, using the gradient

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@sinful monolith

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It isn't working

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But yes I understand the concept you are expressing.

sinful monolith Jul 30, 2019, 5:35 AM

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@fast roost ah yeah that’s because the default Shader is set to a weird blend mode. It makes dark not dark. You have to change the shader

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You’ll need to do that for smoke and dark materials

fast roost Jul 30, 2019, 11:02 PM

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@sinful monolith thank you I will try to look at changing the shader, I know my campfire particles are working right, so between the two should be able to figure out how to get it working.

lime mantle Aug 2, 2019, 10:09 PM

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How do I make this laser ?

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📎 unknown.png

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Can anyone link me to a tutorial or something like that

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📎 unknown.png

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I want to add it back to my car when I'm boosting

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Please @ me so I can see the msg when you send it 😊

neon jungle Aug 2, 2019, 10:49 PM

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@ VFXGraph devs, when will VFXSRPBinder be non-internal?

lime mantle Aug 3, 2019, 12:24 AM

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Anyone ?

neon jungle Aug 3, 2019, 12:25 AM

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theres differernt ways, it could be a quad that is camera aligned, it could be an actual cylinder mesh with al ot of bloom applied

lime mantle Aug 3, 2019, 12:31 AM

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What should I do

neon jungle Aug 3, 2019, 12:32 AM

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you could also use a shuriken particle system, and have the renderer shape be aligned to velocity so it will create a long streak/beam

lime mantle Aug 3, 2019, 12:32 AM

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❤

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Can you link me to a tutorial ?

sullen sluice Aug 3, 2019, 10:52 PM

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Is there any good resource for gamedev-related houdini tutorials? There's some on the official site, but nothing akin to what I'm looking to do

neon jungle Aug 6, 2019, 3:02 AM

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They're less common definitely, what sort of info are you looking for?

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 5:27 AM

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Having trouble with particles not keeping same direction as parent gameObject

📎 particlewonk.jpg

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the side of the square should be at a 45 to the back of the object

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So it is flush side meets side, not corner meets side.

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I need it to emit in world space so that way it will give the trailing effect

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rather than just stick out like fading spike.

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The particles not rotating with the parent is cause the effect to look very rough.

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trying to do a really smooth wind slice effect

📎 particle_error.gif

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but you can see the space between the particles, instead of it looking like smooth lines.

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I have the particles up to nearly 1k per slice, so I really think it is the rotation that is to blame mostly unless I am wrong.

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 8:22 AM

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If you just want a simple trail take a look at Unitys Trail Renderer. It pretty much does what you need, but much more performant than lots of particles @fast roost

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 12:35 PM

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@ember oracle , kk will do thank you.

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:00 PM

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📎 unknown.png

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How do I make this ?

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 1:01 PM

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@ember oracle I looked into to Trail Renderer, looks like exactly as it should, unfortunately, I go to addkey to make it smaller towards the end and it doesn't work like the tutorial video.

I right click, select add key and nothing happens.

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sometimes I can get the following error but not every time:

UnityEditor.CurveEditor.CurveGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Animation/AnimationWindow/CurveEditor.cs:1082)
UnityEditor.CurveEditor.OnGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Animation/AnimationWindow/CurveEditor.cs:949)
UnityEditor.LineRendererCurveEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/LineRendererCurveEditor.cs:156)
UnityEditor.TrailRendererInspector.OnInspectorGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/TrailRendererEditor.cs:63)
UnityEditor.UIElements.InspectorElement+<CreateIMGUIInspectorFromEditor>c__AnonStorey1.<>m__0 () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorElement.cs:494)
UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent(Int32, IntPtr)

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:05 PM

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@fast roost honestly i have never used the trailrenderer, i just knew it exists :D
so i have no idea how to modify the trails

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@lime mantle maybe just do a raycast and put a small circle where the ray hits? it also returns a normal and stuff, so that should help placing the circle. all the semitransparent stuff around it is probably bloom... or put a spherer there, then the normal doesnt matter... just takes more polygons

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:08 PM

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But I need the laser to get bigger

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📎 unknown.png

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I want to put it at the back of my car @ember oracle

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:09 PM

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like a big rectangle trail?

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:10 PM

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yes

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Whenever I'm boosting

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I want like a boost effect

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I've been trying for days to make it but I don't know how

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 1:11 PM

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@ember oracle kk maybe someone else in here knows 😃

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:12 PM

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@fast roost can you maybe show the code in the line of the error and maybe some before that? maybe ill spot sth

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 1:13 PM

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I didn't make any code it is unity default trail system

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:14 PM

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📎 unknown.png

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I want something like this

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@ember oracle Is there a tutorial that can teach me this

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:16 PM

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@lime mantle that just looks like a sprite to me... paint that in photoshop and fade it out... or create a shader that fades it out more cleverly

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but im not sure

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:16 PM

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Can you give me a tutorial

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to get started

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nice icon by the way

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:17 PM

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thanks... i dont really know any tutorials though...

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:18 PM

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What should I google

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How to make a sprite melke ?

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:18 PM

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that was a typo

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just create a quad, add a material with a texture... create that texture in photoshop or krita or whatever 2D tool you prefer

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:19 PM

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thanks

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:20 PM

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the laser one looks like a material with a bright emission value + postprocessing stack with bloom

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:20 PM

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THANKS

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What's a quad ?

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:22 PM

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@fast roost huh... that sounds like its broken. have you tred restarting unity or sth? xD i really have no idea, but if its caused by you adding a key it might be the editors fault

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@lime mantle its one of the primitive meshes you can add in the editor. its just two triangles next to each other. like a plane just with less triangles

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:24 PM

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thanks

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:25 PM

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@lime mantle if you are really new to how to create visuals in unity it might be worth to download their example projects and just take a look how they approach everything

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:25 PM

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Thanks man I'll take a look at it ❤

fast roost Aug 6, 2019, 1:27 PM

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@ember oracle yeah I will give that a try unity sometimes is buggy, thanks again.

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:39 PM

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📎 unknown.png

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You talking about this ?

ember oracle Aug 6, 2019, 1:42 PM

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@lime mantle i was more talking about this content:
https://learn.unity.com/
there are lots of great projetcs to dive into and analyze... its really worth the effort before you start working on your own ideas

Unity Learn

Unity Learn provides award-winning free tutorials, sample projects, and full courses for mastering real-time 3D development skills with Unity Learn to make video games, VR, AR, and more.

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 1:42 PM

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Oh ok thanks

shut cliff Aug 6, 2019, 3:43 PM

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Ongoing confetti project 😃

📎 confetti_magicnewyear.gif

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 4:08 PM

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📎 unknown.png

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How do I make the black parts transparent

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📎 unknown.png

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how do I make the black background transparent

opaque knoll Aug 6, 2019, 7:13 PM

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Create layer, set that below the blue lightning thing.
Then set the blue lightning layer's layer mode to additive or something

lime mantle Aug 6, 2019, 7:14 PM

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ok

opaque knoll Aug 6, 2019, 7:14 PM

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Is it possible to set CustomData to particles spawned from Emit()? It's not in EmitParams, it seems

lime mantle Aug 7, 2019, 6:45 AM

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📎 unknown.png

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Guys how do I hide these orange squares ?

hearty flare Aug 7, 2019, 6:51 AM

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It's selection highlight in the gizmos dropdown, top right of the scene view

lime mantle Aug 7, 2019, 6:53 AM

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❤

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📎 Help.mp4

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How do I make particles start at the same position

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Because it makes this effect that I don't like

opaque knoll Aug 7, 2019, 12:27 PM

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Depends on a lot of things. Maybe you have a start speed? Or in the Shape module it's got a shape. Change to Sphere and make radius to 0 to make it spawn only from 1 point

shut cliff Aug 7, 2019, 12:28 PM

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@lime mantle I don't have a full oversight of how your effect is set up, but try this:

Disable/untick Shape
Try to make a small fade-in for the Color over Lifetime

lime mantle Aug 7, 2019, 12:32 PM

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@shut cliff thanks

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Shape is already untick

shut cliff Aug 7, 2019, 12:36 PM

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Okay, hmm.. The particles might be going too fast from the start as delgelato mentioned. You could try fading them in slightly in the start, or double the amount of particles emitted if it's looping, and instead halve the lifetime.

lime mantle Aug 7, 2019, 12:46 PM

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oK

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📎 unknown.png

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Does this look right ?

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How do I make the line shorter

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📎 unknown.png

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It looks bad on play mode

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📎 unknown.png

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📎 unknown.png

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Why do the particles get weaker when they are in "MyCar" game object ?

shut cliff Aug 7, 2019, 3:12 PM

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If you have collision enabled on particles they might be colliding with the car? Otherwise it could be the Soft Particles setting making them fade out too much around the car (check the material settings)

lime mantle Aug 8, 2019, 1:46 PM

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ok

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Where can I find the soft particless settings ? @shut cliff

shut cliff Aug 8, 2019, 3:49 PM

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Select the material you use for the flame and experiment with soft particles near and far fade: https://puu.sh/E2McG/e1991e0217.png

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if it's enabled at all

lime mantle Aug 8, 2019, 4:47 PM

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❤

deft marsh Aug 10, 2019, 11:11 AM

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Hey!
How can I achieve an infinite swirl effect that gets bigger and bigger the further it gets??

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Something like this

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📎 image0.png

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Not as detailed of course

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But a swirl effect like this

pliant coral Aug 10, 2019, 1:10 PM

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You could get magical with shaders to get that cloudy noise looking texture but to get the general idea I would start with a particle emission rotating circular like a sprinkler would, you set speed over lifetime to be fast at first and decrease over time,. Then set total lifetime of the particle emission to be whatever and lastly your particle could just be a beam that follows the world space simulation so it twists around.. super rough you'd have to do some tweaking on your own with the speeds and sizes etc

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So yeah, I would try using particle system @deft marsh

deft marsh Aug 10, 2019, 1:35 PM

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Well yeah, I know that, but I’m not quite sure how to do that, I’m new to particles and I’m really struggling

shut cliff Aug 10, 2019, 1:40 PM

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A good place to start is using Velocity over Lifetime (this example with particle trails enabled) https://puu.sh/E3ww4/0c8caf859d.png

pliant coral Aug 10, 2019, 1:40 PM

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Can get pretty finicky with specific property details I would search up a tut on tornados as a similar approach to get you comfortable

shut cliff Aug 10, 2019, 1:40 PM

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Coupled with a circle Shape emitter

shut cliff Aug 10, 2019, 1:58 PM

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https://twitter.com/Archanor/status/1160188398696636416?s=20 gif was too big to upload in here 😦

Archanor (@Archanor)

Testing out a little swirly cloud effect #unity3d https://t.co/DtY8qeb673

▶ Play video

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjedzg1cvl7qdjj/swirlycloud.unitypackage?dl=0

Dropbox

swirlycloud.unitypackage

Shared with Dropbox

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@deft marsh If you want it to be more calm, try changing the Simulation Speed at the top part of the particle system

deft marsh Aug 11, 2019, 8:35 AM

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Omg thanks so much! How could I make the lifetime infinite

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Would that be a smart idea?

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Or would it cause too@much lag

shut cliff Aug 11, 2019, 4:46 PM

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you could set Simulation Speed to 0.01 and increase lifetime of particles

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or just 0 I guess

thorny copper Aug 11, 2019, 5:48 PM

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Question about effects:
Is it possible to have an effect which leaves prefabs in each particles last location before it dies?

So imagine killing an enemy, Ondeath it does a little explosion and yellow energy sparks fly out and then where they die 'coins' or some other prefab spawns and sits on the floor.
Or something along those lines?

shut cliff Aug 11, 2019, 6:03 PM

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Maybe this could be helpful: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.OnParticleCollision.html

thorny copper Aug 11, 2019, 6:18 PM

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Ah i managed to do it without, adding force to rigidbody. I'll just replace the cubes with an effect and oncollision instantiate the 'coins' at their position.(or maybe raycast)

📎 ani.gif

sinful tiger Aug 12, 2019, 9:56 PM

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Hey guys I'd like to use VFX graph in my project, but I'm using the standard 3D pipeline and I heard that VFX graph used to only work with HDRP, is it still the case ? On top of that, I'm pretty lost with the difference between standard/LWRP/HDRP, are these important as a beginner ? What's so special about them ?

neon jungle Aug 13, 2019, 2:58 AM

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Vfxgraph has legacy (standard) support

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You will need to change that in preferences

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I think standard is fine to start with, LWRP is a good choice too but still being developed

neon osprey Aug 13, 2019, 3:14 PM

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i need some help with particles

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im making a top down shooter

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and when i kill an enemy

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i want to instantiate a particle system

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destroy the enemy

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and have that particle system push particles in the direction they were hit and killed from

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and then slow down and stop

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like the enemy was split into parts and pushed a little

white tapir Aug 13, 2019, 4:22 PM

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That would be a circle emitter with some velocity over lifetime that decreases to zero

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Very small radius

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Oh, saw the direction thing

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You could do a cone and just orient your emitter accordingly

shut cliff Aug 13, 2019, 9:56 PM

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For slowing down particles to a stop, use Limit Velocity over Lifetime, set Speed 0 and Dampen to something like 0.2

opaque knoll Aug 14, 2019, 3:57 AM

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Ah is this the channel specifically for VFX graph or anything FX?

Anyways, i'm trying to make trails in vfx and can only find the Line Output, and can set "target position" for the line's end position. But is there a way to add "points" per line? And if there is, would that be set in Update?

astral willow Aug 18, 2019, 12:21 PM

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I have a question, its probably (hopefully) simple, but i want to create a ambient floating lit dust practical effect in my environment, i got almost everything working however i would like to have the partials randomly drift in different direction (they don't need to change directions, i just don't want all of them drifting in the same direction like i have now)
https://i.gyazo.com/b12c13cdb0f9248486160711d3eb9a3d.gif

Is there any way to have the partical pick a random direction to move upon its creation instead of all the same direction?

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https://gyazo.com/e2efb043df832bddb7f425fbc8a97fc7

Gyazo

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NVM just figured it out, if anyone is also wondering here is hot to do it

shut cliff Aug 18, 2019, 12:41 PM

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you could enable Noise to make them curl around a bit too

astral willow Aug 18, 2019, 1:26 PM

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good thinking!

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https://i.gyazo.com/a828109ef5509ffdc4a048febeffd66f.gif Turned out quite good imo 🙂

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(the floating boxes will be random junk, and the wavy tenticles will be loss wires (they are ment to be kind of unnatrual and creepy in the way they flow, adding a demonic/unnatrual feel to the ship, as the ships AI is the "monster" in this horror game)

shut cliff Aug 18, 2019, 4:56 PM

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Looks pretty good. Maybe I'd reduce the size of the dust a a little more unless it's very stylized

weak iron Aug 18, 2019, 7:00 PM

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after switching to LWRP and updating the materials I have some trouble getting the trails to fade out without them getting very dark beforehand

📎 unknown.png

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changing the emission mostly fixes it, but is there a way to do it, so that I wouldn't need to make a new material for every colour of the trail?

stiff glen Aug 19, 2019, 3:29 AM

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Hello, I have a question. I can't figure out what's different between Transform and Rigibody on Particle System's Emitter Velocity.
I have read the tooltip and Manual as below, but I still don't understand what does it mean.

#

📎 unknown.png

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tooltip

📎 unknown.png

stiff glen Aug 19, 2019, 5:32 AM

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I have another particle system's question. I use "pause" of culling mode. It doesn't pause, even though my particle is out of screen.

#

📎 unknown.png

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📎 unknown.png

cobalt scarab Aug 19, 2019, 5:39 AM

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@stiff glen You want to use Transform if your particle system isn't using physics system and vice versa.
Culling could be considering editor window and/or it's cubic boundaries. Turn away both game window camera and Editor to test.

stiff glen Aug 19, 2019, 5:49 AM

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@cobalt scarab Thanks, as for the second question. My camera view doesn't show the particle. But in Scene window, I can still see particle is runing.

cobalt scarab Aug 19, 2019, 6:13 AM

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You have to turn away scene camera as well

stiff glen Aug 19, 2019, 6:59 AM

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@cobalt scarab It works! Much appreciated!

royal dagger Aug 20, 2019, 5:08 AM

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What??? i just saw this plus sign in the particle system

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📎 unknown.png

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does this select a random mesh for each particle??

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well i just answered my question by trying, haha, that was it

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weird i never noticed that plus sign 🤔

fair iris Aug 21, 2019, 7:41 AM

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What would be the best type of base texture to create a water projectile?

weak iron Aug 21, 2019, 11:11 AM

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a texture used for water surfaces should be a decent starting point

opaque knoll Aug 22, 2019, 10:15 AM

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Hi guys. In VFX graph, is there a way to do a branching + switch operator?

Say i sample from texture. That pixel is RGBA.
Then i have a int parameter as my "enum" selector. Say 0 = R, 1 = G, 2 = B, 3 = A.
I want the sampling to use the pixel's channel accordingly. Is there a way to do this other than having 4 Branch operator?
Cheers

opaque knoll Aug 22, 2019, 10:59 AM

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NVM! It's a simple switch then. My node-based knowledge is a complete beginner...

mortal quiver Aug 22, 2019, 6:50 PM

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hey guys, i wanna start learning VFX do you have any good tutorial suggestions on where to get started? like any good youtubers or websites i should look into? would be a huge help Thanks

opaque knoll Aug 23, 2019, 2:59 AM

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Do u mean vfx in general or specifically vfx graph?

mortal quiver Aug 23, 2019, 3:16 AM

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in general im new to this area

cobalt scarab Aug 23, 2019, 3:23 AM

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@mortal quiver https://www.youtube.com/user/Brackeys Has a lot of useful tutorials including on visual effects stuff.

opaque knoll Aug 24, 2019, 10:50 AM

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Hi guys. Anyone using VFX graph?
I have a vfx that's supposed to have permanent(infinite) lifetime.
And at some point i wanna signal it via c# to change the lifetime to like 2 seconds (not an immediate destroy)
Anyone have idea how to arrange the graphs?

opaque knoll Aug 24, 2019, 11:08 AM

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NVM figured it.

📎 unknown.png

opaque knoll Aug 24, 2019, 1:39 PM

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In vfx graph u can't change the shader used?

prime dome Aug 24, 2019, 10:17 PM

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How come I can't see VFX in my game? My card supports up-to Shader Model 6.4 so I know it's not that it's not supported... I just don't see anything happen when I create a VFX Graph and drag it into the scene.

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nvm I see them now. They blended in with my dark background lol.

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RIP hahaha

prime dome Aug 24, 2019, 10:46 PM

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Well I do think this is a bug - all the particles are simply dark or don't show at all.

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Ah it's the Post process Exposure. For some reason it's overriding the particle color, so it simply appears dark. I guess that means I need to figure out how to add emission to particles to see them

prime dome Aug 26, 2019, 10:56 AM

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How to use sample curves to make the vfx particles follow the curve?

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To create something similar to a spiral

shut cliff Aug 26, 2019, 1:24 PM

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Not exactly sure what you're trying to make, but you can apply radial velocity in Velocity over Lifetime iirc.

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You might need to set the Shape to a circle or cone first

prime dome Aug 26, 2019, 1:58 PM

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I couldn't find radial velocity anywhere, just the angular one which chanes particle's angle

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I wanted to make a smoke that would flow in a spiral shape

shut cliff Aug 26, 2019, 2:38 PM

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what version are you on?

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@prime dome do either of these effects look like what you're after? https://puu.sh/E9IIM/e7da812c63.png

prime dome Aug 26, 2019, 2:43 PM

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The right one looks perfect

shut cliff Aug 26, 2019, 2:45 PM

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjedzg1cvl7qdjj/swirlycloud.unitypackage?dl=0

Dropbox

swirlycloud.unitypackage

Shared with Dropbox

#

The most important settings for this effect is in the Shape module. Set the Shape to Cone emitter, then the mode to Loop and Radius Thickness to 0.

📎 Unity_2019-08-26_16-45-56.png

prime dome Aug 26, 2019, 3:02 PM

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Thanks

opaque knoll Aug 26, 2019, 3:04 PM

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Whats the most free way to create Vector Field?
Vfx graph has the unity box example and i wanna make that

silk trellis Aug 27, 2019, 2:21 AM

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I've been trying to do the same lately @opaque knoll Tried the Density Volume texture but the 3d texture didn't work well with VFX Graph https://forum.unity.com/threads/feedback-wanted-visual-effect-graph.572110/#post-3824113 Will try Houdini & https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox next.

Unity Forum

Feedback Wanted: Visual Effect Graph

The Visual Effect graph is the next-generation entry point for visual effects in Unity. It is targeting modern...

GitHub

Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox

Additional tools for Visual Effect Artists. Contribute to Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Does anyone know the best way to affect only some particles.. Like every n + x particle?

midnight remnant Aug 27, 2019, 2:25 AM

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Anyone had any success using LWRP VFX graph? A significant amount of the nodes just throw errors in the console for me. I was wondering if anyone had any experience

Using Latest version of unity 2019.2
Latest version of shader graph (via package manager)
Latest version of vfx graph (via package manager)

silk trellis Aug 27, 2019, 2:26 AM

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What kind of errors?

midnight remnant Aug 27, 2019, 2:26 AM

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ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: key
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[TKey,TValue].FindEntry (TKey key) (at <ad04dee02e7e4a85a1299c7ee81c79f6>:0)
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[TKey,TValue].TryGetValue (TKey key, TValue& value) (at <ad04dee02e7e4a85a1299c7ee81c79f6>:0)
UnityEditor.VFX.UI.VFXCopyPasteCommon.GetFields (System.Type type) (at Library/PackageCache/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@6.9.1-preview/Editor/GraphView/Views/VFXCopyPasteCommon.cs:177)```
When trying to add any of the systems

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It appears the package is configured wrong? maybe? I just setup an empty project with LWRP template and installed latest versions of LWRP and VFX graph

silk trellis Aug 27, 2019, 2:33 AM

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Never ran into that before. My current project uses HDRP on Unity 2019.1.12 but lemme try to reproduce that.

last drift Aug 27, 2019, 3:08 AM

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i didnt see it in the patch notes, does VFX Graph have lit particle support for URP (LWRP) yet, or at the very least still on track for 2019.3?

midnight remnant Aug 27, 2019, 3:11 AM

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I haven't been able to find any mention of Lit particle support for LWRP/URP. Maybe they will announce it at Unite Copenhagen

last drift Aug 27, 2019, 3:11 AM

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📎 unknown.png

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this is what the roadmap from GDC says

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but i dont think thats still the case

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hopefully more news at Unite Copenhagen like you said

midnight remnant Aug 27, 2019, 3:24 AM

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Oh wow didn't realize that. I wonder what they mean by compute only

opaque knoll Aug 27, 2019, 3:42 AM

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@silk trellis
Modulo the particleId? Branch depending if id > n+x?

Houdini is not free, right?

@midnight remnant
I got LWRP working with vfxgraph. Did you change the path in ProjectSettings/VFX from /HDRP to /LWRP ?

midnight remnant Aug 27, 2019, 3:59 AM

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Yes @opaque knoll Can you create a system in the vfx graph

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📎 unknown.png

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I can get some extremely basic particles working but not much above that

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Tried with 2019.2.2f1 Shader graph 6.9/vfx graph 6.9

opaque knoll Aug 27, 2019, 4:04 AM

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Will try when im on my comp

last drift Aug 27, 2019, 4:05 AM

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compute only means it only works on devices that support compute shaders (Metal, OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenGL 4.3, DX11, Vulkan, Consoles)

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they said they would add a CPU fallback down the road but not high on the priority list

opaque knoll Aug 27, 2019, 4:06 AM

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@silk trellis
I gave up with making vector field, it seems..
Gonna make somewhat similar effect with point cache.
So point cache is still a thing right? I read somewhere that in an update, you dont need it anymore?

silk trellis Aug 27, 2019, 4:08 AM

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@opaque knoll Yep actually just realized to mod it after asking .. while downloading Houdini apprentice which seems to be free and don't need a license either? Will check in a bit.

#

In the Unity vfx samples, they were using a point cache to initialize

opaque knoll Aug 27, 2019, 4:12 AM

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(Forgot i didnt finish my sentence)
Unity said they'll add tools to make .VF from within Unity, so i'll just wait for that.
There's point cache baker already built in that i'm gonna try soon.
There's also https://github.com/keijiro/Pcx
, but maybe this is outdated and was made before the built in tool was there
And all this wouldn't be relevant if the update note i read somewhere saying point cache is not the way to go anymore and you can directly use custom mesh, but i still can't find it O_o

GitHub

keijiro/Pcx

Point cloud importer & renderer for Unity. Contribute to keijiro/Pcx development by creating an account on GitHub.

#

I wanna try to use the point cache, but use it as a "target position" instead. And add force towards the point position. This should work similar to having .vf like the unity logo example

neon jungle Aug 27, 2019, 4:50 PM

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The point cache are just textures fed into vfx graph along with number of active points and texture dims

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So any information you can get into a texture or render texture can be fed into vfxgraph

dull obsidian Aug 27, 2019, 5:23 PM

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@midnight remnant compute only means that VFX graph will only be supported on devices/platforms that support GPU compute shaders

lucid tide Aug 27, 2019, 5:26 PM

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^ Correct

dull obsidian Aug 27, 2019, 5:26 PM

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in other words there's no backwards compatibility / CPU fallback for older devices nor is it on the roadmap for the near future anyway

#

also for what it's worth, LWRP was recently renamed URP / universal render pipeline and certain silly limitations were lifted like the 4 lights per object maximum... anyway going forward we'll see VFX graph support for URP / universal render pipeline not lightweight just so you don't go looking for old info

lucid tide Aug 27, 2019, 5:32 PM

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^ also correct

last drift Aug 28, 2019, 6:04 PM

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https://forum.unity.com/threads/lwrp-vfx-graph-support.598675/#post-4004485 according to this, CPU fallback was at least planned at one point

Unity Forum

LWRP VFX graph support

I googled around, and looked all over this forum, and I can't seem to find any definitive answer, currently I'm developing a vr project which prefers...

noble moth Aug 28, 2019, 7:23 PM

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Is there an ifdef to check for Visual Effects Graph in a project?

dull obsidian Aug 28, 2019, 9:55 PM

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@last drift interesting. There is also a project to implement the entirety of Vulkan in CPU software so ostensibly that could be a shoe-in later on just to handle compute with some sort of interop

#

https://salsa.debian.org/Kazan-team/kazan

GitLab

Kazan / kazan

Work-in-progress software-rendering Vulkan implementation

#

@noble moth not sure but worse case scenario i'm sure there is a way to check some json for vfx graph or any package in the installed packages

warped wraith Aug 29, 2019, 3:10 PM

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hello

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im new here

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does somebody use blender 3d for vfx

dull obsidian Aug 29, 2019, 8:21 PM

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@warped wraith I personally use Houdini but I've been meaning to check out Blender again, the latest releases look really nice

opaque knoll Aug 30, 2019, 3:44 AM

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Is there a way to set custom attribute per particle other than a float?

warped wraith Aug 30, 2019, 5:51 AM

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i think should check houdini

dull obsidian Aug 30, 2019, 11:47 AM

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@opaque knoll i havent tried it but yes you can apparently. this example shows a boolean custom attribute.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/feedback-wanted-visual-effect-graph.572110/page-11#post-4539481

📎 image0.png

Unity Forum

Feedback Wanted: Visual Effect Graph

Indeed, exposure weight is missing, seems broken. Using any kind of exposure in your project makes particles invisible with additive or black with...

forest wasp Aug 30, 2019, 9:13 PM

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anyone know why it's doing this every time I bake point cache. I am using unity point cache baker

📎 unknown.png

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it happens to every mesh I bake for some reason

opaque knoll Aug 30, 2019, 10:01 PM

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Hmm, i still dont know how to make CanSpawn anywhere. In the blackboard?

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Yesss got it! Create CustomAttribute, then click it, then edit it in inspector. Who would've guessed, but it works nicely!
@landon.vfx#0001 Thx! I've actually seen that post but was still skeptical for some reason

tame turtle Aug 31, 2019, 3:57 AM

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These vfx graph particles color is red but they appear black in a lit scene. Any ideas why? I'm using Quad Output so lighting shouldn't matter right?

📎 2019-08-30_22-56-06.mp4

#

📎 unknown.png

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Looks like it has something to do with hdrp exposure. Kinda sucks that (from what I understand) you need crazy exposure settings to compensate for the really bright lights in hdrp but vfx graph, which only works with hdrp, doesn't play well with that

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If anyone knows a good solution to this I'd love to hear it!

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Looks like ticking "Using Exposure Weight" in the inspector for the output context takes care of the exposure issues!

earnest bridge Aug 31, 2019, 5:36 PM

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Does anyone know how to make a particl effect essentially orbit all particles around a point at a given radius?

#

Im trying to essentially make a sphere of fire at a constant radius.

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Im using LWRP unity 2019.2 btw

foggy phoenix Sep 1, 2019, 2:55 AM

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@earnest bridge Usually I will use a small script to rotate the transform of the particle system. Spawn the particles on a spherical emitter locally with no velocity. There are lots of other ways to do it depending on the look you are going for.

earnest bridge Sep 1, 2019, 3:15 AM

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@foggy phoenix thanks

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 1:53 PM

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Hello, I'm trying to create the effect of flaming skull, but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I picked fireball thrower effect from Unity particles pack, slightly modified it, but I can't make it work as intended, it's acting weird. In editor during simulation it looks okay, but when I start the game, it looks right only at the beginning, before I start moving the skull around

📎 unknown.png

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After I moving the skull, flame direction suddenly starting to increasing in Y axis

📎 unknown.png

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I also tried to create separate particle for creating the trail, but it's acting the same

📎 unknown.png

#

📎 unknown.png

#

📎 unknown.png

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Why is this happening? This is my params

📎 unknown.png

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Also I don't understand how to make the flames to not make such long trails, I played with different values but they always left such long trails, it has to do something with particles lifetime but no matter what I pick it always remain the same

📎 unknown.png

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:01 PM

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You reduced your simulation speed to 0.5, and with particle lifetime set to 0.5, the particles will linger for a whole second

#

I would keep Simulation Speed at 1.0 and then change the Lifetime to a value you think is proper

#

somewhere around 0.3 often looks nice for fire trails

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:06 PM

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Even with 0.3 and 1.0 it's still for some reasons keep increasing in Y axis

📎 unknown.png

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:06 PM

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they move by themselves in one direction?

#

Oh. Set Start Speed to 0. It's near the top

#

Some more tips: If you want them to spread around a bit more, you could set the Shape to be a sphere. You might be using a cone or box shape

#

if you want the trail to be a bit less random when it's moving, you can set the particle system to emit particles over a distance instead of over time (Under the Emission tab)

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:12 PM

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📎 unknown.png

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Still increasing

📎 unknown.png

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I need it to remain constant after moving

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:14 PM

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Oh. You could untick Velocity over Lifetime or change the values there. It has some forces pushing it that direction

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:17 PM

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Increasing even with unticked Velocity

📎 unknown.png

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:26 PM

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So the skull isn't moving? It's not attached to a rigidbody object in free fall or anything?

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:28 PM

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Shit, you right, there was rigidbody on the skull, removed it and now it looks okay so far

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:28 PM

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😄

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:31 PM

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Thanks, but there is still problem with trail

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It's too long

📎 unknown.png

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I need it something around here

📎 unknown.png

shut cliff Sep 1, 2019, 2:32 PM

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You'd have to experiment with the Start Lifetime again

#

if you want to have a shorter trail you simply reduce the lifetime

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somewhere between 0.05 to 0.2

abstract bramble Sep 1, 2019, 2:41 PM

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thanks, it was really helpful!

#

I only need to figure out now how to add glow effect

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And why skull looks like there is no material on it

wary jungle Sep 1, 2019, 5:48 PM

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hi everyone

silk trellis Sep 2, 2019, 3:42 AM

#

Will VFX Graph support Conform to Skinned Mesh Renderers? Found a package but it doesn't work well with animated meshes https://unitylist.com/p/k6u/Mesh-To-SDF

Mesh To SDF

Convert a mesh to an SDF for the Visual Effect Graph (Unity) in realtime

dull obsidian Sep 2, 2019, 4:52 AM

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@silk trellis i got aman tiwari's Mesh To SDF working with a Leap Motion skinned mesh hand though it was pretty finicky to line up the scale and offset

#

📎 image0.jpg

#

from what i understand VFX graph (by design) won't support any direct interaction with arbitrary meshes for performance reason, not without some sort of conversion to a 3d texture or buffer anyway... i think they plan to add some features like Mesh To SDF into VFX graph officially at some point

abstract bramble Sep 2, 2019, 8:47 AM

#

Can someone explain me why I can't add multiple sprites to my particle effect? When I'm trying to add multiple sprites, it shows this warning

📎 unknown.png

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I tried to put my sprites on a single image, but now I can't add it because Unity doesn't recognize it as game object

📎 unknown.png

pine ridge Sep 2, 2019, 2:51 PM

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A Sprite isn't a gameobject

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"Object" in the sprites field of the particle system refers to the overarching Object class, almost everything is an Object

opaque knoll Sep 2, 2019, 8:26 PM

#

So i found these circle options, but there is no Sequential ArcCircle, it seems...

📎 unknown.png

#

Is there a place to suggest nodes?

dull obsidian Sep 2, 2019, 8:53 PM

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@opaque knoll here I suppose. I and many other would also like to see the ability to create custom nodes on the fly via the graph editor, even something like (create a new custom node based off this node) when you just need to add functionality to something that's mostly there like this. Technically you can create custom nodes now it's just a fairly involved process working within a largely undocumented framework (currently)

#

https://forum.unity.com/threads/feedback-wanted-visual-effect-graph.572110/

Unity Forum

Feedback Wanted: Visual Effect Graph

The Visual Effect graph is the next-generation entry point for visual effects in Unity. It is targeting modern...

opaque knoll Sep 2, 2019, 9:57 PM

#

Thanks!

Are Branch in vfx graph very bad in terms of performance?
I wanted to do some Compare, hoping the result is 1/0 for true/false, so i can directly connect that to multiply. But it's not...

dull obsidian Sep 2, 2019, 10:51 PM

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@opaque knoll avoid branching if possible and instead say, only multiply based on attribute / uniform / sampler instead --but if you must branch know that newer, more modern GPU architectures will generally have better performance optimisations for branching than older GPUs.

#

still i don't believe any GPUs have branch predictors by design, they have just gotten just a bit better at hiding latency from having to execute both the if and else branches
(when the threads within the same warp/thread group don't all match just the if or the else branch.)

silk trellis Sep 3, 2019, 12:28 AM

#

@dull obsidian been struggling with figuring out the scaling, this is at half scale. Any idea on how to keep it at 1 but increase the bounds for the SDF? The resolution didn't seem to do it.

📎 SDF_Skinner_2.gif

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 12:29 AM

#

@silk trellis looking pretty cool so far, though!

silk trellis Sep 3, 2019, 12:30 AM

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Thanks!

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 12:32 AM

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I don't recall exactly it was something where i would adjust scale on a param somewhere and everytime i did that i had to adjust some offset params (like X and Z) of the meshToSDF to get the mesh back in the bounds of the SDF texture

silk trellis Sep 3, 2019, 12:32 AM

#

Yep it's exactly that, but pretty new to SDF so was wondering if there's a way to increase SDF texture bounds?

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 12:33 AM

#

I'm sure there's a way to do it more programatically respecting the world space bounds of the VFX graph object or something but it maybe require modification of Aman's MeshToSDF

#

Could also open an issue on their github repo and ask about it

#

For now it's just a bit time consuming / clunky

#

I might get around to modifying myself but can't make any promises

silk trellis Sep 3, 2019, 12:35 AM

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All good, I'll give them a nudge thanks!

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 12:37 AM

#

Right now I'm actually extending @knotty lily's texture3D preview to work with real-time render textures which should complement this component among others

#

So you can see the entire volume you're working with at a glance not just a slice

silk trellis Sep 3, 2019, 12:39 AM

#

Nice!

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 12:39 AM

#

It's working but it flickers and has some error about not cleaning up previewEditorWindow or something properly

#

Another thing that I believe should be on the roadmap to just be built into Unity Editor @steel valve ? ( simple raymarched texture3d + 3d rendertexture preview )

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 3:33 AM

#

So im using 3 SequentialCircle for this.
1 for BOTH sides of the loop circle(just mul/negate the center/up per pId), and since i need to know the start and end of the straight "bridge", i need 2 for that.
There's a Branch whether to use the arc-ing circle, or the bridge, based on which pId, etc.
I honestly dont like the complexity of the nodes (im new to node stuff). For prameters, there's OffsetStart for the gap before arc starts on the red side, and OffsetBridge for when it should follow the lerp straight in the blue side
I still need to adjust the distribution as seen in the arc or the bridge is uneven.
But before i do that, anyone wanna suggest how they'd tackle this?
Should i just use pointCache? But the sequential index really helps..

📎 unknown.png

forest wasp Sep 3, 2019, 1:27 PM

#

does anyone knows how to convert blender's .pc2 to unity .pcache?

#

I'm trying to bake it using blender instead of unity because it is giving me a weird bug

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

I'm trying to make 1 particle to move in circle like here - https://twitter.com/vladimirneykov/status/971786728125140992 But I don't know how to properly use orbital and radial velocity

Vlad (@VladimirNeykov)

Orbital/Radial velocity for particles coming up in #unity3d 2018.1. https://t.co/ENMkUCSsZc

Retweets

225

Likes

1102

▶ Play video

#

I found only this tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3vFCpZ-Ims And it works, but it uses linear velocity

YouTube

Rohnit Saigal

Unity3D #2017 - How to make particles move in circle

Unity 3D - Tutorial This simple tutorial will show you how to make particles move in a circular motion without any code.

▶ Play video

#

Also, how can I force particle to exist infinite time? It seems to respawn at every loop and destroy the trail I made

#

I tried to select bursts with infinite loop, but it still respawning

#

📎 chtTSX6lQZ.gif

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 1:47 PM

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you can type Infinite on the lifetime

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 1:47 PM

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start lifetime?

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 1:47 PM

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yes

#

loop shouldn't destroy existing particle

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 1:48 PM

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you mean word Infinite? it accepts only numbers

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 1:48 PM

#

yes just try

#

infinite or infinity or inf, i forgot

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 1:49 PM

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inf, right

#

but making it infinite suddenly change the direction...

#

now it just fly straight

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 1:50 PM

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You're using the radial orbital etc?

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Because they use lifetime to sample the curve to apply the curve

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 1:51 PM

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oh yes, i was using linear, but i switched to orbit and it finally works

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thanks!

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but there is a new problem, trail now doesn't fade out

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📎 unknown.png

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 1:54 PM

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Try Color over Trail?

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Because again, lifetime is infinite

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 2:00 PM

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it still doesn't match the speed of the particle for some reason

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📎 df1CbY6ter.gif

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📎 unknown.png

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 2:12 PM

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Can you try to not make it circular but with some variations so you can see the complete trail instead of it overlapping

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But yeah i was wondering how trails would behave with INF lifetime too..

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https://answers.unity.com/questions/42052/creating-infinite-particles-with-trails.html
Maybe don't use trail on the main PS. Try with sub emitter, emit over speed, and in that sub particle, use trail with ribbon. And in that child sub emitter, choose your own lifetime

Creating infinite particles with trails. - Unity Answers

Unity is the ultimate game development platform. Use Unity to build high-quality 3D and 2D games, deploy them across mobile, desktop, VR/AR, consoles or the Web, and connect with loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.

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Keep a lookout for sub emitter, emit over speed has to use World space simulation for it to work

abstract bramble Sep 3, 2019, 2:34 PM

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Do I understand it right that sub emitter is just another particle system that spawn on birth and other events?

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I tried to create another particle system with trail and add it as subemitter, but it doesn't work

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📎 unknown.png

opaque knoll Sep 3, 2019, 4:33 PM

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Change the simulation space to World, and the child's emission to Rate over distance

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 6:41 PM

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@forest wasp The only DCC software currently supported for .pcache and .vf export is Houdini, though I imagine Blender and others will be added eventually: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox

GitHub

Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox

Additional tools for Visual Effect Artists. Contribute to Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox development by creating an account on GitHub.

#

According to this readme, you can use Houdini 17 Apprentice (the free version) https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox/tree/master/DCC-Tools~/Houdini

GitHub

Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox

Additional tools for Visual Effect Artists. Contribute to Unity-Technologies/VFXToolbox development by creating an account on GitHub.

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So you could either create your point cache directly in Houdini or if you need Blender in the pipeline right now you only need to figure out a suitable interchange format from Blender -> Houdini to export the .pcache

forest wasp Sep 3, 2019, 6:44 PM

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ahh I see, thank you!

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I guess now is a good time to learn houdini

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I also need it to create vector field so I might as well learn it

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 6:48 PM

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yeah Houdini has been and still is on the forefront of VFX content creation.. though Blender is catching up in several ways that's a recent thing and the industry adoption isn't yet there with the same force

dull obsidian Sep 3, 2019, 7:05 PM

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@opaque knoll what is the end goal / result supposed to look like? particles emitted from a local origin that follow a path along that moebius like shape in a loop you have there?

silver marten Sep 3, 2019, 11:20 PM

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hey gang, has anyone here successfully procedurally generated point cache as an input for vfx graph?

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 12:14 AM

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@silver marten yes

silk trellis Sep 4, 2019, 12:29 AM

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I imagine you'd just need to change the values in the .pcache file ?

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 12:29 AM

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but not me, actually.. i'm doing everything in engine aside from some obj import for lit meshes

silk trellis Sep 4, 2019, 12:30 AM

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I just created one right now copying the format of pcache imported by the Point Cloud Bake tool and changed the values by script and it works

silver marten Sep 4, 2019, 12:37 AM

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@dull obsidian sorry, what do you mean by that second statement? To be clear, i am talking about generating pcache inside the engine

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@silk trellis cool, sounds like a good starting ground, will try to see if i can recreate what the baking tool produced, programmatically

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 12:43 AM

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@silver marten i haven't used pcache files yet personally but i know that are people here that have, and i've read documentation and watched talks about the whole process.

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but I see why what i said was confusing, sorry I forgot that you can generate pcache files in Unity / in engine not just export from Houdini.

silk trellis Sep 4, 2019, 12:48 AM

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@silver marten

format ascii 1.0
comment Exported with PCache.cs
elements 1
property float position.x
property float position.y
property float position.z
end_header
0 0 0```

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Elements 1 = total point count
then after the header are all the positions of xyz

silver marten Sep 4, 2019, 12:50 AM

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@dull obsidian ah gotchya, i think i see what you are saying

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@silk trellis thats awesome, very helpful

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hopefully the will increase the flexibility of this so you can just pass in a more general data structure instead of having to create a pcache file

pastel trout Sep 4, 2019, 1:00 AM

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i'm trying to get VFX particles writing to the camera's depth texture, but not having any success

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in the file VFXParticlePoints.template it has the line "${VFXInclude("Shaders/ParticlePoints/PassDepth.template"),USE_OPAQUE_PARTICLE}"

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but it doesn't seem to work

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i assume USE_OPAQUE_PARTICLE is set from the Blend Mode in the Point Output node of the VFX graph, but it doesn't seem to be working

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does anyone else have this issue? or am i crazy (mostly asking as a sanity check)

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it may not be implemented yet, or something is wonky on my end

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 1:42 AM

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@dull obsidian the picture in the back is the reference logo. I just need to figure out the path and index them like so(either red-blue-red or red-red say, as 0-1)
I got it already tho, and from there (hopefully) i can use it for various vfx like just single burst permanent particles, or have it move along the path, or use as force target, etc.
But the nodes i ended having, man, is a big spider web..
Maybe make single layer point cache, probly with unity's builtin or perhaps i gotta learn houdini. I just cant be bothered, assuming unity will have their own (better) pcache generation. I especially need to control the indexing

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 1:47 AM

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@opaque knoll honestly for a logo i would just generate an sdf texture / volume. the same as the built in utah teapot and unity cube logo in their vfx graph samples

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 1:48 AM

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https://forum.unity.com/threads/visual-effect-graph-spawn-particles-from-skinned-mesh-surface.651748/
Julien mentioned that too on 2nd post. But 19.3 is already out and i still cant find more info about mesh point spawner

Unity Forum

[Visual Effect Graph] Spawn particles from skinned mesh surface

Hi,

I'm playing around with the VFX graph samples, and while the point cache approach is really nice for static meshes, I can't find a way to spawn...

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How do u generate volume? And can u control the indexing for volume or .vf?

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 2:41 AM

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@opaque knoll similar to point caches, you can either generate volumes with Houdini and export them as .vf files to import to Unity, or you can generate them procedurally within Unity as a 3D texture using a shader or C#

neon jungle Sep 4, 2019, 5:57 AM

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Just render a skinned mesh using UV as xy clips pace position and write the world position. Fast animated point cache 👍

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Can also write to slices of a render texture array for storing tangent & normal w/ sv_RenderTargetArrayIndex or use multirendertexture targets

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 6:07 AM

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@opaque knoll in vfx graph volumes are typically used for particle forces, attract / adhere / advect / direct, etc i guess hypothetically you could have some sort of zone indexing stored in a volume / 3D texture as an attribute map if you really needed it ...but if you just want to emit / spawn particles then use point cache

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 1:37 PM

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I think i'll make a pointcache(?) manually by code, because the indexing is very important. As in, it's a 2D texture, containing RGB as position (and A as color index to another texture but i dont need it in this case). This is point cache, in concept, right? But its called something else..

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 5:06 PM

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@opaque knoll you may be able to use attribute maps for at least part of it? those can be 2D or 3D textures and you can sample them based on position or other attributes / coordinates.

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I wouldn't use a point cache for anything beyond setting the initial particle spawn/emit positions and attributes

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 6:41 PM

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Yess attribute maps, that's it.
This is kinda unrelated to vfx, but now i'm figuring out some editor code to generate that infinity logo (with the offset, bridge etc) as path, and distribute even points along that path as array then make a texture asset from that array.
Should be easier than doing all this in node.. ugh the spider web..
But.. anyone know a better way to do this? I'll be doing a lot of "convert a line art/nurbs to even distributed point array".
This infinity symbol as an example, maybe there's nurbs in blender that some part can be weighted bezier, then linear straight for the bridge, and weighted bezier again. Modifier to generate mesh poly along that nurb, but the poly needs to be a single vertex all along the path. Or if i can import the nurb itself to Unity.
Or if there's a Unity asset to make such nurb and can also even distribute it along path?

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 6:59 PM

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@opaque knoll nurbs can be exported in an fbx but i don't think unity or most any real-time engine will import them.

#

@opaque knoll sounds like this might be a bit of a wandering X Y problem to be honest.

#

happens to all of us, regardless of experience or intelligence

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 7:09 PM

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I think i got how to do it, but, what's a wandering X Y problem?

dull obsidian Sep 4, 2019, 7:10 PM

#

"situations in which the real issue, X, of the person asking for help is obscured, because instead of asking directly about issue X, they ask how to solve a secondary issue, Y, which they believe will allow them to resolve issue X. However, resolving issue Y often does not resolve issue X, or is a poor way to resolve it, and the obscuring of the real issue and the introduction of the potentially strange secondary issue can lead to the person trying to help having unnecessary difficulties in communication and offering poor solutions."

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no fault, blame, just something to be aware of as a possibility. i find myself asking questions like this to my colleagues all the time

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especially when i feel like i'm getting close to a solution down a particular rabbit hole

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 7:25 PM

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Hmm yeah ok. I'm gonna base the path making with this https://github.com/SebLague/Path-Creator, to in the end make the edit-time attribute map texture. The infinity logo is just what i'm working on for a friend, since i'll be working with artists that will provide me with their art, i can ask in lineart form.
And since i need to use their line art (so, volumes/pcache/.vf are not needed), im figuring out (and making a tool) to automate the process.
I'm fairly certain i dont need pcache/volumes since these are mostly logos, and im confident i can make more attribute maps as needed for extra definitions of the line

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Thx for the description. I think learning Houdini n stuff to get the pcache/.vf is the issue Y i almost end up doing. Although it's a great tool that i should learn anyways, indexing is just that much more important and the points are only gonna be around 30 anyways

silver marten Sep 4, 2019, 9:01 PM

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in case anyone is looking, this script is a great starting ground if you just want to bake some procedural points to a 2dTexture (to set Pos from attr map) https://github.com/keijiro/Pcx/blob/master/Assets/Pcx/Runtime/BakedPointCloud.cs

GitHub

keijiro/Pcx

Point cloud importer & renderer for Unity. Contribute to keijiro/Pcx development by creating an account on GitHub.

#

@opaque knoll I think you may have been asking about this earlier?

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No need to make a pcache or anything like that

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 9:13 PM

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Hey thanks. Yeah my use case is for splines/line art, i guess i didn't emphasize that enough in the beginning.
That code's good, but have you seen it? I just don't understand the i2 132049. Mersenne prime? What's that and what's it doing here O_o

silver marten Sep 4, 2019, 9:17 PM

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@opaque knoll Im not exactly sure but it must be related to packing the texture correctly with a proper index. Those i values are used in the initial check to come up with the index

 var i = i1 < _pointCount ? i1 : (int)(i2 % _pointCount);
 var p = positions[i];

#

someone else probably has a better explanation

opaque knoll Sep 4, 2019, 9:25 PM

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Haha yeah. i2 at any point in the loop would equal that 132049 * i1
And i1 > _pointCount only happens on the last index in case the result of squared width equals +1 than total _pointCount due to the Ceil..
Confusing!

dull obsidian Sep 5, 2019, 5:51 AM

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lol back to packing data into textures. classic. whatever works for now i guess until vfx graph has more flexibility in terms of data structures. e.g. compute buffers / StructuredBuffer

#

at a certain point comes the question of extending or forking vfx graph into a compute shader graph you can use for virtually whatever / however you want, with integration to the forthcoming visual scripting graph.

opaque knoll Sep 5, 2019, 6:06 AM

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Its fine tho. For this case it's just static data.

For another use, i got compute shader thingy taken from keijiro's Lasp for his audio bands into renderTexture, and from there can be used for other animated data into RT for VFX. If that's what you mean, i'm pretty new on this area

dull obsidian Sep 5, 2019, 6:37 AM

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@opaque knoll yeah, it's fine and in some cases ideal if your data is image like anyway, but not always

#

10+ years ago it was basically the only way for storing data in large buffers for GPU programming

but say you wanted to create your own data structure and perform work on the gpu, data defining say, a bezier curve with all sort of extra attributes about how to render them requiring 5 float3s, 1 float4, 2 halfs, and 2 integers, packing that data structure into a several textures, each a fixed grid array of exclusively float4 / vec4 pixels turns into a messy abstraction to read / write your data.

right now you can do that you'd just need to write all your own compute shaders directly, and implement / emulate vfx graph functionality as needed on your own, but i think there are many use cases for a middle ground.

opaque knoll Sep 5, 2019, 11:54 AM

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I'm pretty new to vfx graph, like 1 week old. I guess what i'm doing now is finding the new tricks n techniques. Compute shaders, i dont know enough of the many ways it can be used.

Oh btw, Lit Mesh Output is broken (in LWRP) ?

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Lit Anything Output actually..

elfin pilot Sep 5, 2019, 7:02 PM

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@dull obsidian We are aware that point cache data layout is not ideal now. We plan to add a more convenient way to pass data to VFX Graph using buffer and struct description

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@opaque knoll Are you sure your LWRP and VFX Graph package are in sync (the exact same version) ?

dull obsidian Sep 5, 2019, 7:05 PM

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Thanks @elfin pilot. I'm glad it's on the roadmap.

elfin pilot Sep 5, 2019, 7:06 PM

#

For basic point cache baking (static mesh surface or masked texture), we have built in tools to do that within Unity. We will add more options as the development advances. We have in our roadmap a mesh volume baker and a SDF baker for instance.

dull obsidian Sep 5, 2019, 7:36 PM

#

Cool, great to hear. And thanks for your work in general. Visual Effect Graph has so much potential and is already really coming together -- It's a major deciding factor when evaluating real-time VFX workflows available today.

#

@elfin pilot @opaque knoll last I checked VFX Graph (currently) only supports Unlit Output types on URP / LWRP, unless Lit Output was just added recently?

opaque knoll Sep 5, 2019, 8:39 PM

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Yeah, i can only find those files in the /HDRP folder, but not in LWRP.
I tried just simply copying them into the LWRP folder and it's not importing properly (meta file not generated)
Tried re/install many time and now decided i'll just use HDRP

Oh and GPU Event "Always" only works sometimes. Now even restarting Unity doesnt work.
I have
Arocks (GPUEvent Always) => Bfire (GPUEvent OnDeath) => Csmoke

When i set Bfire's lifetime to 0 or minus, Csmoke spawns instantly. But lifetime anything > 0 doesn't work. Also, editor starts being sluggish. Even after restart.
Now gonna restart the laptop see what happens

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Nevermind. They're actually going at infinite speed because for some reason my Set Mass is on 0.
I dont think Set Mass and Lifetime's min value should be able to be 0 or less?

dull obsidian Sep 5, 2019, 9:21 PM

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@opaque knoll there are a lot of parameters that accept 0 or negative values that conventionally wouldn't ever need to... Although, there is a concept of negative mass + energy in theoretical physics.. could be used as a repel force in an N body simulation..

#

Maybe I'm giving the benefit of the doubt, though? --it may just be a minor oversight while VFX graph is still in preview.

silver marten Sep 5, 2019, 9:51 PM

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2019.3.0b1 the vfx graph on this release loves to crash my mac laptop lol

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to be fair its not the strongest + its a beta release

opaque knoll Sep 6, 2019, 6:15 AM

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Maybe make min 0.01 or smthing, with a checkmark "isNegativeMass". Because 0 would simply make them disappear to the edge of the uni(ty) verse

opaque knoll Sep 6, 2019, 6:52 AM

#

Can vfx component store and update data? Not per particle.
Like a merry go round, all particles move in a circle and the vfx keeps the total rotation so far. This rotation can sometimes stop and start, and go slower/faster too.
So exposed parameters only feed in the speed, but the vfx component keeps the resulting and maintain its own updating?

opaque knoll Sep 6, 2019, 9:38 AM

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Actually that can be handled in CPU updating an exposed parameter. Not a big deal

And also wanna confirm. If i'm making a fire FX, they can't emit light like the ParticleSystem counterpart, right?
So to fake it, im gonna also use classic PS, not rendered but with Light module, moving somewhat close to how the VFX particles

dull obsidian Sep 6, 2019, 9:00 PM

#

@opaque knoll support for cpu readback is on the roadmap anyway https://forum.unity.com/threads/vfx-graph-accessing-particles-data-in-scripts.651709/

Unity Forum

[VFX Graph] Accessing particles data in Scripts

Hey there,
I'm trying to use the VFX graph to filter out and modify input particles, so I can access a reduced amount of the initial particles in...

#

Then you could read back the attributes of a handful of particles and instantiate lights on their positions

#

But yes confirmed that's not built into VFX graph right now. And your interim solution sounds reasonable.

opaque knoll Sep 6, 2019, 9:18 PM

#

Good to hear you approved =D
And i hope cpu readback is fast enough tho. And instantiating lights is better than a single light used by the Light module in classic PS?
My VFX fire particles will be a lot, but i'll be spawning at most 1 PS(with Light module) particles in 32 positions/frame, at most 1sec lifetime. So basically my fire's shape is defined by 32 spawn points
Even with the cpu readback, wouldn't using PS's Light module be better than instantiating lights? Unless that's what you actually meant

dull obsidian Sep 6, 2019, 10:20 PM

#

@opaque knoll performance wise I imagine it's the same thing... the particle system light module just makes set up easier vs scripting light creation or instantiation based on particle attributes on your own

#

either way, real-time lights are extremely costly in forward rendering, --better to use deferred rendering whenever doing this sort of thing with a bunch of lights spawning and flying around

#

Unity could potentially add some sort of "light module" to VFX graph output that integrates directly with deferred rendering and skips CPU readback altogether --It would be more performant by keeping it all on the GPU that way.

#

the trade-off being those GPU only "lights" would be invisible to any C# methods on the CPU that might try to find or access them

opaque knoll Sep 7, 2019, 2:54 AM

#

That's fine if cpu can't access them yeah. Just need the CPU to send what it wants and it's purely for rendering results. Yeah that'll be great.
But for now i just need to fake it, and the little lights shouldnt have too big of a range each.
There'll be only 1 "far" light that'd be from the center of the fire body

#

I wonder if these "GPU side" can even define a new "light point" like that (i'm so new to GPU stuff)
I thought shaders n stuff only handles how to deal with lights, or at least re-define how it reacts to light.
Because, well, if i can somehow define a light point in say a shader, then all other shaded objects will need to take them into account too

dull obsidian Sep 7, 2019, 11:37 PM

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@opaque knoll yeah that's correct that a conventional render pipeline wouldn't let you do this but the point of the scriptable render pipelines is to allow for advanced features and optimisations like this.

#

compute shaders aren't really shaders per se either they are actually compute kernels... just general purpose compute on the GPU.

wary jungle Sep 8, 2019, 4:35 PM

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Hi - how do you into vector fields?

#

you have to generate .vf files for vfx graph?

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 12:14 AM

#

@wary jungle .vf files are just a format to store a Texture3D so you can import from other DCC applications.

#

You can use any Texture3D in Unity to hold vector field data to use in VFX graph, even a real-time RenderTexture.

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 11:01 AM

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crash coursing through it now, thanks landon

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 12:35 PM

#

all roads lead to demo scene

brave wadi Sep 9, 2019, 6:30 PM

#

Hey guys! Looking for Thomas Iché, anyone knows his tag?

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nvm, found him! 🙂

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 7:05 PM

#

crashed so hard twice today..pretty incredible

#

hmm

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 7:52 PM

#

pretty interesting..4 crashes without ability to relaunch the project so far. deleting library seems to solve it though

#

anyone else getting into jams with vfx pipeline projects?

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 7:58 PM

#

@wary jungle are you running on macos / metal?

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 7:58 PM

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running the beta but nothing else

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not doing any scripting anymore..before was hacking some ffmpeg thing but now have a clean project with just the .vfx

#

its very random when it crashes..just hangs forever. Once on import of some assets and another whiile adding exposure to Volume

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 8:00 PM

#

I only ask because there have been some known crashing issues with vfx graph + mac os / metal. Though some have been resolved in the last few 2019.3 betas

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 8:00 PM

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oh right macos, sorry i saw macros

#

no its windows 64bit

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 8:00 PM

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ah there i put a space ha

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 8:01 PM

#

still interesting how you can blow up projects with some random move or edit

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 8:02 PM

#

well you can turn off auto compile anyway, that helps in some situations if you say, enter a crazy value that will definitely create a buffer that can't fit in your GPU memory

#

I also typically work with 2018.4 LTS.. seems to be the most stable to me. on Windows 10

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 8:03 PM

#

thanks for the .vf bit by the way.. feels like past 2 days have just been getting head around acronyms

#

got this thing now

📎 unknown.png

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 8:03 PM

#

nice!

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 8:05 PM

#

i started unity last week after seeing keijiro stuff and its been a lot of pain

#

feels like i jumped on during the big renderpipe changes

dull obsidian Sep 9, 2019, 9:05 PM

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you did! but that's okay. you get to be a part of it. with us. lol.

silver marten Sep 9, 2019, 9:07 PM

#

following this discord + the exp. graphics sub forum in unity definitely helps

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 9:10 PM

#

still feel like someone putting lego blocks together compared to what i see on shadertoy or twitter

#

playing around with keijiro visual grraph samples and your own sdf is pretty rewarding though..for now

#

changing around a vfx grid and having it autosave is kind of annoying imo.. seems like all edits are saved immideately

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 10:26 PM

#

is there a way to slot in nodes into connections in the graph?

#

how about saving blocks of connections as a preset (for example some sort of timer or complex effect you would reuse) - or do we just open old .vfx graphs and copy paste?

silver marten Sep 9, 2019, 10:42 PM

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taste i believe there is a concept of sub graphs that you should look into

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 10:56 PM

#

thanks

#

also wondering if its possible to create your own nodes or feed outputs to a script asset. I know you can make exposed .vfx nodes for the main editor but can we go the other direction? (so i dont have to set foot in the editor hehe)

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 11:17 PM

#

guess the subgraph stuff is a bit young

#

but super nice anyway

wary jungle Sep 9, 2019, 11:41 PM

#

might be the answer - https://gameacademy.school/visual-effect-graph-parameters-and-binders/

GameAcademy.school

Wilmer

Visual Effect Graph: Parameters and Binders

neon jungle Sep 10, 2019, 3:07 AM

#

@taste u can make your own node/operators in c# but package manager will nuke your changes next time the editor loads. So you'd have to copy the vfx package to your projects packages folder and rename some things in the manifest.json. I think this is a general problem unity may address at some point.

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@wary jungle you can also expose the source of compute/ shaders for hand editing, it might still have to be enabled in editor preferences

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 5:27 AM

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https://tenor.com/view/the-office-steve-carell-michael-scott-rainn-wilson-dwight-schrute-gif-4888887

Tenor

#

Hi everyone I'm Ty. I'm new to this Discord and Discord in general. I'm so excited to be part of this community tho!

I'm currently learning Unity and vfxg rn so yeah nice to meet everyone 🙂

#

I actually had a question regarding visual effect graph !

Does anyone know how to see the numbered output of a node?

I have arithmetic node series setup but without doing the math I really have no idea what value is coming out of the output and knowing that would be super handy for debugging a graph

One guy on Reddit said to plug the node into another graph and use flipbooked particles with numbers on them to get a readout but that is a little too inaccurate for my liking

thank you, any comments are appreciated

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 7:36 AM

#

also, does anyone know how to spawn by frame and not by time (seconds) ?

I noticed that through 'Constant Spawn' I'm getting gaps in spawning and it kinda makes the graph look weird on a long drag.

There is definitely enough cap space for these particles.

📎 Screen_Recording_2019-09-10_at_1.01.06_AM.mp4

hearty flare Sep 10, 2019, 7:40 AM

#

The Sample #01 - Unity Cube example https://blogs.unity3d.com/2019/03/06/visual-effect-graph-samples/ goes into that

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 1:21 PM

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cool @neon jungle . Was thinking if editing manifests is a trick to stop reloading of original files. A lot of times things from github are broken or out of date with current API

pearl galleon Sep 10, 2019, 2:00 PM

#

I made another VEG doodle a bit earlier, thought I'd post it here too. https://twitter.com/i/status/1171408509314969600

Olli Sorjonen (@Olmirad)

Needed a break from coding and made another neon themed pattern generation study with #VisualEffectGraph in #Unity. No external scripts or compute shaders in this one, just some math in VEG and line output😃. #vfx #realtimeVFX #madewithunity #gamedev #indiedev #generativ...

▶ Play video

lilac elm Sep 10, 2019, 3:17 PM

#

I have a question about the line renderer. Does anyone know how to tile the texture on the line. I can't find for the life of me how to do this.

shut cliff Sep 10, 2019, 3:20 PM

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📎 Unity_2019-09-10_17-18-58.png

lilac elm Sep 10, 2019, 3:23 PM

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@shut cliff that doens't work. you'd think it would.. 😦

shut cliff Sep 10, 2019, 3:24 PM

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hmm.. do you have your texture's Wrap Mode set to Repeat?

lilac elm Sep 10, 2019, 3:25 PM

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got it thank you

brave wadi Sep 10, 2019, 5:35 PM

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hey folks! is there a way to set the lifetime of particles to infinite in VFX graph?

pearl galleon Sep 10, 2019, 5:43 PM

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don't set lifetime?

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I think it should work, just check you don't have color over lifetime or such set up, I think you might get some wrong value and don't see your particle.

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Visual Effect Graph, infinite lifetime

📎 20190910_veg_infinite_lifetime.png

shut cliff Sep 10, 2019, 5:57 PM

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Someone mentioned typing in "infinite" the other day, but it might be for shuriken

pearl galleon Sep 10, 2019, 5:57 PM

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something like that, for example.

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 7:16 PM

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wow

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probably offtopic but stumbled on this gem of a comment on shadertoy

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`This code is near unreadable: lines starting with non-alphanumeric characters (especially semicolons, which are supposed to /terminate/ a statement), minimal whitespace and overall very dense and cumbersome to try to make sense of, inconsistent (and minimal) indentation.

You just took someone else's work and made it a LOT more difficult to read and understand, while also making many of the patterns much worse looking.`

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~demo scene things~

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 7:18 PM

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@hearty flare oh wow! I didn't even notice that ! thank you so much!!

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.
Sorry for asking this again because I think everyone just browsed over it

Does anyone know how to see the output of a node as a numbered read out?

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 7:44 PM

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i'd like to know too.. was confused yesterday about the sine wave node (thought its automatically iterating values). just figured it out by plugging and unplugging

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 7:47 PM

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@wary jungle lol oh ok, I'm not the only one

Idk if you saw it but one guy said to output the specified node to a flipbooked graph with numbers on each particle but I hope there's something better

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 7:54 PM

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wut.. it makes a flipbook of your number readouts?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 7:59 PM

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yeah on Reddit, he said to make the particles flipbooked and give them a number texture so each particle emitted from the graph is numbered

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which makes sense but it's inaccurate and a lot of work

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:11 PM

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thanks i hate it

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:15 PM

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@wary jungle lmao I'm sure someone knows. I might ask on Unity forums

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:15 PM

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what node are you talking about though

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:15 PM

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any node really

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:15 PM

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just any number ?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:15 PM

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yeah whether it's a vector or whatever

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:16 PM

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maybe using that damn 3d text object i keep getting shoved in my face

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:16 PM

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My search was sparked when I had a series of arithmetic nodes setup and I was like, 'wtf how do I see the output'

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lol yeah it's not the worse I guess if there's no other solution but still

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.
I feel like it'll speed up development of these graphs ten fold if it was integrated

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:17 PM

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tbh i was surprised there isnt just a simple node for it

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like a data readout

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but also im noob

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:18 PM

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ikr I was so suprised

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lmao yeah me too, I'm thinking it is probably a node but I don't know what to look for

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:18 PM

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frankly speaking i was shaken to my core

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:18 PM

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ditto

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:18 PM

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coming from bitwig and maxmsp its like the #1 thing

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in max you can mouse over cables to see live outputs now

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:19 PM

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oh wow damn

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I haven't used either

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vfx graph is my intro into all of this 3d bamboozlement

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:19 PM

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hope unity devs have

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:19 PM

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lmao

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yes hopefully

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:19 PM

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they are for music making mostly

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:20 PM

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oh ok did not know that

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:20 PM

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although max just got a gl3 package so you can at least load up shadertoy stuff

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must usually people just interface them to unity

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:20 PM

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oh that would make sense

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especially if the workflow is faster than Unity's

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yeah I've seen Bitwig before

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I make music and am a sucker for Logic

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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their node stuff in latest release is sweet

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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for building synth patches?

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or just anything?

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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nice! havent used logic since v5

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well you can kinda do anything..send osc or midi

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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lol oh dang it's been a minute

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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use it to sequence stuff

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:21 PM

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oh ok yeah that makes sense

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that would be way easier than Logic's

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Logic ~ you still have to send things

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:22 PM

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i started doing animations just in VFX yesterday and it works

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but a lil different

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:22 PM

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sorry

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as in with Bitwig?

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integrating with Unity

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:22 PM

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no just in unity

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but not using the timeline or anything

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:22 PM

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oh sorry I see
like just using the graph ?

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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just going through the uhh graph node with a 0-1 node

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like an LFO in music

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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oh sick yeah it's fun hey?

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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yeah super nice

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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lol yeah it's similar I suppose

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I figured anyone that had worked with racks would ease right into this

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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pretty bored of using panels and whatever

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:23 PM

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lmao I feel

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plus, it's time consuming

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this is much faster

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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yeah so happy everyone is into it now

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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and easier to setup an interactive system

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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too dumb to program

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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lmao ikr

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well it's way easier

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and faster

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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although it would be good to make your own nodes

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and happy its very easy in unity

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and hopefully gets better

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:24 PM

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hey I guess we could make a node if we can script it

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it's not too bad integrating custom scripted nodes?

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:25 PM

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yeah i just saw a thing about it yesterday

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for going from graph to the editor you expose your nodes in the vfx object

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so you can keyframe it or whatever

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:25 PM

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oh yeah I've been doing that !

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I followed that one vfx graph tut by Will something lol and it explained how to link them

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It's great

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I got it so an empty I created controls the particle spawn point and attracts them towards it as well

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pretty dang neat

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:27 PM

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and for going from unity to graph you use uhh

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binders

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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yes that's the one lol I've been using

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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although didnt look into yet..hopefully its not JUST for custom scripts and you can just take any field from a gameobject and plug it in

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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yes you can

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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do you have to use scripts?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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it's super duper easy

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no not at all

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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ok cool

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:28 PM

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you just match them up, it takes two seconds maybe four

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:29 PM

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i was hoping you don't have to write some intermidiary script to watch some property

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sik

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:29 PM

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nah they're making a super dope vfx system

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:29 PM

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man thats gonna be awesome

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glad you tried it, made my day

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:29 PM

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yeah my goals today are to smooth out movement on my graph and port it to mobile

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lol nw guy

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I'll try and write a script to display output

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If it works I'll post it here

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:31 PM

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was hoping that you don't have to only use nodes for certain stuff

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and graphs for something like a bouncing ball

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or like 5 math nodes to figure out some physics thing or smooth movement

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so you could just use unity physics somewhere off screen or a script and feed that back into the graph

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:33 PM

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hmmmm

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I'm not sure

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Oh sorry I understand

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yeah I guess you could!

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yes although I don't believe vfx graph is really designed for that

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I believe you're supposed to use the Shuriken particle system for physics based particle interactions

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So my plan is just to use them in unison

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I was bummed to hear that but it's no big deal and will probably be better for the targeted system

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:36 PM

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is shuriken super optimized?

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i was just thinking if i have a shader that has some animation effect i could use unity physics to feed a variable to the graph without having to use my brain for some smooth movement

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:42 PM

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it should be yeah, I'm not too familiar with it but I believe it's used for mobile

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.

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I think yes that should be no problem through binding

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or just through nodes

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like for instace

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.
if you had a ball on fire

if you binded it to your vfx graph the movement of the ball would influence the flames shape just through changing the position of the spawn

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.

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my graph rn is setup so when velocity increases of an empty it adds more particles

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:45 PM

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awesome

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:45 PM

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yes it's

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dank

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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what do you need shuriken for?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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lighting I think

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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just wondering

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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well personally

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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woah ..

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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I'm working on a project rn to develop my Unity skills lol

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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thought its only like mechanical physics

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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nah 😉 lol

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yeah it should do lighting

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at least that's what I understand

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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for shadows and stuff?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:46 PM

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yes I believe so

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vfx graph does emit shadows btw

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just fine

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but I want to use shuriken to emit light

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I don't think vfx graph is capable of that

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it's just the illusion of added light

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but I don't think it actually lights a scene

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:47 PM

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over the rest of your game objects?

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:47 PM

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yeah exactly

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Like I want to make this basically

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:48 PM

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maybe only if its some shader trickery

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:48 PM

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymcen0EjmiU

YouTube

Pixar

Brave "Wisps" Clip

Brave is available November 13 on Blu-ray & DVD Combo Pack and HD Digital. Pre-order your copy now: http://di.sn/h2X Like Brave on Facebook: https://www.face...

▶ Play video

wary jungle Sep 10, 2019, 8:48 PM

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oh JUST that

olive jewel Sep 10, 2019, 8:48 PM

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oh yeah it could be possible

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lol well like make a nice looking wispy thing that can light a scene

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but make it look nicer because this film is starting to get a little older