---
title: "3D Lightning Effects"
package: "@phaser-ae/vfx3d-lightning"
tier: Pro
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "Twelve 3D electric effects, from a strike out of the sky and chain lightning to a tesla coil, ball lightning, a charged aura and a distant storm."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vfx3d-lightning
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# 3D Lightning Effects

Twelve electric effects for 3D games: strikes, chain lightning, arcs, a tesla coil, ball lightning, a charged aura and
a distant storm. Everything is additive and unlit, so it glows on any scene and overlapping light builds to white.

## What it does

The pack registers twelve named effects with the 3D particle system. `game.particles3d.effect(name, opts)` spawns one;
a one-shot removes itself when its last particle dies, and a loop plays until you kill it.

A bolt is a dense chain of camera-facing soft dots along a jagged 3D channel: a white-hot core inside a wider blue
glow, flickering as real strikes do and writhing a little while it lives. A strike adds the cloud lighting up, a
landing flash, a pool of light on the ground and sparks crawling out. The channels are authored, so you vary a strike
by turning it with a random `yaw`; the loops fire several channels on their own beats and never settle into one shape.
Directional effects are aimed with `yaw` and sized with `scale`, so chain lightning reaches exactly to its target.

## Features

- **Strikes** — `lightning`, a bolt 20 units tall that flickers three times; `forked`, which lands in three places;
  and `groundCharge`, which crackles on the ground for a second before the strike comes down.
- **Weapon and spell hits** — `chainZap`, cyan lightning hopping three targets, and `zap`, a tiny pop of light and
  jagged rays.
- **Standing hazards** — `arc` between two glowing terminals, `teslaCoil` throwing violet arcs, and `static` fizzing
  over the ground.
- **Floating and worn** — `ball` lightning hovering and lighting the ground under it, and `electricAura`, cyan energy
  crawling over a character it follows.
- **The sky** — `sheetFlash`, a cloud lighting up from inside, and `thunderstorm`, a distant cloud deck with bolts
  every second or so.

## Good for

- **Storms and weather** — a thunderstorm on the horizon, sheet lightning, a strike on the hill.
- **Spells and electric weapons** — chain lightning, a shock, a stun, a zap on every hit.
- **Hazards and sci-fi sets** — a broken cable, a tesla coil, an electrified floor.
- **Boss fights** — a telegraphed strike that warns the player where it will land.

## Make it yours

Every effect takes a position or an object to follow, `scale`, and `yaw`, `pitch` and `roll` in degrees. A random
`yaw` makes every strike in a storm different; a `scale` worked out from the distance between caster and target makes
`chainZap` reach exactly that far; `static` tipped with `pitch` crackles up a wall instead of across a floor. Every
definition is plain data, so a recoloured bolt is a copy from `game.particles3d.defs` registered under a new name with
`registerVfx3d(game.kernel, def)`.

## A quick look

A strike with a random turn, and an aura that rides on a character:

```ts
game.particles3d.effect('lightning', { x: 4, y: 0, z: -2, yaw: Math.random() * 360 });
const aura = game.particles3d.effect('electricAura', { follow: hero });
aura.kill();   // a loop plays until it is killed
```

## Works with

- `particles-3d` and `particle-textures` — required: the runtime and the particle frames; `core-3d` includes both.
- `lighting-3d` and `audio` — a point light for the light a strike throws, and the thunder.
- `vfx3d-sparks` — hot metal and electrical sparks for a short circuit or a weld.
- `vfx-lightning` — the same twelve names in 2D.

## Good to know

- The channels are drawn, not solved: a strike does not seek a target, and the same spot and `yaw` give the same bolt.
- The strikes are the heaviest effects, under 3,000 live particles at their peak; the loops stay under 1,200.
- The effects light nothing and cast no shadows: pair a strike with a point light.

---

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