[TUTORIALS] Photons Be Free: Mini-tutorials and other curiosities

[Luftbauch]

......
Auto Convex is getting a good update in 4.8 that will make it much more accurate when generating collision via this method. ...

Ty very much, for this Thread.
What is with the performance inside UE, if you make massive use of auto-convex?
Best regards Stefan

[ikifenix]

Destructible How to #1: Effectively using "Import FBX Chunks" for Destructible Meshes

In this setup I'll be using a parking meter as an example.
etc,etc...

The video doesn't load in the forum, I had to quote to find the link and watch it in youtube.

[Tim Hobson]

What is with the performance inside UE, if you make massive use of auto-convex?

In what regards? Using too many collision hulls for more accuracy?

Are you experiencing any issues with auto-convex collision causing performance issues? It seems to imply this in your question.

Let me know what your use with it is and I can do some of my own tests and see if I take a look.

[Tim Hobson]

The video doesn't load in the forum, I had to quote to find the link and watch it in youtube.

Thanks for letting me know ikifenix. Fixed the link. https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...l=1#post207604

Once 4.8 releases I plan on updating this since the car is noticeably stopped when it hits the DM and then it falls over.

With 4.8 I'll be able to use Custom Impact Resistance to help make this better so that anything below that impact value will not cause any damage, but when I have a impact large enough it will knock it over without the stopped of the vehicle.

[MuhammadMadi]

many thanks for you

[Tim Hobson]

Destructible How-To #7: The power of World Support

Overview:

In this short example we'll go over the use of the "World Support" flag in the Destructible Mesh Settings.

World Support is simply a way to enable the Destructible to be environmentally supported by any static geometry inside the level that it's in contact with so long as it has at least a Support Depth of 1.


Setting up World Support

The setup is fairly straight forward. There are two things that initially need to be setup to make this work. Support Depth needs to be set to the depth layer that it will be supported. If you're using the in-editor tool this will simply be 1, since there cannot be more than one depth layer created in this tool.

The next setting is to enable "World Support" flag.



Demonstration

What's going on:

By enabling World Support and using at least a Support Depth of 1 we have enabled our destructible to be supported by static geometry that it's in contact with.

The Support Depth allows chunks to stick together without breaking apart unless they've received enough damage to do so. By enabling World Support this will keep the chunks that are in contact with static geometry that have not received enough damage to break free supported and in place.

The outer edges in this DM are supported by the static walls because they've not received enough damage to break free yet.



In the video demonstration, we see the first wall does not have World Support enabled. This allows the wall to be pushed back when enough force hits it. It will bounce around since it's not supported by the environment, whereas the second wall is supported by the floor that it's in contact with causing the bottom of the mesh to be environmentally supported by the static geometry.

[JoaquinMParrilla]

Destructible How-To #7: The power of World Support

.... [Removed extraneous information]

Amazing documentation Tim, I wanted to find information to how to implement physics calculate in UE4. Further, I also work with 3ds Max for create geometries and I was very interested to how to work with APEX PhyX plug-ing in Max. One question, It will be possible that APEX PhyX can be integrated into UE4 in the future?.

Thanks for the documentation and greetings.

[Tim Hobson]

Hey Jps7101,

At the moment there are no plans for Epic to integrate the full PhysX SDK into UE4 beyond what's already available for destruction. HOWEVER, one of our community developers, Backov (Jason M.) has integrated it into his own build of the engine and he does hope that when he's done with it to submit it as a pull-request so that it can be integrated.

You can find more information and a demonstration of his work here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...Editor-for-UE4

His version eliminates the need for PhysX Labs or the PhysX DCC Plugin to create destructible assets. I've got an early build of it that he demonstrates. I've talked with him and have a build of the editor to help him test it out and offer some feedback.

Feel free to ask questions anytime. If there is a setup with Destructibles that you'd like to see just post here and I'll do what I can to get a simple example up, similar to the other ones I've got.

[Tim Hobson]

Destructible How-To #8: Damage Spread

Overview:

The goal with this "How-To" will be to take a look at how Damage Spread works with applying damage to our destructible mesh.

Step 1: What is Damage Spread?

Damage Spread is essentially how easy damage spreads to the other chunks in the destructible.

If we have a wall destructible, think about the impact point being the center of a radius of damage. The damage spread will be how much damage is passed to the surrounding chunks to break them free as well.

If we have a damage spread of 0 only the chunks that are impacted directly and receive enough damage to break free will do so.

If the damage spread is set to 0.1 (default), if the impact force is strong enough the damage passed to surrounding chunks can be enough to break all or some of the chunks free.

This is the formula for calculating the Damage Radius:

Damage Radius = Damage * Damage Spread

All chunks within the damage radius will take full damage at the point of impact. At the edge of the damage radius 0 damage will be applied.

Demonstration

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjxyupepx1...sprd1.gif?dl=0


Tips:

If you're having trouble with setting up Damage Spread, try adjusting lower values for Impact Damage, setting a Damage Cap for damage application, and/or Increase the Damage Threshold.

A single settings will likely not produce the results you're looking for. It will require multiple tweaks to get just right.

[JoaquinMParrilla]

Hey Jps7101,

At the moment there are no plans for Epic to integrate the full PhysX SDK into UE4 beyond what's already available for destruction. HOWEVER, one of our community developers, Backov (Jason M.) has integrated it into his own build of the engine and he does hope that when he's done with it to submit it as a pull-request so that it can be integrated.

You can find more information and a demonstration of his work here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...Editor-for-UE4

His version eliminates the need for PhysX Labs or the PhysX DCC Plugin to create destructible assets. I've got an early build of it that he demonstrates. I've talked with him and have a build of the editor to help him test it out and offer some feedback.

Feel free to ask questions anytime. If there is a setup with Destructibles that you'd like to see just post here and I'll do what I can to get a simple example up, similar to the other ones I've got.

Hello Tim,

I will studied the documentation attentively. Thank you very much!

Greetings.

[Crocopede]

Favorite thread ever. Thx

[lunyBunny]

Could have a version of these tutorials in maya also

But do not worry, I wrote this more as a bookmark to be able to visit this thread later.


Luny

[Tim Hobson]

Unfortunately, I only have direct access to Max and I'm not all that familiar with Maya to be honest.

I have, I think, three tutorials that use Max as a basis. Two of those are using plugin's that should be very similar to use in Maya.

The APEX Cloth one should be very similar since that is just using the DCC Plugin for PhysXLab.

The DM Animated rigid mesh is the same process in Maya. Bake the animation to a timeline and make sure to group all the chunks together. Once that is ready, export with the animation and import into UE4.

The Collision Mesh setup, this may be different depending on a modifiers availability or not since I use a specific one to get better results. I'm just not familiar enough with Maya to say if this is the case there or not. :/

If I missed something or you have a specific one that needs better flow let me know and I can take a look. One of the guys on our team has Maya so I can always double check things there and better explain if needed.

[lunyBunny]

Hi, Tim Hobson

Okay. Is possible to clearly understand their tutorials in Max. No problem


Luny

[Tim Hobson]

Coming in the near future.

This is something I've been working on in my free time outside of work that I plan to make available at some point soon.





Inspiration for this is directly taken from Marko Dabrovic and Crytek's Frank Meinl

Marko Dabrovic's version: http://hdri.cgtechniques.com/~sponza/files/



FrankMeinl's version: http://www.crytek.com/cryengine/cryengine3/downloads





My inspiration for recreating this is to use in a lot of lighting tests and general editor tests that I use for my own rendering uses. It's still in the early stages as I need to clean up my Lightmaps, some geometry, and add some more detailing along with getting my materials. My main goal with this, unlike the original files, is to focus on a modular approach, especially for testing use cases with Distance Field techniques.

My ultimate goal with this is to have a bunch of test maps for this with a range of lighting tests from Static to Dynamic. If you follow any of my posts here just keep an eye out for updates in the near future.

I also want to include not only the Sponza Atrium with this but some tests with simple Cornell Boxes. There are a host of tests and tweaks with GI that can be really interesting and fun to setup and get looking right. It'll be fun to share these tests with you and get any feedback you may have.