Type 2 Prototype - Particle Effects and Environment Additions

Particle Effects and Environment changing

So within the environment, I used effects in both particles and environment effects to give the world a much more effective look and environment feeling.  With it being horror... I felt it would be more interesting to dive into what I used, why i used it and what the results were.

Low Poly Dense Fog Effect

So one thing that I wanted to work is in relation to certain rooms being inaccessible.  I wanted the idea of a pollution or toxic gas, with this i designed a material with aid of a low poly fog design that uses planes and drags the area around that i can affect the density.  It gives a good effect and the fog has a nice stylish look to it which i really like the look off.  I use this in rooms like below to give the look of a "oh no" room.

The effect provided what i wanted, although i would like to muddle with the effect more to get a less denser look but overall it provides what is needed.

Environment Fog Effect

As the area that the player is working in has a fire, the idea that there would be smoke was initially an idea that I wanted to make in the area that the fire is.. I initially designed a fog particle effect but a lot of the different attempts still made the FPS drop to single units.  Looking at the shader screen, the particle is never optimised properly and effectively will cause a massive problem with the FPS.

I then got suggested to look at environment fog that is part of the standard UE4 project.  The environment fog allowed for the effect that I used in screen and what I liked is that the lighting effect by making it brighter and more defined but providing the effect of a fog or smoke effect.

It works really nicely and with the dust particle effect. I really like what it does to the game.

Low Poly Fire Effect

Low poly fire i used from a tutorial.  I loved the effect it gave, and felt it was effective to work along with the theme design. 

Its really good but like the fog, the graphical demand on the pc effectively lowers the FPS a lot due to how its used within the environment.  Although not ticking over like an event tick, the drastic drop in processing is very noticeable when developing this particle which is why I used it sparingly as possible but i love how it works behind the broken rock doorway where the monster starts on the map.

Dust Particle Effects

The dust particle effect is the most efficient particle in my prototype.  One thing to notice within the environment is the shader complexity and trying to not overload it or over compute the shaders as like seen with the fire can cause massive issues in regards to FPS and processing.  Luckily, this doesn't cause any issues in the shader effects and effectively works in the whole level and doesn't cause an FPS drop.  Although that sounds strange that I should not be expecting it, the data coming out of the dust particles is more frequently rendered and held than the fire particle effect, overall the effect it provides is brilliant for the level.