Free Script - Particle Systems in UI Screen Space Overlay

Works nicely, but for some reason X and Y rotation doesn't work, any idea?

 

well done！ but GC is very high every frame. About 0.5Kb GC Per One UIParticleSystem. Have a idea to remove GC?

 

Cools. Thank you !

 

If you are on a Unity version between 5.4 and 2017.2, you can reduce the GC Alloc by using Reflection instead of calling the Unity API ParticleSystem.Simulate()

 

Hi All!!

I'm testing this approach with Unity 2017.2.1p2 because I'm really interested in find a correct solution for using 2D + 3D + 2D in Unity UI and profiling the system (the scrips + shaders used are from unity ui extension) I can notice very big spikes produced by LateUpdate calculations... I don't now if this can be optimized some way... I will take a look at the script and shaders to see if I can do something more but right now I have the feeling that this approach is not working very performant?



Sergi

 

thank thank very muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch thank you Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You can get fantastic performance even on lower end Android devices by simply rendering a normal particle system to a render texture, then using a RawImage UI component anywhere on your canvas to see the resulting particles. It causes remarkably little overhead and avoids all of this weird hacking of the particle system advocated within this thread.

 

@Claytonious with this way, he will need to make high-res render texture and this will cost a lot of memory, especially if someone wants to add multiple particles. Additionally this solution doesn't allow you to make for example particles flying around GUI element

 

This looks to be a fantastic script. In the editor it works like a charm. In Play mode however nothing shows up, the script is turned off by default and when I turn it on this error gets spammed:

ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: shader
UnityEngine.Material..ctor (UnityEngine.Shader shader) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/Export/Shader.bindings.cs:97)
UnityEngine.UI.Extensions.UIParticleSystem.Initialize () (at Assets/Source/Scripts/Particles/UIParticleSystem.cs:74)
UnityEngine.UI.Extensions.UIParticleSystem.LateUpdate () (at Assets/Source/Scripts/Particles/UIParticleSystem.cs:330)

Anything I can do to make it work?

 

If you copied first full script without adding anything commenting line "69" fixed it for me
to be sure, line code you need to comment:
Material material = new Material(Shader.Find("UI/Particles/Hidden"));
or you can download that shader.. and let it work

 

Hi, @glennpow, how to enable and disable particle system properly, considering memory and cpu usage?

 

If you are using 2018.2+, I recommend this.
It does not generate GC every frame.

https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI

 

Looks fantastic but I find it impossible to use the Renderer + Texture Sheet Animation to use a sprite from an atlas (sprite sheet) that contains all my UI elements: the ui-extension UI Particle System script generates particles using the material referenced in the material field of said script, but materials don't allow for the use of elements picked from atlases.

Then Unity's Particle System component also generates a second set of particles with its Renderer block active, using Sprites-Default as the material, using billboard display, and "sprites" mode in Texture Sheet Animation instead of "grid".
This second set allows me to use any of my elements from my UI atlas, BUT... they are displayed behind any other UI element using the UI image component.
I tested with different rendering orders and layers but nothing changed. I (desperately) moved the uGUI elements on the Z axis too but it didn't work.

Setting the ui-extension UI Particle System script's material with UIParticleHidden shader does hide the particles created by the ui-extension script, that's good.
(Note: changing the material in the script automatically deactivates the renderer so you have to activate it again.)

So for this system to work, I would need to have the second set of particles generated by the Renderer block to be displayed in front of all the UI elements of the UI layer.
The problem is that when in 3D view, it's obvious that even using the Sprite-Default material, the elements are rendered in the 3D world instead of being pushed into the 2D plane of the canvas.

Is there a way around this without messing with coding?

 

To make it clearer, the custom UIParticleSystem script hacks Unity's component (Particle System) and generates its own set of particles : they are properly rendered into the 2D plane of the UI, but they don't allow the user to pick graphic elements from an atlas/sprite sheet.
The script uses most of the native Particle System's functions and options, but ignores the Renderer.

Meanwhile, the Renderer + TSA blocks of the native Particle System enable the use of atlases, but the particles are rendered in the 3D world, so behind the UI.

The only way to use an atlas is through the Renderer, which the script does not recognize.

IMHO, for this to work, the ui-extension UIParticleSystem script would have to be modified in order to check if the Renderer block is active, then use the material(s) referenced in this block instead of the one in its own material field.
Perhaps by also tweaking the Renderer block so it behaves like the component Canvas Renderer + Image.

I have a hard time believing that since Unity 5 is out, they never thought of allowing their nice particle system to work in the GUI overlay too. That is just so weird considering how obvious it would be, especially for 2D games.
They have all the tools but it looks like a bridge is missing.
Or did I miss something?

 

Well you can always use one of available solutions from asset store (just type gui particles in search), maybe one of them will fit your needs?

Edit: or maybe you could try to make script which uses sprite properties (so sets its texture - even if it's atlas, set scale and offset inside material to fit sprite position on atlas) and handle sprite animations like that if something doesn't work with default free script?
About being rendered behind or in front: well it requires some more effort but in free solution you can still try to handle this by rendering queue. (I hope I understood you well in this case)

 

Thanks for the reply,
Some of these uGUI particles solutions seem adequate, but what, they tend to be expensive! Around $25-30 (!!!) just to push an already existing particle system onto the UI layer??? : /
Perhaps I'm not realizing the amount of efforts put into these "dem particulz in ur ui" plugins but really, it's insane that Unity doesn't handle that natively! Imagine a 2D engine that couldn't display particles, this would be quite ridiculous!
I understand Unity likes to sell plugins and options like cakes but here it's borderline abusive and very disappointing.
Looking at all the hacks and "solutions" people had to come up with and were always average at best, that's rather sad.

In terms of priorities, this feature was requested since 2014 but its priority remains at doormat level at best.

 

Well it depends on what you need. For example if you have 2d engine particles are also flat and on one plane. In unity you can make things working pretty well for 2d scene with sprites. But in your case it's not sprite system for 2d game but optimised gui system which works differently (because of batching, etc) .
About the price: yes it requires much effort to handle this and if you compare price to time needed for programmer to deal with all problems those things are not so expensive. Especially they may have features that you may not need at first view but later they are life savers (like culling masks for 3d particles). And even for those assets not everything is possible like one doesn't support 3d particles or second screen space gui without camera attached.

 

Okay I still think it's expensive but if at least one of them can make the native particle system work in the UI layer with ALL functions, including the Renderer and the Texture Sheet Animation, then I guess that if a solution can't be found for the ui-extension asset, well, I'll have to go shopping... again (sigh).

 

When "Play on Awake" is deselected. The particle system always plays anyway. I'm using a burst and have had to use the following as a workaround. Has anyone else found the same, or perhaps I have set something up incorrectly. Massive thanks for providing this asset Open Source.

Code (CSharp):

1. GameObject ParticlesGameObject;
2. ParticleSystem Particles;
3.  
4. public void Burst()
5. {
6.     if (!ParticlesGameObject.activeInHierarchy)
7.     {
8.         ParticlesGameObject.SetActive(true);
9.     }
10.     else
11.     {
12.         Particles.Stop();
13.         Particles.Play();
14.     }
15. }

I should be able to have the following...

Code (CSharp):

1. ParticleSystem Particles;
2.  
3. public void Burst()
4. {
5.     Particles.Stop();
6.     Particles.Play();
7. }

 

In the code, one can find this:

Code (CSharp):

1. private ParticleSystem.TextureSheetAnimationModule textureSheetAnimation;
2. private ParticleSystemRenderer pRenderer;

Plus a large section dedicated to the use of these elements. It seems the script was actually meant to work with texture sheet animation and the renderer block, but currently does not.

 

If you ever wonder why the TextureSheetAnimation / RandomRow checkbox doesn't work, then the problem is in these lines:
In lines #156-158 there is this part:

Code (CSharp):

1. // if (textureSheetAnimation.useRandomRow) { // FIXME - is this handled internally by rowIndex?
2. // row = Random.Range(0, textureSheetAnimation.numTilesY, using: particle.randomSeed);
3. // }

Here is my fix:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. if (_textureSheetAnimation.useRandomRow) row = (int)( particle.randomSeed % _textureSheetAnimation.numTilesY);
3.  

God bless

 

The bug is in line #167:

Code (CSharp):

1. particleUV.y = Mathf.FloorToInt(frame / _textureSheetAnimation.numTilesX) * _textureSheedAnimationFrameSize.y;

You can fix it replacing line #167 to this:

Code (CSharp):

1. particleUV.y = 1 - (int)(1 + frame / _textureSheetAnimation.numTilesX) * _textureSheedAnimationFrameSize.y;

 

I can't get it to work on Windows builds using any shaders provided from the UI Extensions/Particles/ folder. Nothing is rendered. Any idea ?

Edit : the other solution from @Rock360 solved the issue !

 

@Starbox
Unity is dead, sorry

 

why It doesn't work for me?

 

Ok, found at lines 213-215 in current script, but why did you put an underscore before textureSheetAnimation?
Made the edit. No change at all. UIPS still does not interact with the TextureSheetAnimation block module. That block only works with the Renderer module. The Renderer is useless in Overlay mode.

 

NullValueException: Parameter name: Shader
in Android Build, I have added applied the Build Settings too for default shader.
Can anyone help me with how to make it work?

 

awesome!!!!

 

works perfectly, thanks

 

hi @glennpow @SimonDarksideJ @Zarlang @pevicentini
tnx glennpow. i test this solution and it works on editor scene view and game view. but i build my project for Android and it's like there's no particle even. no particles rendering. what should i do?
i used @Zarlang uploaded folder, with script and shaders included.

 

Well... This component rebuilds itself every frame... I'd suggest using another camera to render those particles on to a render texture, and using a RawImage component to render that again, worthy trade off.

 

Thank you very much for sharing this

 

About using the sprite in the UI particles.
1) I just created a material with Mobile/Particles shader
2) Set sprite to the material
3) Set this material to Material property of UI Particle System (particles disappeared at all)
4) Set the shader property of the material to UI/Default - sprites now visible! Profit )

 

Thank you, your post saved my life. I was having problem with ".play()".

 

Dude, Really thanks so much from 2020.

 

Since we're necro-bumping (sort-of). This seems like a better solution: https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI

According to its readme, these are the disadvantages of OP's approach:

- Adjustment is difficult.
- Requires UI shaders.
- Difficult to adjust scale.
- Force hierarchy scalling.
- Simulation results are incorrect.
- Trail, rotation of transform, time scaling are not supported.
- Generate heavy GC every frame.

 

I can't play the particle system on runtime via script because active particleSystem.simulate.

 

@johanhelsing_attensi probably it's always like that. Especially in "free" solutions, where community does not spend that much time to solve certain problems (as no one pay for spending time over this). If you take paid one (sometimes for price of single dinner/lunch) you have less problems and in many cases better workflow but you need to pay for them.

 

Well, when it comes to libraries/utilities, I often find that popular open source libraries tend to have a lot less issues than most asset store packages.

https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI seems like a popular and maintained project that a lot of people probably depend upon, which is why I think it's probably a better choice than several years old forum copy-pasta... which is why I wanted to give a heads up in case someone stumbles upon this thread and thinks it's still a good solution.

 

This is not possible because 1$ = 8TL is in the Turkey!!

 

@SimonDarksideJ or anyone who is able to overcome this issue, I'm still facing the second issue you mentioned about Particle object always rendering behind image. How can I fix that? Am I missing something? Any thoughts. Currently using 2019.4 Unity

 

I tried it again and it kinda works, but I get this result:


Since I am a noob with shaders/materials etc, maybe someone can help me? Unity 2019.4.18f1

 

It says "The script don't inherit a native class that can manage a script."?

 

if that was a question for me, I don't see this error anywhere

 

I can't seem to get the particles to render on iOS. it's working in editor... I've included the hidden shader in the project settings as well, no luck.

 

I'm having the same issue, have you found any solution?

 

I found a shader with some errors when running on iOS so it might be a similar problem. look at the xCode log output for shader related issues.

I also found newer unity versions are better at revealing shader errors so it might be worth opening the project in a later or even beta unity just so check if that reveals any errors.

 

Is it expected behaviour from this system that the particles cannot have a 3D size? Changing the Y value for the start size for instance, has no effect.

 

The UIParticleSystem script works with your shaders and I was wondering if it could be written in a shader graph. I have information about shape and alpha but I don't have color information. It's always dark blue. Do you know if it is possible to create a graph shader that would work with this script?

There is my shader.
A custom function that I used is a simple in-out function where I tried to add pragmas.
Without the custom function shader works in the same way.
@SimonDarksideJ

 

does anyone know if there is a similar script or different one that focus on making this idea to work with trail in particle system?