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> Designing Visuals, Rendering, and Graphics > Niagara Visual Effects

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Niagara Visual Effects

Unreal Engine 4's Niagara visual effects system used for creating and previewing particle effects in real time.

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See Also

Cascade Particle Systems

On this page

Starting Out
Guides
Reference

The Niagara VFX System is one of two tools you can use to create and adjust visual effects (VFX) inside Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). Before Niagara, the primary way to create and edit visual effects in UE4 was to use Cascade . While Niagara has many of the same of particle manipulation methods that Cascade offers, the way you interact and build visual effects with Niagara is vastly different.

This page links to documentation regarding the Niagara VFX system, including an Overview and a Quick Start guide to get you up and running. If you are new to Niagara, it is recommended that you check out the Getting Started section which includes a high-level overview of the Niagara Editor, the Quick Start Guide, and a page that lays out the Key Concepts and design philosophy behind Niagara. You can also check out the Guides section, which has How-To articles on various tasks. The Reference section has the System and Emitter Module Reference, the Niagara Editor UI Reference, and the Niagara Script Editor UI Reference.

Starting Out

Niagara Overview

This page gives an overview of the Niagara VFX system in Unreal Engine 4.

Niagara Key Concepts

This page explains the key concepts and design philosophy behind Niagara, to help you understand the Niagara visual effects system.

Niagara Quick Start

A guide to help you quickly start using the Niagara visual effects system.

Cascade to Niagara Converter Plugin

This page discusses and demonstrates the plugin to convert Cascade particle systems to Niagara particle systems.

Events and Event Handlers Overview

This page gives basic information about using Events and Event Handlers in Niagara.

Guides

Audio Effects in Niagara 4.26

Enable the Niagara Plugin 4.27

Create a Sprite Particle Effect in Niagara 4.27

Create a GPU Sprite Effect 4.25

Create a Mesh Particle Effect in Niagara 4.26

Create a Particle Light 4.26

Create a Ribbon Effect in Niagara 4.25

Recreate the Starter Content Smoke Effect in Niagara 4.25

How to Create a Steam Effect in Niagara 4.25

How to Create a Sparks Effect in Niagara 4.25

Create a Beam Effect in Niagara 4.26

Reference

Emitter Settings

This page contains reference information for the Emitter Settings group in a Niagara emitter.

Emitter Spawn Group

This document provides reference information for modules in the Emitter Spawn group.

Emitter Update Group

This document provides reference information for Emitter Update modules in a Niagara emitter.

Particle Spawn Group

This page provides reference information for modules in the Particle Spawn group.

Particle Update Group

This page provides reference information for modules in the Particle Update group.

Niagara Renderers

This document provides reference information for the Renderer group in a Niagara Emitter.

System Settings

This page contains reference information for the System Settings group in a Niagara system.

System Spawn Group

This document provides reference information for modules in the System Spawn group.

System Update Group

This document provides reference information for modules in the System Update group.

Add Event Handler Group

This document provides reference information for modules in the Add Event Handler group.

Niagara Editor UI Reference

This page describes the user interface (UI) of the Niagara Emitter and System Editor.

Niagara Script Editor Reference

This page describes the user interface (UI) of the Niagara Script Editor.