---
title: "3D Smoke Effects"
package: "@phaser-ae/vfx3d-smoke"
tier: Pro
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "Twelve 3D smoke, steam and dust effects, from columns, chimneys and valley mist to exhaust, smoke trails, footstep dust and a smoke-screen grenade."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vfx3d-smoke
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# 3D Smoke Effects

Twelve smoke, steam and dust effects for 3D games: the soft, slow half of a scene. A wreck smoulders, a chimney leans
in the breeze, a valley fills with mist and every footstep on a dirt road kicks up a little dust.

## What it does

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

Unlike fire and sparks, these use normal blending rather than additive, because smoke hides what is behind it rather
than adding light, and they take the scene's lighting, so a puff beside a lantern warms. The puffs swell, cool and
drift on curl noise. Effects with a direction are aimed as you spawn them: an `exhaust` follows a car at the tailpipe
and blows backwards with `yaw`, a `skidDust` kicks out along the car's heading, and a `smokeScreen` lays its wall
along whichever line you turn it to.

## Features

- **Columns** — `smoke`, a rising grey column; `steam`, a white hissing jet for a vent or a kettle; and `chimney`, thin
  wisps leaning in a gusting breeze.
- **Ground layers** — `mist`, a pale layer about ten units across, and `poisonGas`, a sickly green cloud with a
  glowing pool and bubbles.
- **Event one-shots** — `puff` for a landing, `smokeRing` rolling across the floor, `skidDust` and `footstepDust`.
- **A smoke screen** — `smokeScreen`, a grey wall about seven units wide that hangs and slowly thins.
- **Moving smoke** — `smokeTrail`, puffs left drifting behind whatever it follows, and `exhaust`, a jet that slows
  into rising puffs.
- **Few particles** — the biggest, `smokeScreen`, holds about 190 at once and most hold under 90.

## Good for

- **Shooters** — smoke grenades, burning wrecks and missile trails.
- **Racing and driving games** — exhaust from every car, dust from every skid.
- **Adventure and exploration** — a cottage chimney, steam vents, a swamp at dawn, a poison-gas trap.
- **3D action games and platformers** — a puff on every heavy landing and dust on every footfall.

## Make it yours

`scale` multiplies every size, speed, distance and zone, so `smokeScreen` at `scale: 0.5` is a smoke bomb and `puff`
at `scale: 3` a giant landing; `yaw`, `pitch` and `roll` turn the zones and launch directions, and `follow` and
`offset` pin an effect to an object. One game spawns `footstepDust` on every footfall and `skidDust` on every hard
turn; another lays `mist` at `scale: 2.5` across a valley and marks its traps with `poisonGas`. A black smoke or a
purple gas is a copy from `game.particles3d.defs` registered with `registerVfx3d`.

## A quick look

A column over a wreck, an exhaust on a car and dust on every footstep:

```ts
game.particles3d.effect('smoke', { x: 4, y: 0, z: -2 });
const pipe = game.particles3d.effect('exhaust', { follow: car, offset: { x: 0.4, y: 0.3, z: -1.8 }, yaw: 180 });
const step = (x: number, z: number) => game.particles3d.effect('footstepDust', { x, y: 0, z });
pipe.stop();   // engine off: the plume drains away
```

## Works with

- `particles-3d` and `particle-textures` — required: the runtime and the particle frames; `core-3d` includes both.
- `feel` — a camera shake to give a landing's dust its weight.
- `vfx3d-trails` — a flame ribbon beside the smoke trail, for a missile.
- `vfx3d-fire` and `vfx3d-explosion` — a fire with its own smoke, and the smoke after a bang.
- `wisps-3d` — a standing column of smoke with no particles at all.
- `vfx-smoke` — the 2D counterpart.

## Good to know

- Smoke does not collide, cast shadows or hurt anything: a damaging gas is game logic, and falling grit lands on world
  y = 0 rather than on the real floor.
- `smokeTrail` emits by time, not by distance, so a slow mover lays its puffs close together and a fast one spaces them
  out.
- Large soft quads overlap heavily, so a dense column costs fill rate rather than particle count.
- `yaw` and `pitch` do not turn gravity, so an exhaust aimed down still rises once it slows.

---

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