Pulses VFX | RPG Maker MZ Plugin

Pulses is a collection of 23 screen-space effects triggered by plugin command. From a quick chromatic aberration hit-flash to a full nightmare psychosis sequence, every effect is tunable, stackable, and works in both maps and battles.

Key Features

🎬 Cinematic Effects

• Focus Pulse. Zooms in on any target (player, event, or screen coordinate), holds, then eases back. Great for dramatic reveals.
• Whiteout Pulse. Overexposes the image to pure white then snaps back. Light consuming the world.
• Scanline Pulse. Fades in a CRT scanline overlay and fades it back out. Retro or memory-fragment aesthetic.
• Soul Leave Pulse. A desaturated ghost copy of the screen drifts upward and fades. Ideal for near-death moments.

💥 Action and Impact

• Impact Pulse. Combines a white flash, shockwave, chromatic burst, and zoom snap all at once. Four strengths: light, medium, heavy, extreme.
• Shockwave Pulse. A UV ripple ring expands outward from an origin point. Configurable strength and ring width.
• Tremor Pulse. Rapid screen offset oscillation with decay. More violent than the default MZ shake.
• Zoom Pulse. A quick zoom-in snap that eases back. Works with any easing curve.
• Flash Pulse. A color flash with separate fade-in and fade-out durations. Any hex color.

😱 Horror and Atmosphere

• Nightmare Pulse. A sustained sequence: color drains, vignette creeps in, glitch bursts hit, then everything recovers.
• Mindbreak Pulse. Extreme chromatic aberration, rapid blur flickering, and shockwaves. For psychic and horror climaxes.
• Bleeding Edge Pulse. Dark red wounds seep inward from screen edges, pulsing like a heartbeat.
• Heartbeat Pulse. Two rhythmic zoom beats followed by a slow vignette release. Four speed modes including panic.
• Freeze Pulse. Ice spreads inward from the edges with a blue tint and frost vignette. Hold at peak is configurable.

🌀 Distortion and Glitch

• Glitch Pulse. Horizontal slice displacement with RGB splitting. Four intensities including corrupt.
• Shatter Pulse. Glass crack overlay with vibration and impact flash, then fade. Three crack modes: radial, center, border.
• Melt Pulse. The screen melts downward in strips at varying speeds. Three strengths.
• Gravity Flip Pulse. The screen flips upside down then rotates back. Maximum disorientation.
• Static Pulse. TV noise that fades in and out. Like a bad signal or a broken memory.

🎨 Ambient and Sustained

• Chromatic Aberration Pulse. RGB channel separation radiates outward from an origin point and eases to a configurable base level.
• Blur Pulse. A soft blur blooms and clears, also easing to a base level if needed.
• Vignette Pulse. Screen edges darken in and release. Color, peak, and base darkness are all configurable.
• Drunk Pulse. Smooth organic camera sway with optional blur. Good for poison, exhaustion, or disorientation.

Targeting

Position-based effects (Chromatic, Shockwave, Zoom, Focus, Impact, Mindbreak) accept an origin target string. Options are screen (center), player, event [id], this (the calling event), and xy [x] [y] for exact pixel coordinates.

Plugin Parameters

Default Easing

• Sets the easing curve used by all pulses when no override is passed. Options: quadOut, cubicOut, elasticOut, linear. Default: cubicOut.

How to Use

Call any pulse from a Plugin Command inside an event. All arguments have defaults so you can trigger them with zero configuration. Stack multiple pulses on the same frame for combined effects — Impact Pulse does this internally. Pulses in maps apply only to the spriteset layer, so message windows and UI remain crisp on top.

Technical Notes

• All effects are implemented as PIXI.js filters applied directly to the spriteset (on maps) or the scene (in battles and menus), keeping UI windows unaffected.
• Pulses are stored in a global list and ticked every frame via Scene_Base. Done pulses are removed automatically.
• To use this as an origin target from a Script call, set $gameTemp._dcPulseCallerEventId = this._eventId before calling the command.
• No external dependencies. Compatible with RPG Maker MZ out of the box.

AI Disclosure

Artificial intelligence was used to assist with complex shader math and visual effect calculations during the development of some effects in this plugin.