Niagara VFX

Niagara is Unreal's visual-effects system. It replaced Cascade (legacy — avoid for new work; a converter plugin exists). Effects are authored in the Niagara Editor as Systems composed of Emitters built from Modules, then spawned and parameterized from gameplay C++. Your role in C++ is: spawn a system, attach it, set its User Parameters, and manage its lifetime.

When to use this skill

• Spawning particle/VFX at a world location or attached to an actor or socket.
• Driving an effect from gameplay (color, intensity, beam target, spawn rate).
• Choosing between CPU and GPU emitters and budgeting their performance cost.
• Triggering effects from animation notifies or ability system cues.
• Integrating Data Interfaces (skeletal mesh surface, collision, splines).

System/emitter/module hierarchy