The package-to-prefab workflow
The export is a Unity Package Manager tarball (.tgz), not a .unitypackage and not a VFX Graph asset. It includes the uploaded model, optional image/audio, generated C# controllers, shaders, materials created by the builder and a source manifest. The current supported target is Unity 6.3 Built-in.
- Import a model in 2VFX, choose an effect and save the .2vfx source.
- Select Native Semantic, or add a sprite atlas and select Baked Visual.
- Download Unity .tgz. In Unity Package Manager, install the package from the tarball.
- After scripts compile, use the matching Tools > 2VFX > Build Model + Effect Prefab command. The menu label includes your model and effect name.
- Inspect the generated Assets/2VFX/Generated folder, place the native or Baked prefab in a test scene and play it.
Native and Baked are different contracts
Native Semantic maps portable particle parameters to Unity ParticleSystem modules. Those parameters remain available inside Unity, but Unity and the browser use different simulation/rendering implementations. Matching values is not a guarantee of matching pixels.
Baked Visual creates an additional flipbook-driven prefab. Its appearance is based on the same PNG atlas rather than a reconstruction of the browser simulation. It needs the atlas to exist, and it remains a camera-facing image representation rather than a fully volumetric effect.
| Need | Choose |
|---|---|
| Edit lifetime, forces or emitters in Unity | Native Semantic |
| Reuse the generated flame/smoke imagery | Baked Visual |
| Return to the browser authoring state | Save and open .2vfx |
| Niagara, VFX Graph, URP or HDRP | Not supported by the current exporter |
Check the model and scene references
FBX and OBJ can use Unity’s native model import. A GLB is retained byte-for-byte and needs a compatible glTF importer in the Unity project. Do not confuse successful browser preview with a guarantee that every Unity importer has the same material support.
The portable exporter cannot identify scene Collider, Light, Mesh, custom simulation Transform or explicit Force Field references in another project. Such unsupported settings are disabled or rejected rather than silently converted. World collisions still depend on colliders being present in the target scene.
- Keep XYZ curves in one group in the same mode; the editor synchronizes their mode.
- Check alpha blending on light and dark backgrounds.
- Test the full loop and moving model, not only a screenshot.
- Keep the source project when you modify generated assets in Unity.