How to Show Particle Effects Above UI in Unity

What you need

• Unity UI (uGUI) Canvas
• A Particle System effect
• Shown in a URP project; the same settings apply in the Built-in Render Pipeline

Why the particles disappear

A new Canvas uses the Screen Space - Overlay render mode. In this mode Unity draws the UI after every camera has rendered the scene, so the UI always covers 3D objects and particles. Changing sorting values has no effect while the Canvas stays in Overlay mode.

Step 1: Change the Canvas render mode

1. Select the Canvas and set Render Mode to Screen Space - Camera (or World Space for UI placed in the scene).
2. Drag the camera that renders your scene into the Render Camera slot.
3. Check the Game view. In most cases the particle effect is now visible.

Step 2: Control the order with Order in Layer

1. On the Canvas, adjust Order in Layer to decide whether the UI draws in front of or behind the particles.
2. On the particle effect, open the Renderer module of the Particle System and set its Order in Layer.
3. Repeat this for every child Particle System in the effect. Child systems keep their own values, so a single missed child can still be hidden.

Tip: If the UI and the particles use the same Sorting Layer and the same Order in Layer, their distance to the camera decides which one is in front. Explicit sorting values are easier to manage and less likely to break when the camera moves.

Step 3: Use a dedicated sorting layer for VFX

1. In the Particle System Renderer, open the Sorting Layer drop-down and choose Add Sorting Layer.
2. Add a new layer, for example VFX. Layers lower in the list are drawn later, so they appear on top of the layers above them.
3. Place the new layer below the layer used by the Canvas, then select it as the Sorting Layer for every particle renderer in the effect.

Step 4: Check the material’s render queue

If the particles still render behind the UI, check the Render Queue of the particle material. A custom shader with a render queue of 2500 or lower renders in the opaque pass, and Sorting Layer or Order in Layer cannot bring it in front of the UI. Use a transparent render queue (for example 3000) for particle materials that need to sort with UI.