VFX vs Particle System

Lens Studio 4.0 comes with a new system for making visual effects called VFX Editor. In previous versions we used to use the Particle System to make visual effects. Particle system was a great choice to make visual effects but it had many limitations, and we saw a need for a more advanced VFX system. You spoke and we listened, so we created an effects system that allows you to control particles in a much more powerful way than before.

Now that we know the basics let's compare and see which system works best for the Lens that you are making.

• VFX Editor is a node-based tool for designing your own custom particle system. It offers a lot of control over individual particles, their attributes, and the whole system. Importantly, VFX Editor offers the ability to truly simulate particles, allowing for much more organic and realistic effects. VFX editor comes with a bunch of helper Sub-Graphs to help in creating effects systems. Lastly, assets created with VFX Editor do not run on lower end devices (<GLES2.0).
• Particle System has very limited control and is hard to customize. It is a deterministic system, meaning that it does not take the previous frame’s data into account when animating. It does, however, run on all supported Snapchat hardware.

Now that we know all the difference between these two system, here are useful links to get you started on each system

VFX Editor

• VFX Overview
• VFX Graph Optimization
• VFX Sub-Graphs

Particle System

• Particles Guide
• Particle Template