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.

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

• Tutorial by Le Lu: YouTube Video

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