Final Major Project - Dust Particles

  Dust Particle Effects

    In one of my previous projects this year, I attempted to make a dust particle system for the first time and although it ended up functioning just fine, I didn't quite like how it didn't exactly give the player the impression that there's dust, the particles looked more like glowing fireflies because they were a little too big and a little too bright. So, I decided to recreate the same particle effect system in my Final Major Project, only this time figure out how to adjust things properly. 

Part One

    I began by creating the particle - then, I adjusted the Emitter Properties in order to change the settings. For example, when it comes to making dust particles specifically, I like to tick the Interpolated Spawning which is what makes some spawn modules update in the spawn stage instead of in the actual particle update stage. In general, modules in this section are what sets up the initial values for each and every particle. 

    Then, I like to adjust the emitter state and the spawn rate in the Emitter Update. There, I set up the rate in which I want my particles to spawn inside my scene. Once I've done these, I move onto the Particle Spawn where I adjust things like the lifetime of the particle system, for example - and what I mean by that is for what specific amount of time are the dust particles going to both spawn and hover in the air before restarting. In addition to that, I also messed around a little bit with the sprite attributes because I wanted to get the right size this time around. Underneath the Initialize Particle section, there is the Box Location which is where I adjust in what space and how far are the dust particles going to spread. 

Part Two

     Once I've adjusted all of these, I like to move onto the Particle Update which is where I change the particle state, the color and the sprite scale. In this case, I set my Scale Mode to RGB and Alpha Separately and randomised the spawn rate of the particles in my scene. I also set the minimum value to 0.35 and the maximum value to 30.0 so that there would be a very visible range, making the particles look more realistic - for example, the player would be able to see them more clearly when they're hit by direct light and less clearly when they're spawning in a slightly darker corner. In addition to that, I like to set the float up so that their movement would be more random. Then, I adjusted the vector scale to a 5.0 in the Add Velocity section. 

    Finally, I played around a little bit with the Sprite Renderer at the very bottom, just in order to tweak some things. 

    

Result

    In this case, I'm much happier with the way the dust particle system turned out as opposed to the one I made in my previous project because this time.