Ultimate VFX - Massive Visual Effects and Particle System Collection

Hi @FlightyFelon!

Glad you posted this here, too. I just replied to your e-mail: basically, you just need to turn on the game object (it's currently disabled which is why it's greyed out).

 

Maybe a BUG.

 

I love this pack a lot. I can spend hours and hours in here. I'm still learning a lot of Unity items and had a question. How would you go about combining multiple particle effects into a new animation sequence? I tried the timeline but everything is pretty jumpy?

Im thinking its just the playspeed of each particle. I've got a missing link in my logic.

 

@imaginethepoet

Hi there! Great to hear you're enjoying UVFX.

Actually, I haven't really used Unity's new timeline for anything yet, but can you clarify for me what you mean by "new animation sequence"? Right now what comes to mind is playing multiple particle effects, where each one is triggered to play at a different point of time as part of a sequence. Is that what we're both thinking of?

Without the use of timeline I would've just created a new mecanim animation, setup events, and then fired the particles from a custom function. That's how I play sound effects for animation on characters, such as for left and right footsteps to sync with their feet hitting the ground. You can create an new empty animation clip and do the same for particles.

But I can also look into using timeline to do something like that for you. It seems like that's the "right" way to do things as of Unity 2017 anyway.

EDIT:

Just tried out using the timeline feature and I didn't notice anything I could describe as "jumpy". Everything played as expected in sequence using Unity 2017.3.0p1. Also, you're correct in using the timeline, it's way easier to use than doing manual animation clip setups.

I just disabled the particle effect prefabs in the scene and set multiple activation tracks to sequence them together. Here's what it looks like:

However (and maybe this is what's causing your problem)... all the oneshot effects in UVFX have a script to automatically destroy the instance when it's done playing the effect. It's attached to the main/root game object, so you should disable/delete that component beforehand.



Let me know how it goes!

 

Hi - I just updated to the latest version (17/11/2017) and got an error "Assets/Mirza Beig/Particle Systems/_Common/Scripts/_Demo/FPSDisplay2.cs(26,26): error CS0101: The namespace `MirzaBeig.ParticleSystems.Demos' already contains a definition for `FPSDisplay'. When I compare this to the previous version of FPSDisplay2, the class is also called FPSDisplay2.

Am I OK to rename this - will there be an update perhaps?

Thanks!

 

@NotQuiteSmith

Hi! Which version did you upgrade from and to which version? The readme under _DOCS will specify the current version. Some updates moved folders and files around. In my latest project for the next update using Unity 2017.3 I don't have FPSDisplay2 (and all it really does is show the FPS in the demo scenes), so it's not too useful for the asset itself aside from the demos.

 

Anyone know why its telling me this? :/ using the nuclear and a fire effect from this pack

 

I am interested in purchasing this product. However, my first app is going to be for the mobile platforms. Is this post processing going to affect my FPS?? If so, by how much. I am asking these questions since I was learning about the post processing stack, but then read a few posts mentioning how post processing was badly affecting the FPS on mobile.

Thanks,
Arshad

 

@MindFraktur

Do you have a screenshot of the object that's causing problems? It seems like any script attached will cause the same issue, not just ones from UVFX.

 

@sygaki786

Hi Arshad,

Yes, Unity's post-processing stack can be expensive for mobile, although I can still achieve 60fps if I'm just using colour correction and bloom on a Galaxy S5 carefully. You can also use techniques like rendering to a smaller frame size which will allow you to easily get higher framerates. This isn't specific to Ultimate VFX.

Ultimate VFX is not a post-processing package, it's mostly a particle effects package, and the stack profiles are included so you can get the visuals (bloom, colour correction) you see in the demo videos and screenshots. You don't have to use post effects at all.

 

You read my mind again Mirza. Yes, I wasn't sure how to correctly explain it. I believe it's the one shot effects that were giving me the challenge. I love that you posted a video. I'm so excited to see what you add next to this plugin. Your videos are great to watch and I can focus on creating things in my head.

It would be great to see any techniques you have for optimizing effects for devices like iphone (arkit), meta, magic leap, hololens, etc. - Most are bound to a mobile processor so I'm assuming those same techniques apply.

 

@imaginethepoet

Awesome!

If you're noticing performance issues with particles on mobile, I'd first find out what exactly is the cause. If it's too many particles (most likely over 2k), then your best bet is to obviously try and turn that down.

But if it's something like overdraw, then there are some really good techniques that you can make use of to ease the strain on the mobile GPU and fillrate. Things like rendering your entire game to a lower resolution than the native display, rendering only the particles to a low-res texture and then compositing the results back into the scene (AKA offline rendering), or baking the effect into a spritesheet.

 

I am trying to use flame thrower prefab for the Dragon fire (for flame attack)

Is there any other in your list which will give a better looking performance.

Errors from this - UltimateVFX pkg


particleAffectorMT.cs at line 94 t.start(); complaining about the number of arguments.

And

Crashing the whole project while building for UWP - windows.


There were problems with the complete Assets package or when Only imported the flamethrower prefabs

Sent mails to you a week back.

 

Thanks for the reply.

It's safe to delete the experimental "MT" folder, since those are marked to be deleted in future versions anyways.


As for the flamethrower, can you specify through a reference the style you're looking for? I'm not sure if you're after performance or looks. I'll try and see if I can find a good fit for your needs


I am looking for one for performance and one for looks.

 

Hey there, @holodevice.

Glad you saw my e-mail. I replied to you on the same day.

I'd need a reference to understand what you're really going after.

 

Augmented reality - Cinematic Reality - & VR. Dragons flying over spitting fire on people on ground.

Looking for prefabs One for desktop and one for Mobile.

 

By reference, I mean (ideally) videos from existing games, or at least a few images.

 

Game of thrones at 2:48 in the video

 

Please watch both of them, below.
Different angle Another one at 6:47 & 8:26

 

have to look at many videos before this. This is almost close to my design/thinking.
Thanks Mirza.

 

We selected all sprite sheets and rescaled outside of unity in photoshop I think it was and linked back. Was completed in just a few seconds.

 

And how do you undo that?

In Unity you can set a "Max size" for each texture. I guess this is also used when you build the project?
The idea would have been to set it for overall particle sprites, depending on the "original" size maybe with "Full" and "Half Resolution". I saw this on other assets.

And yes I did it like you did, but I am not sure if it is the best way. And after I got an update from ultimate vfx everything was large again.

 

Hi. This Asset is excellent although I'm having some problems with the Portal Example. The issue is that I can't make it look like a plane Quad. I checked twice that Render Mode is Mesh and the Mesh is Quad, but still I have a 3D effect I don't like. I need it to be a plane portal like the example you explained in your tutorial.

Currently I have Unity 2017.3.0f3 (the most recent version).

 

I saw a popular particle asset named "Living Particles" and I thought that would be cool to get, but I kind of thought its effects remind me of your Force Field effects/scene. I was wondering if in your opinion if I can simulate that assets effects, using the Force fields VFX

 

For anyone wondering about the issue @tonymunoz reported, here's the workaround (I've already replied through e-mail) which he confirmed worked.

---

It's extremely unfortunate, but Unity has changed the way some of the settings work making the default method from the video render incorrectly. They haven't since said anything...

The next version of UVFX (unreleased) should have the workaround implemented, but in the meanwhile, you can try this:

Set the prefab's "Portal" object to scale (1, 1.5, 1.5).



On that same object's particle system, scroll down to the Renderer module and change the render mode to Billboard and the Render Alignment to local if it's not already local:



That should get the portal to render better:



It still may not handle custom rotations perfectly, but it may be sufficient.

 

Hey there, @Subzeroblack68!

I see the asset you're referring to. I don't know how it works, but it looks like it might be doing everything through shaders. Definitely looks beautiful! As for pushing around particles around a sphere - yes: you can do that using UVFX's force fields.

The thing I noticed which is strange to me is that the particles seem to be displaced temporarily and then go back to their starting points as Ethan moves through them and they bend around the hemisphere around him. This isn't the effect you'll get with force fields, since the particle will be repelled by physics. This strongly implies to me the way our effects work are different, since they achieve different end results (using shader vertex displacement vs. CPU physics-based velocity manipulation).

I've actually been thinking of doing something like that with Amplify as a tutorial or something since I accidentally implemented shader-based particle noise to the particle offset a while back while I was developing my custom shockwave shaders.

I'd strongly recommend asking the other publisher for a comparison, too. So you can get a better understanding of what both our assets are doing. I'll post a video demo-ing some more force field stuff soon. I'm a few cities away from my main dev. machine and my internet connection is much worse.

 

Here are the videos! There are around 10,000 particles here.

If you have any other questions let me know. I actually even have a tutorial for the basics of setting up custom physics programming for particles on my channel in case you want to try and make something like this on your own.

 

I have one question. Do you have on your road map a line lightning (like thunder) with forks?

 

Hi @cybersoft,

I've tried making something like that just using the default particle system settings, but it would require more work. I don't have any plans right now to revisit it, although UVFX does have forking lightning spritesheets.

 

Here's an example of shader force field displacement for particles:

Not sure if I'll have time to work on this a lot any time soon, but it's a good proof of concept.

 

Thanks for answering my question and yeah those videos really help. The physics based one is cool and pretty much all I needed. But the Particle Displacement Shader now that's PERFECT! For now ill go ahead to your channel and check out your tutorial before attempting something like that Particle Shader Displacement video

 

I am waiting; U must have seen the video - Game of thrones above.

Expecting a reply.

 

Hey, @holodevice!

Yes, I've seen the video. However I cannot guarantee that I can make that effect. It's not a real-time effect from a game like I was originally looking for.

Please remember that shows like that tend to have millions of dollars, expensive software, high-end hardware (render farms), and many film VFX veterans at their disposal just for their visuals. Unfortunately, simply experimenting to even draft what you're referencing could take weeks for someone like me with a single desktop PC as his main development machine.

As an example, I think this is a more realistic expectation for what you might need for a scalable effect for multiple platforms (at t = 1:11s):

 

Does your asset pack (mainlyy the rain) work with single pass rendering and if so, does it look good in VR?

 

I haven't tested the effects in VR for a while. If regular particle systems render with single pass rendering using the default alpha blended shader, it should work just fine.

 

They do work good in VR. I've experimented with quite a few.

 

It's relieving to hear that they still hold up well in VR.

Depending on how things go in the next few months, I was thinking of possibly investing in a VR headset for a new project. If that goes through, I could better work with UVFX and VR.

 

Hi,

Maybe can i get some idea how to make these effects please?

 

Sure!

At first glance, it seems like the most of the effect is achieved using a texture mask which is applied as a cutoff. The edges are coloured differently and may be using HDR + bloom for the extreme glow. There's also seems to be some UV scrolling to animate the effect and make it look like particles are being emitted from the edge.

There's definitely a bit more, such as a second texture that fades towards the direction of animation to provide that grid you see on the character, but the majority of the look is from what I mentioned.

It's similar in technique (although there are some major differences) to some procedural effects I've posted before, like these:

> Anime Powerball VFX
> Anime Hit / Impact VFX

> Supernova VFX

I may be able to make a tutorial for effects like those, but I'm currently busy finishing off something else that needs my attention.

 

Thank you for reply.

Somehow can i get these VFX's?

 

I plan to eventually publish them to the store (through custom shaders), but it could be a while.

 

This is amazing Mirza! I have purchased the pack and am playing around with it now- so mindblowing. I notice for some of the effects, such as oceanum, some of the particles rotate as I turn my head in the HMD(I'm testing with Rift) - is there a relatively straightforward way to prevent this? It breaks the feeling of immersion.

Thanks for your awesome work!

 

Hi Mirza,
I'm having issues locating Window > Tools.
The tools menu doesn't seem to be there, any ideas?

I have also noticed that none of the controls work in the demo scene - I must of done something wrong but I am not sure where?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
James

 

Hey there.
Happy to hear you're enjoying the effects!

There's a checkbox in the quality settings that can prevent the particles from facing the camera position, and instead just align to the forward plane for rendering:



If you swap the particle to use a mesh (using a quad to simulate the card/billboard), you can also set the render alignment:

 

Hi James!

Can you let me know which version of the asset you're using? You can find that at the top of the README.

If you're looking for the tools included with the pack, you can find them here:



Have you tried this in a fresh project? I'm not sure why the controls wouldn't work.

 

Hi Mirza,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I am using Ultimate VFX v3.1.0
When I import it from the asset store, I get no menu option to the tool as you have in your screenshot.
I've just tried a fresh project and still no menu option.

Thanks,
James

 

@jamesberrett

I'm doing a quick check right now to see if I can figure out what's going on. Will let you know soon!

EDIT:

Just checked the readme with a fresh project + import.

I wrote in the text file the menu path Window -> Tools -> Mirza Beig, but (same as the screenshot I posted) it's actually just directly Window -> Mirza Beig. The seperate particle scaler readme has the correct menu path. I've fixed the typo for the next update for UVFX's document.

Is that the issue?

 

I think it's a good bet with all the stuff I know that Is coming out! Vive should go down in price as well as pro-comes out.

 

Hi Mirza,
On the fourth try it seems to be now in the window menu. The problem was it wasn't showing up at all even though I imported directly from the Asset Store.
Thanks for checking it for me!

 

That's really weird, and I'm not sure why it was happening, but I'm glad it's all settled now.