The sprite for each raindrop is in a “droplet” shape (bulbous at the bottom, thinner at the top).
I need the Shape Module of the Rain to be a Rectangle (2D game, so its facing the camera), so that the raindrops can spawn anywhere inside of it and fall downward along the y-axis.
I need the rain to be able to go from falling straight down (light rain, no wind) to falling diagonally (heavy rain with wind).
I cannot figure out how to align the raindrop sprite with its velocity. These are the two setups I tried that did not work:
1) Shape Module > Align To Direction. I could not get this to work because the Shape Module > Rectangle seems to only emit the particles “away from” (tangent to) the face of the Rectangle. Since the Rectangle is 2D and facing the camera, the particles’ velocity is in the Z-direction so this won’t work.
2) Streched Billboard. Use Shape Module > Rectangle, with Velocity Over Lifetime module to make the particles fall in the y-direction. Set the Renderer Mode to Streched Billboard. This does not work because it stretches my particle sprite instead of rotating it (looks very bad).
Am I missing a setting here? I’ve been trying to figure this out for hours. Would appreciate some help! Thanks!
P.S. I’d be glad to add any additional info, or even make a barebones repro-project with just the particle effect if anyone would be willing to help me out. I’m working on a sequel to a game I made in another game engine, and really having difficulty here with recreating this rain particle effect system. I could record a video of what I’m trying to achieve.
Thank you SO much for the help Richard! I used the Render Alignment > Velocity and then set the Start Rotation to 90, 0, 0 and it worked perfectly!
So this is the relevant configuration in case anyone else stumbles upon this:
Main Module:
Start Speed = 0
3D Start Rotation = 90, 0, 0
Simulation Space = World (I have the particle system follow the camera, so this makes it so the particles do not also follow the particle system as it moves around)
Shape Module:
Shape = Rectangle (for my purposes), i positioned it to cover the top half of the camera view and extend past it by a bit on both the top and the sides
Velocity Over Lifetime Module:
For “Linear” I used Random Between Two Constants. So now you can control the range for how fast the raindrops fall downward (the minY/maxY) and how sideways they go (the minX/maxX)
Texture Sheet Animation Module:
Mode = Sprites (set this to the raindrop sprite)
Renderer Module:
Render Mode = Billboard
Render Alignment = Velocity
Would appreciate some help! Thanks! 