I needed to add a ‘thrust’ effect to the jetboard and particles were the obvious way to go rather than trying to animate flames or something which would have a) taken me ages and b) probably looked shite.
As you can see from the images – my first attempt was a complete fail but I got there in the end. At least I think it looks pretty good now anyway.
The main extra functionality I needed to add to my particle generator code was the ability to set an initial velocity for the particle generator itself, ie so the particles appeared to be generated by something that was moving rather than from a simple static source. Back to ‘O’ level physics here! Without this the particles tailed behind the jetboard far too much, and if I simply fixed the particle generator to track the jetboard the flame looked much too ‘rigid’. This way I think it tails pretty nicely when you change direction. In fact I’m a bit worried it almost looks too ‘realistic’!?
The horizontal and vertical flames together perhaps look a little weird but I’m not really sure what to do about that at the moment. I think I need to shelve this particular rabbit-hole for a while and move onto something else.
Dev Time: 0.75 days
Total Dev Time: approx 10.75 days
First Attempt == Major Fail
Looking Better After Much Tweaking
Added Horizontal Thrusters
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