The Flame component is the core to the Vulcan system. This script will allow you to add multiple layers to the flame and change all the various colors and effects. This section will guide you through the various sections of the Fame Inspector and explain what all the various options do.

The first button in the inspector will save the current state of the Flame mesh to an asset in your project. This mesh can then be used with any Flame material in your project and the Flame component need not be applied, all the data for the correct rendering and animation of the flame is encoded into the mesh data.

Next are the global values that are applied to all the flame layers.

Scale

These values can be used to scale the final flame mesh in the width and height directions. There are also scale values in the Flame shader so you have a choice of ways to scale the final end result.

Bend Curve

This curve controls how the flame will be allowed to bend when Angle values are applied to it, generally you want to have no bend (0) at the start of the flame and full bend at the end (1). For weak flames such as candles then you want a bit of bend to happen across most of the flame, but for a Jet or Rocket engine you would likely want any bending near the end of the flame.

Speed

This will control the overall speed of any animations the flame may have, this will adjust all layers the same, but you can adjust each layer on its own as will be seen later. This value can also be negative if you need to have the animations go backwards.

Length and Round Detail

The number of vertices used for the flame is defined per layer in the mesh settings where you can choose how many vertices make up each layer and hence the final total. These two sliders will adjust all those values so you can easily decrease or increase the overall mesh density easily. This is useful for making level of detail meshes, or adjusting the mesh density at runtime depending on quality settings of the device your game is running on.

The info box will tell you the current vertex, triangles and submesh count for the current flame, this makes it easy to see what effect the sliders are having on the vertex count.

Flutter is the random movement you see in various flames due to various wind movements or turbulent airflow. This effect can be applied to your flame and the overall effect will be controlled by these values. How the flame actually moves due to flutter is controlled by the Noise texture that is applied to the flame material so you can control how smooth or rough the overall look is by changing the noise channels, we have included a Noise Map builder in Vulcan to allow you to more easily create your own noise textures. See the Flame Noise Map section for more info on how to create those.

Flutter

The maximum amount of movement applied to the mesh, low values will result in very small movement and higher values will give a lot.

Flutter Scale

How the noise values relates to the size of the mesh, making this value small will give smoother more gentle movements to the flame, higher values will give a much more turbulent look to the flutter.

Flutter Speed

How fast the flutter changes, this value will depend on the type of the flame you are creating, a small flame with not much force behind it will have a lower value where as a rocket engine will need higher values.

Flutter Curve

Controls where on the flame the flutter will appear and how much, so again you would likely start the curve at 0 0 so no flutter happens at the source of the flame going up to full flutter at the end of the flame.

Pulse allows you to add a more subtle movement to the flame and adds a pulse like effect and movement to the flame, this is useful for say Rocket engines where you want to show subtle variations in the output of the engine. Again the noise texture is used to control the look of the pulsing.

Pulse

Controls how much movement will be added by the pulse, low values will add small amounts, larger values will add more movement to the flame.

Pulse Scale

This value allows you to control how much of the flame is changed, so a low value here will change the whole flame as one and a larger value will mean you will see more than one pulse at a time on the flame, so a large rocket engine would need a larger value than a small flame.

Pulse Speed

How fast the pulse moves through the flame, this value will vary depending on the overall size of the flame and the speed you want.

Pulse Curve

Again controls where on the flame the pulsing will be visible, this curve could be used to setup regions of pulsing in a large rocket flame for example. Again though generally there will be little pulsing at the start of the flame and more towards the end.

This section allows you to visualize most of the settings as they are applied to a mesh, this will show per vertex for the currently selected flame layer various bits of info that is encoded in the mesh. The colors used to display this info can be changed in the Vulcan Preferences window.

The values that can be shown through this section are:

• UVx - UV X coord
• UVy - UV Y coord
• Against - How much the flame will move when moving into wind
• Displace - How much a flame will move due to flutter etc
• Intensity - How bright the flame is
• Length Fade - How the flame will fade in and out
• Softness - The softness of the flame edge
• Color - The color of the flame
• Alpha - The Alpha value of the flame
• Normals - The flame normals
• Bend - How much it can bend
• Normz - Normalized length value
• Speed - Speed of any animation
• Tris - Outlines the flame triangles
• Move - How much the vertex will move
• Move Scale - How much a vertex will move with scale
• Scale - How much a vertex will scale

Info Size

How big the vertex boxes will be.

Info Type

Which info to display

This is the section where we can start to build up a flame. The mesh for a flame can be made from a single layer or multiple layers depending on what detail you need from the flame, each layer has a load of options to control the mesh shape, number of vertices, coloring, positioning, UV mapping, material values and general visual options.

To Add a layer just click the + button at the bottom right of the Layer list, that will add a new Layer. You can reorder the list by dragging and dropping. And you can also quick enable or disable a layer by clicking the Toggle box. The list will show the name of the layer and will also show the name of the material that layer is currently using to render itself. Vulcan allows you to use multiple materials per flame to give you more control over the end result, and if you have a lot of materials it makes it easy to see which one the layer is using in case you need to change any shader values.

To select a Layer to edit just click that layer in the list and the inspector will show its values below the list.

This is where you can edit each layer of the flame values. There are multiple sections to this part of the Inspector which can be opened and closed as needed. We shall go through each section.

First is the general options.

Name

The name to use for this layer, makes it easier to edit complex flames as it is easy to see which layer you are currently editing either in the Inspector or in the Scene View

Enabled

Whether this layer is enabled or not. This can also be set in the Layer List view

Edit Curve

When editing the Flame layer in the scene view this drop down allows you to pick which curve is shown in the scene to edit. This can also be set at the top of the Scene view when the Vulcan Tools are enabled. Check the Editing a Flame section for more info.

Transform

This section controls the position, size and shape of the flame layer.

Mesh Values

This section controls the type of mesh used for the layer as well as the number of vertices, whether mesh is capped and other various options.

UV

The UV mapping that is used for the layer.

Visuals

Main visual options such as colors, intensity, lighting, softness etc.

Material Shader Values

Shows the most used Shader values for the material for the layer for quicker editing.

Copy & Paste

At the bottom of the Layer section there will be Copy and Paste buttons, this allows you to Copy all the layers values and apply it to any other layer on any other flame. Makes it much easier to reuse layers. The Paste button will only appear if there is a layer in the Copy buffer.

This section controls the size and position of each flame layer. A lot of these values can also be changed by using the various gizmos provided in the scene view when you select the Vulcan Tools from the Tool Panel.

Offset

Position along the forward axis of the flame for the start of the layer

Position

The X and Y position for the start of the layer

Rotate

Will rotate the layer around the forward axis

Radius

The radius of the layer, this is used with the Profile curve in the Mesh section to control the overall size of the layer

Length

The total length of the layer

Scale X

The Layer can be scaled on the X Axis with this value. There are also scaling options in the shader or the whole flame scaling can be used.

Scale Y

The Layer can be scaled on the Y Axis with this value. There are also scaling options in the shader or the whole flame scaling can be used.

Move Offset

How much the layer will move when the Shader move value is changed. This can be used to move a layer such as shock diamonds along the length of the flame as the Shader move value is increased

Move Scale

How much the layer will scale when the Shader move value is changed.

Here you can control the look of the mesh that is used for this Layer. You have control over the Profile of the layer as well as the type of mesh that will be used to render the layer. You have options to Cap the start and or the End of a layer if the mesh type allows. You can select which material will be used, how vertices are positioned, how many vertices are used, whether the mesh is double sided or the normals need flipping etc.

Material ID

This slider will say which material the layer uses. If you want to use more than one material for your flame add them as required in the normal way in the Mesh Renderer, the slider will then allow you to pick which material to use. The material name will be shown in the Layer List so you can tell when you have the right one.

Profile

This curves dictates the shape of the flame layer, click the curve to open the edit window and add and move points as you need to get the shape of the curve, the curve is multiplied by the Radius value in the Transform section so generally it is best to set the Radius to a key value such as a nozzle size and then adjust the curve from there, that will make it easier to use the flame on different size nozzles as you will just need to change the Radius value. This curve can also be edited directly in the scene view which makes it easier to get the profile just where you want it.

For all curves in Vulcan you can right click them and copy and paste the curve to any other Vulcan curve, this makes it much easier to reuse curves. Also if you right click you can choose to apply the curve to any other layers, if you click the Apply option a small pop up will appear where you can select the layers to paste the curve to.

Vertex Dist

This allows you to control where the vertices will be placed along the length of the flame. A straight line from 0 to 1 will give the normal linear distribution. But depending on the shape of your curve you maybe not need vertices in one place but need more in another so you can use this to control the placement of vertices where you need them.

Scale

Controls how the mesh is scaled when the Shader scale values are changed. So you can say that you dont want any scaling to appear until after the end of a nozzle and so on. Or if it is say an area near the start of the flame which you dont want to change size at all then you can set the curve to 0 and the scaling will have no effect.

Min Shape Offset

This value and the one below can be used to apply a random noise value to the vertices so you dont have a perfect mesh, keep both values at 1 to not have any noise applied. This will be the low value of the range of the noise applied.

Max Shape Offset

This value and the one below can be used to apply a random noise value to the vertices so you dont have a perfect mesh, keep both values at 1 to not have any noise applied. This will be the high value of the range of the noise applied.

Flip Normals

If you have a layer and want to see the back of it then you can flip the normals with this toggle.

Double Sided

Quite often you will want to see inside and outside of the layer as flames are generally see through, so check this box to have the mesh have back faces as well.

Mesh Type

You have a choice of 3 types of mesh to use for the layer:

• Round - Cylinder type mesh with start and end cap options
• Planes - Multiple planes rotate around the forward axis
• Slices - Cylinder type slices along the length of the layer

Depending on the type of mesh selected you will see different options to set the number of vertices in the mesh as well as any capping options.

Height Segs

How many segments the mesh uses along its length, used with the Vertex Dist curve as well so you have full control over where the vertices appear.

Sides

How many sides the mesh will have.

Num Slices

If a slice mesh type is selected this controls how many slices will be used.

Slice Segs

For each slice this says how many segments along the length to use.

Thickness

How thick each slice is.

Slice Alpha

A curve to control the alpha across each slice useful for fading in and out slices.

Spacing

The Gap between each slice, slices can overlap if you want.

Num Planes

If Plane mesh type is selected this says how many planes to use. Each mesh will be rotated around the middle according to how many planes there are. Use the Rotate value in the Transform section to adjust the orientation of the planes.

Width Segs

With planes this says how many segments across the width of the mesh there should be.

Cap Start

Says whether to add a cap to the start of the mesh.

Cap Flip

Flip the start caps normals.

Cap Start Smooth

Should the start cap smoothly blend into the rest of the mesh.

Smooth Bias

This controls how the normals are calculated for a cap, will bias the normal from the mesh direction to the cap direction

UV Adj

You can control the UV mapping of the start cap with this value.

Cap End

Says whether to add a cap to the end of the mesh.

Cap Flip

Flip the start caps normals.

Cap End Smooth

Should the end cap smoothly blend into the rest of the mesh.

Smooth Bias

This controls how the normals are calculated for a cap, will bias the normal from the mesh direction to the cap direction

UV Adj

You can control the UV mapping of the end cap with this value.

Ring Count

You can have layer duplicated multiple times around a ring by increasing this value. If the value is more than 1 then the two values below will be shown.

Ring Radius

The radius of the ring the meshes will be applied to.

Ring Angle

The start angle for the first mesh in the ring, the spacing of the rest will be determined by the ring count.

These values can be used to control the UV mapping of the Noise and Mask textures to the flame layer. This can useful to adjust the scaling of the noise effect over the layer and the position, tiling and scaling of any mask texture applied. You can also use the Shader Offset and tiling values.

UV Tile X

Changes how the texture map tiles in the X Direction

UV Tile Y

Changes how the texture map tiles in the Y Direction

UV Offset

Adjusts the texture Offset

This section gives you control over the Layers coloring, lighting, brightness and other visual aspects of the Layer. This the key area for the settings that will control how your flame looks in your scene. The coloring for the layer is done by a gradient so you can easily vary the color and alpha of the layer along its length. Note the shader also has a Color value as well which will tint these colors as well for more control. You can also control how much Rim lighting is applied via a max value and a control curve, and the same for the Intensity.

Speed

This controls the speed of any animation for this layer. It allows you to vary from layer to layer the look and feel of any movement applied to the flame. The shader also has a value which can be used to adjust the layers using that material.

Soften

Vulcan has a system to try and soften the edge of flame layers so they look more natural. Increasing this value will increase the softness and it works with the Softness curve below. Again the shader also has a value to control the softness on top of this value as well. A value of 0 will not apply any softening.

Softness

The curve can be used to control how much softness is applied along the length of the flame layer.

Intensity

How bright this layer is, this is like the intensity value of an HDR color, higher values will give brighter looking flames. Its value is also controlled by the curve below and a Shader based value.

Intensity Crv

You can control the intensity along the length of the flame layer with this curve. So generally you would have a value of 1 at the start of the flame and reduce it to 0 at the end. Note you can also use the Alpha value in the Color setting below to adjust the brightness as well.

Cap Start Intensity

If your flame layer has a start cap this value can be used to control its intensity.

Cap End Intensity

If your flame layer has a start cap this value can be used to control its intensity.

Color

The colors to use for the layer. This is a Gradient so you can vary the colors along the length of the mesh in anyway you want. You can also adjust the flame alpha here as well. The color values will be used along with the Intensity values and the Shader color and brightness values for the final overall look to the flame. If you right click the Gradient you can copy and paste the color values, you can also choose to apply the colors to selected layers.

Rim Amount

The Shader for the flames uses a Rim lighting system to add the general glow you get towards the edge of flames or the change in color that can be seen. You can control how much of that rim lighting is applied to this layer with this value and it is used with the curve the get the final value.

Rim Crv

This curves controls how much rim lighting is applied along the length of the flame layer.

Fade Offset

The Flame Shader has a Fade value which will cause the flame to fade out but you can control per layer at which point that layer will fade by changing this value. This means you can say that a shock diamond or an inner cone will fade out before an outer shell. This gives you control over what parts of a flame will appear and disappear and the order they do so.

Against Factor

If the flame is moving against its forward direction then a flame will compress a little, this value controls how much the layer will compress. A low value will mean very little compression, a higher vale will mean more. This will require a helper script on the Flame object to calculate the relative velocity of the flame etc. An example script is included in the asset.

To make it easier to adjust the final look of the layer and to save trying to find the right material for the layer to edit the shader values the current Material used for the layer has its commonly changed values displayed in this section for faster tweaking. These are the same values that will be found in the Material and so changing these values will change all flames using the same material. So it is suggested that each flame has its own material to avoid changing already made flames in your project.

Color

Color to tint the flame, the main color for a flame comes from the layer colors but this value can be used to tint the flame. It is an HDR value so you can also increase the intensity of the color if needed.

Brightness

Main Brightness of the flame color.

Intensity

Overall final Intensity of the flame.

Flame Level

Changes the transparency of the flame.

Soft Edges

Controls final softness of the flame. This is the side on softness control, there is also a value for softness looking down the length of the flame.

Soft Edges 1

Softness when looking down the length of the flame.

Soften Factor

How the two softness values are blended together, adjust to get smoother changes as the view angle rotates.

Scroll Speed

Final control over the speed of any scrolling texture animation.

Flutter

Final control over how much the flame flutters.

Flutter Speed

Final control over the speed of any fluttering.

Pulse

Final control over how much the flame pulses.

Pulse Speed

Final control over how fast the flame pulses.

Flipbook Speed

You can use a texture for the main color of the flame and if you want this can be a flip book animation. You can set how many rows and columns in the main material section. This value controls the playback speed of the flip book animation.

Spread

When the collision shader is being used this controls how much a flame will spread on impact.

Detect Dist

The blending distance for collisions, this controls how far back along the flame a collision effect is seen.

Plane Offset

When a collision shader is used this will offset the flame from the collision plane or sphere when a collision happens.