Particle effect in player prefab won't mirror with player

mikdog

Hi Chris - a question please - in my character prefab I have this particle 'burst' effect with a Particle Switch component on it, that I turn on when a player picks something up with an 'Object > Send Message > Turn On (Send to child objects too)'. The idea is that it appears behind the object the player is holding, and I draw objects in the same position for various sprites.

It works well when the player is facing left:

But when the player's facing right, the particle is still on the left and doesn't do the same 'mirror' behaviour as the player. I've tried making the particle a child of the player sprite but that didn't work either.

Wonder please if there's a way to get the particle effect to also flip over to the right with the player character when he's facing right?
Or even perhaps as a backup, a duplicate particle effect on the right and a way to specifically turn on either the left or right particle effects with Actions in an ActionList?
Thank you.

ChrisIceBox

It depends on your character animation setup. What animation engine are you using, and is frame-flipping involved?

mikdog

Thanks Chris. I’m using Sprites Unity Simple, I’ve drawn all the sprites facing left, and have ‘Right mirrors Left’ enabled. Character has walk anims for 8 directions.

ChrisIceBox

That includes custom animations, such that Flip custom animations? is checked?

If so, the sprite transform in the last screenshot should have its X scale flipped - is this so? Parenting the particle system to that should then flip the position - try reapplying this change, then checking its position / scale at the time it appears incorrectly.

mikdog

Thanks Chris. Yes, I have 'Flip Custom Animations?' enabled, correct - is why the in the last screenshot the character is facing right. Tried a bunch of stuff with the particles themselves, different simulation spaces and hierarchy placement, but no luck. Fyi this is how I'm triggering the particle effect in an ActionList:

I resorted to asking Gemini and it made a little script which I placed on the particles and now it flips with the character, but still wondering if there's a way to do it without the script?

Particle Flipper Script: https://pastebin.com/dTn0tLzu

Thanks

ChrisIceBox

Did you comment out the "optional" line at the bottom? Uncommented, it ought to behave the same as parenting the particle to the sprite - if there was an issue, it may be caused by scaling.

Best to leave as-is, now that it's working.