Getting Started

This walkthrough creates a visible particle effect, exports it, and plays it in the world. It uses only built-in Photon resources.

1. Open the Editor

Install compatible Photon and LDLib2 builds, enter a single-player world in Creative mode, and run:

/photon_editor

The editor is intentionally single-player only. It needs access to local project and resource files.

The editor opens with the hierarchy, scene, inspector, resources, and timeline.

2. Create an FX Project

Choose File → New → FX Project. Save the project as first-effect.fxproj. A project stores the editable object tree, Timeline, and references to reusable resources. It is not the file loaded by the game at runtime.

3. Add a Particle Emitter

Create a Particle Emitter under root, then select it in the FX Hierarchy. For a small first result, use:

Setting	Value
Duration	40 ticks
Looping	enabled
Start Lifetime	20
Start Speed	0.05
Start Size	0.2
Emission Rate	2
Shape	Sphere

The Scene view restarts the preview after structural edits. Use its restart and pause controls when comparing settings.

4. Assign a Material

Open Resources → Material, choose a built-in particle texture such as circle, and drag it into the emitter's Renderer material list. Material settings control texture/shader, while Renderer settings control layer, sorting, culling, masks, model mode, and instancing.

5. Add Motion and Color

Enable Color over Lifetime and choose a gradient whose alpha fades to zero. Enable Velocity over Lifetime or Force over Lifetime for motion that changes after spawn.

Curves and gradients are reusable value sources used throughout emitter modules and Timeline properties.

6. Save and Export

Saving writes the editable .fxproj. To create a runtime effect, choose File → Export → FX and export as:

<gameDir>/ldlib2/assets/photon/fx/first_effect.fx

The runtime id is photon:first_effect. Exporting as an FX Pack is better when the effect must carry custom materials, graphs, meshes, and textures to another installation.

7. Play the Export

Close the editor and bind the effect to the block under your feet:

/photon fx photon:first_effect block ~ ~-1 ~ 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 false true

If an exported file was replaced but an old definition remains cached, run:

/photon_client clear_client_fx_cache

Next Steps

• Learn every emitter setting in Particle System.
• Animate the effect in Timeline.
• Replace the built-in texture with Shader Graph.
• Package dependencies with Distribution and FX Packs.