This pack is focused on the advanced creation of particle and ocean effects, with a very big collection of toon focused effects ready to use or copy properties from. The tools included allow the easy copy of properties among particles and the library samples, scaling and addition of dynamic effects with Text, Light and Sound. Many advanced shaders will give a the toon look to particles and provide spectacular fast oceans with fluid motion and complete wave shape and motion control.
As with all my packs, this will be updated regularly with new features and libraries. Also if there is a demand, i may extend it with more Toon related effects and systems, outside particles.
Particle Scaler v1.0 has been added to the pack and will enable easy scaling of particle systems.
The Prefab Manager will hold the full effects library, ready for instantiation and will integrate the scaler.
The pack will also include a Magic Aura system, that will apply the particles in a controllable way over the terrain (same system found in Particle Dynamic Magic asset). A library of cartoon auras is in the making.
New feature added !!! Particles can now be turned to a sprite sheet and play independently from the initial particle system. The same system can be used to create any kind of sprite sheet as well, not just particles.
The new module can save individual frames and also combine them to a sprite sheet, using the standard Unity method. Another custom method will also be provided later for even better control of the arrangement of sprites in the sheet.
The system will not require Unity Pro, it is made to work without render textures.
The Toon Effect Maker system will enable parametrized instantiation of the prefab manager effects into a compound effect. This will allow the easy creation of various combined effects or new effects from individual elements. A new prefab category with various building blocks will also be introduced for that purpose.
Another option will be the copy of individual parameters from one particle to another or transfer of the prefab parameters to the selected particle system.
The Sprite Sheet Maker has been finilized and is production ready.
The procedure to grab the sample pics above:
Create any kind of particle effect, even an extremely complex and heavy one, it wont matter after it is converted to sprite sheet.
Grab the effect in a sprite sheet using the Sprite Sheet Maker module
Attach the sheet to a particle system and play as in the original or instantiate it as multiple particles or use as sprite, the sky is the limit
This system is great for using heavy or a huge number of cool particle effects at once, especially for 2D games that having the original particle may not be required at all.
Another possible use is the creation of icons or sprite sheers for any 3D (or 2D) object in the scene. Sprite sheet creation from animated 3D characters is also possible.
Also the creation of animated (or not) icons for spells and items.
The Mouse Path Recorder & Player is now finilized and ready for release. It is possible to combine two paths in varying ways for even more control over the effect.
The particle editor is half way done, i have the most important aspects almost ready, like the serialized parameters handlers and copy mechanism. They need only a few more check and polish to be ready for production.
This thread has helped immensly, a big thanks to everyone that posted the tips for the hidden parameters.
The editor will support a big part of these parameters for the first release and all parameters are planned for support for later updates. Custom curve editing and transfer is also possible for some of the various parameters that support them.
I will post this question here also, just in case anyone knows, so i can implement boyancy with shader support.
Is it possible to get back data for a specific vertex from a shader ?
I have come across this problem twice, in two major systems i am working on.
I would like to find the color or height in world space of a specific vertex that a shader is applied to.
Is it possible to have one public shader value (vector3) and when i am in the vertex of interest (also an issue of how to identify that vertex) assign a property directly from the vertex shader code to that public value and read it in script ?
I’m no shader expert nasos but that must be possible because of packages like vertexemotion existing. It uses compute shaders and can handle collisions between objects. If you want accurate boyancy you would really need a fluid simulator though because you have to bear in mind that the objects floating need to effect the water as well for it to look accurate.
Hi Ian, thanks for the input. This ocean is targeted at cartoon like games, so a simple up/down motion with maybe some mild rotation would be nice as an addition to the ocean. I wont go into fluid dynamics for this pack, but i am trying various other ways to show the cartoonish dynamics, like local ripples and particles.
The shader nature of the motion is an obstacle though, since i have to know how the water is below the object to move it and add effects accordingly.
I was looking for a get back from shader option for the IBL in Sky Master too, like do a raycast sweep for the slow changing sky and do a color querry to the shader for the hit vertices/fragments, then adjust the IBL based on that.
If the shader idea fails, i will try to synch the shader / script simulation of the waves and grab the height from the script. I would like to avoid doing the sim in script though.
Some more Toon Ocean formations and possibilities. I use the standard Unity plane for these, but any plane can be used instead for controllable resolution and height possibilities.
I will provide more detailed planes in the pack as well, so there will be less visible spikes in the curved formations.
I am now working on the interface between the shader and script, so the ocean can be real time controlled easilly.
Also a splash system will be available, the shader is already working and now i am trying to limit it to the tile of interest. I have found a way to control it through checking the world space position of the vertices inside the shader in relation to the splash start.
I have noticed that this look can work as caustics as well, so i will provide a complete sea system, with various effects when all is done. Maybe a part of that system will come in an update though, since i have already overloaded the pack for the first release.
The Dynamic Text System is now ready and is it possible to add custom animated text effects to any particle with a few clicks, from the Toon Effect Maker window.
The manual is almost ready as well and the release will be sometime next week.
About the Toon Ocean system, two different options will be provide. The shader based GPU one will have the speed and more controls advantage, but wont update the collider or scene mesh and the other will be script based and have complete control of the mesh from script, with collider update and other scripting options.
There are also plans to integrate the system with Particle Dynamic Magic after the initial release and offer many more options and samples for the owners of the Particle Dynamic Magic system specifically. Probably a whole new effect category will be added for that purpose, since the possibilities with PDM are endless.
The text system gave me the idea to expand the tool for similar functionality with lights and sound (the sound part may come in an update though)
I am currently working on the Dynamic Light System, that will make it easy to add light with animated parameters to the effects, for more options when creating a new effect
The light and text modules are now finilized and i will start working on the audio.
A lot more functionality is also now available in the editor, with live preview of the library effects, integration of the Sprite Sheet Maker for ease of use and much more.
