Fluid Aura Trail. Update 12.11.2025 (day.month.year)
Video Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NJmZC8iK_0
Video Extra Map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDotuaL_kqU
Video Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8nhfcjFvf0
And other clips on the YouTube channel.
Fake fluid effects based on Niagara Grid2d technology.
The simulation core is made without a pressure field, divergence and other complex techniques that are used to create fluid simulations. Emitting simulation from Stencil buffer or from particles.
Here, the main movement is based on a user variable of wind, system movement and custom noise.
The set includes many examples with smoke, fire, explosions, shock wave and multi-colored magic.
For all examples, 1 universal emitter.
All changes are made through the scratchpad so that you can make the emitter independent and make any changes to the emitter and internal logic (need to duplicate the module). Due to this, each vfx artist can modify it and add new functions to suit their needs.
For the asset to work, you need to enable several things in the project:
1. You need to enable the "NiagaraFluids" plugin.
2. You need to enable distance field generation in the project settings - "Generate Mesh Distance Field". (Not necessarily, only for particle collisions)
3. You need to enable Stencil in the project settings - "Custom Depth-Stencil Pass=Enabled with Stencil".
Performance:
The main places that worsen performance:
1. Simulation resolution.
It is also worth considering that the resolution along the Y axis changes depending on the configured sprite scale.
2. Simulation Iterations in the Stage: Offset Simulation category.
Needed for a more continuous simulation trace.
Performance tests on rtx3070 -
Depending on the quality, it takes from ~0.2ms to ~1.5ms of frame time.
For example, if the scene performance is limited by 60fps, then the influence of the simulation will take away from ~2fps to ~8fps depending on the settings.