So I’ve been experimenting in real life with Houdini, Maya & Nuke as I’m currently taking a bachelor’s degree in visual effects. I’m wondering if anyone has any decent tutorials to create custom particle effects for use within Roblox games.
I have tried experimenting, but I don’t know where to start due to Roblox’s restrictive visual particle system.
I’ll link so of my current work that I’ve made for my portfolio, but it would be cool to create and craft different particle and density effects for other people on Roblox and craft my vision of how an effect should look like.
Some of the effects I would like to create in Roblox studio would be:
Smoke FX
Dust FX
Magical FX
Destructive FX (May not be possible yet)
And here is some of my work, so you know what level I am in the real world.
Even though these can be created using Houdini’s procedural tools, I would also like to see what is possible within Roblox.
I haven’t got decent knowledge of coding in Lua, but if it’s a potential pathway to creating Roblox’s effects, then I’ll learn it.
Thanks for reading my support thread; I am happy and grateful for any help I receive. If anyone has questions regarding my work, then I’ll be more than happy to answer those.
Roblox is extremely limited when it comes to particle effects. The level of skill you show is far beyond the capabilities of Roblox currently.
This article is BASICALLY all there is you can do:
Some people try to get really complex, but nothing to the level that you show is possible. If you want to get even remotely close to replicating your higher-quality work, I would recommend just playing around with emitters with a bunch of different images and properties.
Some people have used 3D modeling software to literally upload thousands of meshes like “frames” for the example of water shown, where it switches from frame to frame using a script. It’s insane and way too much for any functional Roblox game.
Yeah, it isn’t enjoyable, really, as games currently need an update in simulations for games. Roblox is probably worried about optimization, which is understandable. Still, if they spend time on VFX technology, they can make custom sims on Roblox memory and CPU efficient, so it works on all types of computers. If Fortnite can do it on a smartphone, Roblox can do it to their game engine.
I wrote a request to Roblox to add VFX/Houdini FX support to the engine. That way, a developer could theoretically export an animated Houdini file and import that directly into Roblox studio, ready for game integration.
Thanks for your help and support, though. Much appreciate your honesty in terms of the current particle emitters on Roblox. The whole system just needs an uphaul in technology, especially since, in the coming months, we’re getting PBR texture support.
when i look at other engines particle emitter more basic features. it really doesnt look that hard to implement the ability to animation a particles rotation overtime. but u cant.