Unity Particles System:
In this Unity video tutorial we will start from scratch and work to create a few different unity particles. This will cover detailed settings in the Inspector from Min to Max size, all the way to the Elipsoid. The first example we will work to recreate an afterburn type particle, then a magical glow object, and finishing up with reviewing an explosion.
Particles are useful for so many effects in games, you really can’t go without them- so here’s a tutorial just for that! We will look at all the most important options in the particle system, create a few custom particles, and look at Unity’s very nice particle prefabs too.
What you will learn in this Unity Particle Tutorial:
- Creating a new particle system
- Editing the particle, creating various effects and manipulating the transform
- Reverse engineering complex particles
I know how particles work from playing around with them but this is still awesome <3 nice info about a few things I didnt know
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Also… FIRST \o/
That was useful
haven’t watched it yet, but is there a way to set up some kind of “wind” to influence particles, similar to what Blender can do?
how exciting!
haven’t watched but hope this will help with my game. actually any intro into particles will help make my game better.
Bad timing, new particle system was just released today
Hah! Indeed.. though this system will still work in the new Unity, just means we get to do another video for yah.
ACTUALLY…(ha), this system is still the base for the new Shuriken Particle System! The new system is really just a more complex and powerful version of the, erm, “old” one.
Learning this system will be a big help before moving on to the new, much more advanced, one, really!
Also, hurray for Unity 3.5!
/me runs off to properly learn new system for new tutorial…
Awesome! Learnt quite a bit
I was just wondering, I installed Unity 3.5 and I am trying to do the Moon Machine…everything seems to be working except for the Particle System. I don’t see the Ellipsoid particle emitter on the Inspector. Instead, I have the Particle System which has Duration, looping, Prewarm, Start Delay, Start Lifetime, etc…Am I missing something?
Hi John-
Unfortunatly (for this tutorial, anyway), when you create a new Particle System in 3.5+, it creates once using the new “Shuriken” system, which is a bit different than the one showing in this tutorial. You can still create and use the “old” particle system by creating an empty Game Object, then adding (via “Component>Effects>Legacy Particles” menu)the “Ellipsoid Particle Emitter”, “Particle Animator”, and “Particle Renderer”.
Better yet, just import the project files that come with this tutorial and you’ll have all that pre-setup and ready to go!
The new system isn’t a huge overhaul or anything, don’t worry- it mostly just gives a LOT more options and neat features, but the “old” system is still at it’s core. Hope this helped!
when I make the particle system, my particles are square, any Help?
How did I miss this? Sorry! If it’s square, chances are you don’t have a texture applied to the Particle Material, check that it’s the “soft dot” looking texture, or make your own, of any shape that you like
Hope this helps!
I tried to create the shown particle effects by using the new particle system of Unity 3.5 and i got some really cool results. I only didn’t know how to make the third particle system “one shot” and my stars of the second one are not as good as in the tutorial.
Great tutorial, i hope there will be one for the new particle system, too!
Nice job! There will definitely be one for the new system, just need to learn it all up myself
I think my computer system might not be strong enough. When I use particle renderer, the particles turn into pink squares.
Ok I see now. Thank you so much!
Good to hear!
Now that I think of it, my particles come out differently then yours. Mine simple rise into the air, but when you create yours it is a cluster of particles which seem larger and have more. Do you have a default for when you start your particles?
Hello. When I hit the play button to start the game engine, my explosion particles disappear from both the screen and the heirarchy. When I stop the game and go back to the normal screen, the explosion shows up fine. Any suggestions?
It sounds like your particles are set to either “one shot” or “auto destruct”. Can you check that in their settings?
Well that’s interesting…I just opened up the source file, the one with your particle scenes, and it seems your explosion disappears when the game starts also. Could this have to do with the autodestruct, or the one shot? I’ll test, but if either of these are correct, this might mean the explosion particle system, as it’s set up, couldn’t really be used in a game.
Any thoughts?
Okay, got it (hope no one minds the quick fire posts, but I think out loud sometimes, and maybe this can help someone).
Anyway, I tested the settings and the “One Shot” checkbox does indeed make the explosion disappear after just one shot, so it effectively doesn’t show up in the game engine.
Don’t know if this is a Unity upgrade (3.5.2) thing, but as of now, this explosion method effectively doesn’t work.
At least not without, probably, some playing around with the particle speed, maybe the density.
Hi Jack- thoughts out loud are good! This “disappearing” is actually proper behavior- very useful for things like explosions/etc. You wouldn’t want an explosion to keep on looping over and over!
Not sure why, but it seems the library is messed up
Could you explain the problem? Not sure what you mean.
Ive been trying to become more proficient in Unity FX, Please please tell me you have a place to send me to learn more advanced and detailed techniques.
It is still not entirely clear to me on how to craft my own particle “sprites” or materials.
It would also be wonderful if you mentioned all of the options in the updated tutorial.
We (I) will be making a proper Shuriken tutorial soon. I’ll include the material bit as well, Michael.
Just gone through all the beginner tutorials and they were fantastic. Well done.
But as you are probably aware the particle system in Unity 4 is very different so this tutorial and the previous one doesn’t make much sense.
Awesome tutorials Gabriel. Step by step and nothing left out.
When adding contrails to a engine particle system to give the engine an actual sense of leaving behind spent fuel is there a seperate script that needs to be written so that the contrail will react accordingly?
Will there need to be var’s added that will create a contrail slot for each thruster where the contrail can then be dropped into the slot just like the thrusters are?
Lunar Lander Tutorial.
Thank you
For the effects you mention, you would need to add a secondary particle emitter, though no scripting would be required. Just set it to emit based on “Distance” instead of “Time”, and it will only leave a trail as it moves, and in proportion to the movement! That’s using the new Shuriken particle system, of course.
Of course, you could script in more advanced effects as well!
hmmm, I loved the tutorial, but I downloaded Unity 4.x so I cant follow your steps, is so confusing the new particle system, I managed to make the first one thou
Hi there- you can actually create the old particle type, I believe it is under “Game Object > Create Other > Legacy > Particles”, or something close to that. Then the tutorial will match!
boy is this program unity cool. Its just to bad it dessagrees with blender
on which axis are which.(blender has z going up) It is tough to get used to.