I love the new VFX system! So I thought I would start a thread for it here in the Graphics Experimental Previews forum, since it will evolve over time, well beyond the 2018.3 beta period.
More from me later when I’ve had more time to use it.
At this stage (github only) I didnt really know the best method for getting it running with the provided test scenes, so this is how I did it manually myself last night to get it working on both my windows and macos machines:
mkdir VFXTest
cd VFXTest
git clone https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ScriptableRenderPipeline
cd ScriptableRenderPipeline
git checkout vfx/hdrp
Then I rename ScriptableRenderPipeline folder to SRP (to keep paths short just in case of long path issues)
Then I move all the folders from TestProjects/VisualEffectGraph to VFXTest folder
Then I edit VFXTest/Packages/manifest.json and change paths so that following lines have these paths:
“com.unity.render-pipelines.core”: “file:…/SRP/com.unity.render-pipelines.core”,
“com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition”: “file:…/SRP/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition”,
“com.unity.shadergraph”: “file:…/SRP/com.unity.shadergraph”,
“com.unity.testframework.graphics”: “file:…/SRP/com.unity.testframework.graphics”,
“com.unity.visualeffectgraph”: “file:…/SRP/com.unity.visualeffectgraph”,
Then I open the VFXTest project in Unity 2018.3
Then I change Player setting ‘Scripting Runtime Version’ to .NET 4.x Equivalent.
Then once everything recompile/reload of Unity editor is complete, the test scenes work for me (eg Assets/AllTests/VFXTests/GraphicsTests/07_UnityLogo scene)
This way is maybe not easiest/cleanest/best way to do it but when I was just rushing to see if I could get it working last night, this method worked for me. If there is a cleaner/quicker way, please let us know, cheers 
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Also I’m sure Seb wont mind me quoting a post of his from twitter that reiterates the early developmental stage that the system is at (ie no official support):
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Nice. I was thinking about trying to get it to work when I have a little time to play around but this will sped up that process.
Anyone start doing some fx ? Even if it is a preview, editor seems to work.
I messed around with it and made a simple effect - Learned from one of the example graphs in the editor and after I studied the other ones that the devs made in each scene. Learned some more from those so I’m gonna go back and try to apply some of what I learned to the effect I made to try and get it to be closer to what I had in mind. So far it’s pretty sweet though
I’ve not had that much spare time to play with it yet, although I did find a few hours this evening to start to get more familiar with it.
I have my own particular mission in mind which involves hooking up a 3D fluid simulator (of type often used for smoke etc, not liquids) to the new VFX system. Initial learning & testing seems extremely promising, since it didnt take that long to work out how to set values of exposed VFX parameters via script. And it looks like I can pass a 3D RenderTexture, rather than a static 3D texture, to a 3D texture parameter without needing to hack away at any of the VFX system source code. Which instantly makes this the easiest of all the systems I’ve ever tried to make work with this sim (and I’ve tried quite a few over the years).
Haven’t a clue but when I get time (I seem to have none) I would love to try it. If you have vids or pics, I think they would be cool to see!
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I’m sure I will have a simple, crude and premature demo video at some point in the coming days. As usual it will be focussed on my own particular area of interest rather than being a good overview of the entire system. At least this time I will be able to say ‘no code was harmed during the making of this video’ 
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Oh how I love this system so much already, it is everything I hoped it would be.
Nice! looking forward to seeing what you put together. I can’t code to save my life so I’m trying to learn the system to see how I can use it.
Yeah not expecting tutorials or advice even just a few personal thoughts and progress, I always find those much more interesting.
Is this Unity’s answer to Unreal’s new Niagara? Had I known of this obscure feature before I wouldn’t have spent the last few months messing with Unreal.
It’s not obscure, it’s not released. Pretty big difference.
I’ve been living under a rock. Didn’t know this existed, came here from the 2018.3 release notes.
Yes, it very much is, both in terms of node graph approach and that under the hood its generating compute shaders from the graph. Obviously there are various differences too, which I’m probably not qualified to detail (eg maybe UE4 has a CPU fallback mode, I dont remember properly, I stopped dabbling with UE4 some months ago)
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And my tip for not missing features like this that are somewhat obscure because they are being developed publicly but arent officially released even in preview form yet, videos of the Roadmap talks from the various Unite conferences and GDC are where the action is, combined with keeping an eye on Unity github stuff. Actually in this case for me and VFX, I think it took a good while before the GDC video where the VFX was first mentioned was published, and in the meantime it was someone who works for Unitys twitter feed that showed a tiny snippet of the VFX portion of that Roadmap talk that tipped me off back in March.
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It doesn’t have a fallback mode because it’s HDRP only.
Yeah I’m not complaining that it doesnt have a CPU fallback mode at all, I was just commenting on one of the possible differences to UE4. Personally I am entirely disinterested in CPU-based particles anyway.
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Any chance for some shots? ;