ElectroShock for Unity

ElectroShock is an automated particle system for creating multiple, arced, electric bolts and other effects in Unity. It is loosely based on the Lightning scene in the procedural examples provided by UT but does much more. It is designed to be artist friendly and easy to use. The user can define the number of bolts produced and particle system set up is automatic with several adjustable parameters. Particle artwork can be customized by simply providing a new material and effects other than electric bolts can be achieved. Additionally, it provides example scenes demonstrating various options used for in-game activation of the system. Activation is exposed so that the user can tailor it to their project via script if the built-in system doesn't cover their needs. ES is written in C# but examples of activating it through script are provided in both C# and Javascript.

ElectroShock is compatible with 2.6 and 3.x as well as both free and pro versions of Unity. It has only been tested on Apple hardware but should be compatible with all platforms that Unity supports. Good results can be achieved on modest hardware. However, mobile devices and Wii consoles will see a more prominent performance impact at higher settings and I can't guarantee it will be *good enough* for projects on those devices. Please read the documentation for detailed information.

Planned updates include an example of attaching the system to a weapon, a texture pack for alternate effects, additional curvature options for the bolts, speed optimizations and additional noise variants. (Note: these may change without notice and are not guaranteed.)

I have been stuck in glitchland trying to get ES on the Asset Store. So I'm releasing it here in the meantime. Hopefully, it will be up there soon. I'll probably leave this post up for 2.6 users though. All users will get all updates for free.

ES is offered at $15 US as a royalty-free license (more license info in the docs). Currently, I can only accept PayPal payments. If there's enough interest I'll upgrade to accept credit cards. Please note, that I am a one man shop and as you can see from my *sophisticated* website, my store process is a little antiquated. I'll be manually sending links to the package once PayPal informs me of a purchase. I'll do my best to get them out the same day but please allow some time for delivery (and an occasional day off). Hopefully I can set up a more automated system soon. For now...

ES can be purchased here:
http://www.oculardgi.com/ElectroShock/ES.html

Documentation (~1Mb PDF):
http://www.oculardgi.com/ElectroShock/ElectroShockDocs.pdf

Examples:
NOTE: For the examples, you may need to click on your browser window to give the player focus.
(All examples are included)

Event Example

Input Example

Trigger Example

Hypnotic Plasma

Sparkles

Jelly Fish

Ghost Busters


NEW Examples +++++++++ A sneak peak at the upcoming release!

Ring-O-Fire
This one shows a couple new things. I've exposed the particle system so that it can be modified at runtime. Here I'm making the particles grow to a set size when the space bar is pressed. Also, I've added an arc type pull down in the Inspector. Right now there are 3 types. The original arc, a straight line and as this one shows, a circle. I'll be adding more soon.

Whip and Whip2
These aren't quite Bulletstrom cool but I like em! I'd love some feedback on these. Fixed some of the physics issues but throwing still need some work. Pretty much wasd FPS controls. Click and hold to fire the beam and pick up the barrel. Drag it around and release to throw it. Full screen recommended!

Don't have a release date yet. Probably a couple weeks. I've got a few other tweaks to do yet and need to update the docs. Day job too!

Feel free to post support issues or questions in this thread. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy!

 

thats quite cool, but you might try making the bolts so that they switch places randomly.

 

[Edit: this was a response to PhYc1aTr1st original question about scripting requirements]
Glad you like it, thanks! There are currently 3 ways to activate it:
1. Input such as hitting the space bar.
2. Trigger activation
3. Event based such as the web player example above.

1 2 do not require scripting and number 3 does. The package includes example scenes for all three and the docs talk a bit about how to script the event option. Example scripts for number 3 are given in C# and JS.

[Edit: re making the bolts switch positions]
That's a good idea and I'll think on it for an update. Cheers!

 

@ PhYc1aTr1st - I was thinking on it and I think random rotations will probably wind up looking like a Christmas decoration blinking on and off. I've got some other ideas on rotation but maybe the example in my first post is just too static. There's already a deviation variable that makes it bounce around. In the player above deviation is set at 0.2. Here's a player with it set at 0.75. Does this get closer to what you meant?
Input Example

 

looks a bit like the one in the Unity's Procedural example...

 

LOL... Yup. In fact it uses some code from that and one of the materials in the example is from that. It's a tad more advanced though.

 

yup, thats quite what i was thinking about, though it does look a bit too "jumpy"

 

Indeed! There's another variable (Speed) that was set pretty high. There's a bunch of stuff you can adjust. I was just now playing with extreme values and got some really funky results. They were really funky! Got lost playing. I need to sleep! I'll post some more players in the next couple days.

 

Edit: No bugs. Just my machine freaking.

Anyway... I was making some more examples. Thought this was kind of cool:
Hypnotic Plasma

There's a little hiccup in my texture animation loop but thought it still was worth sharing...

 

Ok so no bug problem. It's fine. My OS crashed in the middle of saving a file which must have corrupted something.

Started on texture pack work. Some more examples:
Sparkles

Jelly Fish

Hehe... extreme values makes it go crazy
Ghost Busters

 

When I get close to it, my fps falls really low.

 

Yeah, can we see a wireframe picture in editor of the main electricity effect?

 

I'd assume due to fill rate/overdraw. What are your machine specs and which example(s)? I'm running a 5 year old iMac 2.16Ghz C2D with a Gforce 7300 GT. It does drop for me as it fills more of the screen but always stays high (550-600 fps for the event example per the profiler).

 

Kind of. It's a programatically created set of particle systems. I can only get wireframes for one to show at a time. A screenie of that for the event example is attached. That scene is 5 bolts with 55 particles each. For this one the particles use 2 textures using the standard particles/additive shader.

 

It looks weird to me. Is lightning supposed to look fat and spiky?

 

Trahsin my art skillz? Oh now it's on boyyy! Nah, seriously, this isn't meant to be lightning. Check out the other examples. I'll be looking into stuff like fractals, spirals etc. but that isn't in yet. Stay tuned.

BTW I should mention that anyone looking to use this for that lightning contest shouldn't. It won't work for that yet and the contest requires open sourcing the winning project. The ES license doesn't allow for that. See the last page of the docs for license info.

In other news... I'm out probably til tomorrow. Not even supposed to be here now - wife's b-day! Peace!

 

A little slow in coming! Day job has had me busy. Edited the first post to include all the examples plus some updates below...

NEW Examples +++++++++ A sneak peak at the upcoming release!

Ring-O-Fire
This one shows a couple new things. I've exposed the particle system so that it can be modified at runtime. Here I'm making the particles grow to a set size when the space bar is pressed. Also, I've added an arc type pull down in the Inspector. Right now there are 3 types. The original arc, a straight line and as this one shows, a circle. I'll be adding more soon.

Whip
This isn't quite Bulletstrom cool but I like it! I'd love some feedback on this one. I had a heck of a time getting physics to this point and it's still not quite right. Mostly though, feedback on the effect more than the physics (unless it seems totally broken). Pretty much wasd FPS controls. Click and hold to fire the beam and pick up the barrel. Drag it around and release to throw it. Full screen recommended!

Don't have a release date yet. Probably a couple weeks. I've got a few other tweaks to do yet and need to update the docs.

 

Fixed some of the physics issues on the whip gun. Would love some feedback.
Whip

and a little bit freakier: Whip2