Hi, I made this module for a game I’m working on and I wanted to release it to the community for use in your own projects
What is DistanceFade?
DistanceFade is a module that aims to recreate transparency falloff shaders commonly found in games outside of Roblox.
The module essentially works by “projecting” the effect onto a table of target parts. The parts can be arranged with varying sizes and rotations to create different shapes for the effect (the thumbnail is 3 parts arranged in a curve, for example). 21 different customization settings allow for more complicated effects like animated textures, texture offsets, colors and more.
Note:
The module as it is now is more of a foundation than a perfect solution… it isn’t perfectly optimized and still has some flaws. I made it for a specific use case in my game (map barriers that fade in when close), but designed the module to be fairly flexible in what it can be used for. I probably won’t be updating it so feel free to modify and redistribute it as you see fit
If you’re interested in other stuff I make it’ll be on my yt channel here
Examples
Download
DistanceFade.rbxm (15.6 KB)
Template models
HexagonBarrier.rbxm (21.2 KB)
RedBarrier.rbxm (20.5 KB)
TransparentParts.rbxm (20.7 KB)
Forcefield.rbxm (56.4 KB)
Basic Usage
Step 1 - Initialization
Require the module and initialize it using the .new() constructor. You can have multiple forcefield objects running in the same scriptlocal DistanceFade = require(game.ReplicatedStorage.DistanceFade) -- or wherever the module is located
local distanceFadeObj = DistanceFade.new() --initialize the object
Step 2 - Add target faces
DistanceFade works by applying the effect to individual BasePart faces. For every face you want to have the effect on, you need to use :AddFace() with 2 parameters, the target part and the Enum.NormalId of the facelocal partToAdd -- can be any BasePart
distanceFadeObj:AddFace(partToAdd, Enum.NormalId.Front) -- can add to any face, in this case the front and back of the part
distanceFadeObj:AddFace(partToAdd, Enum.NormalId.Back)
Step 3 - Running the effect
Use :Step() to update the simulation at any time. Use Heartbeat for a visually smooth effect. TargetPos parameter is a Vector3game:GetService("RunService").Heartbeat:Connect(function()
local targetPos -- the position the effect is centered around
distanceFadeObj:Step(targetPos) -- if parameter is nil, automatically targets local character's root part
end)
Step 4 - Apply settings
Use :UpdateSettings() to update the effect at any time (applies settings to all faces of that object). If you want to update the effect on individual faces, use :UpdateFaceSettings() (overwrites the object settings)game:GetService("RunService").Heartbeat:Connect(function()
local newSettings = {} --table of settings to modify. Full list below
distanceFadeObj:UpdateSettings(newSettings)
local targetPos -- the position the effect is centered around
distanceFadeObj:Step(targetPos) -- if parameter is nil, automatically targets local character's root part
end)
Full list of settings:
local DEFAULT_SETTINGS = {
["DistanceOuter"] = 16, -- Distance at which the effect starts to appear
["DistanceInner"] = 4, -- Distance at which the effect is fully visible
["EffectRadius"] = 16, -- Size of the effect when in range
["EffectRadiusMin"] = 0, -- Size of the effect when out of range
["EdgeDistanceCalculations"] = false, -- When set to true, distance to target is calculated from the face edges rather than the face itself. Can be more accurate in certain cases
["Texture"] = "rbxassetid://18838056070", -- TextureId
["TextureTransparency"] = 0, -- Transparency of the texture when in range
["TextureTransparencyMin"] = 1, -- Transparency of the texture when out of range
["BackgroundTransparency"] = 1, -- Transparency of the texture background when in range
["BackgroundTransparencyMin"] = 1, -- Transparency of the texture background when out of range
["TextureColor"] = Color3.fromRGB(255, 255, 255), -- Color of the texture
["BackgroundColor"] = Color3.fromRGB(255, 255, 255), -- Color of the texture background
["TextureSize"] = Vector2.new(8, 8), -- Size of the texture in studs per tile. Can potentially cause clipping issues if greater than EffectRadius * 2
["TextureOffset"] = Vector2.new(0, 0), -- Texture offset in studs
-- SurfaceGui settings
["ZOffset"] = 0,
["AlwaysOnTop"] = false,
["Brightness"] = 1,
["LightInfluence"] = 0,
["MaxDistance"] = 1000,
["PixelsPerStud"] = 100,
["SizingMode"] = Enum.SurfaceGuiSizingMode.PixelsPerStud
}
More advanced examples can be found in the template models dropdown above. Also make sure to read through the module code if you want more in-depth explanations of each function. Please leave any questions or feedback and I’ll do my best to help
