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  2. Trail

Trail

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  2. trail

Trail

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The Trail object is used to create a trail like an effect between two points. As the points move through space a texture is drawn on the plane the points define. This is commonly used to create effects to help visualize movements like tracer trails behind projectiles, footprints, tire tracks, and many other similar effects.

A diagram explaining the Trail object.
An example usage of the Trail object.

When a Trail is active it will record the position of it’s Trail/Attachment0 every frame. It then connects these positions to where the attachments were in the previous frame, creating a polygon. That polygon is then filled in with the Trail’s Trail/Color and Trail/Texture (if that Texture exists). Each segment drawn in this way will eventually fade based on the TrailEffect’s Trail/Lifetime.

Creating Trails

In order for a Trail to work properly, it must be a descendant of the `Workspace` and its attachment properties (`Trail/Attachment0` and `Trail/Attachment1`) must be set to two unique Attachments. Once this has been done the effect will create a trail as soon as either of its attachments moves.

Basic Trail

It is common practice to either store the Trail in the BasePart containing the effect’s attachments, or as a child of a Folder in the Workspace with other effects objects.

Properties

Attachment

Attachment0

Determines where the Trail will start drawing its segments.
Attachment

Attachment1

Determines where the Trail will start drawing its segments.
ColorSequence

Color

The color of the trail segments throughout the lifetime of the trail.
bool

Enabled

Toggles whether a trail will be drawn or not.
bool

FaceCamera

If set to true, the trail textures will always face the camera.
float

Lifetime

Duration of the trail in seconds.
float

LightEmission

Sets how much the colors of the trail are blended with the colors behind them.
float

LightInfluence

Sets how much the Trail is influenced by the lighting around it. The property can be set to a value from 0 to 1, with 0 being the least influenced by light and 1 being the most influenced by light.

Unlike the Trail/LightEmission property, this does not cause the trail to emit light. Instead, in determines how the trail is influenced by the light surrounding it.

For instance, let’s consider what happens to the trail if we change lighting’s Lighting/Brightness from 1 to 0. If the trail’s light influence is 1, the trail would appear much dimmer when the brightness changes. However, if the trail’s light influence is 0, the trail’s appearance will not change at all, being the trail is not affected by lighting.

Note

  • Changing this property immediately affects all existing and future trail segments.

  • This property is not related to the dynamic lighting engine of Roblox. As suggested in the documentation for Trail/LightEmission, it is recommended to create parts with PointLights that follow the path of the trail if you need your trail to emit light.
float

MaxLength

Sets the maximum length of the trail.
float

MinLength

Minimum length of a trail’s segment in studs.
Content

Texture

The texture to display on the trail.
float

TextureLength

Sets length of texture if Trail/TextureMode is Wrap or Static. If mode is Stretch sets number of times texture will repeat.
TextureMode

TextureMode

Sets how the Texture will be drawn.
NumberSequence

Transparency

Sets the transparency of the Trail’s segments over the trail’s Trail/Lifetime.
NumberSequence

WidthScale

A DataType/NumberSequence that scales the width of the Trail over the course of its lifetime.

Inherited from Instance: Show Hide

bool

Archivable

Determines if an Instance can be cloned using /Instance/Clone or saved to file.
string

ClassName

[ReadOnly] [NotReplicated]

A read-only string representing the class this Instance belongs to
int

DataCost

[ReadOnly] [NotReplicated] [Deprecated]

The cost of saving the instance using data persistence.
string

Name

A non-unique identifier of the Instance
Instance

Parent

[NotReplicated]

Determines the hierarchical parent of the Instance
bool

RobloxLocked

A deprecated property that used to protect CoreGui objects
bool

archivable

[Hidden] [NotReplicated] [Deprecated]
string

className

[ReadOnly] [NotReplicated] [Deprecated]

Functions

void

Clear ( )

Clears the segments of the trail.

Inherited from Instance: Show Hide

void

ClearAllChildren ( )

This function destroys all of an Instance's children.
Instance

Clone ( )

Create a copy of an object and all its descendants, ignoring objects that are not Instance/Archivable|Archivable
void

Destroy ( )

Sets the Instance/Parent property to nil, locks the Instance/Parent property, disconnects all connections and calls Destroy on all children.
Instance

FindFirstAncestor ( string name )

Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Instance/Name is equal to the given name.
Instance

FindFirstAncestorOfClass ( string className )

Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Instance/ClassName is equal to the given className.
Instance

FindFirstAncestorWhichIsA ( string className )

Returns the first ancestor of the Instance for whom Instance/IsA returns true for the given className.
Instance

FindFirstChild ( string name , bool recursive )

Returns the first child of the Instance found with the given name.
Instance

FindFirstChildOfClass ( string className )

Returns the first child of the Instance whose Instance/ClassName|ClassName is equal to the given className.
Instance

FindFirstChildWhichIsA ( string className , bool recursive )

Returns the first child of the Instance for whom Instance/IsA returns true for the given className.
Instance

GetActor ( )

Variant

GetAttribute ( string attribute )

Returns the attribute which has been assigned to the given name
RBXScriptSignal

GetAttributeChangedSignal ( string attribute )

Returns an event that fires when the given attribute changes
Dictionary

GetAttributes ( )

Returns a dictionary of string → variant pairs for each of the Instance|Instance’s attributes
Objects

GetChildren ( )

Returns an array containing all of the Instance's children.
string

GetDebugId ( int scopeLength )

[NotBrowsable]

Returns a coded string of the Instances DebugId used internally by Roblox.
Array

GetDescendants ( )

[CustomLuaState]

Returns an array containing all of the descendants of the instance
string

GetFullName ( )

Returns a string describing the Instance's ancestry.
RBXScriptSignal

GetPropertyChangedSignal ( string property )

Get an event that fires when a given property of an object changes.
bool

IsA ( string className )

[CustomLuaState]

Returns true if an Instance's class matches or inherits from a given class
bool

IsAncestorOf ( Instance descendant )

Returns true if an Instance is an ancestor of the given descendant.
bool

IsDescendantOf ( Instance ancestor )

Returns true if an Instance is a descendant of the given ancestor.
void

Remove ( )

[Deprecated]

Sets the object’s Parent to nil, and does the same for all its descendants.
void

SetAttribute ( string attribute , Variant value )

Sets the attribute with the given name to the given value
Instance

WaitForChild ( string childName , double timeOut )

[CustomLuaState] [CanYield]

Returns the child of the Instance with the given name. If the child does not exist, it will yield the current thread until it does.
Objects

children ( )

[Deprecated]

Returns an array of the object’s children.
Instance

clone ( )

[Deprecated]
void

destroy ( )

[Deprecated]
Instance

findFirstChild ( string name , bool recursive )

[Deprecated]
Objects

getChildren ( )

[Deprecated]
bool

isA ( string className )

[Deprecated] [CustomLuaState]
bool

isDescendantOf ( Instance ancestor )

[Deprecated]
void

remove ( )

[Deprecated]

Events

Inherited from Instance: Show Hide

RBXScriptSignal

AncestryChanged ( Instance child , Instance parent )

Fires when the Instance/Parent property of the object or one of its ancestors is changed.
RBXScriptSignal

AttributeChanged ( string attribute )

Fires whenever an attribute is changed on the Instance
RBXScriptSignal

Changed ( string property )

Fired immediately after a property of an object changes.
RBXScriptSignal

ChildAdded ( Instance child )

Fires when an object is parented to this Instance.
RBXScriptSignal

ChildRemoved ( Instance child )

Fires when a child is removed from this Instance.
RBXScriptSignal

DescendantAdded ( Instance descendant )

Fires when a descendant is added to the Instance
RBXScriptSignal

DescendantRemoving ( Instance descendant )

Fires immediately before a descendant of the Instance is removed.
RBXScriptSignal

childAdded ( Instance child )

[Deprecated]

Code Samples

Creating a Part With a Basic Trail

This example demos the functionality of trails.

In order to do this, we must first create a BasePart, part, which will be the parent of the trail.

Then, we create two attachments, attachment0 and attachment1, both parented to part. The positions of these two attachments, more importantly the distance between them, determines where the trail is drawn as part moves.

For these attachments to create a trail as described, we create a new Trail and parent it to part. We then connect attachment0 to Trail/Attachment0 and attachment1 to Trail/Attachment1.

In this example, we set the Trail/Color to a fade between blue and white using a DataType/ColorSequence. For more info on how to set a trail’s color in a script, see the Trail/Color's documentation.

Finally, to demo the alignment the example relies on TweenService's TweenService/Create to move part back and forth. As the part moves, the trail is drawn.

-- Create a new BasePart
local part = Instance.new("Part")
part.Parent = game.Workspace
part.Anchored = true
part.Position = Vector3.new(0,5,0)

-- Create 2 attachments
local attachment0 = Instance.new("Attachment")
attachment0.Name = "Attachment0"
attachment0.Parent = part
attachment0.Position = Vector3.new(-2,0,0)

local attachment1 = Instance.new("Attachment")
attachment1.Name = "Attachment1"
attachment1.Parent = part
attachment1.Position = Vector3.new(2,0,0)

-- Create a new Trail
local trail = Instance.new("Trail")
trail.Parent = part
trail.Attachment0 = attachment0
trail.Attachment1 = attachment1
color1 = Color3.new(15/255,127/255,254/255)
color2 = Color3.new(255/255,255/255,255/255)
trail.Color = ColorSequence.new(color1, color2)

-- Tween part to display trail
local TweenService = game:GetService("TweenService")

local dir = 15
while true do
	dir = dir*-1
	local goal = {}
	goal.Position = part.Position + Vector3.new(0,0,dir)
 
	local tweenInfo = TweenInfo.new(5)
	local tween = TweenService:Create(part, tweenInfo, goal)
 	tween:Play()

	wait(5)
end
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