A sandbox action game is nothing without lots of things to blow up. And in Just Cause 3, Crytek has made sure that the environment is a veritable explosion wonderland. But videogame explosions are more than just cool visuals, they’re a fiery symbol of the collaboration between different disciplines. In this article we’ll look at how they get done.
1. Visual Effects
VFX – visual effects – are a vital component in the tapestry of game design, dazzling players with the likes of awe-inspiring explosions and portals into other dimensions. But they’re also essential for less glamorous but no less important elements, such as torrential rain, enveloping dust storms or ominous smog, immersing gamers in a world that feels authentic and immersive.
To create an effect, artists start by creating a base animation that’s typically composed of multiple components. For example, if they’re working on an explosion effect, the team might first visualise the circle that expands by using points in space, then tweak the timing and colour to make sure the resulting explosion looks convincing both close up and from a distance.
With Core, you can easily add a wide range of visual effects to your games, including character-specific effects (that work with specific characters), environmental effects, magic effects and more. To see them in action, simply drag one of the VFX objects into your viewport or Hierarchy and hit Play!
2. Sound Effects
The explosive visuals of a game don’t stop at the screen, بهترین سایت بازی انفجار must be accompanied by a sound design to really make them come alive. From twanging metal to the rumbling of a nuclear bomb detonating, an epic explosion can only be truly realised through awesome audio.
Whether you’re making a war documentary or just want to add an extra level of intensity to your video game, these royalty-free explosive ambience sound effects are the perfect match for your next military battle or chase scene. Featuring gunfire, missile sounds and shrapnel effects, these explosive sounds are perfect for adding power to your next high-octane action movie trailer or clip.
If you’re looking for a little more creative inspiration, check out the awesome explosion sound effects library from Sweet Justice Sound and their Weaponiser. With 29 presets designed by expert sound designer Barney Oram (Sweet Justice Sound, Demon’s Souls) this collection of 3.8GB worth of explosion sound FX are sure to help inspire your next big game or cinematic project.
3. Scripting
Using the Animation and Animator components with SetTrigger scripts can allow for a wide range of dynamic interactions to be introduced into your game. In the example here we use a sprite sequence as the explosion state and a boolean variable to control when it should play.
The particle graphics used will also have a big impact on how the player “reads” the explosion. Having lots of small separately recognisable particles suggests an exploding fireball while larger and more elongated particles suggest a more extended and dispersed explosion.
A small amount of variation in particle size and rotation can help avoid too much repetition which can look obvious. Many properties have a Random Between Two Constants/Curve option which can be used to introduce variation. A little variation like this can help reinforce the impression that the explosion is a natural, unpredictable effect rather than a controlled mechanical process. You can also add random variation to the Start Delay, Start Lifetime and Start Speed properties to further enhance the effect.
4. Performance
When it comes to dazzling video game effects, few things can rival an explosion. From Doom’s toxic barrels to the atomic firestorms in Divinity: Original Sin, developers are constantly pushing out explosive effects that are bigger, better and more dynamic.
Oftentimes, these effects start out as simple visualisations of points in space, before incorporating a dynamic simulation and scripting. The end result is an amazingly realistic and dynamic effect that completely changes the environment in which it occurs.
In the physics-based card game Explosion in the Laboratory, players are junior chemists mixing chemical compounds. Each turn they play cards into one of two spaces on the board, a research area or an intuition area. When a space is filled to capacity, it explodes, and all of the opposing cards are flipped over and distributed to adjacent spaces. The player with the highest total point score at the end of the game wins.
What’s Next?
Explosion games are a lot of fun. However, they can also be pretty intense – graphically and physically. One of the key elements to a great explosion is physics. To apply a force to objects within the explosion radius a physics function is used that detects any colliders and gets a reference to them.
