Hey everyone, Steve here. We have particle VFX working in the game, sweet! Right now we’re using Unity 5.4.2 and are planning to update to Unity 5.5 soon. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what we’ve done.

For me, it’s important to have unique, interesting-looking FX that supports the visual style of our world. To do this, I build up my FX with multiple particle systems, like layering a cake. Adding variation in the parameters really injects life: I adjust settings, even if only a small amount, to make things pop. The image below on the right has “3D Start Size” checked to separate the size values on X, Y, Z. Going deeper, separating the X, Y, Z values again to “Random Between to Constants” so the particles will spawn randomly in various sizes on start. You can continue by changing colour, transparency, etc., like so:

On the right is the Flare prefab. You can see the layers used to make up one effect. Each layer is a particle system with its own custom settings. I know it looks like I lot, but I limit the amount of particles that can be emitted from each layer so it doesn’t get too heavy in-game.

Debris is set in a dark, unknown place, but it’s also set in the future. The technology available includes a tool that converts energy into light and weaponized heat. For example, since the flare is made up of energy, it should feel like some sort of hot plasma. In this concept art below, I’m trying to inject a sci-fi feel to the flare: beams of energy, spinning and spraying out into the world. In the final FX we decided to tone it down a bit because it seemed too wild and out of place, but that’s what concept art is for!

I separated the particle effect into three separate systems: muzzle flash, shot and impact. Each one is it’s own unique snowflake.

Debris is an underwater world. To make it seem that the particle FX are submerged, we need some sort of distortion. Using After Effects, I created a looping fractal noise FX like the blue burst above. In this case, the fractal was black and white so I could add colour to it in the particle system later. From the animated sheet I generated a normal map, which is the key to adding distortion. The normal map is used with a glass shader or distort shader to displace things rendering behind it.