Using material parameter collection with Niagara - how?

Development Asset Creation FX
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I have “global” wind material with parameter collection that sets direction vector for the wind. I also have falling leaves made with Niagara.

How can I connect direction vector from parameter collection to particles’ velocity, so that when I change wind’s direction, leaves fall following the wind.

Thanks

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Create a Niagara Parameter Collection, then add your material parameter collection as source:

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Then in your Niagara system, add the parameter collection value via the parameter panel:

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Thanks a bunch! Material parameter collection contains normalized vector though. How do I turn it into actual velocity in Niagara ?

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Add for example a wind force module, link your parameter collection vector into wind speed, then use the “wind speed scale” parameter to scale the force (e.g. set it to a random range between 500 and 1000).

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I am doing something wrong :sweat_smile:

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@Michael.Galetzka alright, I think I got it set up, but when I change values in the material parameter collection, it doesn’t get synced with Niagara’s parameters:

How can I make parameters update as I update material parameters ?

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I don’t think these values update in real-time as you edit the assets, but they get synced during play. So if you set the material parameter collection values with a blueprint and play in the editor, you should see the change. Place your Niagara system in the level instead of using the preview window.

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Alright, looks like I am missing something:

Niagara Parameters Collection doesn’t update from Material Parameter Collection no matter what I do :frowning: Also, when I set parameters in the Niagara Parameters Collection asset - they work as expected in the Editor, but when running PIE or on the device (Quest 2), particles don’t care for parameters from the Niagara Parameters Collection :frowning:

What am I missing ?

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I just did a quick test and the Niagara system only picks up changes from the material parameter collection when you PIE. Otherwise it uses the default value defined in the Niagara parameter collection.

If you update the material parameter collection in a tick function (e.g. from the level blueprint) if will update the niagara parameter as well.
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That doesn’t really make sense to me, because I need to be able either adjust direction/strength directly in the material parameter collection and see changes to the wind in the Editor or update those from BP.

What I did was I got a rid of Niagara Parameter Collection and instead used User Parameters, which I set from BP (on BeginPlay, but can be on any event, instead of Tick). That worked well for this case.

Thanks a bunch anyway!

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