ParticleSystem.Play() does not play particle

[minoroptions]

So, I have a Shuriken particle that works fine when I clicked Simulate button during the edit time. However, when I try to play this particle using particleSystemComponent.Play() via a C# code, it does not emit any particle. Using a debug log, I found out that

• particleSystemComponent.time is always at 0.
• particleSystemComponent.particleCount is 0. (So, yeah, it did not emit any particle after Play() is called)
• particleSystemComponent.isPlayed is true. (It is playing but the time is always at zero…why?)

Nevertheless, if I use particleSystemComponent.Emit(1); instead of particleSystemComponent.Play();, a single particle will be emitted and the time will start running until the particle ends and the time will stop again.

However, Emit(1) is not a proper way to spawn particle since it will not spawn a correct series of particle. Is there any solution to make the Play() method working?
Thank you for your suggestion.

[TB_BSG]

Had a similar problem. I think the problem is if you ever call Play() or Stop() without checking if it is playing already.

pS.Play();
...
pS.Stop();
...
pS.Stop();
...
pS.Play();

Caused the Particle System to start running again but not emitting particles if for some reason. With … I mean that other code was executed and the functions where called in different updates!!

The following code does restart the emission:

if(!pS.isPlaying) pS.Play();
...
if(pS.isPlaying) pS.Stop();
...
if(pS.isPlaying) pS.Stop();
...
if(!pS.isPlaying) pS.Play();

[oinkoinkflapflap]

Almost a year old this post i know, but I had the same thing. I couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t emit, the only way i could make it work was just to have PlayOnStart ☑ checked, and the object inactive, then set active later (particleSystemObject.SetActive(true);) and it works fine:

Hope this helps, sorry for the years wait

[KarlKarl2000]

Thank goodness for the forums, the documentation is lacking sometimes.
I did similar what was done here, but more brute forced.

void Start () 
{ 
   _particle00 = GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
}

void SFX ()
{
    _particle00.Stop();
    _particle00.Play();
}

Hope this helps someone out there.
Sharin’ is carin’
@indiedoroid

[SanX91]

Make a Particle System and attach this code along with it:

void Start()
{
     ParticleSystem pS = GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
     pS.enableEmission = true;
}

[Kerihobo]

I had the same problem. What was more confusing is that the particle system that wasn’t working was duplicated from one that WAS working. I logged .isPlaying before/after .Play().

it logged false.
it logged true.

Yet it wouldn’t render, no idea why. Anyway, i moved it’s place in the hierarchy, then moved it back again… suddenly it worked fine.

[Anshveer]

Still not works, actually, when I want my virus to spawn I want an explosion to occur, soo, code:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class VirusSpawner : MonoBehaviour
{
	public Transform[] spawnPoints;    
	public GameObject virus_Prefab;

	public float spawnTime;
	public float spawnDelay;

	public ParticleSystem virusSpawn_FX;

	void Start()  // Real magic
    {
		InvokeRepeating("SpawnVirus", spawnTime, spawnDelay);
    }

	// Functions
	void SpawnVirus()  // Spawns a virus
	{
		foreach(Transform spawnPoint in spawnPoints)
		{
			GameObject virus = Instantiate(virus_Prefab, spawnPoint.position,
				Quaternion.identity);

			if(!virusSpawn_FX.isPlaying)
				virusSpawn_FX.Play();
			if(virusSpawn_FX.isPlaying)
				virusSpawn_FX.Stop();
		}
	}

	IEnumerator Wait(float time)  // Timer
	{
		yield return new WaitForSecondsRealtime(time);
	}
}

[xavicoff]

This answer may not help (at least for 3d games), but I had the same problem and thought that the Particle System was broken.

Then I realized that when creating a new Particle System, it was created on the z axis with -50. I moved it close to the camera and DONE. Being so far from the camera, I couldn’t see it.

[Beyond-Ken]

Running #Unity-5-4

I had this same problem. I created a new GameObject → Particle System. It worked fine when in the Hierarchy with Looping set.

When I dropped the Particle System into another GameObject it failed to play when I called this code:

var exp = GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
exp.Play();

When I created a new Particle System in that same GameObject using the AddComponent button .Play() worked just fine:

GetComponent<ParticleSystem>().Play();

[John-Evans]

@mandinga90 I had this same problem but when I used ps.Play() in Start it worked but not in Update(). Therefore I think that it is not a bug but a feature.

A recall of Play() restarts the cycle before the emissions have got out of the starting blocks. So the check it was playing before calling Play() worked for me.

[chhabrarishi844]

I had the same problem after experimenting a lot I found-
Connecting the particle system first with the game object and then dragging into (serializefield) where you set the particleSystem makes it work perfectly fine.

[JonathonOH]

Made an extension class that builds on TB_BSGs solution

public static class ExtendedParticleSystem
{
    public static void SetEmitting(this ParticleSystem particleSystem, bool emitting)
    {
        ParticleSystem.EmissionModule emission = particleSystem.emission;
        emission.enabled = emitting;
    }

    public static void SafeStop(this ParticleSystem particleSystem)
    {
        if (particleSystem.isPlaying) particleSystem.Stop();
    }

    public static void SafePlay(this ParticleSystem particleSystem)
    {
        if (!particleSystem.isPlaying) particleSystem.Play();
    }
}

So you could now call

particleSystem.SafeStop()

Instead of

if (particleSystem.isPlaying) particleSystem.Stop()

Same for Play()