Hydra Particle System Update 02/10

 Hydra Particles Unity forum thread

[.gif of flames test using Hydra Particle system]

It has been a few months since my last update on our particle system, but it has come so far since then!

We have set up some performance tests set up for the emitter for both Web and Android to allow for people to try it out for themselves.

Not only is it now crammed full of new features and had an interface upheaval, but it has been optimised considerably to run quicker on a number of different platforms. We have also decided to cut down the number of different renderers we were going to offer, since the benefits didn't quite out-way the draw backs. We are working solely using the Mesh Renderer now [baked] which combines all the particle into one single mesh.

[New interface]
Inspector has been tidied up considerably to make the Emitter easier to work with.

[Quaternion Rotation]

Per-particle rotational value, with the opportunity to lock the rotation and angular velocity to a specific axis. Works with curves/constant values

[Freeze position/rotation in an axis]
We have added the option to fix the positions and rotations to a specific axis which is excellent for working with 2D.

[A number of new forces]

A few additional forces have been added to give a wider range of ways to manipulate the particles.

Directional - Directional force simply adds a specified velocity to the particle velocity (useful for things like wind).

Gravity - A directional force that applies the gravitational force specified in the project physics settings.

Gravity Well - Attracts particles based on proximity to the gravity well.

Target Force – Similar to Gravity Well. Rotates the velocity towards or away from the force center - based on proximity.

Look at Force - Turns particles to face the force position when in proximity to it

Dampen Force – Lose or gain velocity over time.

Turbulence - Uses simplex noise to offset the particle velocity