So when Bob first mentioned dust I thought it would be the easy effect. Then I started to think about it...hoo boy! Problem is that dust has no internal life. Unlike fire or rain it has no movement of its own, it only reacts to the environment. Anyway after tinkering for a couple of days I have a first take on dust. I started with house dust because it has the least external forces, and therefore is most dustlike (I think). This is still an early prototype, but I thought I'd see what people thought.

Added another whirl sprite.

Bigger, darker, whirlier, or summin like that.

Bigger, darker, whirlier, or summin like that.

Much better. About three quater way through it, a sprite at the back does a big twirl. Spoils the effect. I'd also like to see how the dust settles at the end.

Looks very effective but the 'timing' seems a little off. I would have thought that immediately after the impact the dust should have expanded to most of its extent then a small amount of expansion thereafter. It looks like the bulk of the expansion occurs after the initial expansion.

Cheers

That is looking very effective!

This one reacts a little faster to the drop, and I've let it run thru the dissapation stage.

Hmm...the dissipation definitely doesn't look right. If it's going to just fade, it should probably do it faster. Ideally, the dust would descend with gravity and settle further out/fade out. Otherwise good work.

I agree with Ken. The feeling I get is that the initial impact ejects the dust to 1/3 of the final height then it decelerates and floats for anotehr 2/3 the final hight then just disipates.

I'd like to see the initial ejection to 2/3 the final height then decelerate another 1/3 the final height then let the dust fall backdown rather than just fade away.

OR

leave it as is but at the 1/3 of deceleration stage actually have it start falling back toward the ground.

The dust just feels too floaty. Remember it is the initial air rush of the boxes impact causing the dust to rise and once the box has impacted there is no after effect other than the force of gravity and it will decelerate at 9.8 metres per second per second.

Yeah, that's pretty much my take too. I'll have to rethink my use of gravity. More later. Thanks for the feedback.

faster, heavier, more dissapating.