Advanced Tracer – Wake System

Create readable, cinematic projectile effects without building a new visual stack for every weapon.

Advanced Tracer - Wake System combines a bright projectile tracer with an optional smoke or vapor wake. Any TracerProfile can be paired with any WakeProfile, so rifles, machine guns, snipers, rockets, plasma bolts and stylized weapons can share one modular, pooled runtime architecture.

INCLUDED

- 22 ready-to-use tracer profiles.

- 65 wake profiles across four wake renderers.

- 9 demo and focused test scenes covering Built-In, URP, HDRP, projectile and hitscan workflows.

- Complete 18-page PDF documentation with setup, API examples, profile references, performance guidance and troubleshooting.

- Runtime source, custom inspectors, Scene-view preview tools, shaders, materials, textures and example prefabs.

TRACER RENDERERS

- LineRenderer: efficient camera-facing core and halo tracer.

- MeshStretched: true 3D projectile geometry for close shots and large rounds.

- MeshAnimated: mesh tracer with animated shader detail.

- Chain: segmented lightning and belt-style effects.

- CometTrail: sampled tapered history trail.

- Particle: particle-following projectile visuals.

WAKE RENDERERS

- LineRenderer: the lowest-cost smoke ribbon for massed fire.

- MeshStretched: a very low-CPU 3D hero trail stretched from muzzle to projectile, with world-space texture tiling.

- TubeTrail: procedural 3D tube that follows curved and ballistic paths.

- HybridSmoke: ribbon core plus crossed-card volume for thick, puffy trails.

PROJECTILE AND HITSCAN WORKFLOWS

Fire normal moving projectiles or supply a resolved endpoint for hitscan weapons. Hitscan wakes appear at full muzzle-to-impact length immediately and then run the selected fade. Profiles support gravity, optional hit detection, impact splitting, attached VFX, attached lights, HDR core/halo color, emission, noise, width curves and multiple dissolve modes.

FAST ITERATION

TracerProfile and WakeProfile ScriptableObjects keep weapon data modular. Live Scene-view previews use the runtime meshes, materials, taper handling and fade math. Width, thickness, color, emission, bloom response, noise, erosion and fade behavior can be tuned without entering Play Mode.

PERFORMANCE-FOCUSED ARCHITECTURE

Tracers, wakes, attachments and trackers are pooled. Bulk kinematic movement uses Burst jobs, per-instance shader values use MaterialPropertyBlocks, and distance-based detail LOD removes sub-pixel texture work without popping trails. Configurable tracer and wake budgets make the system suitable for sustained automatic fire and large battle scenes.

RENDER PIPELINES

Includes dedicated demo scenes and compatible shader passes for Built-In, URP and HDRP. URP users should enable HDR for bloom and Depth Texture for soft intersections. HDRP physical exposure compensation is handled automatically.

IMPORTANT COMPATIBILITY NOTES

- Authored and tested in Unity 6.4 (6000.4.7f1).

- Uses Unity Registry Burst and Collections packages.

- HDRP soft-particle depth fading is not available in the cross-pipeline wake pass, so geometry intersections can show a harder edge.

- Projectile hit detection and Split On Impact are implemented by the LineRenderer tracer backend. Other visual backends should receive a gameplay-resolved hitscan endpoint or use the game's collision component.

Designed for FPS, TPS, tactical shooters, arcade shooters, sci-fi combat, vehicle weapons, turrets and cinematic battle scenes.