How to Fix Additive Particles Drawing in the Wrong Z Order

Transparent particles sort by object, not by pixel depth, so overlapping effects and geometry can draw in the wrong order. Controlling draw queue and sort mode resolves it. Here is how.

How to fix it

1. Use the transparent queue

Ensure the particle material renders after opaque geometry in the transparent queue so it is depth-tested against the scene but does not write depth, which would occlude later transparents.

2. Sort by distance

Set the renderer to sort particles by camera distance so particles within the system draw back-to-front, reducing visible pop-through where sprites overlap.

3. Bias against other transparents

Use a sort bias to push the whole system forward or backward relative to other transparent renderers, and assign sorting layers/order for deterministic ordering between systems.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.