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Lighterfire Heart

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-05

Overview​

The lighterfire_heart prefab is a visual FX component that generates persistent particle effects (smoke and embers) using the VFX system. It is a specialized variant of the lighter fire system, implemented via MakeLighterFire from lighterfire_common.lua. The component initializes rendering resources, sets up color and scale envelopes for animation, and uses an emitter manager to periodically spawn particles over time.

This prefab is used for the "Heart" variant of the lighter fire, which features distinct visual characteristics: a pulsing multi-stage smoke effect with fading transparency and fast-moving ember particles.

Usage example​

-- Internally instantiated by the game for the "lighterfire_heart" prefab.
-- No direct usage is required for modders; it is created via:
local inst = SpawnPrefab("lighterfire_heart")

Dependencies & tags​

Components used: None identified (uses VFX effect API and EmitterManager) Tags: None identified

Properties​

No public properties.

Main functions​

common_postinit(inst)​

  • Description: Initializes and configures the VFX effect system for smoke and ember particles on the entity. Sets up particle emission parameters, rendering resources (textures/shaders), envelopes, blend modes, and bloom. Only runs on non-dedicated servers. Ensures envelopes are initialized once via InitEnvelope.
  • Parameters: inst (TheEntity) — the instance being initialized.
  • Returns: Nothing.
  • Error states: Returns early if run on a dedicated server or if InitEnvelope is nil (already initialized).

master_postinit(inst)​

  • Description: Sets FX offset properties for positioning the visual effect relative to its owner (used for offsetting rendering from parent entity).
  • Parameters: inst (TheEntity) — the instance being initialized.
  • Returns: Nothing.

InitEnvelope()​

  • Description: Internal helper used once to register color and vector2 envelopes with EnvelopeManager for particle animation. Defines colour/opacity and scale trajectories over the particle lifetime.
  • Parameters: None.
  • Returns: Nothing.
  • Error states: Registers envelopes only on first invocation; sets itself to nil after completion to prevent re-initialization.

emit_fn(effect, sphere_emitter)​

  • Description: Emits a single smoke particle using rotating UV animation with varying velocity, lifetime, and position derived from a sphere emitter.
  • Parameters:
    • effect (VFXEffect) — the effect container to add particles to.
    • sphere_emitter (function) — function returning a 3D position (px, py, pz) on a sphere.
  • Returns: Nothing.

emit_ember_fn(effect, sphere_emitter)​

  • Description: Emits a single ember particle with additive blending and drag, varying in velocity and lifetime.
  • Parameters:
    • effect (VFXEffect) — the effect container to add particles to.
    • sphere_emitter (function) — function returning a 3D position (px, py, pz) on a sphere.
  • Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners​

None identified.

Enums & Constants​

NameTypeValueDescription
ANIMSMOKE_TEXTUREstring"fx/animsmoke.tex"Texture asset for smoke particles.
EMBER_TEXTUREstring"fx/snow.tex"Texture asset for ember particles.
REVEAL_SHADERstring"shaders/vfx_particle_reveal.ksh"Shader for smoke particle rendering.
ADD_SHADERstring"shaders/vfx_particle_add.ksh"Shader for ember particle rendering.
COLOUR_ENVELOPE_NAMEstring"lighterfirecolourenvelope_heart"Name of smoke colour envelope in EnvelopeManager.
SCALE_ENVELOPE_NAMEstring"lighterfirescaleenvelope_heart"Name of smoke scale envelope in EnvelopeManager.
COLOUR_ENVELOPE_NAME_EMBERstring"lighterfirecolourenvelope_heart_ember"Name of ember colour envelope.
SCALE_ENVELOPE_NAME_EMBERstring"lighterfirescaleenvelope_heart_ember"Name of ember scale envelope.
MAX_LIFETIMEnumber0.5Maximum lifetime of smoke particles (seconds).
EMBER_MAX_LIFETIMEnumber1.2Maximum lifetime of ember particles (seconds).