Ok so at the moment, I’ve taken the render/unrender a plane with a material/texture attached.
This is working fine, the only thing I noticed is when in a not very lit area the muzzleFlash darks due to lack of light. Where as in real life the muzzle flash would actually be a source of light (If that makes sense) What would you suggest be the best route to take on making my muzzle flash more realistic in this sense?
Would it be better to use particles or am I going in the “right” direction?
I’ve recently made a nice muzzle flasth for a gun for my game.
There are two ways i experimented with when making a muzzle flash:
I personally like using particles better because they look realistic from every angle and change with every shot. I used a Mesh Particle Emitter, along with the pink cone below.
This made a random amount of particles appear for 0.03 seconds.
Then i had a point light parented to the particle system that was turned off until the gun was shot.
When the gun was shot, the lights intensity changed randomly between a value, the light was turned on, and the particles were emitted.
I personally think this simulates the most realistic muzzleflare i could think of.
Also, this way you can customise the shape of the muzzleflash.
I would think you would add a small (but intense) point light right next to where your muzzle flash is. Then have it enabled only when the muzzle flash is being executed. My opinion though. I personally wouldn’t use particles unless it was a shot gun blast.
Use an unlit or self-illuminated shader for the muzzle flash.