Space Shooter Effect Pack - WIP

Webplayer Demo

Hey everyone,
I am working on a new, sci-fi arcade shooter effect pack. Think Tyrian, Raptor, or Sine Mora - I try to keep a similar, not too realistic, arcade-y feeling.

Currently there are 2 missile, 3 bullet, and 1 laser type effect, also some explosions, shields, and thrusters. I am planning adding more effects. If you have any ideas, feel free to write them!

Kalamona

 

Cool effects. Are they particle systems?
Missiles look cooler if you make it a bit smaller, I guess.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Yep, I want to make different sized missiles, it is just not present yet. But yes, the current one is what I tought will be the biggest.

Yep, the effects are mostly particle systems. Wrecks and asteroids and so are obviously models, using physique. Lasers are line renderers.

 

Really nice!!!

If your inspiration is Tyrian you might have already a future customer!

Ideas that I would like to see implemented: more energy weapons (lasers, plasmas, energy bursts, energy waves,beams...), not so interested in regular weapons like missiles but some mines could be nice too, more shield effects, maybe something electric-like/thunder...

Are these made using Shuriken or you use your own particle system?
Can we change the colors of the effects from the editor?
We might be interested but do you know what is the performance toll of this? For example, say I want 100 plasma missiles and 200 simple bullets on screen moving at a slow pace, have you tried something like that?

 

Hey,

new demo is up, with destroyable shields that actually look like being destroyed, and some new weapons.

Thanks for your nice words, Stilghar.
- I will try a scene with a lot of bullets too, but not now cus I am tired
- Yes, Shuriken is used with custom meshes and quite some scripting
- changing the colors is definitely possible, though some basic shuriken and unity knowledge is required.
- performance depends on the bullets. The simple bullets aren't very demanding performance-wise, some effects are though. Also I don't use a resource collector, but I use the Instantiate and Destroy commands a lot. Using a resource collector could be a lot faster, but I am not a programmer, but a graphic artist, so I won't implement one.
- performance on iOS is also depends how large are the effects compared to the whole screen (bigger effects=slower), this is because the alpha overdraw is rather slow on these machines.

cheers
Kalamona

 

Hi,

Really nice! Any ETA for this Kalamona? How many effects do you plan to have when you release this? Would you consider putting one effect for free download to try before buying? Scaling particles is most of the time a pain... I would like to see if the scale would fit our needs.

Cheers,

Stilghar

 

No ETA yet, I plan to add about 10-15 different weapons (the pack actually contains more effects, as each weapon has its explosion, some have a muzzle fire, also there are various explosions and shield stuff too).

For particle scaling, I always use the following tool:
http://u3d.as/content/roel-ezendam/particle-scaler/3mU

It is not mine, but it scales flawlessly particle systems and objects in them. The only problem if an effect of mine has some custom scripts (prefab generators and such), those obviously aren't scaled, but otherwise it works great.

 

It is finally out!

http://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/9891

 

This is not relevant anymore.

WARNING!
There is some problem with this asset when using under unity 4.0. Spaceship oddly rotated, and some effects not showing up. I am working on fixing these problems! Terribly sorry about this [

 

After a bit fighting, the rotation and disappearing particles under unity 4 were finally fixed and accepted by the asset store. Yay!

 

Hey Kalamona, I've been playing around with your pack and I've noticed that some of the scripts are spawning a "sparks" GameObject. Even though I don't get an error in the editor, I can't find the "sparks" particle in the assets folder and when I pause the game and look at the "sparks" object, all I see is an empty placement object.

Can you shed any light on what this "sparks" object is, how it's used in the scripts, and why it is needed?

 

hmm, sounds mysterious. I detach some objects to the world, mainly particles, so when their parent dies, they don't disappear instantly, but fade away nicely. Maybe not every one of them gets destroyed?

Will look into it, not today but soon.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, after looking at the setup a little more I realized that they were actually children of the spawned prefab that are detached when the parent collides with something or dies. I guess that the asset>search doesn't look at unique names as children. I've been converting your code to c# and adding a pool manager to optimize everything. It's no small task (because your kit has many unique effects), but I'm happy that this kit lays out most of the fundamental principles.

 

@Kalamona , this effects work ok in 3d ? Or is the purpose of this effects only for 2d games ?

Thanks

 

Looks really great...does it come with the test scene?

Thanks

 

Yes, I bought the pack and it comes with the test scene in the web demo

 

Does the effects work in 3d ?
Or are they just billboards that work ok in the test scene ? (top view)

 

You can change the camera on the test scene (space), so you can see they are real, 3d effects Sorry for not replying for so long, I don't always look at the forums, feel free to write a mail or a PM!

Other news: full scan effect and tractor beam effect added.

 

How did you create the scan effect? That is really cool.