Creating a shooting laser beam in Niagara

Development Asset Creation FX
1

Hello all,

As the title suggests, I would like some advice on making a laser beam that destroys its target when it collides with it. So far I have managed to create the appearance of the beam itself and even add some velocity to it, so that the beam beams (no pun intended) through the air. This part is fine but it’s the collision part I’m not sure about. So far, all it does is fire and go through surfaces without the particles dying on impact. I also would like it to fire off an event from inside a blueprint that lets me do other things such as tell the actor it hit to destroy itself but I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out a way to do that but have come to no avail.

I’ve looked all over the internet for any ideas to do all of this but there seems to be nothing of any relevance.

I’d really appreciate anyone’s help on this. I’ve been using Unreal Engine 4 since it came out in 2015 so I have experience with it, however, I am new to Niagara, as I’m sure a lot of you are.

Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks!
Goolog

P.S.: Let me know if you need screenshots of anything such as the Niagara emitter setup.

2

Did you find a solution to your problem?
I am looking to spawn decals when particle hit the ground and have trouble achieving that…

3

Particle systems are a one way road. Blueprints tell them what to do, not the other way around. They are visual only.

To achieve this you’ll need to use line traces in the blueprint to see what your “laser” hits an object, then kill the laser effect and spawn a hit effect in it’s place. The actual particle is only there for visuals.

You could get collision from niagara for it to do minor things with particles, I believe I read somewhere you can have the laser trigger the ‘hit effect’ particle within the same emitter, but you won’t be able to affect any blueprints or other objects this way. You’ll need to handle that part yourself within blueprints.