Rainbow Lights, Global Visuals & Layer Order
RGB Rainbow Lights, the Global Visuals dials (colour cycle speed, screen shake, pop fade), Layer Sorting, and how to read the preview cost of your visuals.
RGB Rainbow Lights
RGB Rainbow Lights (Arts tab) makes chosen parts of the scene cycle through the rainbow together. Enable Rainbow Lighting is the master switch; the four switches below it choose what the rainbow applies to. It is open on every plan, including Free, and everything is on by default.
| Control | What it colours | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Rainbow Lighting | Master switch. With it off, none of the four below have any effect. | On |
| Rainbow Ball Colors | The balls. | On |
| Rainbow Impact Effects | Collision effects that use Rainbow colouring. | On |
| Rainbow Trails | The trails (same as picking a Rainbow trail colour mode). | On |
| Rainbow Borders | The arena wall. | On |
Tip
- Turn Rainbow Ball Colors off when you want your own Base Color or a ball effect to show its true colour.
Global Visuals
Global Visuals (Arts tab) holds four dials that affect the whole scene. It needs every plan, including Free.
| Control | What it does | Range / default | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Color Cycle Speed | How fast the rainbow hue turns. | 0 to 20. Default 0.8 | 0 freezes the rainbow on one colour. |
| Screen Shake Strength | Multiplies the screen shake that impacts trigger in modes that shake. | 0 to 5. Default 0 (off) | Around 1 gives the mode's own shake. |
| Shake Fade Speed | How quickly a shake settles. Higher values ring on longer. | 0.5 to 0.99. Default 0.92 | |
| Pop Fade Speed | How quickly the Bounce Counter's pop shrinks back. | 0.01 to 0.5. Default 0.05 |
Layer Sorting
Layer Sorting (Arts tab) sets what is drawn in front of what. The list reads from Top (Front) down to Bottom (Back); use the arrows to move a layer. It needs Creator, Pro, Elite and Agency.
| Layer | What it is | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Heads-Up Display (HUD) UI | Counters, timers and text. | Almost always belongs on top. |
| Physics Spheres | The balls. | Moving it is the fastest way to restyle the frame. |
| Collision Ripple FX | Impact effects. | |
| Broken Shards (Blast) | Debris from broken rings. | Above the ball reads as debris flying at the camera. |
| Particle/Physics Trails | Trails. | Keep under the ball so the ball leads its own trail. |
| Painter/Drawer Lines | Drawer strokes. | Above the ball, thick strokes can hide it. |
| Escape Rings | The Escape ring stack. | Below the ball, a break looks like the ball punching out. |
| Container Walls | The arena wall and outer borders. | Above the ball, the ball seems to pass behind the wall. |
How Heavy Are Your Visuals?
Some visuals cost more to draw every frame than others. The Studio shows this in two places:
- A small cost dot next to the sliders that matter most: Glow Radius, trail Length, Trail Glow, impact Particles and parallax Layers. It shows how much of a frame that setting takes at its current value. - The Preview cost meter in the Physics tab (Optimization). It estimates how much of a 60 fps frame your scene needs on a mid-range computer and lists the biggest costs.
These are warnings only. When the scene is heavy, the preview draws lighter to stay smooth. Your export is not affected.
Tip
- The biggest costs are usually many balls with glow, long glowing trails, many impact particles and several parallax layers with glow on.
- Ball effects vary in cost too: plain Minimal looks are the lightest.
More from BallEngine
Guides, plans and answers for making your videos.