FlexFlags – Make Beautiful, Performant Flags

Ello!
I recently wanted to create a scene that needed a moving flag. But I was disappointed to find that their weren’t many ways to make good looking flags that were performant. So I created a Flag plugin!

Here’s a video of what this plugin can do:

Here’s how to use it:

Beginner Uses

When you first open the plugin you will see different settings that you can use, here is what each setting does:

Color/Texture Toggle: The first option is a toggle for either a texture (image on the flag) or a normal color. Select the one that you want.

Color: If you selected color then input a color value, like 255, 255, 255. It might help to copy the color from a part.

Texture: If you selected texture then you need to first design your flag. Due to limitation with beams, when designing make sure that you rotate the flag 90 degrees so that it goes from this:

to this:
That is a very important step, if you don’t do it then your flag will look completely wrong. The flag is inherently 2:1 aspect ratio so make sure to design your image 2:1, but you can change that later if you want. Once you do that then upload the assetID of your image into the plugin (I recommend putting your image in a decal or something first then copy and paste it into the plugin)

SoundID: Insert a soundID! This is the sound the flag makes. You can just keep this the default ID and it works perfectly fine.

Blow Strength: A number from 1-10. This is how strongly the flag blows. 5 is normal.

Subdivisions: A number from 1-20. This is how many different sections the flag has. Don’t go below 5 because then your flag will look like trash.

Flip Texture Direction: This flips the left to right direction of the texture. Note that you still need to rotate the flag 90 degrees. This option is just here incase you flip it -90 degrees instead of 90.

Thats it! Just change those settings to get a flag how you want it to. If you want even cool flags read “More Advanced Uses” below!

More Advanced Uses

Make sure to read Beginner Uses first, that gives you more context for this

If you want to make your flags spicy then I recommend inserting a flag into the workspace and flipping the bool value named OveridePlugin?. This makes it so that you can manually change the settings inherited from the plugin. (Except the BlowStrength and Flip Texture Direction. You still need to change those under the attributes of the main script)

Once you did that its time to create your texture! This is where the fun is. Since beams support transparency you can make some pretty wild flags. When you first insert a flag it is 2:1 aspect ratio. So make sure to keep that in mind!

Here are some ideas for flags:

You can do any shape! If you want to do a banner then you can move the Tip part back further to create a different aspect ratio. When first inserted it is 12 by 6 studs. Thats a 2:1 aspect ratio.
So if you wanted a 3:1 then move the Tip back another 6 studs so its 18 by 6 studs. I hope that made sense :sweat_smile:

If you look at those 4 flags above you will notice that they have some cloth ripples. I feel that this makes the flag more realistic if you wanted to try it. Another thing I do when designing my flags is make the texture white. That way I can edit the color in the beams properties incase I want to change it later.

Downloads:

I’ve spent like WAY to long making this plugin, And then I made it free…
So the least you could do is join my discord server :folded_hands: It would mean the world to me. If you join then you will know when I release new plugins. And we have a small community that loves playing any games you are working on.

Discord Server

Plugin

14 Likes

Wow! Looks cool! I’ll definitely try it. But unfortunately, I can’t join your server because discord is blocked in my country.

2 Likes

Aw that stinks. But thanks for trying the plugin! Let me know what you think :grin:

1 Like

OOHHH YEESS SPACE NEEDS SOME FREEDOM :eagle::eagle::eagle::eagle::eagle::eagle:

It can also be implemented through mesh deformation with bones.

1 Like

:united_states:

Yeah I looked at mesh deformation but it isn’t great for performance if you have a lot of flags. I also want my flags to stand upright and wave epic-ly, not be floppy like a lot of flags with bones are

1 Like