/GPUTrail

A GPU based trail plugin for Godot 4

Primary LanguageGDScriptMIT LicenseMIT

GPUTrail

GPUTrail is a GPU-based trail plugin for Godot 4, offering an efficient alternative to CPU-based trails for creating ribbon trail effects in your games and applications. heart

Features

  • GPU-accelerated trail rendering for improved performance
  • Customizable trail length, texture, and color
  • Support for color ramps and width curves
  • Options for texture orientation and alpha channel handling
  • Billboard mode for camera-facing trails
  • Dewiggle and clip overlaps features for improved trail appearance

Installation

  1. Clone or download this repository
  2. Copy the addons/GPUTrail folder into your Godot project's addons folder
  3. Enable the plugin in your project settings: Project -> Project Settings -> Plugins -> GPUTrail

Usage

  1. Add a new GPUTrail3D node to your scene
  2. Customize the trail properties in the Inspector panel
  3. Attach the GPUTrail3D node to the object you want to trail

Properties

  • length: Number of steps in the trail
  • texture: Main texture of the trail
  • color_ramp: Color gradient along the trail's length
  • curve: Width modulation along the trail's length
  • vertical_texture: Adjust texture orientation
  • use_red_as_alpha: Use the red channel of the texture as alpha
  • billboard: Make the trail face the camera (experimental)
  • dewiggle: Improve texture mapping to the trail
  • clip_overlaps: Prevent trail self-intersectionis
  • snap_to_transform: Snap the trail start to the node's position, and regardless of the particles own framerate

Example

var trail = GPUTrail3D.new()
trail.length = 100
trail.texture = preload("res://trail_texture.png")
add_child(trail)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

TODO

  • Add categories for parameters
  • Add flipbook support
  • Hide the actual GPUParticles3D node
  • Restructure code, use enums for flags
  • Add more polygons, make trail smoother
  • Add an acceleration parameter / Simple physics for rising smoke trails
  • Add a gizmo/visual indicator of the emission line
  • Port to Godot 3.5
  • Port to 2D
  • Allow custom material