Unity C# 4.5.2 2D destroy instantiated particle system prefab

Question

I acquired this snippit of code and it instantiates a particle system prefab. The problem I'm having is the clones do not get destroyed after the 5 second delay. Any advice is appreciated.

private ParticleSystem instantiate(ParticleSystem prefab, Vector3 position)
{
    ParticleSystem newParticleSystem = Instantiate(
        prefab,
        position,
        Quaternion.identity
        ) as ParticleSystem;

    if(newParticleSystem.gameObject != null)
    {
        Destroy(
            newParticleSystem.gameObject,
            newParticleSystem.startLifetime
            );
    }

    return newParticleSystem;
}

Answer 1

Your code relies on whateveris called ParticleSystem to keep track of when to Destroy the system. What I would do is this:

private ParticleSystem instantiate(ParticleSystem prefab, Vector3 position)
{
    ParticleSystem newParticleSystem = Instantiate(
        prefab,
        position,
        Quaternion.identity
        ) as ParticleSystem;

    newParticalSystem.AddComponent<TimedDestroy>().delay = newParticleSystem.startLifetime;

    return newParticleSystem;
}

and then add this script to your project:

using UnityEngine;
public class TimedDestroy : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float delay;

    void Start()
    {
        Invoke("destruct",delay);
    }

    public void destruct()
    {
        Destroy(gameObject);
    }
}