More Types Of Visual Effects (VFX)

[MapleMarvel]

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to create some types of visual effects.
There are some types of common visual effects that are very difficult to create in Roblox. I have wrote about this before, and so I have narrowed down my wish list. The visual effects listed below are some of the top effects that I think can benefit Roblox.

1. Ground Projections
These are graphics that can be projected onto a surface or terrain. They are commonly used as spell effects in games that use magic.

2. Bubbles
Bubbles with effects such as reflectivity, light emission, particles, ground intersections, etc.

3. Better Fire & Explosions
I think the current Roblox fire and explosion are as generic as it gets. Would it be possible to upgrade these or allow options for more interesting and varied fire and explosions.

4. Animated Textures / UVs
Animated textures are textures that are applied to a mesh and are then animated. Animated UVs are similar but animate the UVs associated with a mesh. Both of these are typically used to created special visual effects. Animating the texture or UVs gives the texture a dynamic and live feel.

5. Sprite Sheets
Sprite sheets are used for many things including creating visual effects. These are very popular in game engines, and would be great to have in Roblox.

If Roblox is able to address your issue, how would it improve your game and/or your development experience?
I think Roblox is still playing catch up in the visual effects department compared to other game engines. With more visual effects available to developers, Roblox games would look much more visually appealing.

[Veldaren]

As to Bubbles, Roblox will be shipping a new shield effect Soon™

Watch the stream from RDC 2018 here. Go to 1:36:57.

[Extuls]

Surface projections have also been considered, and an attempt was even made to implement them.

SurfaceProjection object

Alright, I think I’ll finally break the silence on this feature. @programeow prototyped this last November, and here’s what it looked like: https://i.imgur.com/iL4ULLW.gif(image larger than 3072KB) Now comes the hard part… We aren’t going to be able to release this feature as of right now. We want to continue to take a look at options surrounding it but there were serious performance implications when we did this. This approach that is being used in this gif is commonly used in other game…

[Intended_Pun]

I’m beyond disappointed that they couldn’t find a way to implement those. It would have been a huge improvement.

@OP.

Why not use custom particles to make better explosions?

[MapleMarvel]

Why not use custom particles to make better explosions?

Yes, that is the only option I have at the moment. But it is not that easy to make a convincing explosion. I wish there was a built-in object, with adjustable parameters, for nicer explosions and fire.

[TheRings0fSaturn (SaturianNightmare)]

I think if Roblox enabled the use of sprite sheets for particles, that could potentially solve the problem of most custom explosions not being convincing at all.

[WingItMan]

Any news on when this is coming out?
I’m super looking forward to this

[epictitanic6g (CannibalCooper)]

This as well:

I’ve seen that this could be possible with layering a beam with a zebra texture and some particles, but it still doesnt give the effect i’ve been trying to replicate with Roblox’s tools.

Here’s an idea of what i mean

Ignoring the blue, the background of the image is distorted in a circular pattern

Here it is in the BOTW engine with the Ancient Arrow as around it oyu can see it distorting the environment.

I’m not sure if this could potentially be done through something like a displacement map or something similar, as im not too terribly experienced with VFX, but it would be nice to be able to replicate this in engine.

[NinjaNoah240]

This is a great opportunity to share an interesting discovery I made about glass. If you bump the Transparency up to more than should be allowed on a Glass object, the object becomes distorted more than usual. This (from my discovery, don’t know if it will break upon changing some) happens on these Lighting levels:

This is special though, as because it is more than invisible, it will go away as soon as you click off of it. To solve this problem, literally all you have to do is parent a Highlight to it. It doesn’t even need to be enabled! 10 Transparency should be enough for this to replicate what is on your BotW pic.