Description

Intermittently when cooking large licensee projects, an error is reported at the end of the cook:

LogCook: Error: Content is missing from cook. Source package referenced an object in target package but the object was stripped out of the target package when saved.
    Source package: <SourcePackage>
    Target package: <TargetPackage>
    Referenced object: <TargetPackage>.<TargetObject>:<TargetSubObject>

Errors of that form occur for multiple reasons, this JIRA is about the occurrence of this object for _GEN_VARIABLE objects within a package containing a UNiagaraSystem asset.

The issue with Niagara objects is caused by unstable naming of generated Niagara types, such as UNiagaraDataInterfaceSkeletalMesh. Objects of that type can be generated by Niagara code within a blueprint, and the name given is a generic ClassName_NumericSuffix, such as NiagaraDataInterfaceSkeletalMesh, UNiagaraDataInterfaceSkeletalMesh_1, UNiagaraDataInterfaceSkeletalMesh_2. The suffix is indeterministic depending on the state of the objects in the blueprint when the generated object is created.

We believe this is caused by the instance/template overrides on the Niagara component. In these functions:
NiagaraComponent::SynchronizeWithSourceSystem()
UNiagaraComponent::CopyParametersFromAsset()
UNiagaraComponent::ApplyOverridesToParameterStore()
A component's archetype will have a list of UNiagaraDataInterface, on load those may get recreated (because the source asset 'UNiagaraSystem' has changed)..the recreated ones might get different names (because we just do a NewObject with a blank name), and then when we instantiate the component we end up getting a mismatch between the data interfaces and their archetypes (because the assignment of the DI archetype is done via name through the chain of owners).

Steps to Reproduce

The result intermittently occurs during a cook. It requires a garbage collection in between the save of a target package containing Niagara assets and a source package that imports those Niagara assets.

FORT-885498 provides a synthetic repro of this case.

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Unresolved
ComponentUE - Niagara
Affects Versions5.6
CreatedOct 15, 2025
UpdatedOct 16, 2025
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