The Output Particle Quad Context: Controls the rendering of the particles.
You can also expose these variables to the editor and to C# scripts, which allows you to manipulate the Visual Effect during the game’s runtime. This is useful when building a complicated graph that uses a specific value in many different calculations.
The Blackboard stores references to variables that you can use throughout a Visual Effect Graph. To the side of your graph, there’s an empty box called the Blackboard, which is labeled with the name of your Visual Effect, Burst. That means, for example, you can’t add a spawn rate block to an Update or Output context. The steps execute in the order they’re listed. There are currently four context nodes, or contexts for short.Įach context contains blocks, which define particle properties during specific steps in the simulation. This interface uses a system of nodes and blocks to construct the order of operations of a visual effect and to perform calculations to manipulate particle properties. Name the new Visual Effect Burst, because you’ll use this graph to create a burst effect later in the tutorial.ĭouble-click Burst to open the VFX Graph editor. Exploring the VFX GraphĬreate a Visual Effect Graph in the RW/VFX project folder by right-clicking and selecting Create ▸ Visual Effects ▸ Visual Effect Graph. Now, it’s time to take your first look at the Visual Effect Graph by creating one and exploring its features. It’s not ideal for low-end PCs or mobile devices. The VFX graph runs on the High Definition Render Pipeline (or HDRP), which requires a higher-end GPU.Controlling a visual effect with scripts is more difficult - but not impossible!.This means that VFX particles won’t collide with physics objects or respond to global settings like gravity. VFX particles aren’t affected by the physics engine, only by physical forces specified in the graph.Here are a few key differences to keep in mind when trying to decide which system is right for your project: However, even with the power of the GPU behind it, the VFX Graph is not always an effective substitute for the particle system. As it turns out, this also makes the GPU ideal for handling the mathematics behind complex visual effects. You need this ability to render graphics. This difference is important because the GPU is designed to perform many small mathematical operations at the same time. The particle system uses the CPU, while the Visual Effect Graph uses the GPU. The main difference between the two systems stems from the hardware used to simulate the effect. You can configure properties over the lifetime of a particle, how the particle is rendered and which forces act on each particle. This tool, along with the Visual Effect object you’ll add to your scene, work much like the particle system. The Visual Effect Graph is a specialized tool that allows you to create complex visual effects using an intuitive visual interface. The first step toward this goal is to understand the Visual Effect Graph, what it’s capable of and its workflow.
The goal of this tutorial is to spice up the upgrade process with some cool visual effects, making it more interesting and engaging. Once you’ve upgraded a few towers, stop the playback. When the resources have finished pooling, they disappear and the selected upgrade appears on the tower. Selecting a tower and clicking an upgrade triggers an animation that pools the necessary resources in the middle of the screen. The UI has four Tower Upgrade buttons and three counters to track materials in the top-left corner. You’ll see a castle with towers you can select.
Next, press Play to see the project in action. Scripts: Here, you’ll find custom scripts.ĭouble-click the scene file MainScene in RW/Scenes, to open it.VFX: You’ll store the Visual Effect Graphs you create here.Prefabs: Find your pre-built GameObjects here.Extract them, then open the IntroVFXGraph Starter project using the Unity Editor.
Use the Download Materials button at the top or bottom of the tutorial to download the starter and final projects.
You’ll need a fairly powerful PC with a good GPU to get the most out of this tutorial. Note: This tutorial uses the High Definition Render Pipeline and depends on a powerful GPU for the Visual Effect Graph visualizations.