Legacy Particle vs ParticleSystem?

Unity Engine
1

Firstly I found Graphics region is the most suitable place for my question so I posted it here.

There are clearly 2 kinds of particle effect you can make in Unity. From Add component

menu, there are Effects → Particle System and Effects → Legacy Particles → ….

I’ve been fairly familiar with ParticleSystem but just used some ready-to-use (standard

asset) Legacy Particles. I don’t really understand which is better. The default standard

Legacy Particles seem to look very good (much better than what I can create my own with

ParticleSystem). So is it better than ParticleSystem?

Could you give me some advice from your experience when to use Particle System and

when to use Legacy Particles? I did search about some comparison out there with the exact

phrase “Legacy Particle vs ParticleSystem” but there was not any result talking about this

comparison.

I also did search the Legacy Particle in Unity manual but found nothing talking about this.
From my point of view Legacy Particles seem to look more complicated. But because of

the word “Legacy”, I associate it with “Legacy Animation” which is some kind of old

feature (and may be removed in future) and really confused if “Legacy Particles” is similarly some

older feature than ParticleSystem?

Thank you all for your help!

2

You may be able to find the information you want by reviewing the update release information.
Find out which version updated the particles and read about them.

The Legacy particle system is the older particle system.

1 Like
3

I’m still fairly new to Unity and currently still use Unity 4.6.1. Reading the release note of Unity 5.0 won’t help find out what I want. I’ve tried a simple search with Legacy keyword and there was not any result. At least I know from you that Legacy particle system is older. However I like its effect which is some kind of really better than ParticleSystem. Maybe I have not been well enough to use ParticleSystem and create better effects.

Will the Legacy particle be removed in future? If so I should of course better stick to particle system?

4

release notes going back all the way to 4.3 and before is on the quick jump on the right side of the page.

I have only played with the legacy system once and found the new system more user friendly to non-coders.

Here is another helper that may be useful.

1 Like