Hydra Particles - A new particle sytem for Unity3D

Looking forward to the Bokeh and Smoke particle effects.

@Jesus, do you think it will be possible to use Hydra to put together something like this: https://motionarray.com/stock-video/dust-impact-02

I've been trying to mimic this effect for a while now without success.

 

How do the particles react near walls? For example when I use Unity's standard Shuriken particle system my "smoke" will go through the walls.

 

We have a very simple collision system implemented. 2D and 3D collisions are supported with independent bounce/friction coefficients, as well as physics material support.

 

What you want to use is Hydra's collision radius attribute in the emitter. Instead of having the point collider as a point in the middle of the particle (which would cause half of the particle to go through a wall), Hydra can use what's effectively a sphere collider. This can also scale with particle size (if you have a random particle spawn size or change it over lifetime). So you can keep most (if not all) of the particle on the right side of the wall. It also works with physics materials and you can set bounce intensity and a few other things.

Collision Examples are next on my to-do list for Hydra promo. Hopefully I should be able to demonstrate that soon.

 

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. The trick with smoke and dust like that is to use an animated shader so you have medium-sized particles, but within the shader there is an panning/stretching/rotating effect that manages all the little specs and the wobbliness of the cloud/plume/puff.

 

where can we download it for use?

 

Hydra isn't available yet, but will be available soon. We're almost finished getting it ready for launch.


EDIT: never thought of that, my mistake

 

PURCHASE? The title says open source, any clarification on that?

 

Honestly, I'm just here for the FX demos and promo stuff, sorry if I caused some confusion.

 

Thanks for replying. Is it possible to get the particles not go through the wall with the standard Shuriken particle system? Is there a price range for Hydra?

I can't wait to see your examples!

 

Collision Examples


Here's some collision. I used a small amount of friction (below 0.2) and some reasonable bounce value (0.6 to 0.8). Particles are set to change color by lifetime and face their velocity.


Smoke doesn't go through walls if you want. Personally, I would adjust the collision radius down a bit (maybe 20-25%) so there's some minor clipping, so the smoke looks like it presses right up against the wall, but only if you can't see the other side. I also used the Gravity Force, set to a negative value, to help the smoke rise. The smoke doesn't have much in the way of bounce, but a small bit of friction (0.1-0.2) to help it build up a bit.


It was hard enough trying to get it this close, so sorry for what looks like small inaccuracies, but all the particles that change size over their lifetime are colliding correctly with the geometry. Some look a bit off because they're one frame away from the contact, but rest assured they hit properly. The smaller particles are a fraction of a meter (unit) in diameter, so even the tiny particles can be trusted.

 

Wow! This looks great! This is just what I wanted! Thanks for the pictures!

 

@rahuxx, for some clarification on "Open Source":

I started making Hydra Particles in the first place because of frustrations with Shuriken. If Shuriken does things you don't like, your best bet on getting it changed is to submit a bug report and wait for Unity to fix it. Some of the Shuriken bug reports have gone unnoticed for years.

With Hydra Particles I wanted to be able to provide the end user with the raw C# scripts instead of an obfuscated DLL. This way if something in the package is behaving badly, and I'm in the hospital, the end user is always able to go into the code and modify things.

Hydra Particles will be free as in "speech", but not free as in "beer".

 

@Ghosts_Riley We've settled on ~$70 for our first release.

This includes all the scripts (emitters, forces) as well as the HydraCommon library (tons of utilities for maths, physics, and other goodies).

This will also contain example scenes, prefabs, shaders, materials, textures, and so on. @Jesus has really gone above and beyond with his shaders, there are some really nice Shader Forge compatible shaders in there.

Further, we're trying to get everything documented with some half-decent tutorials before launch. Also preparing a support forum to make sure people aren't dropped in the deep end.

Finally, we're maintaining a todo list at Trello so you can see we have plenty of ideas for post-release.

 

I have updated the thread title to hopefully prevent confusion, including my own.

 

Few more pics.

You may have seen the particles can have different sizes and shapes. The billboards can be independently scaled per-axis.

Also, you can lock them to scale in a linear/uniform way where you can have various sizes of thin, long arrows, instead of just random scaling in every axis.


Another thing is the bezier curve emission instead of just boring old meshes or primitives. These can be set to a point-to-point line or a closed loop (joining first and last points).

Emission is divided into segments between points, so an area with lots of points will have more emissions than an area where the points are few and far between.

 

Bump!


Some more examples!

Asteroid scene that responds to lighting (point and directional) and shadows correctly. Now it's easy to have tons of asteroids around a planet running really fast.


Also since nobody got the bug puns yet, I figure I'd give this away - you can animate vertecies with this because you have the correct particle mesh information...so you could move wings in the direction they're supposed to move. Then use forces to move the butterflies and the look-at option to make sure they fly forward (not backwards or anything).

 

I was interested in this many months ago when I thought you were close to a release, but nothing seems to have happened. The website has been replaced with a "Derp" message now as well...

What's going on?

 

Hi Nindim

Apologies for the nonense with the website. I had a falling out with my host and am in the process of migrating.

With regards to the extreme lateness of the release: there was a period where I was waiting on friends to produce the promotional content to sell the asset on the store. This work hasn't been completed and has hit my motivation. Further, there have been real-life events that have taken my attention.

I can still complete this project, I just need to make a push to polish the final elements.

That said, I'm going to look into releasing an open beta of the project. I'm just as eager as you are to see this in the hands of people.

Thanks,
Ves

 

I will say that I'm totally interested to see Hydra Particles come to life. Let us know if we can do anything to help!

 

Really?! That would explain some things lookig a bit off with my particles then!

And this... would have to be one of the biggest undertakings I have ever seen! Definitely one asset that is actually worth every penny one will pay for it. I am not one for paid assets, but if I had the money, I would pick this up simply to fiddle around with it!

BWT, @Jesus, dat aurora back there... If anything, I think the name "shader Jesus" would suit you! Nice work, and
for OP, good luck with this!

 

How does performance compare to shuriken, since it's your own script and not built-in code?

 

It's not as fast, but a direct speed comparison is kinda like apples and oranges.

What Hydra has in physics, lighting and the other modifiers, Shuriken has no answer for. On the other hand, Shuriken (and its predecessor to a degree), with the simple default particle shaders and materials, is basically unmatched in terms of speed.

This of it like this: if you're doing a space scene, you would use shuriken for the distant stars, the ones that don't move and you can use just an additive blend on a 64x64 sprite, and you can have tons of them. You would then use Hydra for the galaxy in the middle of the shot, the one that uses gravity to drag the stars in and around it, and then for lighting the gas clouds and nebulas.

 

That's my questions answered then.

 

Hi, I am interesting and want to use. Where can I find the source code repository or package file ?

 

Hey hydra dude,

I can't find this on the web at large. Where'd you go?