Particle Effect For UGUI (UI Particle)

This package provides a component to render particle effects for uGUI in Unity 2018.2 or later.
The particle rendering is maskable and sortable, without the need for an extra Camera, RenderTexture, or Canvas.

<< 📝 Description | 🎮 Demo | ⚙ Installation | 🚀 Usage | 🛠 Development Note | 🤝 Contributing >>

📝 Description

This package utilizes the new APIs MeshBake/MashTrailBake (introduced with Unity 2018.2) to render particles through CanvasRenderer.
You can render, mask, and sort your ParticleSystems for UI without the necessity of an additional Camera, RenderTexture, or Canvas.

Features

• Easy to use: The package is ready to use out of the box.
• Sort particle effects and other UI by sibling index.
• No extra Camera, RenderTexture, or Canvas required.
• Masking options for Mask or RectMask2D.
• Support for the Trail module.
• Support for CanvasGroup alpha.
• No allocations needed to render particles.
• Compatibility with overlay, camera space, and world space.
• Support for Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP).
• Support for disabling Enter Play Mode Options > Reload Domain.
• Support for changing material property with AnimationClip (AnimatableProperty).
  
• [4.0.0+] Support for 8+ materials.
• [4.0.0+] Correct world space particle position adjustment when changing window size for standalone platforms (Windows, MacOSX, and Linux).
• [4.0.0+] Adaptive scaling for UI.
• [4.0.0+] Mesh sharing group to improve performance.
  
• [4.0.0+] Particle attractor component.
  
• [4.1.0+] Relative/Absolute particle position mode.
  

🎮 Demo

• WebGL Demo

• WebGL Demo (Cartoon FX & War FX)
  • Cartoon FX Free & War FX (by Jean Moreno (JMO)) with UIParticle

⚙ Installation

This package requires Unity 2018.3 or later.

Install via OpenUPM

This package is available on OpenUPM package registry. This is the preferred method of installation, as you can easily receive updates as they're released.

If you have openupm-cli installed, then run the following command in your project's directory:

openupm add com.coffee.ui-particle

Install via UPM (using Git URL)

Navigate to your project's Packages folder and open the manifest.json file. Then add this package somewhere in the dependencies block:

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

To update the package, change suffix #{version} to the target version.

• e.g. "com.coffee.ui-particle": "https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI.git#4.6.0",

Or, use UpmGitExtension to install and update the package.

🚀 Usage

UIParticle Component

UIParticle controls the ParticleSystems that are attached to its own game objects and child game objects.

• Maskable: Does this graphic allow masking.
• Scale: Scale the rendering. When the 3D toggle is enabled, 3D scale (x, y, z) is supported.
• Animatable Properties: If you want to update material properties (e.g., _MainTex_ST, _Color) in AnimationClip, use this to mark the changes.
• Mesh Sharing: Particle simulation results are shared within the same group. A large number of the same effects can be displayed with a small load. When the Random toggle is enabled, it will be grouped randomly.
• Position Mode: Emission position mode.
  • Absolute: Emit from the world position of the ParticleSystem.
  • Relative: Emit from the scaled position of the ParticleSystem.
• Auto Scaling: Transform.lossyScale (=world scale) will be set to (1, 1, 1) on update. It prevents the root-Canvas scale from affecting the hierarchy-scaled ParticleSystem.
• Rendering Order: The ParticleSystem list to be rendered. You can change the order and the materials.

NOTE: Press the Refresh button to reconstruct the rendering order based on children ParticleSystem's sorting order and z-position.

Basic Usage

1. Select GameObject/UI/ParticleSystem to create UIParticle with a ParticleSystem.
2. Adjust the ParticleSystem as you like.

With Your Existing ParticleSystem Prefab

1. Select GameObject/UI/ParticleSystem (Empty) to create UIParticle.
2. Drag and drop your ParticleSystem prefab onto UIParticle.

With Mask or RectMask2D Component

If you want to mask particles, set a stencil-supported shader (such as UI/UIAdditive) to the material for ParticleSystem. If you use some custom shaders, see the How to Make a Custom Shader to Support Mask/RectMask2D Component section.

Script usage

// Instant ParticleSystem prefab with UIParticle on runtime.
var go = GameObject.Instantiate(prefab);
var uiParticle = go.AddComponent<UIParticle>();

// Control by ParticleSystem.
particleSystem.Play();
particleSystem.Emit(10);

// Control by UIParticle.
uiParticle.Play();
uiParticle.Stop();

UIParticleAttractor component

UIParticleAttractor attracts particles generated by the specified ParticleSystem.

• Particle System: Attracts particles generated by the specified particle system.
• Destination Radius: Once the particle is within the radius, the particle lifetime will become 0, and OnAttracted will be called.
• Delay Rate: Delay to start attracting. It is a percentage of the particle's start lifetime.
• Max Speed: Maximum speed of attracting. If this value is too small, attracting may not be completed by the end of the lifetime, and OnAttracted may not be called.
• Movement: Attracting movement type. (Linear, Smooth, Sphere)
• Update Mode: Update mode.
  • Normal: Update with scaled delta time.
  • Unscaled Time: Update with unscaled delta time.
• OnAttracted: An event called when attracting is complete (per particle).

🛠 Development Note

Compares the Baking mesh approach with the conventional approach

• Baking mesh approach (=UIParticle)
  

  • ✅ Rendered as is.
  • ✅ Maskable.
  • ✅ Sortable.
  • ✅ Less objects.

• Do nothing (=Plain ParticleSystem)
  

  • ✅ Rendered as is.
  • ❌ Looks like a glitch.
  • ❌ Not maskable.
  • ❌ Not sortable.

• Convert particle to UIVertex (=UIParticleSystem)
  

  • ✅ Maskable.
  • ✅ Sortable.
  • ❌ 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 (Sorting By Canvas )
  

  • ✅ Rendered as is.
  • ✅ Sortable.
  • ❌ You must to manage sorting orders.
  • ❌ Not maskable.
  • ❌ More batches.
  • ❌ Requires Canvas.

• Use RenderTexture
  

  • ✅ Maskable.
  • ✅ Sortable.
  • ❌ Requires Camera and RenderTexture.
  • ❌ Difficult to adjust position and size.
  • ❌ Quality depends on the RenderTexture's setting.

Performance test results

Approach	FPS on Editor	FPS on iPhone6	FPS on Xperia XZ
Particle System	43	57	22
UIParticleSystem	4	3	0 (unmeasurable)
Sorting By Canvas	43	44	18
UIParticle	17	12	4
UIParticle with MeshSharing	44	45	30

🔍 FAQ: Why Are My UIParticles Not Displayed Correctly?

If ParticleSystem alone displays particles correctly but UIParticle does not, please check the following points:

• Shader Limitation
  • UIParticle does not support all built-in shaders except for UI/Default.
  • Most cases can be solved by using UI/Additive or UI/Default.
• Particles are not masked
  • UIParticle is maskable.
  • Set Mask or RectMask2D component properly.
  • Use maskable/clipable shader (such as UI/Additive or UI/Default)
• Particles are too small
  • If particles are small enough, they will not appear on the screen.
  • Increase the Scale value.
  • If you don't want to change the apparent size depending on the resolution, try the Auto Scaling option.
• Particles are too many
  • No more than 65535 vertices can be displayed (for mesh combination limitations).
  • Please set Emission module and Max Particles of ParticleSystem properly.
• Particles are emitted off-screen.
  • When Position Mode = Relative, particles are emitted from the scaled position of the ParticleSystem, not from the screen point of the ParticleSystem.
  • Place the ParticleSystem in the proper position or try Position Mode = Absolute.
• Attaching UIParticle to the same object as ParticleSystem
  • Transform.localScale will be overridden by the Auto Scaling option.
  • It is recommended to place ParticleSystem under UIParticle.
• If Transform.localScale contains 0, rendering will be skipped.
• Displayed particles are in the correct position but too large/too small
  • Adjust ParticleSystem.renderer.Min/MaxParticleSize.

Shader Limitation

The use of UI shaders is recommended.

• If you need a simple Additive shader, use the UI/Additive shader instead.
• If you need a simple alpha-blend shader, use the UI/Default shader instead.
• If your custom shader does not work properly with UIParticle, consider creating a custom UI shader.

Built-in shaders are not supported

UIParticle does not support all built-in shaders except for UI/Default.
If their use is detected, an error is displayed in the inspector.
Use UI shaders instead.

(Unity 2018 or 2019) UV.zw components will be discarded

UIParticleRenderer renders the particles based on UIVertex.
Therefore, only the xy components are available for each UV in the shader. (zw components will be discarded).
So unfortunately, UIParticles will not work well with some shaders.

(Unity 2018 or 2019) Custom vertex streams

When using custom vertex streams, you can fill zw components with "unnecessary" data.
Refer to this issue for more information.

Overheads

UIParticle has some overheads, and the batching depends on uGUI.
When improving performance, keep the following in mind:

• If you are displaying a large number of the same effect, consider the Mesh Sharing feature in the UIParticle Component.
  • If you don't like the uniform output, consider the Random Group feature.
    
• If you are using multiple materials, you will have more draw calls.
  • Consider a single material, atlasing the sprites, and using Sprite mode in the Texture Sheet Animation module in the ParticleSystem.

How to Make a Custom Shader to Support Mask/RectMask2D Component

Shader tips

Shader "Your/Custom/Shader"
{
    Properties
    {
        // ...
        // #### required for Mask ####
        _StencilComp ("Stencil Comparison", Float) = 8
        _Stencil ("Stencil ID", Float) = 0
        _StencilOp ("Stencil Operation", Float) = 0
        _StencilWriteMask ("Stencil Write Mask", Float) = 255
        _StencilReadMask ("Stencil Read Mask", Float) = 255
        _ColorMask ("Color Mask", Float) = 15
        [Toggle(UNITY_UI_ALPHACLIP)] _UseUIAlphaClip ("Use Alpha Clip", Float) = 0
    }

    SubShader
    {
        Tags
        {
            // ...
        }

        // #### required for Mask ####
        Stencil
        {
            Ref [_Stencil]
            Comp [_StencilComp]
            Pass [_StencilOp]
            ReadMask [_StencilReadMask]
            WriteMask [_StencilWriteMask]
        }
        ColorMask [_ColorMask]
        // ...

        Pass
        {
            // ...
            // #### required for RectMask2D ####
            #include "UnityUI.cginc"
            #pragma multi_compile __ UNITY_UI_CLIP_RECT
            float4 _ClipRect;

            // #### required for Mask ####
            #pragma multi_compile __ UNITY_UI_ALPHACLIP

            struct appdata_t
            {
                // ...
            };

            struct v2f
            {
                // ...
                // #### required for RectMask2D ####
                float4 worldPosition    : TEXCOORD1;
            };
            
            v2f vert(appdata_t v)
            {
                v2f OUT;
                // ...
                // #### required for RectMask2D ####
                OUT.worldPosition = v.vertex;
                return OUT;
            }

            fixed4 frag(v2f IN) : SV_Target
            {
                // ...
                // #### required for RectMask2D ####
                #ifdef UNITY_UI_CLIP_RECT
                    color.a *= UnityGet2DClipping(IN.worldPosition.xy, _ClipRect);
                #endif

                // #### required for Mask ####
                #ifdef UNITY_UI_ALPHACLIP
                    clip (color.a - 0.001);
                #endif

                return color;
            }
            ENDCG
        }
    }
}

🤝 Contributing

Issues

Issues are incredibly valuable to this project:

• Ideas provide a valuable source of contributions that others can make.
• Problems help identify areas where this project needs improvement.
• Questions indicate where contributors can enhance the user experience.

Pull Requests

Pull requests offer a fantastic way to contribute your ideas to this repository.
Please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md and develop branch for guidelines.

Support

This is an open-source project developed during my spare time.
If you appreciate it, consider supporting me.
Your support allows me to dedicate more time to development. 😊

License

• MIT

Author

• mob-sakai

See Also

• GitHub page : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI
• Releases : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/releases
• Issue tracker : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/issues
• Change log : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md