Particles & Trail Effects

Particles & Trail Effects

With post processing and responsiveness in place, we now make the game feel more dynamic using effects.

Particles and trails exaggerate motion, energy, and interaction - without changing mechanics.

Trail Renderer for Exaggerating Movement

A Trail Renderer leaves a visual streak behind a moving object.

When attached as a child of the player:

• it follows movement automatically;
• it exaggerates speed;
• it adds a sense of momentum.

Key adjustments:

• Time -> lower values (e.g. 0.3) make the trail feel faster and sharper;
• Start & End Color -> use player colors for cohesion;
• End Opacity -> set to 0 for a clean fade;
• Width Curve -> shape the trail (e.g. thin -> thick -> thin) for more dynamic look.

Particle System - Adding Energy

A Particle System emits multiple small objects from a shape.

By default, particles are simple squares.

To customize them:

• create a Material;
• assign a texture or sprite (e.g. circle, bubble);
• drag the material into the Particle System's Renderer section.

Key settings:

• Start Lifetime -> how long particles exist;
• Emission -> Rate over Time -> how many appear;
• Simulation Space.

Local -> follows the parent.
World -> moves independently after spawning.

Switching Simulation Space to World prevents particles from unnaturally following the player after emission.

Randomness & Size Over Time

To make particles feel more organic:

• use Random Between Two Constants for size or lifetime;
• adjust the Size over Lifetime curve to control how particles grow or shrink.

Variation creates natural motion.

Applying to Prefabs

If you add particles to a power-up in the scene, remember:

• click Override;
• then Apply to Prefab.

This ensures all future spawned power-ups inherit the particle system.

The Inspector Lock

The small lock icon in the Inspector keeps the current object selected.

This is useful when:

• editing a prefab while selecting other objects;
• comparing settings between objects;
• avoiding accidental deselection during setup.

It's a small tool but essential for smoother workflow in upcoming lessons.