The Unity 5.5 beta has been released into the wild, and brings with it significant changes to the engine’s particle and line rendering systems.
For starters, Unity has upgraded both LineRenderer and TrailRenderer with an improved line drawing algorithm, making pathways more stable and accurate.
The particle system has been overhauled with the addition of even more customization options, including a new lights module that allows for the attachment of real-time lights to particles for more dynamic effects.
A new trails module also allows for the addition of ribbonized trails, while a scalable noise module can be used to imbue particle effects with realistic sounds.
Other improvements include an upgraded Mono C# compiler, the default use of WebGL 2.0, and improvements to Unity’s 2D physics engine.
You can find a full list of new features, and see them in action, over on the Unity blog.