Particular: Why is Particular telling me my project or preset exceeds the number of systems allowed?

To help improve performance and reduce load times in After Effects, Particular now has a preference that controls the maximum number of particle systems available for use, which is set to 4 by default. 

To change the amount of systems allowed, launch the Particular Designer from the Effect Controls panel, then head into Preferences (gear icon), and choose 2, 4, 8, or 16 systems.

In Trapcode Particular, a "particle system" is one set of particles with its own settings. Your project or preset may use multiple systems for complex effects. 

A few years ago, the internal structure of Particular was changed from the old “main & auxiliary” system model to a more powerful parent/child model, which allowed for up to 16 systems. However, After Effects must index all possible parameters each time the effect is applied — and with 16 systems and a growing number of features, it has exceeded 7,000 parameters. This indexing significantly slows down the loading and resetting of the effect. Limiting the maximum number of systems speeds things up considerably, while still letting you increase the limit when you need it. 

Applying a preset in the Designer that uses more systems than currently supported produces a warning message with the offer to take you to the Preferences to change the limit. Selecting Continue As Is will apply the preset using the current maximum number of systems, omitting the rest.

Applying a preset from Maxon Studio or opening an existing project that requires more systems than currently supported produces a warning that names specific compositions and layers where the relevant instances of Particular live. You may choose to Continue, which will save a copy of your original project file, and load the project with the limited number of systems (omitting anything above that). Choosing Relaunch After Effects will automatically change your preference to the closest number of systems to accommodate and restart After Effects for you.

How to change your maximum systems preference: 

1. Open the Designer in Trapcode Particular. 
2. Go to Preferences (gear icon). 
3. Change Maximum Number of Systems to a higher value. 
4. Relaunch After Effects for the change to take effect.

Tip: Presets that exceed the max system limit will display a warning icon. Hovering over the icon will display the number of systems used by the preset as well as your current preference setting.