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
Awesome 3D illusion and color gradient effects by Powerbow
Really cool parallax mapping effect by Bobcat
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
