3D game special effects, fire, lightning, water, and ice

Question

I'm working on a 3d game using OpenGL and would like to take it in a fantasy direction. Specifically I'm thinking of having magic with effects for fire, water, ice, and lightning. My problem is I have no idea how to create these effects. Are there any resources for me on how to learn something like this?

Answer 1

Look in to Particle Systems or particle effects.

Here are some links to tutorials:

http://gpwiki.org/index.php/OpenGL:Tutorials:Tutorial_Framework:Particles

http://www.swiftless.com/tutorials/opengl/particles.html

http://nehe.gamedev.net/data/lessons/lesson.asp?lesson=19

Answer 2

First of all try to play with such effects in UDK Taste there realization in Unreal Engine 3. Then you can read something from Nvidia SDK and read math of cook from there book