Trails FX - Sword Trails, Afterimages and Slashes for Godot 4

Motion trails for 2D games in Godot 4. Sword trails that follow the blade, ribbons behind projectiles and dashes, afterimages of any sprite, and one-shot slash arcs. Three nodes, no setup, smooth at any speed.

SlashFX2D.spawn(self, hit_position, attack_direction)

Three nodes

• TrailFX2D: add it under anything that moves. Blade mode sweeps the space between the hilt and the tip of a weapon as it rotates: the classic sword trail. Line mode draws a ribbon along the path: magic missiles, arrows, wands, comets, dashes.
• AfterimageFX2D: fading copies of a Sprite2D or an AnimatedSprite2D, sprite sheets included. Normal, tinted or flat silhouette. Turn it on for the length of a dash.
• SlashFX2D: a crescent that sweeps and fades in one call, then frees itself. For combo hits, enemy attacks, anything without a weapon sprite.

Five looks

• Soft: feathered to the edges.
• Glow: a white-hot core over a coloured body.
• Energy: bright streaks racing along the trail.
• Fire: the tail burns away in ragged holes.
• Solid: flat colour with a crisp edge, for cartoon and pixel-art styles.

Every look takes a colour gradient, a width curve and a light setting: 0 covers the background like paint, 1 adds light like a glow, and in between you get true colours with a luminous edge on any background.

Built to look right

• Fast swings stay round: curve points are added where the samples are far apart.
• Sharp turns bend as one piece instead of twisting into spikes.
• Drawn in world space: the trail stays where it was drawn when the object moves on.
• Afterimages are drawn behind the sprite in draw order, so backgrounds never hide them.
• Measured: a scene with a few trails costs well under half a millisecond.

What is inside

• The addons/almios_trails_fx folder: the three nodes and their shaders, fully commented
• A demo: a spectral sword swinging, a knight dashing with afterimages, orbs with trails and slashes on click, with keys to switch styles and colours
• README with every setting and ready recipes (sword, fire blade, magic missile, dash, combo hit)

Compatibility

Godot 4.3 and newer, tested on 4.3 and 4.7. Forward+, Mobile and Compatibility renderers, desktop and web.

License

Use in unlimited personal and commercial projects. Please do not resell or redistribute the pack itself.

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