ParticleEffectForUGUI

This plugin provide a component to render particle effect for uGUI in Unity 2018.2 or later.
The particle rendering is maskable and sortable, without Camera, RenderTexture or Canvas.

What's new? Please see See changelog

Do you want to receive notifications for new releases? Watch this repo

Support me on Patreon!

Description

This plugin uses new APIs MeshBake/MashTrailBake (added with Unity 2018.2) to render particles by CanvasRenderer. You can mask and sort particles for uGUI without Camera, RenderTexture, Canvas.

Compares this "Baking mesh" approach with the conventional approach:
(This scene is included in the package.)

Approach	Good	Bad
Baking mesh (UIParticle)	Rendered as is. Maskable. Sortable. Less objects.	Requires Unity 2018.2 or later. Requires UI shaders to use Mask.
Do nothing	Rendered as is.	Looks like a glitch. Not maskable. Not sortable.
Convert particle to UIVertex (UIParticleSystem)	Maskable. Sortable. Less objects.	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.
Use Canvas to sort	Rendered as is. Sortable.	You must to manage sorting orders. Not maskable. More batches.
Use RenderTexture	Maskable. Sortable.	Requires Camera and RenderTexture. Difficult to adjust position and size. Quality depends on the RenderTexture's setting.

Features

Sort particle effects with uGUI
No Camera, RenderTexture or Canvas are required
Masking with Mask or RectMask2D
Easy to use
Support Trail module
Change alpha with CanvasGroup
Scaling independent of Transform
No heavy allocation every frame
All ParticleSystem.ScalingModes and all Canvas.RenderModes are supported. They look almost the same in all modes.
Scaled gizmo
Animatable material property

Demo

WebGL Demo

Install

Using UnityPackageManager (for Unity 2018.3 or later)

Find the manifest.json file in the Packages folder of your project and edit it to look like this:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "com.coffee.ui-particle": "https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI.git#2.3.1",
    ...
  },
}

To update the package, change #{version} to the target version.
Or, use UpmGitExtension.

Using Packages directory (for Unity 2018.2)

Download zip file
Unzip the file into Packages directory in your project

How to play demo

Import UIParticle_Demo.unitypackage into your project.
The demo unitypackage exists in Assets/Assets/Coffee/UIExtensions/UIParticle or Packages/UI Particle.
Open UIParticle_Demo scene and play it.

Usage

Add your particle effect to canvas.
(Option) If you want to mask particles, set a UI shader such as "UI/UIAdditive" to material for ParticleSystem.
Add UIParticle component to root particle system of your effect from Add Component in inspector.
If your effect consists of multiple ParticleSystems, click "Fix".
Adjust the Scale property to change the size of the effect.
Enjoy!

Requirement

Unity 2018.2 or later (Tested in Unity 2018.2.0f2)
No other SDK are required

Development Note

Animatable material property

Animation clips can change the material properties of the Renderer, such as ParticleSystemRenderer.
It uses MaterialPropertyBlock so it does not create new material instances.
Using material properties, you can change UV animation, scale and color etc.

Well, there is a component called CanvasRenderer.
It is used by all Graphic components for UI (Text, Image, Raw Image, etc.) including UIParticle.
However, It is NOT a Renderer.
Therefore, in UIParticle, changing ParticleSystemRenderer's MaterialPropertyBlock by animation clip is ignored.

To prevent this, Use "Animatable Material Property".
"Animatable Material Property" gets the necessary properties from ParticleSystemRenderer's MaterialPropertyBlock and sets them to the CanvasRenderer's material.

License

Author

mob-sakai

rainbowmessi918/ParticleEffectForUGUI