parallaxium

A utility for Unity that enables game developers to easily implement parallax scrolling in their games.

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About

Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images. A survey of game developers found that while most agreed parallax scrolling improved games almost none had implemented it in one of their own games.

*Parallax scrolling can be found in many of the best selling 2D games including Limbo and Hollow Knight but many more!*

The traditional approach to parallax scrolling involves positioning sprites at different distances from the camera before scaling the sprites appropriately. This is tedious, time consuming and can be complex when organizing hundreds of sprites to be scaled and positioned correctly in 3D space.

*Traditional approach to parallax scrolling*

Parallaxium allows developers to construct their scene in 2D before using a custom editor to create parallax scrolling - this saves developers time over the traditional approach. Parallaxium works with both perspective and orthographic cameras whereas the traditional approach only works with a perspective projection. You can also select which axis you would like the parallax to effect - X, Y or both!

*Scene contructed in 2D with Parallaxium used to recreate parallax effect*

The custom editor makes Parallaxium simple to use with enough flexibility for a wide variety of project setups. If there is a 2D game that currently does not incorporate parallax scrolling, it might be simple to add it through Parallaxium. **

Features

Feature Overview

*Check out Parallaxium's features in action by clicking the image above!*

Add depth to your game using:

• Parallax Scrolling
  • Fine-tune depths using sliders
  • Make changes to a single layer instead of every object
  • No limit to the number of layers that can be created which provides the freedom to create detailed, intricate worlds
  • Not computationally expensive therefore compatible with mobile devices
• Depth of Field
  • Adjust the strength of the blurring effect
  • Blurring utilizes depth of layer resulting in natural effect
• Distance Fog
  • Adjust the strength of the sprite tinting
  • Tinting utilizes depth of layer resulting in natural effect
  • Completely change the look and feel of your game by altering the fog colours!
    • Independently modify the background and foreground fog colours

*Depth of Field (DoF) and Distance Fog (DF) can combine to completely change the look of your game*

Create endless worlds using:

• Seamless Sprites
  • Dynamic scaling ensures sprites are always aligned pixel perfect.

*Parallaxium's Seamless Sprites option facilitates the rapid creation of endless worlds like this one!*

Organize Parallaxium using:

• Autofill
  • Utilize the sorting layer of sprites to automatically create your layers
• Order by Depth
  • Arrange layers in an intuitive order
• Reassign Section
  • Move a section to another layer simply by selecting one from the dropdown menu

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Release Information

Parallaxium has been developed using Unity 2019.2.3f1 with backwards compatibility still to be determined.

To be released on Unity Asset Store in 2020.

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Developer

Iain Carr

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iain-carr/

Email: parallaxiumdev@gmail.com