Lightning Effects

What it does

A bolt is a chain of soft dots laid evenly along a jagged channel: a white-hot core inside a wider blue sheath, flickering as real strikes do. A noise field bends each strike for its first instant, so no two bend quite alike, and a strike adds a glow where it starts, a landing flash and sparks splashing up.

Spawn one with game.particles.effect(name, opts). scale stretches every distance, so a strike reaches the top of your screen and an arc spans two terminals, and angle aims a chain or an arc. One-shots remove themselves; the loops step through several channels in turn, so they do not repeat a shape for long.

Features

• Strikes — lightning about 210 units tall, forked landing in three places, and groundCharge, which crackles for a second before the strike comes down.
• Chains and arcs — chainZap hopping three targets along an angle, and arc crackling between two terminals.
• Hazards — a violet teslaCoil, static fizzing over a surface, and ball lightning.
• Characters — electricAura wrapping a body in cyan arcs, and a small zap for a hit.
• Sky — sheetFlash lighting a cloud from inside, and a distant thunderstorm.
• Data you can copy — a red strike or a green arc is a copied definition.

Good for

• Storms and weather — a distant storm behind a level, a strike on the hero's path.
• Spells and electric weapons — chain lightning, stuns and shocks.
• Hazards — broken cables, tesla coils, electrified floors.
• Boss fights — groundCharge telegraphs where a strike will land.

Make it yours

Aim with angle and size with scale: an arc between any two points takes their midpoint, the angle between them and their distance over 96. A fantasy RPG aims the mage's chainZap at the first enemy, scaled to its distance, with a thunderstorm behind the battlefield; a sci-fi base marks hazards with teslaCoil and static and joins two pylons with an arc until the player cuts the power.

A quick look

A strike scaled to reach the top of the screen, chain lightning aimed at an enemy, and an aura on the hero:

game.particles.effect('lightning', { x: target.x, y: target.y, scale: target.y / 210 });
const a = Math.atan2(enemy.y - hero.y, enemy.x - hero.x) * 180 / Math.PI;
game.particles.effect('chainZap', { x: hero.x, y: hero.y, angle: a,
    scale: Math.hypot(enemy.x - hero.x, enemy.y - hero.y) / 200 });
const aura = game.particles.effect('electricAura', { follow: hero, offset: { y: -40 } });

Works with

• particles-2d and particle-textures — required; core-2d includes both.
• lighting-2d — to light the scene as a strike lands.
• feel — a screen flash with the strike.
• audio — for the thunder.
• vfx3d-lightning — the same twelve names in 3D.

Good to know

• The channels are authored, not solved: a strike does not seek a target, so aim it with angle and scale.
• The effects light nothing: they do not brighten sprites or cast light on the scene.
• The heaviest moments stay under 1,500 live particles, but many strikes at once add up.