The Trail Renderer is used to make trails behind GameObjects in the Scene as they move.
Property: | Function: |
---|---|
Cast Shadows | Determines whether the trail casts shadows, whether they should be cast from one or both sides of the trail, or whether the trail should only cast shadows and not otherwise be drawn. See Renderer.shadowCastingMode in the Scripting API reference documentation to learn more. |
Receive Shadows | If enabled, the trail receives shadows. |
Motion Vectors | Select the Motion Vector type to use for this Trail Renderer. See Renderer.motionVectorGenerationMode in the Scripting API reference documentation to learn more. |
Materials | These properties describe an array of Materials used for rendering the trail. Particle Shaders work best for trails. |
Lightmap Parameters | Reference a Lightmap Parameters Asset here to enable the trail to interact with the global illumination system. |
Time | Define the length of the trail, measured in seconds. |
Min Vertex Distance | The minimum distance between anchor points of the trail (see Minimum vertex separation below). |
AutoDestruct | Enable this to destroy the GameObject once it has been idle for Time seconds. |
Width | Define a width value and a curve to control the width of your trail at various points between its start and end. The curve is applied from the beginning to the end of the trail, and sampled at each vertex. The overall width of the curve is controlled by the width value. |
Color | Define a gradient to control the color of the trail along its length. |
Corner Vertices | This property dictates how many extra vertices are used when drawing corners in a trail. Increase this value to make the trail corners appear rounder. |
End Cap Vertices | This property dictates how many extra vertices are used to create end caps on the trail. Increase this value to make the trail caps appear rounder. |
Alignment | Set to View to make the Trail face the camera, or Local to align it based on the orientation of its Transform component. |
Texture Mode | Control how the Texture is applied to the Trail. Use Stretch to apply the Texture map along the entire length of the trail, or use Wrap to repeat the Texture along the length of the Trail. Use the Tiling parameters in the Material to control the repeat rate. |
Generate Lighting Data | If enabled (the box is checked), the Trail geometry is built with Normals and Tangents included. This allows it to use Materials that use the scene lighting, for example via the Standard Shader, or by using a custom shader. |
Light Probes | Probe-based lighting interpolation mode. |
Reflection Probes | If enabled and reflection probes are present in the Scene, a reflection Texture is picked for this Trail Renderer and set as a built-in Shader uniform variable. |
The Trail Renderer renders a trail of polygons behind a moving GameObject. This can be used to give an emphasized feeling of motion to a moving object, or to highlight the path or position of moving objects. A trail behind a projectile adds visual clarity to its trajectory; contrails from the tip of a plane’s wings are an example of a trail effect that happens in real life.
A Trail Renderer should be the only renderer used on the attached GameObject. It is best to create an empty GameObject, and attach a Trail Renderer as the only renderer. You can then parent the Trail Renderer to whatever GameObject you would like it to follow.
A Trail Renderer component should use a Material that has a Particle Shader. The Texture used for the Material should be of square dimensions (for example 256x256, or 512x512). The trail is rendered once for each Material present in the array.
The Min Vertex Distance value determines how far an object that contains a trail must travel before a segment of that trail is solidified. Low values like 0.1 create trail segments more often, creating smoother trails. Higher values like 1.5 create segments that are more jagged in appearance. There is a slight performance trade-off when using lower values/smoother trails, so try to use the largest possible value to achieve the effect you are trying to create. Additionally, wide trails may exhibit visual artifacts when the vertices are very close together and the trail changes direction significantly over a short distance.
2017–05–31 Page amended with editorial review
Properties added in Unity 2017.1 NewIn20171
Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Is something described here not working as you expect it to? It might be a Known Issue. Please check with the Issue Tracker at issuetracker.unity3d.com.
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thanks for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Some 3rd party video providers do not allow video views without targeting cookies. If you are experiencing difficulty viewing a video, you will need to set your cookie preferences for targeting to yes if you wish to view videos from these providers. Unity does not control this.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.