Niagara Tutorial: Static Beams | UE Content Examples Reconstruction

1. Preparation

This is the effect we are going to make in this tutorial.

Note: The main content of this tutorial comes from the Content Examples that come with Unreal Engine

Tip: Use ⬆️ ⬇️ to turn the page up and down. We recommend browsing with a large screen for a better reading experience.

Full Tutorials:

1. UE Niagara: Simple Sprite Emitter
2. UE Niagara: Simple Mesh Emitter
3. UE Niagara: Simple GPU Emitter
4. UE Niagara: Sprite Facing
5. UE Niagara: Blend Attributes By Value
6. UE Niagara: Static Beams
7. UE Niagara: Dynamic Beams
8. UE Niagara: Multiple Renderers
9. UE Niagara: Location Events
10. UE Niagara: Expressions

3. Introduction

Static beams are spawned using static start and endpoints rather than dynamically updating them per frame.
Each beam segment is a simulated particle which can be further influenced by forces or other effects.

4. Let's start the reconstruction

Right click and select FX => Niagara System to create.

5. Create Niagara System

Select Empty template, click + and Finish

6. Create Niagara System

As a result, we get a Niagara System asset, click to open it.

7. Empty Niagara System

You can see that we have an empty Niagara system.

8. Life Cycle Mode

Set Life Cycle Mode to Self.

It determines whether the life cycle (Managing looping, age, and death) of the Emitter is calculated by the system that owns it, or by the Emitter itself.

Allowing the owning System to calculate life cycle and pass those values down to child Emitters is a significant optimization in most cases.

9. Beam Emitter Setup

Add Beam Emitter Setup module to the Emitter Update section.

10. Beam Emitter Setup

Set the value type of Beam End to Random Vector

11. Beam Emitter Setup

Set the value type of Vector Scale to Random Range Float

12. Beam Emitter Setup

1. Set the Minimum value to 220.0 and the Maximum value to 340.0
2. Set the Elevation Type to Every Frame.

13. Spawn Burst Instantaneous

Click on the + sign to the right of the Emitter Update to add the Spawn Burst Instantaneous module

14. Spawn Burst Instantaneous

Set Spawn Count to 100.0

15. Initialize Particles

Select Initialize Particles and set:

1. Lifetime to 3.0
2. Sprite Size Mode to Uniform

16. Initialize Particles

Set the value type of Uniform Sprite Size to Float from Curve

17. Initialize Particles

Click on the first point and set its value to: 1.25

Tips: Sometimes, the newly set points will go beyond the boundaries of the existing chart. You can adjust the chart boundaries by clicking on the button circled in red.

18. Initialize Particles

Mouse over the small red circle, right click, and select Add key to Curve.

19. Initialize Particles

Set the Time of the newly added point to 0.24 and the Value to 2.27.

20. Initialize Particles

In the same way, add three points: (time 0.51, value 2.87), (time 0.78, value 2.29, (time 1, value 1.36).

21. Spawn Beam

Add Spawn Beam module to the Particle Spawn section.

22. Beam Width

Add Beam Width module to the Particle Spawn section.

23. Beam Width

Set the value type of Beam Width to Float from Curve

24. Beam Width

Select the first point and edit its value to: (Time is 0.0, Value is 0.0).

25. Beam Width

Mouse over the small red circle, right click, and select Add key to Curve.

26. Beam Width

Set the Time of the newly added point to 0.25 and the Value to 2.3.

27. Beam Width

In the same way, add a point: Time is 0.5 and Value is 3.4.

28. Beam Width

Set the Key Interpolation type for this point to Linear.

29. Beam Width

Set the value of CurveIndex to RibbonLinkOrder

30. Color

Add Color module to the Particle Update section.

31. Color

Set the value type of Color to Lerp Linear Color

32. Color

1. Set the StartColor to (1, 0.3, 0, 1) and the EndColor to (0, 0.2, 1, 1).
2. Set the LerpFactor to RibbonLinkOrder

33. Color

Particles.RibbonLinkOrder is the variable which determines how particles of a given RibbonID link up with each other.

The Spawn Beam module establishes the order based on the new particles as they are spawned in a burst, and assigns a new unique RibbonID to each new set of particles so they stay as separate beams instead of one large interconnected ribbon between all particles in the emitter.

From there, normal particle simulation takes over, and because the ribbon ID and link order are not changing from frame to frame, the beams stay stable.

34. Curl Noise Force

Add Curl Noise Force module to the Particle Update section.

35. Curl Noise Force

Click the first Fix issue button to add its dependency on the SolveForcesAndVelocity module.

36. Curl Noise Force

1. set Noise Strength to 16.0
2. Set Noise Frequency to 4.0.
3. Select the value of Noise Quality/Cost as Baked(High).
4. set the value of Pan Noise Field to (X: 0, Y: 0, Z: 1)