Unkillable particle strip quad

[GameDeveloper1111]

Edit:

Resolved:

Solution:

1. In VFX Graph 12.x, this bug no longer exists.

2. In VFX Graph 10.5.1, use this workaround: Set the lifetime of the particle in the strip to anything to make the particle strip quad honor the alive == false condition, and then disable Age Particles in the Update Particle Strip’s inspector to make the particle in the strip immortal until the user-defined condition is met.

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Original post:

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I set alive = false on an otherwise immortal particle strip but the quad remains (magenta below):

The blue square is a particle head, which spawns the particle strip over time.

Here is the graph:

The particle quad (blue) honors the alive == false condition and disappears. The particle strip quad (magenta) does not honor the alive == false condition and does not disappear.

The docs say that killing immortal particles should be possible:

Does anyone know how to kill particle strip quads in this case?

[GameDeveloper1111]

A workaround:

Setting lifetime to anything made the particle strip quad honor the alive == false condition. I set lifetime to one hour which is effectively immortal:

This to me implies that there is a bug: Particle strip quads do not honor alive == false if the particle in the strip does not have a lifetime.

[VladVNeykov]

Hi @GameDeveloper1111 ,

Seems to work for me in 12.x of VFX Graph:

If you select the Update Particle Strip context, can you check in the Inspector if Reap Particles is enabled? This setting allows particles to be discarded if their alive attribute is set to false or if their age exceeds their lifetime/

@GameDeveloper1111

Set the lifetime of the particle in the strip to some large number

If you don’t set any lifetime in a system, the particles are immortal. Alternatively, in the same Inspector field, you can turn off reap or the ageing of the particles, depending on the desired outcome.

[GameDeveloper1111]

Hi Vlad,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I’m using 10.5.1 on 2020.3.14f1. That’s great to hear that it works in 12.x.

In this version there is no Reap Particles option without lifetime:

With lifetime:

Since I’m using an old version I’m content with the workaround of setting lifetime to anything and then disabling Age Particles.

[VladVNeykov]

It might have been a bug then; sorry you had to deal with it, but rest assured the future is looking bright(er)!