What causes VFX not scaling with world scale?

Effects authored at a default scale do not match a project using a very different unit scale, and simulation in local versus world space behaves unexpectedly when the emitter scales or moves.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix VFX Not Scaling with Your Game's World Scale

Quick answer: Scale particle sizes, speeds, and gravity to your world scale, choose the right simulation space, and use scaling modes so effects follow the emitter's transform correctly.

VFX that looks wrong at your scale is a units and simulation-space mismatch. Here is how to fix it.

How to fix it

1. Scale sizes, speeds, and forces

Particle sizes, velocities, and gravity are in world units. At a project scale far from the authoring scale, effects look tiny or huge and move wrong. Scale these values to your world's units.

2. Choose the simulation space

Local simulation space keeps particles attached to the emitter (good for a torch); world space leaves them behind as it moves (good for smoke). Pick the one matching the effect, or motion looks wrong.

3. Use the scaling mode

Set the particle scaling mode (local, hierarchy, shape) so the system respects the emitter's transform scale. The wrong mode makes a scaled emitter emit unscaled particles, breaking the look.

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.

Reproduce it once with full context and the fix writes itself. The hunt is the expensive part.