How to Render Particles in 360 Degrees in Unreal Engine

How to get the best Particle effects in your 360 degree renders in Unreal Engine with Niagara and Cascade systems
Written by Off World Live
Updated 3 months ago
Niagara systems and Cascade particles use sprites that always face the camera which can create seams.
This can be fixed by making the particles Velocity alighted instead of facing the camera. 
This will fix Particles for 360 renders even when very close to the camera. 

Niagara Systems

  1. Go to any of the emitters in the system and in their Sprite Renderer section change the Alignment to ‘Velocity Aligned’: 
  2. This means that the Sprites now turn based on their own velocity instead of always facing the camera.
  3. Note that if you have large sprites you will start to see that they are 2D as they rotate at a 90 degree angle to the camera, but with smaller particles this is invisible.

Cascade Systems

  1. Change the "Screen Alignment" in the Emitter section in Cascade systems to PSA Facing Camera Distance Blend: 
  2. With any Particle System you will need to set this for all components of the system to reduce all seams. Any mesh renderers will not need to be changed.

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