Niagara Tutorial: Multiple Renderers | 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

The result of one simulation can be used to drive multiple renderers.

This example shows one point simulation driving a sprite, mesh, ribbon renderer.

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. Spawn Rate

Click on the + sign to the right of the Emitter Update to add the Spawn Rate module.

Spawn Rate: Number of particles per second to spawn.

9. Spawn Rate

Set the Spawn Rate value to 2.5.

Spawn 2.5 particle per second.

10. Initialize Particles

Select Initialize Particles and set:

1. Lifetime is 6.0
2. Color Mode is Direct Set and sets its value to (0, 1, 0.3, 1)
3. Sprite Size Mode is Uniform and has a value of 8.0
4. Mesh Scale Mode is Non-Uniform and its value is (1, 1.5, 1.5)

11. Set Parameter

Add Set new or existing parameter directly module to the Particle Spawn section.

12. Set Parameter

Add a Linear Color parameter.

13. Set Parameter

Select to rename this parameter

14. Set Parameter

Rename this parameter to RibbonColor

15. Set Parameter

Add RibbonWidth parameter

16. Set Parameter

Set the value of RibbonWidth to 2.5

Renderer Bindings, such as Color, or Scale, are set under the hood within many modules, but can also be set directly in the stack as you see here with RibbonColor or RibbonWidth.

If you create a new Parameter in the parameters pane, you can drag it directly into the stack to set it.

17. Sphere Location

Add the Sphere Location module in the Particles Spawn section.

18. Sphere Radius

1. Set Sphere Radius to 95.0
2. Turn on Surface Only Band Thickness and set its value to 2.5

Surface Only Band Thickness: Spawn particles only on the surface of the sphere.

19. Vortex Velocity

Add Vortex Velocity module to the Particle Update section.

20. Vortex Velocity

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

21. Vortex Velocity

Set the value type of Velocity Amount to Random Range Float

22. Vortex Velocity

1. Set the Minimum value of Velocity Amount to 50.0 and the Maximum value to 150.0.
2. Set the Elevation Type value for Velocity Amount to Every Frame
3. Set the Vortex Axis value to Random Vector

23. Scale Sprite Size

Add the Scale Sprite Size module to the Particles Update section.

24. Scale Sprite Size

Edit the Scale Factor's value to Vector 2DFrom Float.

25. Scale Sprite Size

Set its value type to Float from Curve.

26. Scale Sprite Size

Edit this curve to control its value over time

27. Scale Sprite Size

Select the first point and drag it to the bottom.

Note: Here you can also select this point and directly set its Time to: 0 and Value to 0.

28. Scale Sprite Size

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

29. Scale Sprite Size

Set the Time of the newly added point to 0.06 and the Value to 1.

30. Scale Sprite Size

In the same way, add a point: Time is 0.92 and Value is 1.

31. Scale Mesh Size

Add Scale Mesh Size module to the Particle Update section.

32. Scale Mesh Size

Edit the Scale Factor's value to Vector 2DFrom Float.

33. Scale Mesh Size

Set the value type of Value to Float from Curve

34. Scale Mesh Size

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

35. Scale Mesh Size

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

36. Scale Mesh Size

Set the Time of the newly added point to 0.12 and the Value to 1.

37. Scale Mesh Size

In the same way, add a point: Time is 0.88 and Value is 1.

38. Add Mesh Renderer

Add Mesh Render module to the Render section.

39. Edit Mesh Renderer

Select the value of Particle Mesh as S_Arrow.

40. Edit Mesh Renderer

Select the value of Facing Mode as Velocity.

41. Ribbon Renderer

Add Ribbon Renderer module to the Render section.

42. Ribbon Renderer

Set the value of Material to M_SimpleBeam

43. Ribbon Renderer

Set the value of Color Binding to RibbonColor

Each renderer shows its' bindings under the 'Bindings' category. Those bindings can even be overridden with custom attributes if desired, so multiple sprite renderers could each be driven by a different size attribute, for example.

44. 🎉 Finish! 🎉

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