What is billboarding, and can or should it be used to create special effects for 3D games on weapon blasting effects?
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\$\begingroup\$ My concern is mainly in 3D, from the little I know it has something to do with projecting a 2D image in a 3D world, I don't understand how something could look 3D that's 2D. \$\endgroup\$– jaypowersCommented May 2, 2013 at 11:45
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\$\begingroup\$ related gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/19750/… \$\endgroup\$– jhockingCommented Oct 2, 2013 at 17:35
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2 Answers
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What is billboarding ?
Billboard is a textured flat object, usually a polygon, which faces the camera. Its direction usually changes constantly as the object and camera move, so it always faces the camera direction, this operation is called Billboarding. Billboards usually use texturing + alpha to represent many phenomena that do not have smooth solid surfaces (e.g. Clouds, Grass, Smoke, Fire).
Can or should it be used to create special effects for weapon blasting effects?
You need to make a distinction between billboards and particle systems. A particle system is a set of small objects that are animated and controlled using an algorithm. Particles can be represented by Billboards, but other forms are also common such as points and lines. You can make gun blasting effects using billboards, but in the end, you will need a way to control those billboards which will end you up making a particle system (though might be a very simple one)
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4\$\begingroup\$ Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:47
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\$\begingroup\$ Weapon blasting effects aren't always particle systems, but yeah typically if you tried to use billboards you'd just end up with a simple ad-hoc particle system. The main weapon effect that would be billboards and not particle systems would be laser beams, and that would be variant billboards that only rotate on the long axis, not completely facing the camera. Also note that muzzle flares are generally done with animated textures on standard quads, not billboards or particle systems. \$\endgroup\$– jhockingCommented May 9, 2013 at 12:40
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BillBoard
A billboard within your game is always orientated to face the camera. As the camera moves the object is orientated to face the camera. The same theory can also be applied to cause an object to always face another object within your game.
based on orientation its divided into 2 types Points, Axial
