cat ~/projects/hover-bikes-fire.shader
Hover Bikes fire effect
Rocket flame for the Somnium Space hover bikes, with custom HLSL shaders, heat distortion, and dust.
I recreated the rocket flame for the Somnium Space hover bikes, making it feel energetic and powerful.
Problem
The old exhaust effect felt flat. The bikes needed a flame with real movement, plus the dust and heat haze you would expect from a rocket engine, all readable from up close and while the bike is moving.
Approach
Custom HLSL/CG shaders in Unity drive the flame look and movement, with vertex displacement to make it pulse and stretch. A separate VFX Graph effect adds the dust and the heat distortion.
twitter.com/i/status/1854975117270438149
VR constraints
Transparent, layered effects like flames and heat distortion overlap a lot of pixels, so they have to stay lean on overdraw and particle count to hold the frame rate in a social VR world.
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ls ~/projects --related // keep playing
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