Particle system won't show at all unless set to play on awake

Questions & Answers
1

Hi,

Thanks for reading. I’m having some trouble getting a particle system (A) to activate when a character receives a buff. This is strange, because each character has a separate, but functionally identical particle system (B) attached. Unless I set particle system A to play on awake it will not show at all. I’ve also discovered that while I can switch it off, I can’t switch the particles on. Any help greatly appreciated!

Here’s a screen grab of the settings:

13594-particlesettings.png
13594-particlesettings.png337×796 17.3 KB

Here’s the code I’m using to switch it on and off:

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class ParticleCommandBuffScript : MonoBehaviour 
{
// FIELDS
	private ParticleSystem partSystem;
	public bool showingCommandBuff = false;
	
// MONO METHODS

	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () 
	{
		partSystem = gameObject.GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
		
		if(partSystem == null)
		{
			Debug.Log("ParticleCommandBuffScript.Start(): Command buff particle system is null");	
		}
		
		else
		{
			Debug.Log("ParticleCommandBuffScript.Start(): Command buff particle system is not null");	
		}
		
	}
	
// CLASS METHODS
	
	// Switches on particle emissions
	public void SwitchOnParticles()
	{
		partSystem.enableEmission = true;	
	}
	
	// Switches off particle emissions
	public void SwitchOffParticles()
	{
		partSystem.enableEmission = false;	
	} 
}
2

Sorry to answer my own question, but I found the problem. Needed to call the Play() method to start the particles.

 // Switches on particle emissions
public void SwitchOnParticles()
{
   partSystem.Play();
   partSystem.enableEmission = true;
}