VectorEffects by yaRnMcDonuts · Pull Request #2577 · jMonkeyEngine/jmonkeyengine

yaRnMcDonuts · 2025-12-27T06:44:03Z

Adds a simple but highly reusable AppState that runs effects directly on a valid Vector type object (being Vector2f, Vector3f, Vector4f, and ColorRGBA).

Useful for lights, particle effects, and essentially every Color or Vector based MaterialParamater that shaders and special effects rely on.

The most useful functionality of this system will be the ability to quickly deploy an EaseVectorEffect on colors to smoothly fade in/out things like lights and special effects, as to avoid the sudden and unsightly impact of removing something from the scene instantaneously in one single frame. This type of smooth fading is a very important aspect of polishing a game. And while the code to fade out colors can be simple, it is something that is used over and over again for a variety of different effects in a project and can sometimes requires some not-so-simple extra bells and whistles (like a delay timer or chaining), thus a versatile system like this becomes necessary to handle this in an efficient way.

In addition to smooth fading, this library also enables a variety of other compound loopable effects by using the SequencedVectorEffect class (such as flickering, pulsing, oscillating, etc), and I also will be adding a NoiseVectorEffect class soon as well.

yaRnMcDonuts · 2026-01-04T03:15:47Z

In order to add the NoiseVectorEffect, I also will have to add a procedural noise library to the engine.

The best choice for a fully-fledged noise library in java would appear to be the JNoise library, however I believe that would be overkill for basic noise functions that are needed for this PR, so instead I am choosing to implement the java FastNoiseLite library into the engine. This is a very light weight single class noise library that should be more suited to include in the engine than something like JNoise. Let me know if anyone disagrees or prefers a different noise library, otherwise I will move forward with this plan to include FastNoiseLite.java in the engine's math package. I also will update this PR to include javadoc before merging.

Add FastNoiseLite (MIT license) from https://github.com/Auburn/FastNoiseLite/tree/master

github-actions · 2026-01-05T07:01:26Z

🖼️ Screenshot tests have failed.

The purpose of these tests is to ensure that changes introduced in this PR don't break visual features. They are visual unit tests.

📄 Where to find the report:

Go to the (failed run) > Summary > Artifacts > screenshot-test-report
Download the zip and open jme3-screenshot-tests/build/reports/ScreenshotDiffReport.html

⚠️ If you didn't expect to change anything visual:
Fix your changes so the screenshot tests pass.

✅ If you did mean to change things:
Review the replacement images in jme3-screenshot-tests/build/changed-images to make sure they really are improvements and then replace and commit the replacement images at jme3-screenshot-tests/src/test/resources.

✨ If you are creating entirely new tests:
Find the new images in jme3-screenshot-tests/build/changed-images and commit the new images at jme3-screenshot-tests/src/test/resources.

Note; it is very important that the committed reference images are created on the build pipeline, locally created images are not reliable. Similarly tests will fail locally but you can look at the report to check they are "visually similar".

See https://github.com/jMonkeyEngine/jmonkeyengine/blob/master/jme3-screenshot-tests/README.md for more information

Contact @richardTingle (aka richtea) for guidance if required

yaRnMcDonuts · 2026-01-05T08:21:03Z

I re-ran the jobs and this time the screenshot tests passed. I guess something must have bugged out during the first run.

richardTingle · 2026-01-05T09:34:46Z

Yeah, that's decidedly weird. I can't see why it decided to post that (especially not 2 hours ago). Hopefully just something bugging out as you say

yaRnMcDonuts · 2026-01-26T20:45:42Z

I just need to upload the final example for the noise effect and then I'll merge this PR. I will wait atleast another day since no one else reviewed.

However, I've done some thorough self-review, also using AI analysis tools to critique my code and the approach. And I'm very confident that this is the best way to handle these types of effects, as opposed to hard coding things like fading and flickering into the shaders or java classes for lights, emitters, and custom shader effects.

riccardobl

I did an initial review, there are few issues, and effects have a bit too many internal clones and allocations.
I suggest to use TempVars with the try-with-resource statement

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorEffectManagerState.java

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorGroup.java

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/NoiseVectorEffect.java

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorEffect.java

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorGroup.java

yaRnMcDonuts · 2026-02-07T11:24:24Z

I believe I've addressed all of the requests brought up in the previous review. But I'll wait another few days just in case anyone still sees any issues or anything I missed.

Then (once I'm sure there are no more changes) I will do a final update to this PR to fix all of the formatting and add javadoc, and then I'll also wait another few days after that before merging.

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T22:54:45Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorEffectManagerState.java

+ */
+public class VectorEffectManagerState extends BaseAppState {
+
+    private final ArrayList<VectorEffect> activeVectorEffects = new ArrayList();


Suggested change

private final ArrayList<VectorEffect> activeVectorEffects = new ArrayList();

private final ArrayList<VectorEffect> activeVectorEffects = new ArrayList<>();

I'll be sure to fix this along with a few other remaining formatting issues in my final edit for formatting and javadoc.

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T22:57:57Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/AbstractVectorEffect.java

+                vectorEffectManagerState.registerVectorEffect(this);
+            }
+        }
+    }


convenienceRegister is never used, let's remove it,maybe, since it adds confusion.
The dev can just keep the VectorEffectManagerState around

I do use this method in my own project, but I avoided it in the examples so that they can show the full way to fetch an appState for users who may be using the examples to learn from, and since I also want the examples to show that the effects rely on a manager state.

But this convenience method does reduce appstate-fetching boiler plate code in a project that registers lots of vector effects (and prevents having to keep a reference to the VectorEffectManagerState or repeatedly fetch it in classes that make multiple registries) so I'm opting to keep it.

Ok then, lets call this registerTo and maybe make it append the VectorEffectManagerState if its not present in the stateManager

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T22:58:52Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/AbstractVectorEffect.java

+            for(Runnable r : onFinishedCallbacks) {
+                r.run();
+            }
+            onFinishedCallbacks.clear();


is it really expected that the finished callbacks are fired only once and then cleared?

I'll remove the clear() call in case someone wants to reuse a VectorEffect. And, in hindsight, the clear() method shouldn't even needed for cleanup since the class will automatically clean up the references when the VectorEffectManagerState cleans up the effect (assuming the user isn't holding a reference to it themselves if they are intending to reuse it)

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T23:00:26Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/AbstractVectorEffect.java

+    }
+
+
+    public void registerRunnableOnFinish(Runnable runnable) {


If clearing callbacks once they fire is the way to go, maybe this should be called differently.
Usually when you register something it fires every time the conditions are met, maybe we should call this runOnFinish(Runnable), like we have enqueue instead of eg. registerTask

Sounds good, I'll rename the method.

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T23:39:52Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorEffectManagerState.java

+
+    }
+
+    public void registerVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){


Suggested change

public void registerVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){

public void playVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){

riccardobl · 2026-02-07T23:41:00Z

jme3-effects/src/main/java/com/jme3/vectoreffect/VectorEffectManagerState.java

+        }
+    }
+
+    public void cancelEffects(VectorGroup vectorObject) {


can we add a cancelEffect(VectorEffect) for completion?

yaRnMcDonuts added 2 commits December 27, 2025 01:26

Add files via upload

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Add Example

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yaRnMcDonuts added the Feature Request / Proposal Request a feature or propose an idea label Dec 27, 2025

yaRnMcDonuts added this to the v3.10.0 milestone Dec 27, 2025

yaRnMcDonuts added 3 commits January 4, 2026 01:51

Update VectorGroup.java

9bc33ac

Add FastNoiseLite.java

4121447

Add FastNoiseLite (MIT license) from https://github.com/Auburn/FastNoiseLite/tree/master

Add NoiseVectorEffect.java

5adc84a

riccardobl requested changes Jan 26, 2026

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yaRnMcDonuts and others added 2 commits January 26, 2026 17:13

Update VectorGroup.java

5540726

refactor: make typesafe and immutable

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yaRnMcDonuts closed this Jan 27, 2026

yaRnMcDonuts reopened this Jan 28, 2026

yaRnMcDonuts added 3 commits January 28, 2026 17:01

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Update VectorEffectSimpleTest.java

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riccardobl requested changes Jan 29, 2026

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yaRnMcDonuts added 2 commits January 29, 2026 15:27

Add files via upload

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yaRnMcDonuts requested a review from riccardobl January 29, 2026 22:12

yaRnMcDonuts added 3 commits February 1, 2026 05:39

Update NoiseVectorEffect.java

34f536f

Update SequencedVectorEffect.java

fba64fe

Update EaseVectorEffect.java

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riccardobl requested changes Feb 7, 2026

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Update AbstractVectorEffect.java

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riccardobl reviewed Feb 7, 2026

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	private final ArrayList<VectorEffect> activeVectorEffects = new ArrayList();
	private final ArrayList<VectorEffect> activeVectorEffects = new ArrayList<>();


		}

		public void registerVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){

	public void registerVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){
	public void playVectorEffect(VectorEffect vectorEffect){

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