version: "1.0.0" name: add-effects description: Use when adding visual effects to a PlayCanvas app, to choose between particle systems, shader chunks, runtime meshes, and post-processing.

Effects

Pick the Engine building block first, then adapt its closest official example with find-examples:

• Particle systems: the particlesystem component (graphics/particles-* examples).
• Custom shading on existing surfaces: StandardMaterial chunk overrides

(override-shader-chunks), or a ShaderMaterial when the effect needs its own shader pair.

• Procedural or per-frame geometry: a runtime-updated Mesh on a render component

(graphics/mesh-* examples), or WideLineRenderer for lines with width.

• Full-screen effects: CameraFrame (light-scene).
• Gaussian splat effects: the shipped gsplat scripts (reuse-scripts).

Engine gotchas

• CurveSet takes one key array per channel. A flattened array type-checks, then fails at texture

upload.

• Create emitters and meshes at load and reuse them. Fire an emitter with reset() then play();

one-shots use loop: false.

• The first use of a shader stalls a frame. Render each effect once behind a loading screen.
• Animate values with setParameter, not a per-frame material.update().
• A lit material on a custom mesh needs normals; otherwise use an unlit material.

Trigger each effect through the app's real inputs, and confirm repeated triggers keep entity counts stable.