Understand how the properties on the Renderer module interact to determine how a particle’s image or MeshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info
See in Glossary is transformed, shaded and overdrawn by other particles.
Use Render Mode to choose between several 2D BillboardA textured 2D object that rotates so that it always faces the Camera. More info
See in Glossary graphic modes and a Mesh mode. 3D Meshes give particles extra authenticity when they represent solid GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary, such as rocks, and can also improve the sense of volume for clouds, fireballs and liquids.
Meshes must be read/write enabled to work in the Particle SystemA component that simulates fluid entities such as liquids, clouds and flames by generating and animating large numbers of small 2D images in the scene. More info
See in Glossary’s Mesh Render Mode. When you assign meshes to a Particle System (using the Meshes list in the Inspector window), Unity automatically enables the read/write enabled setting for those meshes.
When you use 2D billboard graphics, the different render modes can produce a variety of results that make them suitable for specific uses:
When you use Billboard render modes, you can use the Normal Direction to create spherical shading on the flat rectangular billboards. This can help create the illusion of 3D particles if you use a Material that applies lighting to your particles.
When Mesh Distribution is set to Non-uniform Random, you can customize how often Unity randomly assigns specific meshes to particles. To do this, you use the Meshes list and the Mesh Weighting field.
In the Meshes list, the field on the left contains the mesh you want the Particle System to use, and the field on the right (highlighted in the image above) contains the Mesh Weighting for that mesh. Use the Mesh Weighting field for each mesh to control how often Unity assigns that mesh to a particle, relative to every other mesh. This is set to 1 by default, which results in the likelihood that Unity assigns a mesh being equal.
To add a mesh to the Meshes list, select the Add (+) icon. To remove a mesh from the Meshes list, select the mesh, then select the Remove (-) icon.