This plugin provide a component to render particle effect for uGUI in Unity 2018.2 or later.
The particle rendering is maskable and sortable, without Camera, RenderTexture or Canvas.

<< Description | WebGL Demo | Installation | Usage | Development Note | Change log >>

This plugin uses new APIs MeshBake/MashTrailBake (added with Unity 2018.2) to render particles by CanvasRenderer. You can mask and sort particles for uGUI without Camera, RenderTexture, Canvas.

Compares this "Baking mesh" approach with the conventional approach:
(This scene is included in the package.)

Approach	Good	Bad	Screenshot
Baking mesh (UIParticle)	Rendered as is. Maskable. Sortable. Less objects.	Requires Unity 2018.2 or later. Requires UI shaders to use Mask.
Do nothing	Rendered as is.	Looks like a glitch. Not maskable. Not sortable.
Convert particle to UIVertex (UIParticleSystem)	Maskable. Sortable. Less objects.	Adjustment is difficult. Requires UI shaders. Difficult to adjust scale. Force hierarchy scalling. Simulation results are incorrect. Trail, rotation of transform, time scaling are not supported. Generate heavy GC every frame.
Use Canvas to sort	Rendered as is. Sortable.	You must to manage sorting orders. Not maskable. More batches.
Use RenderTexture	Maskable. Sortable.	Requires Camera and RenderTexture. Difficult to adjust position and size. Quality depends on the RenderTexture's setting.

• Easy to use: the package is out-of-the-box
• Sort particle effects with uGUI
• No Camera, RenderTexture or Canvas are required
• Masking with Mask or RectMask2D
• Support Trail module
• Change alpha with CanvasGroup
• Scaling independent of Transform
• No heavy allocation every frame
• All ParticleSystem.ScalingModes and all Canvas.RenderModes are supported. They look almost the same in all modes.
• Scaled gizmo
  
• Animatable material property
  

WebGL Demo

Unity 2018.2 or later versions.

This package is available on OpenUPM.
You can install it via openupm-cli.

openupm add com.coffee.ui-particle

Find the manifest.json file in the Packages folder of your project and edit it to look like this:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "com.coffee.ui-particle": "https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI.git",
    ...
  },
}

To update the package, change suffix #{version} to the target version.

• e.g. "com.coffee.ui-particle": "https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI.git#3.0.0",

Or, use UpmGitExtension to install and update the package.

Unity 2018.2 supports embedded packages.

1. Download a source code zip file from Releases page
2. Extract it
3. Import it under Packages directory in your Unity project

1. Open Package Manager window
2. Select UI Particle package in package list
3. Click Import Sample button
4. The demo project is imported into Assets/Samples/UI Particle/{version}/Demo
5. Open UIParticle_Demo scene and play it

1. Select Assets/Samples/UI Particle Demo from menu
2. The demo project is imported into Assets/Samples/UI Particle/{version}/Demo
3. Open UIParticle_Demo scene and play it

1. Add your particle effect to canvas.
2. (Option) If you want to mask particles, set a UI shader such as UI/UIAdditive to material for ParticleSystem.
   
3. Add UIParticle component to root particle system of your effect from Add Component in inspector.
   
4. If your effect consists of multiple ParticleSystems, click "Fix".
   
5. Adjust the Scale property to change the size of the effect.
   
6. Enjoy!

Animation clips can change the material properties of the Renderer, such as ParticleSystemRenderer.
It uses MaterialPropertyBlock so it does not create new material instances.
Using material properties, you can change UV animation, scale and color etc.

Well, there is a component called CanvasRenderer.
It is used by all Graphic components for UI (Text, Image, Raw Image, etc.) including UIParticle.
However, It is NOT a Renderer.
Therefore, in UIParticle, changing ParticleSystemRenderer's MaterialPropertyBlock by animation clip is ignored.

To prevent this, Use "Animatable Material Property".
"Animatable Material Property" gets the necessary properties from ParticleSystemRenderer's MaterialPropertyBlock and sets them to the CanvasRenderer's material.

• MIT
• © UTJ/UCL

This is an open-source project that I am developing in my free time.
If you like it, you can support me.
By supporting, you let me spend more time working on better tools that you can use for free. :)

mob-sakai

• GitHub page : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI
• Releases : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/releases
• Issue tracker : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/issues
• Current project : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/projects/1
• Change log : https://github.com/mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI/blob/upm/CHANGELOG.md