Free Ambient Effects – Top-Down Smoke, Steam & Ember VFX (HD)

Free Ambient Effects for top-down games: looping smoke, steam and toxic gas, embers and sparks, a dust devil and seamless ember and light-shaft overlays, in the same HD style as the characters of the series.

Smoke, steam and gas

A rising smoke column, a steam vent and a low cloud of toxic gas. All three loop seamlessly, so they can run for as long as the fire burns or the vent hisses.

Animated effects

• Smoke, steam vent and toxic gas: seamless loops, pivot on the ground
• Ember swirl: embers spiralling up from a fire (seamless loop)
• Ember burst: embers and ash thrown up from a log or brazier
• Sparks burst: a spray of sparks from one point, falling with gravity
• Dust devil: a small whirl of dust turning on the spot (seamless loop)

Seamless overlays

Drifting embers and warm light shafts as 1024 px tiles that repeat without a seam, each as a colour PNG and a greyscale mask for any tint.

What's in the download

• Transparent PNG strips and every frame as a separate PNG
• Seamless overlay tiles: colour PNG + greyscale mask
• JSON with frame size, frame count, FPS, loop, pivot and scroll speed
• Godot 4 SpriteFrames for every animated effect and a ready ShaderMaterial for every overlay

More effects in this style

• Explosion Effects: fire, frost, toxic and four more elements in three sizes
• Fire Spell Patterns and Toxic Spell Patterns: ready-timed rings, spirals, rains and meteors
• Haunted Effects: ectoplasm, soul wisps, shadow smoke and curse sigils

Explosion Effects is in the Magic & Ability Effects Set and Haunted Effects in the Combat Effects Set; the Effects Complete Edition has every effects and spell pattern pack, and the Complete Edition has everything in the series.

More free effects in the same style: Free Weather Effects and Free Tornado Effects.

Quick import

1. Godot 4, animated effects: assign the SpriteFrames to an AnimatedSprite2D. Embers, sparks and the light shafts look best with a CanvasItemMaterial set to Add.
2. Godot 4, overlays: add a ColorRect that covers the view and give it the overlay's ShaderMaterial (overlays/<name>/godot/).
3. Other engines: slice the strips using the frame size and FPS from the JSON; repeat the overlay tiles.

License

• Use in unlimited personal and commercial games; modify freely.
• Credit appreciated, not required.
• No reselling or sharing the graphics as assets, original or modified, and no use in datasets or NFTs.

Full text: LICENSE.txt in the download.

FAQ

Do they match the characters? Yes: the same camera angle, light direction and HD style as every character pack in the series.

Can the smoke run forever? Yes. Smoke, steam, toxic gas, ember swirl and the dust devil loop without a seam.

Version 1.0.0.