Niagara System Integration With Render Targets In Unreal Engine 5

Here's a straightforward breakdown from Pavel Ksenofontov.

Pavel Ksenofontov

Senior Technical Artist Pavel Ksenofontov shared a step-by-step guide on how to make a Niagara system write data into Render Targets, a handy trick if you're diving into more advanced VFX.

Here's the basic setup, shown in the images below:

Step 1 (Image 2). Create a Render Target and a Niagara System with a minimal emitter. Switch the emitter to GPU mode with fixed bounds;
Step 2 (Image 3). Add a new variable in the User context. Variable type: Texture Render Target. In the User Parameters tab, link it to the Render Target you created in the previous step. This variable defines which Render Target the system will write data into;
Step 3 (Image 4). Add a new variable in the Emitter context. Variable type: Render Target 2D. This variable will store the Render Target's properties. Drag and drop this variable into the Emitter Spawn stage. Link it to the User Render Target from the previous step. You can override User Render Target parameters here, or simply check "Inherit User Parameter Settings";
Step 4 (Image 5). Create a new Generic Simulation Stage. Set Iteration Source to Data Interface. In the Data Interface Parameters below, select your Emitter Render Target 2D. This makes the stage iterate over the pixels of your Render Target. Enable the GPU Dispatch Force Linear parameter;
Step 5 (Image 6). Add a new module to your Simulation Stage. Add a new input to the Map Get node, Render Target 2D. In the Emitter, set this new module's input to your Emitter Render Target 2D. Add the simplest logic to test that writing to the Render Target works and that indexing is correct.

Pavel Ksenofontov

Be sure to take a look at some important points Pavel highlighted, as well as his other Unreal Engine 5 tips. You can find them all on his LinkedIn, along with his free tools here.