Particle Billboard Normal Direction (Unity)
30This is a quick tutorial to demonstrate how to use the "Normal Direction" parameter in Unity's Particle System to create instant volumetric billboard effect with minimal works.
This tutorial was done in Unity 2019.3, but "Normal Direction" is a feature that can be dated back to Unity 5.2, possibly even earlier. It surprises me that not many Unity artists have talked about this parameter online. Perhaps it was mentioned but buried deep inside some lengthy particle effect tutorial. Still it’s worth having a dedicated video to introduce it.
One final thing. URP’s Particle Lit shaders do not calculate light probes, you will need to create your own custom shader with the “Baked GI” node for that. Also remember to change the “Light Probes” parameter under the Renderer module to “blend probes” to activate it.