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  • Book Overview & Buying Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5
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Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5

Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5

By : Hrishikesh Andurlekar
4.8 (19)
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Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5

Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5

4.8 (19)
By: Hrishikesh Andurlekar
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

While no game would be complete without visual effects, the ever-evolving VFX industry churns out stellar digital environments that can make your games stand out from the crowd. Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5 is here to help you boost your creativity using Niagara to make jaw-dropping particle systems backed by the power of Unreal Engine 5—without a line of code. This handy guide for VFX artists takes you through the principles and concepts of designing particle systems and design workflows, along with the architecture of Niagara, Unreal Engine 5’s VFX system. Throughout the book, you’ll build a series of mini projects that will put your particle system knowledge to the test. As you advance, you’ll cover topics such as creating your own custom modules, debugging workflows, and controlling particles with blueprints, and conclude by working on two projects that will bring everything together into a neat package. By the end of this VFX book, you’ll have a deeper understanding of particle systems, improving your skills, portfolio, and the chances of being employed by studios using Unreal Engine 5.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
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Download a free PDF copy of this book
1
Part 1: Introduction to Niagara and Particle Systems in Unreal Engine 5
Part 1: Introduction to Niagara and Particle Systems in Unreal Engine 5
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Unreal Engine Particle System Frameworks
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Chapter 1: Getting Started with Unreal Engine Particle System Frameworks
Technical requirements
Particle systems in Unreal
Cascade particle system
The reasons behind Niagara’s development
Use cases for Niagara
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Understanding Particle System Concepts
Chapter 2: Understanding Particle System Concepts
Technical requirements
Exploring key particle concepts
Vector mathematics and matrices and their representation in Niagara
Understanding particle system tools
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Exploring Niagara Concepts and Architecture
Chapter 3: Exploring Niagara Concepts and Architecture
Technical requirements
The Niagara architecture
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Building Our First Niagara System
Chapter 4: Building Our First Niagara System
Technical requirements
Exploring the Niagara Editor UI
The Niagara Editor
Creating an Emitter
Creating a Niagara System
Adding a Niagara System to a level
Adding a Niagara System to a Blueprint Actor
Summary
6
Chapter 5: Diving into Emitter-System Overrides
Chapter 5: Diving into Emitter-System Overrides
Technical requirements
Module Override
Parameter Override
Summary
7
Part 2: Dive Deeper into Niagara for VFX
Part 2: Dive Deeper into Niagara for VFX
8
Chapter 6: Exploring Dynamic Inputs
Chapter 6: Exploring Dynamic Inputs
Technical requirements
What are Dynamic Inputs?
Creating random colored particles using Dynamic Inputs
Summary
9
Chapter 7: Creating Custom Niagara Modules
Chapter 7: Creating Custom Niagara Modules
Technical requirements
Creating a new module
The Niagara Module Script Editor
Editing a Niagara Module to create custom effects
Summary
10
Chapter 8: Local Modules and Versioning
Chapter 8: Local Modules and Versioning
Technical requirements
Exploring Local Modules
Publishing modules and versioning
Summary
11
Chapter 9: Events and Event Handlers
Chapter 9: Events and Event Handlers
Technical requirements
What are Events and Event Handlers?
Tutorial – how to create fireworks
Summary
12
Chapter 10: Debugging Workflow in Niagara
Chapter 10: Debugging Workflow in Niagara
Technical requirements
Exploring the Niagara Debugger panel
Debug Drawing
Performance profiling
Debug console commands
Summary
13
Chapter 11: Controlling Niagara Particles Using Blueprints
Chapter 11: Controlling Niagara Particles Using Blueprints
Technical requirements
Exploring the User Parameters module
Calling Niagara User Exposed settings from Blueprint Actors
Tutorial – modifying a Niagara System using Blueprint Actors
Summary
14
Index
Index
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15
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Getting Started with Unreal Engine Particle System Frameworks

Unreal Engine’s particle system, called Niagara, is a powerful tool for creating stunning, realistic special effects in games and other interactive applications. It allows developers to create and manipulate a wide range of particle effects, such as fire, smoke, rain, snow, and more. The particle system is highly customizable, with a wide range of settings that can be adjusted to create unique effects. It is optimized for real-time performance, making it a popular choice for game developers who want to add eye-catching visual effects to their games.

Niagara replaced Cascade as Unreal Engine’s particle system because it offered several significant improvements over its predecessor. Niagara was designed to be more flexible, scalable, and performance-friendly, making it a better fit for the demands of modern game development.

Some of the key features that set Niagara apart from Cascade include a more modern and user-friendly interface, improved particle simulation capabilities, and better performance and scalability. Niagara also allows developers to create and manage particle effects using either a visual interface or code, making it a versatile tool for a wide range of use cases.

In addition, Niagara was designed to be more flexible and extensible, making it easier for developers to create custom particle effects and incorporate them into their projects. This has helped make Niagara one of the most popular and widely used particle systems in the game development industry today.

We will begin our journey into Unreal particle systems with an overview of the particle system modules in Unreal Engine. There have been major changes in the particle system workflow in Unreal as we’ve moved from the older Cascade particle system to the Niagara particle system over the last few versions. Unreal Engine 5 continues to support the Cascade particle system, and though we do not expect to create new assets in Cascade, we will familiarize ourselves with Cascade in this chapter in case we need to support older projects made with Cascade.

We will discuss the changes Niagara brings and learn about the features expected in the future. We will also dive into the reasons behind Niagara’s development and end the chapter with some interesting use cases for Niagara.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

  • Particle systems in Unreal
  • The Cascade particle system
  • The reasons behind Niagara’s development
  • Use cases for Niagara
End of Section 1
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