As a developer, it is currently impossible to have stationary or 3-dimensional particles in a game.
In this post, I’ll go over a few things I’d like to see roblox do to enhance particles in the near future.
Stationary Particles
In the below video, a grass field is made using particles in Blender. You can skip to the end if you’d like, but the result is there.
These particles are stationary, so they won’t disappear/reappear, and they have a 3-dimensional appearance too. I’m seeing more and more of these types of particles and it would be very neat to see them in roblox.
3-Dimensional Particles
Below, there’s a video featuring these types of particles. It’s good to use for debris, rocks, or other things that are found on the ground.
To be honest, I could live without this one, but it’s still nice to have there as a backup.
Smoke
Smoke is ugly in roblox, let’s be honest.
I’d like to move further from images of smoke that create billboard guis to a more realistic approach. I really like how the Frostbite engine handles smoke. I realize it’s not open source, so it might not be worth anything, but here’s a short video a minute through showing the 3D effects that would be my dream:
Here’s what I’m not after:
https://gyazo.com/6c39ab7782d37606c62a454444704138
This especially causes a large problem when people walk into the smoke. Here’s what I’m talking about:
https://gyazo.com/dc4c6ce46e0ec160e18e1126e02f3987
Players can see right through the smoke, which in some cases completely destroys the whole purpose of the smoke.
The only current alternative I can think of would be multiple smoke parts, which causes lag while still not looking very good.
https://gyazo.com/8489408c49d4e18735d3f4aceb8a4d8c
Gyazo doesn’t have a high enough framerate to show it, but the clouds are all fighting over which is in front and which is in the back. I would love to see a reform in this division.
Conclusion
I’m extremely happy with all the changes ROBLOX has been making to their engine, and I think the time will come for this to get done, but I’d love to see the day where roblox particles are as beautiful as the many other games out there, giving its developers a whole new light to demonstrate their creations in.
Edit: Fixed link to the first video