3D particle
SineVFX's signature effect. Select any BasePart (a Part, MeshPart, union, and so on) and Transform turns it into a 3D particle emitter, where each particle looks like that part.
What happens on transform
- The part's shape, material, colour, textures, and its children (meshes, decals, attachments, nested effects) become the particle's appearance.
- The original part stays in place as the emitter's root marker and turns invisible.
- A clone of it becomes the RenderPart template that every particle is spawned from.
So instead of being limited to flat particle textures, you emit real 3D geometry: rocks, shards, leaves, glowing meshes, whatever the part is.
Editing it
Open the Properties window. A 3D particle exposes grouped channels such as:
- Appearance - how each particle looks (colour, transparency, size, LightEmission / LightInfluence / Brightness for glow).
- Emission - Rate, Lifetime, Speed, TimeScale, EmitCount, EmitDelay, EmitDuration.
- Shape / EmitterShape - where and in what direction particles spawn.
- Raycast - snap particles onto the first surface a ray hits (see Raycast).
- Particles / Flipbook - texture and sprite-sheet options (see below).
- Collision, Optimization - physics and performance.
- Lightning - turns each particle into a bolt (see Lightning mode).
Any numeric channel can be driven by a lifetime graph.
Property reference
Every channel below is a native ParticleEmitter property that SineVFX groups and exposes to the graph editor. Anything marked lifetime varies over a particle's own life; the emit-timing channels are SineVFX playback additions.
Appearance
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Color | Particle tint over lifetime (multiplies the part's own colour/textures). |
| Transparency | Opacity over lifetime · 0 solid, 1 invisible. Usually a fade-in/out curve. |
| Size | Particle scale over lifetime. |
| Squash | Stretches the particle along its motion · >0 elongates, <0 flattens. |
| LightEmission | How much the particle ignores scene darkness · 1 = self-lit glow. |
| LightInfluence | How much scene lighting tints the particle · 0 unlit, 1 fully lit. |
| Brightness | Overall emissive intensity multiplier. |
| Orientation | How each particle faces (face camera, velocity-aligned, etc.). |
| ZOffset | Push the particle toward/away from the camera to fix draw-order/overlap. |
Emission
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Rate | Particles spawned per second while enabled. |
| Lifetime | How long each particle lives (min,max seconds). |
| Speed | Initial launch speed (min,max). |
| SpreadAngle | Cone spread of launch directions, in degrees (X,Y). |
| Acceleration | Constant force applied to live particles (e.g. gravity). |
| Drag | Air resistance that slows particles over their life. |
| Rotation | Initial 2D spin of each particle (min,max degrees). |
| RotSpeed | Ongoing spin rate (min,max degrees/sec). |
| VelocityInheritance | Fraction of the emitter's own motion each particle inherits. |
| LockedToPart | If on, particles ride with the emitter instead of the world. |
| TimeScale | Playback speed of the whole emitter. 1 normal, 2 twice as fast, 0.5 slow motion, 0 frozen. |
| EmitCount | How many particles a single Emit burst spawns. |
| EmitDelay | Delay before the effect starts on emit. |
| EmitDuration | How long a single emit/enable cycle runs. |
Shape / EmitterShape
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Shape | Emitter volume: Box, Sphere, Cylinder, or Disc. |
| ShapeStyle | Whether particles spawn on the shape's Surface or throughout its Volume. |
| ShapeInOut | Launch direction: Outward, Inward, or InAndOut relative to the shape. |
| ShapePartial | Blends between the emitter's normal direction and the shape direction. |
Raycast
Snaps each particle onto the first surface a ray hits: ground cracks, scorch marks, debris on walls, rocks scattered across uneven terrain. It runs at spawn, before the Position graphs, so Position then moves the particle from where it landed.
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Raycast | The on/off toggle. The rest only shows when it's on. |
| From | Spawn = each particle's own spawn point (after Shape), so a Shape scatters hits around. Emitter = the emitter's centre. |
| Direction | Which way the ray goes, in the emitter's own axes (turns with the emitter). 0, -1, 0 = the emitter's down. |
| Distance | How far the ray reaches, in studs. |
| Hits | Solid = only real ground and walls (skips characters, water, non-collidable and invisible parts). All = the first thing touched. |
| Align | Turns each particle so its top faces out of the surface. Position and Rotation then work relative to the surface (PositionY lifts it off). |
| Lift | Studs to push the particle off the surface so flat ones don't flicker into it. |
| Velocity | After landing: Keep its emission direction, fly straight out along the surface Normal, or Reflect the emission direction off the surface. |
| OnMiss | When nothing is hit: Spawn where it would have anyway, or Skip that particle. |
Raycast respects Spacing, so particles that land too close together are re-rolled instead of piling up. Paths shows where they'll land.
Particles / Flipbook
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Texture | The image used per particle (ignored when the part supplies real geometry). |
| FlipbookLayout | Sprite-sheet grid (e.g. 2x2, 4x4, 8x8) that defines the frames. |
| FlipbookMode | How frames advance: over lifetime, at a set rate, or randomised. |
| FlipbookFramerate | Playback speed when the mode is rate-based. |
For mesh flipbooks, these same controls swap through a sequence of meshes over lifetime instead of 2D frames (see above).
Collision & Optimization
These groups hold the physics and performance switches - particle collision behaviour, and culling/limit settings that keep large emitters cheap. Leave them at defaults unless an effect needs to bounce off the world or you're trimming cost on a heavy emitter.
Flipbooks and mesh flipbooks
A flipbook plays a sprite sheet across a particle's life so a single particle animates (smoke, fire, explosions). SineVFX exposes the flipbook layout and playback settings in the Flipbook group.
Mesh flipbooks take the idea into 3D: instead of flipping frames of a 2D sprite, the particle swaps through a sequence of meshes over its lifetime, so a mesh-based particle can animate its geometry (a tumbling debris shape, a morphing blob) rather than just its texture. Set these up in the emitter's mesh-flipbook settings, and they play back over the same lifetime timeline as everything else.
Lightning mode
Switch on Lightning (in the Lightning section of Properties) and each particle becomes a lightning bolt instead of a flying part. The bolt is built from jagged segments of the RenderPart and supports branches, crackle, growing strikes, routes between targets, and striking surfaces. See Lightning for the full guide and property reference.
Nesting
A part placed inside another emitter's RenderPart template can itself be transformed into a nested 3D particle, so you can layer effects (a glowing core that also sheds sparks, for example). Nested ParticleEmitter / Beam / Trail / Light / Sound, and transformed Lights, Highlights and Decals, inside the template can also fire on spawn (see Emittable objects).
What fires and what you edit
- Firing (Emit / Enable / Disable, in Studio or at runtime) reaches everything inside a 3D particle except its RenderPart template, which the runtime fires once per spawned particle instead. So a Screen Effect, Sound or extra emitter sitting next to the RenderPart fires along with the emitter.
- Editing only touches what you select. Selecting a 3D particle edits that emitter, not the effects nested inside it. To edit a nested effect, select it directly in the Explorer. The batch tools follow the same rule.
Preview and ship
Preview with the Emit window, then plant the runtime module and fire it with VFX.emit(part). See the Runtime API.
Related
- Transform - how to run it.
- Lightning - turn a 3D particle into a lightning bolt.
- Emittable objects - everything the Emit window can drive.