pucklovesgames

Projectile Trails - FILES

Added 2019-10-15 06:38:47 +0000 UTC

Here's a way to make smokey projectile trails using the standard Unity Linerenderer. It can be used for standard gunfire, lasers, and also a lighting gun type of effect. -ZAP!-

A lot of the work is done via script, to pass data to the line renderer and material.

Each projectile trail uses it's own Linerenderer and Material instance, which works fine, but isn't ideal or as optimised as it could be - unfortunately those are the limitations of the Unity Linerenderer, which don't give you access to storing more information on a vertex by vertex basis (like custom data in the UV channels), or creating multiple lines with one renderer. There are external assets that do line rendering much better, such as Vectrosity - but to keep it usable for everyone without requiring other assets, I've worked within the limitations of the built in LineRenderer here.

You can also use a shader like this on particle trails with a bit of tweaking - it can look very cool when your particles have smokey dissipating trails behind them.

Hopefully it gives you an idea of fun things you can do with line rendering!