Ember VFX 3D - 36 Fire, Magic & Explosion Particle Effects for Godot 4

Try it in your browser: press Run asset pack on this page
Free Lite: https://inkharbor.itch.io/ember-vfx-3d-lite
Also in the bundle (13 tools, $54.56, Oct 12 to Oct 16): https://itch.io/s/204018/godot-juice-and-polish-bundle

Ember VFX 3D is a particle effects pack for Godot 4: 36 fire, magic and explosion VFX for 3D games.

Try it in your browser above before you buy.

Godot version: Works with Godot 4.4+. Tested on 4.4 and 4.7 (Windows, NVIDIA GPU, Compatibility and Forward+ on 4.7). Does not run on 4.3 (five shaders use the 4.4 hint_enum uniform hint). Not tested: Mobile renderer, web export.

Drop-in 3D fire, explosions, magic, lightning, ice and hit effects for Godot 4. No textures, no imported files: every flame, ring and bolt is drawn by shader math.

Ember VFX 3D is 36 ready-made effects built from GPUParticles3D and 9 spatial shaders for Godot 4.7, with a small EmberFX script on each effect root and a demo project. Drag a scene into your level, or spawn one from code. Each effect has intensity, tint and speed, and one-shot effects free themselves.

How it works

Every effect is a normal scene: particle nodes, a few materials and sometimes a light. Open one and edit it like anything else, change counts and colours, or delete a layer you don't want. The root script, EmberFX, gives you play(), stop(), intensity, tint, speed and a finished signal. EmberCatalog lists all 36 effects so you can spawn by id.

EmberFX.spawn(preload("res://addons/ember_vfx_3d/effects/explosion_fireball.tscn"), self, hit_position)
EmberCatalog.spawn("magic_arcane_burst", self, player.global_position, {"tint": Color(0.3, 1.0, 0.6)})

What's inside (36 effects)

• Fire (4): campfire, torch, blaze, flamethrower
• Explosions (3): fireball, blast with shockwave, small pop
• Smoke (2): puff, column
• Sparks (2): spark burst, rising embers
• Magic (7): arcane burst, heal aura, shield bubble, portal, charge-up, orbiting orbs, teleport beam
• Elemental (8): ice shatter, frost nova, lightning arc, lightning strike, poison cloud, water splash, dust cloud, steam
• Hit impacts (4): sword, bullet, ground slam, muzzle flash
• Pickups (1): collect
• Ambient (5): fireflies, magic sparkles, snow, leaves, ash fall

Also included: 9 shaders (soft puff additive and alpha, flame, ring, lightning bolt, glow and spark, crystal, leaf, shield, portal), the EmberFX and EmberCatalog scripts, a demo project (orbit camera, effect list, click the floor to spawn, tint, intensity and speed sliders), README and LICENSE.txt.

How to install

1. Download the zip and unzip it.

2. Copy addons/ember_vfx_3d/ into your project's addons/ folder. Nothing to enable in Project Settings.

3. Drag a scene from addons/ember_vfx_3d/effects/ into your 3D scene, or spawn it from code as above.

4. Select the root node and use Intensity, Tint and Speed in the Inspector.

To look around first, open the unzipped folder as a project in Godot 4.7 and press F5.

Renderers and testing

Made for and tested on Godot 4.7 stable. A test script loaded all 36 effects, ran them, changed intensity and tint and spawned each through EmberCatalog in Forward+, Mobile and Compatibility with no shader, script or resource errors. That was on one Windows 11 PC with an NVIDIA RTX 2060, which is the only hardware tested. All 36 were looked at in Forward+; about half in Compatibility and two in Mobile. I have not tested web export, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, other GPUs, other Godot versions, or frame times anywhere. If something breaks for you, comment with your renderer, OS and GPU and I'll look.

Honest limits

• No soft particles. The effects don't read depth, so a sprite can show a hard edge where it meets a wall or floor. ground_clip hides it for floors; for walls, place the effect slightly in front.
• Smoke and fire are camera-facing billboards. They flatten when seen from straight above or below.
• Lightning and sparks are flat sprites, not geometry that bends around objects.
• tint replaces the hue and keeps the brightness. Very dark tints look dim; raise intensity.
• 25 of the 36 effects include a light (no shadows). In Compatibility, set use_lights to false if you stack many.
• No performance numbers are given. Cost depends on your GPU and how many transparent particles overlap.
• Flashes, flicker and fast bolts can bother photosensitive players. Offer an option that lowers intensity or turns effects off.
• These are particle scenes and shaders. No models, textures, sprites or audio.

FAQ

Does it need textures or imported assets? No. Nothing in the effects is an imported file.

Which Godot version? 4.7. Other versions are untested.

Compatibility renderer? Yes. It uses no compute shaders, depth reads or screen reads. Tested on one PC, see above.

Can I recolour an effect? Yes. Set tint on the root, or edit the colour gradient inside a material.

Can I use it in a commercial game? Yes. Short version below.

Do I have to credit you? No, but it's appreciated.

Refunds? If it doesn't work in your project, tell me and I'll try to fix it. itch.io's refund rules also apply.

Licence (short version)

Use the effects in any number of your own games and products, free or commercial, no royalty, credit optional. Modify them for those projects. Don't resell, share or publish the effect files themselves, on their own or inside another asset, VFX or particle pack, and keep them out of public repositories. One purchase covers one person, or one company with its staff and contractors. Full text in LICENSE.txt.

AI disclosure

The shader code, GDScript, effect scenes, demo, icon and documentation were written with AI (a large language model) and then compiled and run in Godot 4.7. The cover, GIFs and screenshots are captures from Godot of the included demo project. No AI image generator was used. No audio.

Questions and bugs

Leave a comment. Tell me your Godot version and renderer.

Try it free first: https://inkharbor.itch.io/ember-vfx-3d-lite has a free Lite version.

More from inkharbor

Full packs: Print & Paint FX · Retro Screen FX · Pulse FX 2D · Weather FX 2D · Pixel Sprite FX · Toon Forge 3D · Hitfeel Kit · Screen Transitions · Settings Menu Kit · Save/Load Kit · Inventory Kit · Dialogue & Quest Kit · Exporter Pro

Free to try: Print & Paint sampler · Exporter (free) · Hitfeel Lite · Screen Transitions Lite · Retro Lite · Pulse Lite · Weather Lite · Pixel Lite · Toon Lite · Ember Lite · Dialogue Lite · Inventory Lite · Last Ember (free game)