Minecraft VFX Engineering

Core principle

VFX is a causal presentation layer around a real event, not a second gameplay engine. Begin with the owner/event, then make timing, hierarchy, cleanup, synchronization and performance explicit.

Canonical lifecycle

ANTICIPATION -> CHARGE -> RELEASE -> TRAVEL/ACTIVE -> IMPACT -> LINGER -> DECAY

Not every effect needs every phase. Omissions are deliberate and documented.

Backend order

1. provider-native effect facilities when they already own the event;
2. vanilla/NeoForge primitives for small/simple presentation;
3. Photon for project-owned authored effects when timelines/trails/beams/materials/post processing justify it;
4. AAA Particles/Effekseer when an Effekseer-authored effect is deliberately selected and the exact installed version/API/assets are verified.

Do not run Photon and AAA as two independent pipelines for the same causal event without a documented reason.

Required design fields

Use ../../templates/VFX-BRIEF.md and define:

• owner/event and authoritative boundary;
• visual language/palette/material;
• lifecycle phases;
• source/target/attachment points;
• backend + exact-version proof;
• sync/dedup policy;
• owner and cleanup lifecycle;
• accessibility/reduced-effects behavior where supported;
• expected concurrency and profiling scenario;
• provenance/licence;
• QA scenes.

Causality and multiplayer

• One authoritative event produces one intended presentation sequence per viewer.
• Prediction may preview presentation only when compatible with the provider contract; prediction never applies gameplay state.
• Avoid server broadcast + independent client replay duplication.
• Persistent effects require one owner, refresh policy and termination condition.
• Define cleanup for relevant cancel, death, logout, dimension change, entity removal, chunk unload/reload and server stop paths.
• Dedicated server must not classload client-only renderer/VFX classes.

Composition

Quality comes from readable layering, not particle count. Prefer primary shape/motion, secondary accents and controlled detail. Preserve target/HUD/world readability. Emissive, distortion, screenshake and post effects are accents with a purpose, not default polish buttons.

Performance

Do not invent universal particle or GPU budgets. Validate the expected real concurrency on the actual modpack. Review lifetime, spawn rate, transparency/overdraw, trail/beam segmentation, dynamic lights/shaders, post effects, simultaneous viewers/casters and cleanup.

Hard gates

• No invented provider/Photon/AAA class or signature.
• No VFX event as gameplay authority.
• No duplicate predicted + authoritative spawn.
• No unowned persistent effect.
• No final approval from editor preview alone.
• No third-party VFX asset without compatible provenance.

Use minecraft-visual-qa plus standards/VFX-QA.md for acceptance. For spell-specific production, combine with minecraft-spell-production.