Godot 4.2 - Particle Effects Tutorial.. Deep Dive!

Hey everyone. Hope you are enjoying your day... And looking forward to Christmas!
I have finally managed to finish my Godot 4.2 Particle Effects tutorial (well, the first part at least). This is a monster tutorial that has taken me a very long time to put together, so I hope it makes sense and is useful to you guys and girls out there.
We're going to cover the "basics" in this part, although the basics will give you 90% of what you need imo.
Let me know what you think? Was it useful? Was it understandable!
As I say, this did take me a VERY long time to put together, so I hope you will put a like down for me. Hey, maybe subscribe if you're new to the channel. Or even a comment to let me know. Whatever works :)
Enjoy!
Links:
Github source code: COMING SOON!
Godot particle systems online docs: docs.godotengine.org/en/stabl...
Link to particle spritesheet: docs.godotengine.org/en/stabl...
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:08 Getting Started
5:37 Time Settings
12:50 Drawing Settings
15:29 Draw Passes
19:12 Process Materials Introduction
20:32 Process Materials Particle Flags
21:39 Process Materials Spawn
34:30 Process Materials Animated Velocity
39:21 Process Materials Accelerations
43:19 Process Materials Display
50:50 Example 1: Spinning Sphere
58:08 Example 2: Fire Eeffect
1:08:40 Outro!

[@richbuilds_com]

Amount Ratio allows you to set the number of visible particles dynamically at run time. The particle shader needs to reserve space on the GPU for all it's particles before it runs (this is the Amount). Amount Ratio allows you set how many of Amount are visible AFTER it's started running. ie. you reserve space for 100 particles with Amount, and show only 50 of them with Amount Ratio = .5 You can then show 75 by setting Amount Ratio = .75 while the shader is still running. I use it for things like rocket trails that need to emit all the time, but need to emit more particles while boost is held down.

[@HurricaneSA]

Amount Ratio is simply used when you need to randomize the number of particles visible at any given time. Think of a fire where the number of sparks coming of it changes all the time. The Ratio is how often it should change the amount of particles. Say you set the amount to 100 particles and the ratio to 0.5. It will still spawn 100 particles but it will take 50 of the 100 particles and spread them randomly while the other 50 will spawn as usual. So you might see 10, 50, 20, 10, 5, 5 particles or 50, 20, 20 , 10 particles per spawn cycle. The total amount is still 100 but just not at the same time.

[@widearchshark3981]

BRILLIANT! Thank you!

[@AstroTechGuy]

You can use the damping-option for a blood-splatter-effect or similar things. High velocity at start of the particle and a very high lifetime.. Then you can use the damping to stop the motion of the blood-particles and it looks as if there's blood on the floor. And to make it more realistic you add a little script to the particles and give it the direction from the bullet, that hit the enemy. Very easy to make and gives your game a cool effect. And your tutorial is really great and very helpful. Good job :)

[@Taazered]

loved this

[@Overbound]

Finally the video I was looking for.

[@ElementalTJ]

Great video. Subscribed. Thank you!

[@hermandarr6274]

just what I was looking for...more please.

[@widearchshark3981]

That is so good to hear, thank you. This took me a LONG time to put together, so I hope it makes sense. I've added chapters now, so you should be able to go straight to the point you need for future reference. And yep, more videos on there way mate too. Stay tuned!

[@fkkirk3714]

very good tutorial, thanks so much!!

[@widearchshark3981]

You're very welcome!

[@risajadewasurendre8298]

Thanks a lot, This is what I needed, Thank you

[@widearchshark3981]

Superb. Really glad it's useful to you. As I was going through it, I realised there were a few things that I'd never touched like orbital and radial velocity. There's so many settings, it's easy to get overwhelmed. I hope you'll be able to take what I've shown you and create some great effects !!

[@risajadewasurendre8298]

Your explanation is exactly what I needed. Now I can understand what each property is used for. As someone clueless in the realm of particle effects, your video brought some life to the subject. Thank you@@widearchshark3981

[@normalcivilian]

I always went straight into quadmesh and texture when making particles. Had to struggle to find out how things worked and what shaped they were, but never actually tried going with primitive shapes to test cause I never saw a tutorial doing it. Thank you for this video, it made me understand particle so much better. 😩

[@widearchshark3981]

Means a lot, thank you.

[@amirosman8797]

This is really amazing, there aren't many tutorials on Particle Effects and VFX in Godot, so, if you could make more of this it would be great

[@widearchshark3981]

Hey mate. Thank you so much! Yeah, I do plan on making more for sure. I'm wondering if I can start some sort of "Godot Particle Effects" library somehow so people can just grab what they need. On balance, I doubt I can cover the more advanced topics in one go. May need to break them down into separate ones for collisions, trails, sub emitters etc. So watch this space !

[@amirosman8797]

@@widearchshark3981 I'm thrilled to hear that you're considering more tutorials. A Godot Particle Effects library sounds like an awesome idea, and breaking down advanced topics into separate tutorials makes a lot of sense. Looking forward to the future content, definitely watching this space! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the community

[@krispybutter2555]

Very nice tutorial! Do you have an idea for when the second part will come out?

[@widearchshark3981]

Hey there, thank you so much. Yeah, I started making the tutorial and managed about half of the explanations. But it got so damn fiddly to work out and get something concise in a video. But I do owe everyone that video don't I. I'll try and finish it off !

[@krispybutter2555]

@@widearchshark3981 Sweet! Making these videos is probably a ton of work! That's awesome 😎 I'm excited to see it!

[@georgezimmer5622]

You're channel is really great but you should organize your playlist before you grow too much. It's not that hard to find the videos you want because there are not that much of them yet but it can soon become a mess. You should make playlists for specifics projects like your matchstick and tower defense game and use the Godot Tutorial playlist for standalone videos like this one. Cheers and hope to see more video from you.

[@widearchshark3981]

Very fair point. I just started adding the videos to the playlist without really thinking it through! I intend to start recording content again very shortly. I'll try and get the playlist(s) sorted :)

[@serendipinator]

When will the next one be out? This was fantastic, but the thing I really have trouble with is trails... I have no idea how to make them do anything.

[@widearchshark3981]

Haha, OK. I will be working on the next one this week. However, it might not include trails as this is indeed a fiddly subject. I'm going to cover collisions and sub emitters. If there is time, I will also cover trails. Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed it !

[@Overbound]

I figured out that the Amount Ratio is a Randomizer for the amount of particles. Its like a radio for how often the full amount (which now acts more like a MAX).

[@widearchshark3981]

Great! Thanks for this. So I wonder how this differs from the Randomize value?

[@Overbound]

Good question...@@widearchshark3981

[@Overbound]

I guess the amount emitted is (amount x amount radio) / time@@widearchshark3981 so for lack of a better way to describe it its a time controlled random. Its not really random but effectively kind of appears that way.

[@Overbound]

Has anyone found a way to billboard a random image from a set of sprites? (sorry if its in the video only 24 minutes in).

[@widearchshark3981]

Hey there. Thanks for your comments and this question. In short, I certainly haven't. The Draw Passes strikes me as the really obvious place for this to exist. Instead, as far as I can tell, all draw passes are emitted at the same time. Would be great to have some settings there to be sequential, random etc. I really can't see the value of the way the draw pass system works at the moment. Next video coming very soon. Hope you find them both useful!

[@Overbound]

Thanks for the reply. I suppose for now I will use 3 emitters with different sprites, hopefully this feature is added in the future.@@widearchshark3981

[@patty4449]

I think the particle system could profit leeching some stuff from blender tbh