[Help] How to make semi realistic bullet trails?

Think of Gears of War/Apex Legends/Battlefield etc. Can someone let me know how they do it? I kind of understand the concept behind stylised trails, but realistic ones leave me scratching my head. Any help would be much appreciated!

1 Like

since there is no realistic bullet trail I’ll say for stylized trails that work with realistic styled games… I’m thinking trails of refraction only particles. So the matrix did tubes of lumpy refractions, but in a realtime game w/o slow-motion I’d start with just regular trails (or beams if the bullets are instant hits), and just play with mattes and distortion/refraction.

There are also tracer fire which is just a trail with glowing soft additive material. Generally you need to know the gameplay requirements for what the FX needs to do.

1 Like

Oh wow, kind of simpler than I thought, thank you David!