With this we have the main body of our effect, it is time to add a few layers of details, starting with some foam spray going up. If we do not do this, the effect might feel tagged on a bit. (I combined both effects in one mesh, as this means less particle emitters.) This is to make sure the effect is more grounded on the water surface. To finish this up, we use a vertex color gradient going from the center to the edges to make sure the center dissolves first.īringing a few layers of this together with different colors, panning speeds and dissolve thresholds, gives us the result above.Īfter that we duplicate the effect and scale it down over the Y axis. The amount that gets clipped progresses over time. The TLDR is: we generate a simple Perlin noise based on world space and use that noise in the shader to clip parts of the mesh away. More information can be found in a previous blog post: ). To improve the vanishing of the water further we make use of the dissolve technique we have come to use A LOT in this project. The bottom half of the texture is empty, like this we can pan from the empty area towards the textured part to fake a growing volume of water, and then back into the empty area when the water has to disappear. To do this a few things are going on, we start with a few variations of simple panning textures like these: So with a similar approach we can create a cone mesh going outwards, and scale it up over time.įor this part of the effect some extra sense of directionality would help so rather than going with one color we will add indication of water waves.

Of course we also need water splashing sideways. To make it all work, all we need to do is have each mesh scale up and then back down over it’s lifetime and we get the above result.Īs this forms the core the effect, we should avoid too much color variation as this would create visual noise, giving less freedom to add additional layers of detail. Finally from this mesh, we can cut out some rings and extrude them outwards to create some extra foam going around the cone. Another similar mesh can be used to mix in the main water body to add some patches of foam. To achieve this we can adjust a simple cone to match the shape we want. We need a body of water that splashes up and then drops back into the water. While not all techniques can be used in the same way for a water splash, it did point me in the direction of using geometry for the main body of the splash rather than try to do everything with particles and flipbooks, which would result in a very flat looking effect. In it, amongst other things, he discusses how they created some of the waterfall effects in Rime. Typically, before I get started, I look around the web to see what other games have done to draw some inspiration from and I bumped into this amazing talk by Simon Trümpler aka Simon Schreibt ( ). On top of that we wanted to exaggerate the splash so it feels more impactful. This very high frequency of detail does not match our game so we wanted to stick to larger shapes. In reality, when you drop an object in water, depending on the object, a larger body of water can be displaced but usually you only see a lot of smaller water spray splashing in all directions. Our game uses a flat colored, low poly look, so that meant we had to make sure the water matched. Today I am going to give you a breakdown of the splash the player makes when they drop to their wet demise. So we set out to create a bunch of new shaders and VFX to provide us with fast moving, foamy water, waterfalls, splashes, … On top of that the player could fall in the water, so we also had to prepare for this (unfortunate) event. This did mean that the water systems we had in place were woefully inadequate to make this work. But then one of our level designers decided it would be cool to have a platforming section where the player has to cross some river rapids. Up until recently we did not have much water in our game, except for some relaxing sandy beaches. Mix and match between three different and unique play styles, fight your way through swarms of enemies, engage in thrilling boss fights and overcome exciting environmental challenges as you discover that there is more to your quest than meets the eye…. In Trifox you play as a multi-talented fox on a quest to restore their recently invaded and plundered home. Trifox is a top-down twin-stick action adventure game (that’s a mouthful) set in a unique and colorful world, inspired by classic platform games. We are currently working on our first indie title, Trifox.

Hi, I’m Emiel De Paepe, one of the developers at Glowfish Interactive.

Water splash gif animation