This is my first question and sadly it’s more a complain.
I’m new in Unity and looking some tutorials i found a particle system used for explosions called Legacy, i have the 4.0 version and i don’t see it like in the tutorials (probably because they use 3.5 and/or previous version) but the options is there and i tried it using an empty object and add it as a component (ellipsoid, animator and rendered), animate it like the tutorials but doesn’t show any particle, just some purple squares, plus, when i add a material to the ellipsoid particle system (to the empty or a prefab) like the default particle material, it show the particle but in a black square. I tried looking at the script as well, but i’m kinda new on that too.
Just to make it easier, create a folder called “Editor” in your assets folder. This is something I came up with because I was tired of always needing to add all the components to an empty gameObject one at a time, then assigning a material in the inspector. This will create a “Resources” folder, and a material asset for later use. All you need to do is click on the new menu item “Custom > Add > Legacy Particle System”, then add a texture to the material (only need to assign texture to material once, unless you delete the asset). Create a new C-Sharp script in this new editor folder and name it after the class here “LegacyParticleSystem”, then simply paste my code in the script, then save. You may need to save your scene before the new menu item appears on the top bar. Note the shader of the custom material created in the Resources folder is “Particles/Alpha Blended Premultiply”.
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections;
public class LegacyParticleSystem : MonoBehaviour
{
static Material mat;
[MenuItem("Custom/Add/Legacy Particle System")]
static void AddParticleSystem()
{
string matAsset = "Assets/Resources/Custom Assets/Legacy Particle Material.mat";
if(!Directory.Exists("Assets/Resources/Custom Assets"))
Directory.CreateDirectory("Assets/Resources/Custom Assets");
GameObject ps = new GameObject("Particles");
string[] coms = new string[]{"EllipsoidParticleEmitter", "ParticleRenderer", "ParticleAnimator"};
if(Selection.activeTransform != null)
ps.transform.position = Selection.activeTransform.position;
foreach(string com in coms)
ps.AddComponent(com);
if(!File.Exists(matAsset))
{
mat = new Material(Shader.Find ("Particles/Alpha Blended Premultiply"));
AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(mat, matAsset);
}
ps.renderer.sharedMaterial = (Material)AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(matAsset, typeof(Material));
}
}
There’s a rule in making computer systems that if something is rare or experts only, you hide it a little so that beginners won’t use it by mistake and get confused. The Legacy system works great, but new users had trouble with it, and Unity Answers wasn’t helping (it seemed to be filling up with wrong info.) So, defacto, the Legacy system is “experts only” (but not really.)
When Unity3D Corp made the new shuriken particleSsytem, I’m guessing they decided to hide the old one by removing the GameObject version of it, and forcing you to build it from parts. They wanted to make sure no new users mistakenly grabbed the old version and got even more confused than before.
If you’re an experienced user, you only have to build it once. Then you can make it a prefab for 1-step creation (or put in a package so you won’t even have to build it for new Projects.)
(Reposting answer - mod must have deleted by accident)
Unity 4 has a new particle system. The old still works though and also allows for more control with scripting.
You can use the script discussed here to easily add them via menu: