STEP 2: GPU Particles Settings
- Select the GPU Particles2D node created in STEP 1 and view the Inspector window.
- Click on
<Empty>next to Process Material and select New ParticleProcessMaterial.
- Look at the central window. If you zoom in, you should see small dots falling downward. This is due to gravity. To make it clearer, let’s temporarily set the gravitational acceleration to 0.
- Click on ParticleProcessMaterial to expand it. Change the y value under Accelerations > GravityRate from 98 to 0. Gravity will be disabled, and the particles will no longer fall.
- Godot’s particle system is highly advanced with many settings. Here, we will only check the most basic parts. Please ignore all menus except “Spawn” for now.
- First is Spawn > Position. This changes the emission range. Try setting it as follows:
Emission Shape Scale: x30 y30
Emission Shape: Sphere
Dots should now appear within a circular area with a radius of 30 centimeters.
- Skip the next setting, Angle, as it is a special configuration.
- Spawn > Velocity sets the direction and speed of particle emission. Try setting the Initial Velocity min to 10 and max to 100. The particles should move at speeds between 10 and 100 at a 45-degree angle to the right.
- Try setting the direction to y:1 and Spread to 30. Now they will be emitted at a 30-degree angle downward.
- Settings other than Spawn make the movement of these particles more complex and will be added according to your needs. For now, close the Process Material and try the other basic menus.
- Try changing Max Amount at the top of the Inspector from 8 to 16. This sets the number of particles, so the count should double.
- Try changing Time > Lifetime from 1 to 0.3. This indicates the duration of the particles. Since new particles are generated as soon as others disappear, the movement should become more intense.
- Try turning on OneShot. Since the particle display will stop, please also turn on the Emitting checkbox. As the name suggests, OneShot emits particles only once and does not regenerate them. Emitting toggles the particle generation state on/off. When OneShot is on, Emitting will automatically turn off after the particle duration ends.
- Return to Time and try changing Explosiveness from 0 to 1. As the name suggests, this option creates an explosion-like effect, emitting all particles instantly instead of continuously.
- Finally, let’s add a texture. Drag and drop any image from the File System window under templates > objects > items > I_others into the texture slot.
- The dots have now changed to the texture image.
Next tutorial here:
チュートリアル: 表現強化コース #2 光と影を使おう。
Ideas for those who want to adjust further.
The textures are all at the same angle; I want them to be random.
By changing Spawn > Angle in the Process Material that we skipped earlier, you can randomize the initial angles.
I want to add acceleration.
You can adjust acceleration in the Accelerations menu of Process Material. You can set accelerations such as Linear, Radial (from the center), and Tangential (circular motion).
I want to add variation to the movement.
You can change the movement, such as angle, direction, and circular motion, using AnimatedVelocity in Process Material.
I want to add variation to the appearance.
You can set size, color, animation, etc., in the Display menu of Process Material.
The features explained here are just the basics of Godot’s 2D particle system. For more details, please refer to the official documentation below:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/4.x/tutorials/2d/particle_systems_2d.html