[UE5] How can I cast shadow and recive shadow from a translucent Niagara particle?

HI,
like in the title I don’t know how to cast and recive shadows on niagara particles with translucent material.

I searched so many times but nothing is working, I’m using UE5 with dynamic light and, obviously, particles are dynamic too, teorically.

I tested with opaque and shadows are working, I think it’s a problem with material, but I don’t know.

Particles: cast shadow - true
Material: Translucent - Surface TranslucencyVolume - Contact shadow True - Double side True - Cast Ray Traced Shadows True

In the image, Red is where I need to cast shadows, Green is where I need to recive shadows

Thank you!

2 Likes

I am also looking for a solution to this problem.

I also have the same problem with Unreal Engine 5.[2]
I found old video for UE4 where author told what to do to achieve translucent shadows we need to set for the material:

  1. blend mode - translucent
  2. we need to be sure that our material have the base color.

That is all what video have, which never helped to achieve the goal.

So, I also found that my Niagara particles must have checked checkbox of Cast Shadow param, material must be two sided, and must have in translucency tab lighting mode as Surface translucency volume (or surface forward shading, neither helped) which in combination of previous deeds never helped.

I also found article on UE documentation

It said that it works with Fourier Opacity maps, which I don’t understand with my current knowledge.

Can anybody help?

I finally got it.
So after I have checked Cast Dynamic Shadow as Masked - shadows finally appear.
Be sure to play around Opacity Clip Mask, and the distance of your particles for opaque surface.

image

2 Likes