Refraction isn't affecting particle system in-game

My refraction emitter distorts the particle system when previewing in Cascade. However, when placed inside a level it seems to only distort everything that’s not the particle system itself.

Can you post a screenshot? I feel like it may be a sorting issue but not 100% certain what you mean.

In the following picture:http://puu.sh/gtZPZ/902925e182.jpg
In Cascade, you can see my refraction emitter is distorting my sparks emitter quite heavily.

However, as seen in this picture: http://puu.sh/gtZSw/f9e1622d5b.jpg
The refraction seems to only affect everything that’s not the sparks emitter, meshes and such.

Try setting your refraction particle to Camera Facing? It works for me this way and it appears to be a bug that some particle Screen Alignments do not support refraction currently:

I tried changing the screen alignment and it doesn’t change. Perhaps refraction just doesn’t affect particles in the level?

Here’s my material if it helps: http://puu.sh/gv7l7/c02c498554.jpg

Hmm, I have it working in map for myself but my material is much more sane, I have a random normal map multiplied by 2 and plugged into the refraction. I will investigate more when i get home but I would go ahead and recommend a simpler setup (and try not plugging particle color into the refraction). Any number of things could be the issue at the moment so start with a simpler case and lets work up.

Depending on what version of the engine you are using you may be encountering an old bug. Try placing a static mesh in your level with the same VFX and put a refractive material on the mesh. If the particle renders with the mesh visible you are experiencing a bug that I thought was fixed in the most recent release of the engine.

Sorry for the late reply. I’m not quite sure what you mean.

The refraction I have created in cascade would typically be used for something like heat haze, but after increasing the size to ridiculous levels, I noticed the refraction would distort meshes and such behind it, but not any particle systems.

Try going in the material of the assets/particles you want to be affected by refraction (the material of those currently unaffected by refraction) look for the Separate translucency tab under translucency. If you uncheck this it should be affected by refraction of other effects. Keep in mind that no doubt this might/will cause other problems. But it does solve for me when my priority is the particles to be affected by refraction of other vfx.

Separate Translucency can be found left hand side in your material detail panel. (Click on empty space in your material) Under the translucency tab.

Thank you!

This trick solved it for me, in combination with ‘Separate Translucency’ disabled. Thanks!