Fishery : Sense of speed

February 7, 2017

With all the open space in the level when swimming about, it’s hard to get a sense of speed without some frame of reference. Much like in the movie “The Aviator” where Hughes realizes that he needs clouds for his dogfighting flick, I realize that I need some floating particles about the space to get the same effect. As you turn the camera or change velocity, the viewer can see the particles change in speed and trajectory relative to the camera, giving a sense of space traversed. I used Unity’s built-in particle system, making particles spawn with just a tiny bit of randomized velocity to create the effect of bits of dirt/debris floating about in the water. So that I don’t spawn particles where it’s unneeded, I set the particle’s spawning box just in front of the camera.