Distortion particles (how to make them fade in/out)

[Hayrack]

1) If you're running UT3 game on good rig with maxed detail settings, you should have seen this effect on particles: shock combos, rocket explosions, Avril rocket explosions etc.

''Naked'' effect looks like this:

(Map - default UT3 VCTF-Sandstorm)





It's a simple, flat, always camera-facing emitter, however, material might be applied on a spherical static mesh.
Yeah, it grows from small to big, then fades quickly, but nicely.

2) Check out material trees i just posted. Materials used in particle system must be set up correctly:

''1) In material editor, under ''Usage'' make sure you have ''bUsedWithParticleSprites'', ''bUsedWithBeamTrails'', ''bUsedWithParticleSubUV'' checked.

2) In material tree, you should have ''VertexColor'' expression assigned somewhere, f.e. connected with the rest of setup via ''Multiply'' expression.''

3) Looks pretty decent! From video i'm not sure if aurora fades in/out or not. Playing with material expressions should help tweaking overall looks. However, it might take a whole book to explain all possible combinations, but i'm ready to answer to a specific issue

4) What to use: Materials or Cascade - it all depends on complexity of the effect. Materials don't hurt performance as much as particles do.

[TKBS]

*My understanding of a distortion is an effect such as: water or maybe glass, however, from your post i cannot understand what you are doing/ and have done- and why you wish to use both material expressions and cascade to achieve this- and how?lol
*Can you explain / or show/ what effect this creates & what it looks like?

- To me, [coz, im stupid] it sounds like you used your material expressions to achieve a fade out then applied that material to an emiter-
[example]a big ball,
- its grows blurry (some colour) then disappear?
how does the fade out look- like a light turning on and off?- or alot better- ?

*i imagine a fade to be:_A similar effect to the transition from 1 post processing volume {desaturated} to another {without desaturation}?
[a smoother transition]

*sorry if this sounds like ****- but i am very interested in what you have done/ why u use both/ and how it looks.

*The following, short footage, is a a material [random] applied to an emitter/
- Using Cascade i achieved a simple slow - turning on and off- effect-
is this the same as your fade out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_oofJ-68s


*This next video is an example using material expressions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-N5g4taII8
*Could i manipulate my material expressions set up [in the following video{sky colours}] to make them fade in and out better?:
-Should i use cascade instead or aswel?
- or is my material expressions without an emitter/ cascade ok?


do you see what i am trying to say?
- you want a fade out effect - but to me, it look slike you are using both material expressions and cascade to achieve the same effect?

Many Thanks

[Hayrack]

I also multiplied distortion ''branch'' by VertexColor alpha channel and it works

Many thanks, buddy.

In case anybody else will face this problem:

[Cr4zy]

You need to plug the Alpha (Bottom white node on the vertex colour)of the vertex colour into the Multiply. At the moment you're multiplying the RGB and not the alpha which you should be for opacity to work as you wish.

ColourOverLife would use the RGB, AlphaOverLife uses the alpha channel.

[Hayrack]

Sort of...

[Shivan Hunter]

Does your material have a VertexColor component?

[Hayrack]

Has anyone tried setting up emitter with distortion particles that fades in and out nicely? I can't achieve this effect. Emitter creates one large particle that grows and then suddenly ''blink'' - disappears.

Tweaking Color- and AlphaOverLife curves doesn't help:

AlphaOverLife:

In 0
Out 0
(CurveAuto)

In 0.5
Out 1
(CurveAuto)

In 0.9
Out 0
(CurveAuto)


I have ColorOverLife module enabled, material is additive unlit, uses Distortion and Opacity channels, has VertexColor expression enabled, necessary ''UsedWith'' checked.

What I do wrong?