Making real-time 3D visuals controlled by audio (UE4 / Niagara)

04/07/2021

After brainstorming new game ideas with my teammates, I was requested to see if it is possible to use audio to control events and visuals in Unreal Engine 4. So the next day, I started the exploration, and I found that it's possible to extract amplitude and frequency spectrum from an audio file and use it for several purposes.
In a case presented in this blog post, I used Niagara Particle System, where particles are driven by a few forces, including Audio Frequency Spectrum (FFT).

When I finished with particles, I decided to add some planets and make the background looking like cosmos. For planets, I created Blueprint, in which audio amplitude controls lights intensity, colour and radius.
I unattached the camera from the player character so the user can look around, get closer or further away from the particles, etc.

It is possible to try the application here:

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